Manhattan House

There're several discussions linked to at the bottom of http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/building/200-east-66th-street-new_york.

With 575 apartments, it's one of the largest in New York. The sponsors paid more than $600M for it; another bubble purchase like the Apthorp or Peter Cooper/Stuyvesant Town.

It used to be good-looking, with its 1950's steel casements. The previous owner tore them out, though, and replaced them with clunky sash windows.

When it first opened, it was said to have more Social Register-listed tenants than any one other building, probably due to its size more than anything else. It did have good-sized rooms for its era.

i heard that the heating and airconditioning units have not been updated?? can this be true. also that there is flooding. anyone know if true?

In 2008, they had the Kips Bay Decorator House at the Manhattan House and individual rooms in maybe 5-6 apartments were decorated by interior designers. I went to see the show and it was surprising how nice the rooms could look with very high end interior design. Many of the rooms were pretty large sized for buildings in this neighborhood. One concern I would have with the building is the noise and congestion from the large volume on traffic constantly on 2nd Avenue, although the building entrance is on East 66th Street.

I lived here for 6 months but it was 20 years ago. They had a huge sun room at the top of the building that still had all the original Saarinen chairs and tables, dozens and dozens of valuable but basically abandoned mid-century modern furniture.

It has an unusual 2 way street on the 66th Street block, it is 2 ways for just this one block between 2nd and 3rd. I think the site used to be a trolley barn or something transit related.

Stop with all this Saarinen talk. You are making me drool over furniture. Mid-C modern is banned in our place (partner is a heavy brown wood guy).

Back in the day that I lived in the 'hood (2 yrs ago) we learned that IF the 2nd Ave. subway makes progress down the avenue, the charming parkway on 66th Street between 2nd and 3rd is to become a repository for waste materials from the subway construction. Not sure if this is truth or hearsay, but if true it would certainly impact quality of life at Manhattan House.

i don't know how many units were available for conversion at manhattan house, but they've only sold slightly more than 100, with very few sales the last few months and a bit over 50 showing up for the year. ukrguy, have you talked to anyone about the availability of financing? it seems as though buyers in a number of developments are managing to get mortgages despite what would seem to be impossible odds. i'd personally be quite wary purchasing in a situation where less than 20% of the units have been sold.

" i'd personally be quite wary purchasing in a situation where less than 20% of the units have been sold."

aren't you wary of buying anywhere?

The reason to worry if a building is only 20% sold is if the builder goes BK, the building amenities might not be finished.

That is not the case here, AFAIK all the upgrades and renovations to lobby, common areas, etc were done, so the risk is minimal.