Harry McCraw's more than $2 billion conversion of the former Irving Bank tower at One Wall Street into condominiums was a retail gift to Fiddy, but the mostly unsold apartments were a gift to Mr. McCraw. looks like a lump of coal.
As neighbors hail the building's impressive restoration and await the opening of French luxury department store Printemps' first U.S. store this spring, real estate legend Mr. McCraw is struggling to sell his luxury home.
Since sales began in late 2021, just 112 of the 566 apartments have closed on deals, according to a Post public records search. The deed of transfer is posted on the City Finance Department's ACRIS website.
McCraw has said in the past that he is thinking long-term and does not expect One Wall Street to sell out overnight. Still, the snail-like pace of sales forced one irreverent FiDi market watcher to sneer: “They're not selling like tube socks at a street fair.”
One large unit sold for $6.17 million, but most purchases ranged from $800,000 to $2 million. The roughly $230 million total is just 14% of the $1.7 billion sale price, and does not include the triplex penthouse, which has not yet been priced.
Despite 100,000 square feet of resident amenities, including private dining rooms and a 75-foot pool, initial sales were so slow that McCraw last year received a $300 million loan from Deutsche Bank to make up for the unsold apartments. Dollar “inventory” financing became necessary.
Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal and research firm Miller Samuel, told the Post this week: Many sales suggest that pricing is disconnected from what the market can absorb. ”
There are more than 220,000 condominiums in the area below Chambers Street, not far below the 262,000 rental units, according to the Downtown Alliance. Thousands of homes remain unsold, including brand new buildings like 125 Greenwich Street, where 272 homes were recently listed for sale.
The median price of condos in FiDi and Battery Park City fell from $1.275 million in the second quarter of 2023 to $985,000 in the third quarter of this year, according to the Alliance report.
While One Wall Street is often portrayed as part of a downtown family housing renaissance, more than half of the buyers identified by ACRIS were from Japan, China, and other countries, where they likely purchased the apartments for investment purposes. India and Russia are clearly the names of foreign-based buyers. Some items are already available for rental.
The most recent recorded purchase was a 753-square-foot, one-bedroom unit, 1810, sold for $1.4 million on Nov. 4 by an entity called “Third Wave Corporation, fictitious name Third Wave Japan.” It was a purchase.
One Wall Street is an Art Deco masterpiece, consisting of the original 50-story Ralph Walker-designed building built in 1931 and a 35-story annex added to the south end from 1963 to 1965. Masu. McCraw bought the then-vacant property on Broadway in 2014 and spent the next five years painstakingly renovating it.
He brought in a huge Whole Foods Market and a 75,000-square-foot Lifetime Wellness Center. Printemps will be a crown jewel with five restaurants and the recently landmarked Red Room, a restored former bank lobby that was closed to the public.
McCraw has let go of two sales brokerages, Core Real Estate and Compass, and is now selling the units with his own team, which a project spokesperson said has accelerated the pace of sales. said.
A spokesperson said: “We've had 12 deals signed in the past eight weeks and currently have 4 more deals signed, and we're very pleased with the speed of sales, with interest and offers increasing day by day.'' ” he said.
The spokesperson added: “In the past 90 days, we have closed deals ranging from approximately $1 million to over $9 million in unit configurations. Many of our recent buyers are local and even hyper-local. is.”
Meanwhile, McCraw is handling a lawsuit over alleged defects in an apartment building at 432 Park Avenue and Fortress Investment Group's attempt to foreclose on an East Midtown property it wanted to redevelop. .
But McCraw showed Houdini-like skills in protecting himself from disaster. “Don't ever think Mr Harry is at a disadvantage,” said a major trader.
