Star Tower in LIC and comps

corlearshook: about 3 months ago

"And tell everyone on the west side of Manhattan or in the Lower East Side and East Village that condos can't be near housing projects."

Where are the condos going up near the Baruch, Valdek, Alfred Smith, Jacob Riis, etc Houses? I bet those are selling well...

LICComment: about 3 months ago

Really nyc10022? Which buildings? Specifically, please name 5 of the buildings that you had heard were selling well but then the truth came out and you found out they weren't selling well.

newguy97: about 3 months ago

did they start building again? it was stalled the last time i checked (about 2 weeks ago)

nyc10022: about 3 months ago

> Actually, I heard this building had been selling fairly well before these foundation problems.

I heard a lot of buildings were selling well... until the truth came out.

mtc: about 3 months ago

Now they say October of 2010. I was watching how they were constructing it and it seems that the orientation is different than what they are showing on their site. The units A-E would be along 28th and H-E would be along Queens Plaza South.

LICComment: about 5 months ago

Actually, I heard this building had been selling fairly well before these foundation problems. It will be interesting to see what happens.

nyc10022: about 5 months ago

They couldn't sell the apartments, so they sold the domain name to raise cash.

newguy97: about 5 months ago

Website for Star Tower is down... could this be the end?

nyc10022: about 7 months ago

Hell, there was just a sale in FiDi at $600 psf - 20 pine, a higher-end building with amenities.... LIC and WB is going to have to beat that...

ericho75: about 7 months ago

Why would anyone buy in the STARS tower when prices in Queenswest are in the low 600 per square foot. There are some units that were sold for the low 500s. If you want to live in LIC, Queenswest is where you should be. Forget the asking prices and go check out the units. Put in a bid and see what transpire.

now1225: about 7 months ago

So I wonder when this building will be finished. I had talked to the sales office like 8 months ago and they said (if I remember correct) that it would be done around Oct 2009. So if they have to re-engineer the foundation I wonder when it'll be finished.

yhl: about 7 months ago

I found this blogsite by Andrew Fine, and he writes on May 11, 2009, about the Star Tower:

http://afinecompany.blogspot.com/2009/05/star-tower-reaches-for-sun-solar-to.html

Andrew got word that the Developer is planning on installing a solar system on the roof, possibly solar water heaters also...and he also writes that the delay in construction was b/c "They had to re-engineer the foundation. Should be above ground in a couple of months."

McHale: about 7 months ago

I drive past it everyday and all construction seems to have stopped....why would you buy in a building that will never sell at even 30% down...when we hit 50% off then you'll see some movement...maybe!

nyc10022: about 7 months ago

"Where were there reports on 30% price cuts in LIC? One building in Williamsburg had big cuts, but I haven't seen anything about LIC."

I think we pretty much closed that loop, no?

newguy97: about 7 months ago

I believe you're right. I go by it everyday on the 7 train, and have not seen any activity in the last several weeks.

now1225: about 7 months ago

I heard this building is having problems with construction and will be delayed. Does anyone know what's going on?

McHale: about 9 months ago

Hey LICC you sound like you lost your retirement funds speculation on LIC real estate. Love it man! Now suck on this
And Do I Hear $2 Million? No? $1 Million? Sold!

By TERI KARUSH ROGERS
As housing prices around the country began to tumble about three years ago, the New York market kept rising, and only in the last year did it begin to show some weakness.

But now sales in the city have slowed so significantly that worried developers are planning to auction off some luxury condos in the spring for around half of what they were asking just a year ago.

Developers who are awash in unsold inventory see auctions as a tactic to jolt a paralyzed public to life.

A two-bedroom on the Upper East Side, for example, could be marked down to $1.1 million from $2.2 million.

Real estate professionals say Wall Street’s continued prosperity through much of 2008 shielded New York from the forces that were pushing the rest of the nation’s housing market down.

But today, with the credit crisis and the Wall Street meltdown, fewer people are able to buy homes. With the economic crisis spreading worldwide, there also seem to be fewer wealthy foreigners buying Manhattan condos.

Real estate auctions, rarely used in New York, have the potential to both move property and indicate to reluctant buyers what the true market prices are. Given the current sales drought, even a handful of auctions could reset prices for new condominiums citywide, said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan research and appraisal company. He said he expects the auctioned properties to sell for 40 to 45 percent below the asking prices of the first quarter of 2008, when the market peaked.

Today, almost every signpost is bleak for new developments. Buyers who signed contracts long before condo projects were completed are expected to walk away in droves this coming quarter. In many cases, these buyers will be abandoning deposits of $100,000 or more that pale in comparison to the slide in market values. Many buyers may have lost jobs, or may be worried about their jobs, while others will be unable to get financing.

Accelerated Marketing Partners, a real estate marketing firm, is discussing auctions that will start as early as April on five mid-range to high-end projects in desirable neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. “We’re in a deflationary, devaluating market in which no one knows the value of anything anymore,” said Jon Gollinger, the co-founder and chief executive of the firm, based in Boston.

There are 8,000 new condos on the market in New York City, and 22,000 more are scheduled to go on the market by the end of next year. “You’ve got all this inventory that’s been based on this young financial buyer and international buyers,” Mr. Gollinger said, but those buyers have been hard hit by Wall Street’s collapse.

Most developers declined to discuss the subject. But one lender, who asked not to be identified because his plans are not final, said he intends to hire Accelerated to auction a large group of units in April. “We have quite a large investment in a new condo building in a good location downtown,” he said, but sales have been “very, very slow.”

With just under 50 units, the building is currently priced around $1,000 per square foot. Minimum bids will probably be set at around $600 per square foot, the lender said.

Henry Justin, a developer who has 48 units left to sell in a 73-unit Midtown building, said sales hit a wall in December. “All the deals I’m doing are all-cash, mostly from foreign buyers, because only people with a private banking relationship can get any money out of a bank right now,” he said. Mr. Justin doubts that lower prices will sell many units because so many buyers cannot obtain mortgages.

Accelerated, the auctioneer, has been working with the development marketing group at Prudential Douglas Elliman. Andy Gerringer, the group’s managing director, said he has urged clients to consider auctions, because many of them are selling only one or two units a month, if any.

In the auctions run by Accelerated, only a portion of a building’s unsold units are sold in one swoop, to avoid depressing values more than necessary. The remainder are marketed the traditional way, at the new, lower auction prices.

Auctions of unsold New York City condos in a wider range of quality and locations are also anticipated in May by the national auctioneer Sheldon Good & Company. This week, the company announced a deal to auction all 17 units of a completely unsold new condominium building in Weehawken, N.J.

“Large amounts of inventory will be offered at aggressively low or no minimum bids,” said Jeffrey L. Hubbard, an executive managing director at Sheldon Good.

Auctioneers say inquiries from developers rose in early January. “The general impression I get is that this period of denial — the market-will-get-better mentality — is coming to a close,” said Mr. Miller, the appraiser, who will likely be working with Accelerated to determine the market value of units put up for auction. “The reality that everyone is coming to grips with is that demand levels will remain lower until liquidity is returned to the mortgage markets.”

Auctions have succeeded in loosening other battered markets, like South Florida. In two held there last fall by Accelerated, 30 to 40 units in partly sold developments went for about half their peak prices. The developers say sales have picked up since then, at prices slightly below those received at auction.

Auctions have not been used in New York in any significant way since the early 1990s, when an oversupply of rental-to-co-op conversions collided with a recession and double-digit interest rates.

While many developers resist auctions, investors are pushing for quicker sales. “Auctions will hit New York City because of pressure from the underlying lender,” said John Di Fiore, the senior vice president at Real Estate Capital Partners, which runs a fund that invested in two Manhattan condo developments.

The reduced asking prices could bring condos in line with prices seen just a few years ago. The average sales price of a two-bedroom Upper East Side condo was just above $1 million in 2002. It rose to $1.5 million in 2004, and to $2.2 million at its peak in 2008.

McHale: about 9 months ago

Comment was deleted by moderator.

LICComment: about 9 months ago

Probably because you are a crude guy who doesn't have the respect of the professionals you see around you every day.

richseda: about 9 months ago

Congrats

McHale: about 9 months ago

I own a condo, three two family homes and a small business in Long Island City and own no debt or mortgage.......so come again why am I mad?

richseda: about 9 months ago

agreed!!!!

LICComment: about 9 months ago

I agree rich, McHale's bitterness is raging.

Where were there reports on 30% price cuts in LIC? One building in Williamsburg had big cuts, but I haven't seen anything about LIC.

richseda: about 9 months ago

Mchale: "why you so MAD". you seem so sour always over LIC.

Trompiloco: about 9 months ago

McHale: of course he can.

nyc10022: about 9 months ago

But I thought we say 2-3 reports on this board about major price cuts (20-30%) on LIC new development...

McHale: about 9 months ago

From what I hear, there is a trickle of activity in LIC; things are mostly at a standstill. I also hear that most sponsors are planning to wait things out and not make significant price cuts.

Oh really? I guess they can just sit on millions of dollars worth of loans and not default on them? I'm also sure they are so well capitalized that they can afford to sit on this toxic waste and won't be forced into a fire sale? Oh yea I'm sure this economy will start it's recovery in the second half of 09 and we;ll have a robust recovery in 2010 and Wall Street jobs and private sector jobs will suddenly materialize and drive housing prices right back up......... you really can't be this moronic can you?

newaccount: about 9 months ago

...or shall I say BUST!!

newaccount: about 9 months ago

What happens when activity is trickling as inventory increases?

BOOM!

LICComment: about 9 months ago

From what I hear, there is a trickle of activity in LIC; things are mostly at a standstill. I also hear that most sponsors are planning to wait things out and not make significant price cuts.

nyc10022: about 9 months ago

wow, now you're playing dumb, too.

Wow, you really are a hypocrite...

Nice work, tool!

bjw2103: about 9 months ago

"Was your post really necessary? Don't you have something better to do with your time?"

Yes, was asking LICComment a question, if you don't mind (or want to be a hall monitor about it).

newaccount: about 9 months ago

My prediction from 2 years afo was 400psf new construction. I'm sure I'm right, but I may have to adjust that number lower.

nyc10022: about 9 months ago

> Keep telling yourself you don't go after people, unprovoked.

Yes, keep it up hall monitor. You going to follow me around all day?

And, yes, you are still a hypocrite. Julia went after me unprovoked. A little humor at her expense is still way less than what she did.

But again, hall monitor, stop being a tool.

Was your post really necessary? Don't you have something better to do with your time?

bjw2103: about 9 months ago

"Or did you catch something from Julia?"

Keep telling yourself you don't go after people, unprovoked.

LIC, have you seen much activity in your part of town? Are sellers/sponsors just content to wait it out at this point, or are they starting to feel real pressure by now?

nyc10022: about 9 months ago

You can't say I'm wrong by pointing out things I didn't say.

Seems like the majority of the board predicted declines from 15-30%, per a recent mention. And we're well there.

So, what complaint exactly do you have with the predictions?

LICComment: about 9 months ago

Point out the one-bedrooms in LIC for $200k, or the apartments for $400psf. You can't say you were right if it hasn't happened.

nyc10022: about 9 months ago

"I still don't see prices down to the levels that were predicted months ago on this thread. "

What exactly are you looking at then?

The reports on median are now saying 20-25% down off peak, which is past even the middle range of estimates. And specific examples of 30% or more cuts all over the place (multiple threads on that).

Or did you catch something from Julia?

LICComment: about 9 months ago

We are a year and a half into the worst financial and economic situation in decades, and I still don't see prices down to the levels that were predicted months ago on this thread. You all like to declare the game over before it even starts.

nyc10022: about 9 months ago

Well, in the fantasy land of a year or so ago, everything was pretty much backward....