In our 2015 New York City real estate predictions, we wrote that we expected all of Manhattan – not just the prime parts below Harlem, but also neighborhoods farther uptown – to essentially become condo-only territory, with demand high enough that rentals are no longer feasible on any site purchased recently.
And a filing for a new four-story (five including the penthouse) building at 223 East 118th Street, in East Harlem, is the perfect example of that. On Friday, an application was submitted to construct a residential building between Second and Third Avenues, but with just two apartments – one big, the other huge.
During the last market cycle, new construction on this stretch of East 118th Street came in the form of two large subsidized housing projects, at Nos. 201 and 225, and one smaller condo building, at 232 East 118th Street.
But the condo building at No. 232, opened in 2005, was downright sedate compared to what’s now planned for No. 223. Whereas the earlier building has 12 apartments, 11 of which are under 1,000 square feet, No. 223 will have just two units spread over more than 4,500 square feet of residential space.
The first apartment would sit on the ground floor and include some space in the cellar, likely totaling around 1,000 square feet in size. But the second unit is absolutely massive by East Harlem standards, starting on the second floor but also taking up the third, fourth, and penthouse levels as well.
The developer is Great Neck-based Sam Mah, operating under Active Homes 52 LLC, and the architect is listed as CB Engineering, led by Flavio Barros. The developer picked up the land in mid-2013 for $377,000.
As development sites in the traditionally prime parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn become ever scarcer, we expect these very large, high-end luxury apartments to spread farther uptown, edging out those building more modest condos and market-rate rentals.
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