At least there are still great park views?

Oscar Wilde wrote that we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. This seems darkly apt for the unfortunate residents of Richard Meier's On Prospect Park, who are deeply gutter-bound as they gaze at the starchitect's beautiful glass walls. Or so a new lawsuit filed by the condo board alleges.

The lawsuit is seeking $200 million from the developers of the project and those involved in its early management, reports the New York Post. Among the most egregious problems at the building is that after almost four years of occupancy, On Prospect Park still lacks a Certificate of Occupancy and the temporary certificate lapsed last month. This basically makes it impossible for owners to sell their units because banks won't provide financing to a building that lacks a certificate of occupancy. Good thing that Brown Harris Stevens finished selling the building out in July! Now all the residents will be left holding the bag rather than developer SDS Procida Development Group, controlled by Mario Procida.

“The renewal of the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy is in process,” Mr. Procida told the Post. “It has been open longer than we’ve liked, and we’re in the process of trying to go to a permanent C of O.”

Who's home? Everybody! (Structures: NYC, flickr)

The residents of Richard Meier's On Prospect Park once spent their days roaming the empty halls of the glassy tower, a vertical ghost town rising over Prospect Heights. But those days are long gone.

The building, which hit the market in 2008, has finally sold out, Brownstoner reports. And they got the news straight from the horse's mouth—lead Corcoran broker Cheryl Nielsen-Saaf (although Brown Harris Stevens took over the brokering during the project's home stretch).

"It was a wonderful project to work on from my perspective and I feel very fortunate having been there from the beginning during the design phase and well before sales commenced. Then through the downturn in 2008, adjusting to the new market realities and selling the majority of the units despite its very unique and different style,” Ms. Nielsen-Saaf told Brownstoner.

New market realities is putting it mildly.  The New York Times called the starchitect-designed condo “a wall of windows into the real estate bust” back in 2009, speaking of "anemic sales" and prices slashed up to 40 percent.

It didn't help that the glass walls highlighted (or low-lighted?) all the unoccupied, dark units. But after the last two penthouses sold in May, it became clear that the remaining units would not last long. When people are willing to pay for the the most expensive units (and $5.1 million is very pricey for Prospect Heights)., it's only a matter of time before the cheaper stuff sells out.

And, as Brownstoner pointed out yesterday, resales are already underway.

kvelsey@observer.com

Manhattan living, but in Brooklyn

Things may have looked bleak during the recession for On Prospect Park, but the tower's most expensive penthouse has finally sold for $5.1 million, just as everyone knew it eventually would.

Are boom times here again? Well, when it comes to gentrification in Brooklyn, Prospect Heights in particular, it's not a question of if but when, and Prospect Heights was already pretty far gone when the sleek tower was just a rough sketch in Richard Meier's head. Even if The New York Times did call the starchitect-designed condo "a wall of windows into the real estate bust" back in 2009.

Never-before-occupied penthouse 16S was the most expensive condo on the market and the $5.1 million sale (at ask, but maybe not original ask) sets the record for On Prospect Park (known to the postal service as 1 Grand Army Plaza). The next highest sale was another penthouse—there are five—that went for $3.9 million last winter. That was eclipsed just yesterday by the sale of penthouse 16N, which Brownstoner reported sold for $4.9 million, though today's sale of the neighboring unit now bests that.

So who bought this shiny, many-windowed, prodigiously-terraced 3,500-square foot penthouse? The clandestine KFRC Brooklyn LLC., that's who. And KFRC may live in a glass-walled house, that doesn't mean he/she/they wants to be seen.

Corcoran Sunshine listing broker Cheryl Nielson-Saaf told us that she had to keep absolutely mum on the buyers when we reached her on the phone. The project is now being brokered by Brown Harris Stevens, as well.

Perhaps it's a Manhattan ex-pat frustrated by ever-rising rents? Or a Brooklynite who wants the ease of doormen and swimming pools rather than trudging up and down the stairs of some quaint brownstone?

In any event, the buyer will be getting a master bedroom suite with views of the harbor and its own private terrace, as well as a living/dining room and kitchen that span over 50 feet with balconies and terraces across the full width. There's also a huge private roof terrace, where you can sit among your lovely greenery and gaze out at the greenery of Prospect Park.

Plus, at 75 percent full, the building's no longer the ghost town it once was.

kvelsey@observer.com

New York by Frank Gehry at 8 Spruce Street (Photo from NYC Loves NYC)

Once, living in a building with celebrity residents or prewar pedigree was the goal of every nouveau riche New Yorker. Trump International, anyone? Yes, please, 740 Park.

Now upwardly mobile denizens of our great city have slightly different aspirations: starchitect developments; that is, buildings designed by jet-setting, Pritzker-prize winning  architectural wizards, typically of the old guard variety. While some have suggested that the starchitect craze is the result of pure unadulterated vanity, it turns out that buildings have made a pretty penny since they began to sprout up a decade ago, Crain's reports.

Highrises designed by the likes of Frank Gehry, Richard Meier and Jean Nouvel, however, don't come cheap and require costly initial investments. In addition to keeping the precious architects content with a constant supply of imported mineral water and diamond encrusted drafting templates, the triple-premium materials and fixtures used in these buildings come with steep price tags.

While naysayers initially panned the starchitect craze as a pre-crash pipe dream incompatible with post-recession market realities, buildings like Gehry's "New York" at 8 Spruce Street have actually been doing remarkably well during the downtown, according to Crain's.

Frank Gehry's 76-story rental just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, built by Forest City Ratner, has attracted much critical acclaim. And it's filling up quite nicely, despite studio rents that typically top $3,000, according to Susi Yu, Forest City's senior vice president, retail development.

Similarly, everybody's favorite West Village condo, Superior Ink, has been selling big and legitimizing the starchitect craze. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern, the 17-story building was an investment, to say the least.

Its cost per square foot of construction made the project “one of the most expensive buildings we've built,” said Bruce A. Beal Jr., an executive vice president of Related Companies, Superior Ink's developer. On the other hand, sales for tower units, which started well before construction was completed in 2007, “exceeded our expectations,” he said.

Interest is still high. One buyer who bought an apartment for $25 million in 2009, resold it a year later for $31.5 million, which worked out to a whopping $4,983 per square foot.

Crain's looks at the beloved 40 Bond and how the phenomenon has even spread to the outer boroughs, where Richard Meier's On Prospect Park has, after some initial hiccups, become a smash success. The takeaway is clear: the post-boom era demands better architecture, not worse. Lest we slide back into the old reality of junkbox built at cut rates, the city will not only be aesthetically but economically worse off.

eknutsen@observer.com

The buyer, according to city records, is David Dosik, a doctor whose practice is just down Seventh Avenue across from New York Methodist. He paid $3.3 million for the 3,071-square-foot all-seeing spread. Located on the north side of the building, the condo has views of the entire Manhattan skyline, as well as much of Brooklyn. The original asking price was $3.5 million, when the unit was put on the market in September to test the waters--which are no longer tepid!

Dr. Dosik's four-bedroom home features all the cutting-edge, clean-line features the buyer would expect from Mr. Meier: Corian, Gaggenau, Miele, Subzero, Thassos marble, a Zuma air jet soaking tub. "Floors are rift cut white oak plank throughout," Mr. Nielsen-Saaf's listing boasts. The amenities are numerous, and now they include an in-house medic.

In December, Dr. Dosik sold his five-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot home in Manhattan Beach for $2 million, according to StreetEasy. The Spanish Tudor at 83 Coleridge Street was bought by Maria and Dmitri Vayner. Quite the change of scenery for the good doctor.

Read past Manhattan Transfers here. >>

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

A trust associated with the Kanfer family of Akron, Ohio, has just purchased the 3,500-square-foot spread for $3.97 million.

The Kanfer family, and the Lippmans before them, run GOJO Industries, a privately held company that got its start making non-toxic industrial hand cleaners before its major breakthrough, which probably every person who will ever read this has used: Purrell. The family is also deeply involved in the Akron and international Jewish communities through the Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation.

No doubt any hand sanitizer heir would love the exquisitely clean lines of Meier's latest marvel. The home on the southern side of the buildings boasts wraparound views of Brooklyn and Manhattan, including the Statue of Liberty, Chrysler Building and neighboring Prospect Park. "Vast proportions allow for grand living," according to the project's Web site.

"The building itself, the architecture is drawing a lot of interest, not only from Brooklyn but across the United States and from Europe and Australia, as well," Corcoran broker Cheryl Nielsen-Saaf told The Observer. That said, she acknowledged that another penthouse had just gone to contract with a buyer in Brooklyn, while the remaining three will go on the market in the spring. "The demand was so high, we couldn't wait," Nielsen-Saaf said. "The supply in Brooklyn, there's really nothing else like it."

Yet even with all this popularity, price cuts are still the standard at this nearly sold-out project. Many units have gone for double digit discounts, but this one only dropped 3 percent, from an ask of $4.1 million. Compare that to the neighboring duplex, which faces directly onto Grand Army and was asking $6 million in 2008. How long before it is gone, too?

The Kanfer home boasts four bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths, which, as another penthouse listing makes clear, are top of the line: "Zuma air jet soaking tub, Dornbracht faucets, white Thassos marble floor with radiant heat in the Master bath and Jet Mist granite in the Junior bathroom."

With fixtures like those, the buyer should have no trouble freshening up ever again.

Read past Manhattan Transfers here. >>

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

-- It was recently reported that On Prospect Park, the Richard Meier-designed development in the heart
of Brooklyn, was finally filling up, and with locals no less. Well, the latest buyers buck that trend, as Manhattan transplants Richard and Bonnie Steingart have just left Battery Park City for Grand Army Plaza. The couple--he a doctor, she an attorney--paid $2.65 million for their high-floor three-bedroom.

-- As if collecting vintage race cars were not enough, Michael Gans has a penchant for collecting apartments as well. Already the owner of a duplex on the ninth and 10th floors of 860 Fifth Avenue, Mr. Gans has just purchased an adjoining unit on the ninth floor. The unit was unlisted, but based on similar ones in the 1950s co-op, appears to be a one-bedroom that cost $2.375 million. The seller was Dorothy Meller, a widow who now lists an address on West End Avenue.

Read past In Deed! coverage here. >>

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo