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Building Blocks

By Matt Chaban 10/09/12 11:10am

Building Blocks

The top 10 floors of the massive Mercedes House have been sold off to an investor. (Urban Edition)

Mercedes House Speeds Ahead: Two Trees Sold Those Condos to Invesco Because It Was the Best Deal

For more than a year now, ever since the very first rental units at the monolithic, magnificent Mercedes House came on the market, Two Trees Management has been debating what to do with the rest of its zig-zagging luxury building on the Far West Side of Manhattan. The massive block-long project was a gamble for the Brooklyn firm, about as big and brash and far away from its home turf in Dumbo as one could get (without going to Godforbid, N.J.).

Mercedes House was built in two phases, a swooping base and a connected tower. There would be two sets of rentals, and, the cherry on top, a contingent of condos crowning the 1.3-million-square-foot building, with better finishes and excellent views, on floors 22 through 32. “Everything was high end,” Two Trees managing director Asher Abehsera told The Observer late last week.

He had called in part to set the record straight about the sale of those condos units in a block to Invesco, the Atlanta-based investment management group, that was widely reported last week. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/09/12 10:15am

Building Blocks

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Revving Up Mercedes House: As Rentals Get Off to a Fast Start, Two Trees Wants to Rename 11th as West End Avenue

Who would want to live all the way out on 11th Avenue, at 54th Street, no less? What’s there? Nothing! Except the Mercedes House, where the answer to first question appears to be: everyone!

According to Two Trees’ Asher Abehsera, the second phase of the massive Far West Side development has been renting faster than a sports car, with more than half of the units gone since coming on the market a little over two months ago. So far, 174 of the 384 units have been leased, and move-ins are underway—without the help of any outside brokers, Mr. Abehsera said.

“I don’t know that other people have done 170 apartments at market-rate prices with no outside brokers in two and a half months. That’s probably a big deal,” he said. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/09/12 10:15am

Building Blocks

1312207688-mercedes-1c

Revving Up Mercedes House: As Rentals Get Off to a Fast Start, Two Trees Wants to Rename 11th as West End Avenue

Who would want to live all the way out on 11th Avenue, at 54th Street, no less? What’s there? Nothing! Except the Mercedes House, where the answer to first question appears to be: everyone!

According to Two Tree’s Asher Abehsera, the second phase of the massive Far West Side development have been renting faster than a sports car, with more than half of the units gone since coming on the market a little over two months ago. So far, 174 of the 384 units have been leased, and move-ins are under way—without the help of any outside brokers, Mr. Abehsera said.

“I don’t know that other people have done 170 apartments at market-rate prices with no outside brokers in two and a half months, that’s probably a big deal,” he said. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/04/12 1:22pm

Building Blocks

Just build it. (AP)

Governor Cuomo Invokes Robert Moses as a Role Model

Last year, The Observer lamented an infrastructural ambivalence on the part of governors on both sides of the Hudson, and wondered if the great states of New York and New Jersey had not finally given up the ghost of shovels in the ground begun grandly, if problematically, by Robert Moses nearly a century ago.

Governor Andrew Cuomo assuaged some of those fears with his grand visions for investment premiered at this year’s state of the state. While those proposal have been met with sometimes mixed reviews—Really, another casino? Will an Aqueduct convention center work? Where’s the mass transit?—it has at least restored some faith in the govenor’s willingness to build.

Yesterday, Governor Cuomo announced the 15-member board of a new infrastructure bank, and in so doing, invoked the name of Robert Moses, both grandly and problematically. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 6/22/11 4:44pm

Building Blocks

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Equatorial Guinea Buys Condo on Second Avenue

It’s among the world’s smallest countries, but that didn’t stop Equatorial Guinea from scooping up prime office condo space near the United Nation for $3.63 million. Indeed, the African nation of 676,000 people inked a deal last week for 8,067 square feet at 800 Second Avenue, a building already occupied by the consulates of Israel and Ecuador, among other countries. Read More

By The Real Estate Desk 8/02/10 8:16pm

Building Blocks

Whole Lot of Schools and Hospitals Keep Construction Afloat

The New York Building Congress is out today with some interesting numbers that show why the construction industry should love schools and hospitals.

Between May 2008 and April 2010, institutional projects (schools, museums, hospitals, universities, libraries, etc.) accounted for $8.1 billion in construction starts—a not too shabby number for an industry that totaled about $25 Read More