1) We thought we were finally done with Britney Spears and her Silk Building apartment on East 4th Street, especially after she finally sold it for $4 million after numerous pricechops. Then the new owners tried to rent it out for $32k/month, and now—following some renovation work and a restaging—they're trying to flip it for $6,595,000. Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group, who sold the apartment for Spears, is now trying to sell it again. Photos and floorplans from the listing are above. Nice Sculpture for Living view! [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
2) Where will Katie Holmes settle when she comes to New York to star on Broadway? Maybe the Upper East Side, where she recently toured a few furnished rentals with price tags exceeding $60k/month, including one in the 80s with six bedrooms. [Gimme Shelter/Braden Keil]
3) In an off-market deal, Heidi Klum's river-facing penthouse at 166 Bank Street sold for $5.6 million, to the owner of two apartments in the same building. If only Gisele were so lucky! [The Closer]
As Saturday gets underway, check out a selection of some of the top stories on Curbed this week.
1) Upper East Side: The second deadly crane collapse since March woke us up in an unpleasant way at 333 E. 91st Street. The immediate cause was unclear, but the Azure Condo had built up a record with the Department of Buildings.
UPPER EAST SIDE—This may be the first Sanitation Department Destructoporn we've had. It comes courtesy of a tipster who notes that it's the old Sanitation Department building on East 74th between York Avenue and the FDR Drive: "They were moving very quickly for a few months (with the incessant bang-clang-boom beginning at 7:30AM every weekday) and then about two weeks ago they just stopped all demolition activity. The equipment you see in the picture has been idle since then. Is there some kind of strike, or did they find asbestos? Not that I'm complaining but I can't understand why the demolition stopped." [CurbedWire Inbox]
EAST VILLAGE—Is it possible that the report of booze and drugs and defecation in the gym at the A Building was overstated? Per an email from an "inside" source: "Party was really tame, Lots of alcohol and gays, but I didn't see any drugs. FDNY showed up for a spot-check and left. That's all I can confirm." Regardless, it's a long summer season and more is sure to come. [CurbedWire Inbox]
"I'm looking forward to many reports from 'The Summer of Avenue A'. This is the first test as to what happens when you put 140 strangers, their life savings and 30 years future earnings into a condo with a shared rooftop pool in the city, in the hottest summer on record (probably). I want pictures!" ['A Building' Pool Party Report: 'Drugs, Booze Everywhere']
Those who doubt that the East Village's A Building is shaping up to be the defining building of our time, have we got an update for you! Ever since we first laid eyes on the luxury condo building's rooftop pool and deck, we knew that—come summer—the A Building was going to be a total shitshow. Little did we know how right we were. Already described as Dormandy South because of its raucous young buyers, the A Building may have finally proven that the East Village is not quite ready for luxury development. A Curbed tipster forwards along a friend's account of what transpired over the weekend:
If any new condo building deserves a reality TV show, it's the A Building in the East Village. Quietly nestled on 13th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, the Cetra/Ruddy-designed Curbed obsession seems to be entirely populated by pretty young things who, come summer, will all be partying up a storm on the communal roof deck—with its lounge chairs, swimming pool and Stuyvesant Town views (MTV, are you listening?). We've been inside the building before, but not since people moved in and the roof was completed. Luckily, a special Curbed correspondent recently took a trip inside the building, which is actually two structures (the other one has its butt on 14th Street) joined by an interior courtyard. He writes...
The A Building, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, fancypants doorman-attended lobby and rooftop pool, is not shy about its desire to make the East Village safe for luxury development. But has it gone too far? Just installed on the outside of the building: one of those light-up signs for hailing taxis. We don't think that 13th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A will be mistaken for Central Park West or Park Avenue anytime soon, but is it finally safe to open up that monocle shop we've been dreaming about?
Simply put, a luxury development is not a luxury development without a swimming pool. Condo buyers may not use them, and the pools may drive monthly maintenance fees to ridiculous levels, but developers know that a private pool is an important marketing hook in the current high-stakes game of real estate development. These "lap pools" are supposed to be an exercise amenity, but for the most part they're sold as sexy playgrounds or relaxing getaways. The trend is so popular that it seems like every week we're posting renderings of a new development's private pool. And it got us thinking about which of these swimming holes cuts through the chlorine clutter and rises to the top. So, above is a photo gallery of our favorite new pools, ranked from 10 to 1. Many of the entries are renderings, which is why we're not calling these the "best." Who knows how these things will turn out? Instead, they are—for one reason or another—our favorites. Check it out, and let us know which ones we missed.
Don't be fooled by the snow or the menacing proximity to the drab towers of Stuy Town or the smoking Con Ed plant in the background: come summer '08, this concrete hole will be the hottest rooftop pool in the entire East Village. OK, there's not much by way of competition, but don't rain on the parade of buyers at 13th Street's A Building, who are banking on a finished chill-out spot by the time the mercury rises. Writes one occupant, "This was taken over the weekend. Looks promising that this will be done for summer!" But don't count your rats before they're hatched, because this building has made delays something of a habit. All in all, a nice effort, but by no means Chupiriffic.
· Holy Flippin' A Building, Ratman! [Curbed]
· First A Building Rental Hits the Market [Curbed]
· 'A Building' Developer: Toll Brothers Who? [Curbed]
In truth, what started as a breaking news item regarding the listing of the first flip in the East Village's A Building (joining the first rental) has turned into much much more. Because, per a quick-with-the-camphone tipster—who also knows a thing or two about red arrows—here's proof that the first tenant has already moved in, and the odds are good that he got a pretty sweet deal. Hey, East Village luxury condos are few and far between, so can you blame the natives for wanting to get a closer look? Oh, and as for the flip, it's for a 1BR, 1.5BA duplex, 750 square feet priced at $925,000. It's unclear which unit this is, but so far it appears that the one-bedrooms have closed at prices ranging from $715,000 to $850,000. Our last look into the A Building caused a near riot over the interior finishes, so here's another peek, as well as a better shot of the glass thingy hanging in the lobby and one more of our furry little friend.
· Listing: delightful duplex with 1.5 baths [Nest Seekers]
· First A Building Rental Hits the Market [Curbed]
· East Village's A Building: Dramatic Lobby Reveal! [Curbed]
1) With the Clay Aikenrumors still flying, the purchaser of the $2.995 million Arris Lofts apartment in Long Island City is revealed to be ... DJ Danny Tenaglia! Meh. That's somewhat less exciting, although we guess parties in the building now have default entertainment. [liQcity]
2) That Tony award for Frost/Nixon must have led to a windfall of cashola, because Frank Langella just traded up at 336 Central Park West. His new co-op cost him $2.1 million. [Big Time Listings]
3) Recent closings at the Upper East Village's A Building include a $1.35 million condo purchased by Heather Marks. The same Heather Marks as Canadian supermodel Heather Marks? Perhaps! That rooftop pool just got a lot more interesting.
4) Think you're a trailblazer for moving into a $3,700-per-month 1BR rental down in the FiDi? Wacky composer Philip Glass lived down by the Fulton Fish Market in the 60s, and he paid $30 a month for his apartment. But all of his friends paid $25, and thought he was a total sell out for paying so much. [Page Six]
The New York Times real estate listings are a treasure trove of great finds right now. First, the $27 million Palazzo Chupi reveal, and now, the first ever rental listing in the Upper East Village's one and only luxury condo development, the A Building. Closings in the building recently started, so it was only a matter of time before the rentals popped up. The price—$4,000/month—is in line with other new construction one-bedroom apartments and shouldn't come as much of a shock. The listing also provides our first glimpse inside the A Building, because this doesn't really count. It's a slightly underwhelming experience, if only because we don't get to see the rooftop pool, probably because the building is still nowhere near completion.
· Listing: 425 East 13th Street [NYT]
· 'A Building' Developer: Toll Brothers Who? [Curbed]
· East Village's A Building Gets Trimmed for Christmas [Curbed]
Developer Rob Kaliner is quickly making a name for himself in the kooky world of Manhattan luxury condominiums. His Ascend Group is one of the firms behind the East Village's A Building (right), and his second project is the Upper East Side instant legend Georgica. Recently, a press release hit the inbox explaining Kaliner's life story, which involves a stint as a garment manufacturer of some sort. That's all fine and dandy, but what's interesting are his comments on the finally-closing A Building, which the release says is "99 percent sold out:"
“I would only build a building that I would want my family members to live in,” Kaliner said, adding that his two sons have a place in the “A Building.” “There was no luxury product on the market at the time in the East Village. The site was occupied by a bunch of small commercial tenants, a film studio and a grocery store that was shut down prior to the development.”
Startling revelations gleaned from The Real Deal's story about everyone's favorite new Chelsea development: (1) It took three people to come up with the name YVES in a brainstorming session. (2) Half of YVES sold before the sales office opened on December 1. (3) YVES developer Benjamin Shaoul (also behind the East Village's A Building and squatter-booting) credits Adrian and Natalia with building buzz for the development. (4) Real-life Adrians and Natalias are buying and combining multiple units into YVES superhomes. (5) Once completed, YVES will sprout arms and legs, lift itself off of West 18th Street and walk across town to Memorial Sloan-Kettering, where it will extract some of its pure essence and bottle it in test tubes as a drinkable cure for cancer. It will taste like power, passion, luxury and greatness. And lime.
· All about Yves [TRD]
· Checking In: At YVES, It's Easy Being Green [Curbed]
· YVES Name Game: Another Reason to Hate the French? [Curbed]
Could it be that the commenter who suggested that closings at the East Village's long-delayed A Building will begin in January was actually, gasp, correct? The 14th Street portion of the two-building luxuruplex still looks like cardboard cutouts, but over on 13th Street, the ground-floor lobby was finally revealed today. The combination of glare, scaffolding and scurrying construction workers made it difficult to get a clear look, but the future doorman's desk was in plain view. Which way, sir, to the mannequin party room?
Could the A Building (est. completion: spring 2025) actually be progressing? We always figured a concrete sign of Upper East Village luxury coming to fruition would be the addition of the red trim around the 13th Street side of the building, as seen in the rendering on the A Building website. And wouldn't you know it, this morning workers were banging in said flair. Now if only we could get a look at the state of that rooftop pool, the only swimming hole we know of wedged between a post office and public school.
1) A Building: This slow-moving Upper East Village luxury condo development is perhaps the building we receive the most "what's up with that?" emails about. As you can see, the 13th Street side has seen lots of exterior progress since we last checked in, although we're still waiting for the touch of color promised in the building's renderings. The estimated completion date was May 2007 (oops!), but when you see our after-the-jump photo of the rear, 14th Street-touching building (the two are attached by a courtyard), you'll realize that May 2008 may be a stretch.
2) Crescent Club: Long Island City's hot dose of architect Karl Fischer has seen some big changes since we had a look at that putting green. The full website is now up, and it features what is certainly the greatest soundtrack of any new development website this year, and possibly ever. The song must have subliminal messages embedded in it, because 24 of the 36 released units are already in contract, per StreetEasy. Who knew LIC had so many golf fans?
As you may have noticed if you set foot below 14th Street, our local outposts of higher education were populated over the weekend. This included, for the first time, the School of Visual Arts dorm on the corner of Third Avenue and 10th Street that was the cause for some concern a little ways back. Here is the finished product, almost. As you can see, the ground-floor retail still has a little ways to go, but the little ones have moved in. Welcome, young artists!
Two reader queries of note today; hit the comments with intel. New questions to tips@curbed.com.
1) East Village: "What's up with the A Building on east 13th? It was supposed to be ready for summer but it currently looks like this (above). I guess that rooftop pool won't be hosting any pool parties this year!"
2) Tribeca: "Any info on Tribeca Summit? Doesn't look like there's much work going on at the building. From the ground this weekend I couldn't see anything that would look like a new penthouse being built on the original building. Are there still delays because of earlier lending problems?"
Now that One Ten 3rd is sold out, the Toll Brothers' sales office on Broadway just below Union Square has switched priorities to the Tolls' Williamsburg properties. Which means that, for all intents and purposes, the East Village sales office war with the A Building is over (Winner: One Ten!). So how is the A Building adjusting? We've already commented on the freaky nature of the sales office, and that weirdness has been ramped up now that the A is the only game in town. Check out the window display last weekend: A poster-sized blow-up of a bare floorplan, which was probably deemed way too boring for that wacky East Village. How to balance it? Ah, of course, with a silver mannequin wearing nothing but glasses and a necktie! Is this the suggested dress code for the A Building's future residents, and if so, can we pop in for a tour after the move-ins?
· A Building Update: That Name Will Never Not Be Awkward [Curbed]
· Broadway Sales Office Showdown [Curbed]
· A Building [Official Site]
The rat is out in full force outside the Upper East Village's A Building, which means it's now probably as good a time as any for an update. There's been nonstop work on this peculiar building, but it looks like it hasn't changed in months. Above is the 13th Street-facing side of the complex, which is between First Avenue and Second Avenues Avenue A (duh, sorry, it was really early). There's an interior court courtyard and a glass walkway thingy that links this building with a seperate mini-tower, which faces 14th Street. We haven't checked in since mentioning the freaky sales office, and unfortunately, marketer Cantor Pecorella doesn't have a proper web presence, so we haven't seen the listings. However, the A Building site now has floorplans, so at least there's something to dissect!
Comments
1) With the Clay Aiken 
Developer Rob Kaliner is quickly making a name for himself in the kooky world of Manhattan luxury condominiums. His Ascend Group is one of the firms behind the East Village's 
Startling revelations gleaned from The Real Deal's 
