Perhaps because of its relatively out-of-the-way locale, 50 Riverside Boulevard, also known as 40 Riverside Boulevard and—more grandly—One Riverside Park, has drawn somewhat less attention than some of Extell’s other current luxury developments. The shadows thrown by the yet-unfinished edifice will cast no gloom on Central Park, nor will the building alter the Midtown skyline. Watchers of real estate records and and analyses, however, had occasion to take note this morning when Donna Olshan revealed in her Luxury Report that 50 Riverside had notched the second-priciest contract of the last week, on a penthouse lasted listed with Corcoran for $20.66 million. (Alas, Gary Barnett could not quite keep pace with Kelly Ripa, who took the top contract spot for her Soho pad listed at $24.5 million—though we’ve heard that the buyers came away with a pretty good deal.)
Pleased as we are for Mr. Barnett, we cannot help but notice that the realization of such lofty prices makes all the more unseemly the west-side building’s use of much-maligned “poor door” design, which Extell is implementing to segregate affordable housing tenants from the owners of 50 Riverside’s bright shiny condos. (The developers received a density bonus, which they planned to sell off to another builder, in exchange for constructing affordable housing units in conjunction with market-rate ones; present active listings in the building range from $1.9 million to $25.75 million.)
It is unclear whether affordable renters will, like condo owners, have access to the 40,000-square-foot fitness facility—complete with pool, basketball and squash courts, two-lane bowling alley and rock climbing wall—at Extell’s existing Aldyn building next door. But at the risk of appearing cynical, we’re going to say probably not.
The new contractee, however, will most certainly be welcome to the the Aldyn’s full battery of niceties. Though there will be little reason to ever leave their apartment at all, what with the “array of exceptional amenities…at an unprecedented scale” on offer. (Putting up luxury tower after luxury tower must make it very difficult indeed to keep track of precedents in amenity offerings.) Yet a figment of floor plans and renderings, the newly-contracted unit will sprawl 6,168 square feet, including 6 bedrooms, the most sumptuous of which will look directly onto Hudson River.
The only truly upsetting detail in all this? The penthouse won’t even have a terrace!
How rude.
