Bonus Boost for Apartment Sales in New York

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Wall Street, big bonuses make big leads in the city

Wall Street, big bonuses make big leads in the city

RISMEDIA, December 14, 2006?(MCT)?Broker Louise Philips Forbes decided to offer something special?and pricey?at 595 West End Ave., a pre-war apartment house that’s being converted into condos.

Instead of sharing a floor with other occupants, buyers could have a whole one to themselves?to build out the way they want. It would add $1 million on top of the purchase price.

She didn’t advertise the three super-size spaces in the 15-story building at W. 89th St. She just called some other brokers to ask if their clients would be interested.

It took only a week to sell them.

Thank you, Wall Street bonus money.

The three buyers, all Wall Streeters, are dishing out $4.375 million to $5.3 million for their new homes, the Halstead Property senior vice president said.

In good years, bonus money boosts Manhattan apartment sales from December through March. This year is shaping up to be a real good one?with a projected $36 billion payout from five investments banks that will easily top Wall Street’s record 2005 bonus total of $21.5 billion.

The money?and excitement?are especially welcome this year, after a slow summer and fall, apartment sellers said.

The pace began to pick up during the week of Thanksgiving.

“You could feel the electricity in the market,” said Michele Kleier, president of brokerage Gumley Haft Kleier.

During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Kleier’s clients took part in bidding battles for four different apartments. All involved at least one Wall Street bonus recipient.

In the fall, she didn’t see bidding wars.

Besides pouring their dough into apartment buys, the bonus bonanza winners can spur other New Yorkers to spend big.

In one of her bidding wars, a non-Wall Street client of Kleier’s?who refused to be beaten by a rival with a bonus?bid above the asking price to get a $2 million upper East Side co-op.

This year’s Wall Street bonus buyers are typically in their late 20s to age 40, Kleier said. Some are getting their first big bonus?$1 million to $2 million?and making their first apartment buy. Others are trading up to bigger places.

Co-op and condo sellers all over Manhattan, from Alphabet City to the upper West Side, can expect to benefit from the bonus buyers’ spending. “Wall Street is diverse — straight, gay, single, married,” said Corcoran vice president Ernie Goldberg.

At some projects?like 595 West End Ave.?the bonus bucks are already flowing. At others, marketers are strategizing about how to draw the dough their way:

At the Onyx Chelsea?a glass and black aluminum-paneled building under construction at 261 W. 28th St.?Wall Street money has helped broker Fredrik Eklund of Core Group Marketing sell 40% of the 52 condos.

At every open house, at least five investment bankers show up, from firms like J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and UBS.

The Onyx is attracting Wall Streeters looking for a good investment because the nabe’s “a little bit of a pioneer area,” he said.

Asking prices range from $700,000 to $2.75 million.

For the Prime?under construction at 333 W. 14th St., near the landmarked Meatpacking District?developer Daren Hornig will run ads in Wall Street-targeted magazines Trader Monthly and Dealmaker. And he’s bought Wall Street mailing lists so he can court bankers by mail and e-mail. He’s asking $3 million to $9.5 million for the project’s nine condos.

At the Greenwich Club Residences?a 37-story Art Deco skyscraper whose 460 rental apartments are being converted to condos?developer Andrew Heiberger expects to sell more than half the units to Wall Street bonus recipients and people with Wall Street-related jobs like banking lawyers.

The project?three blocks south of Ground Zero?will have club-style amenities like a sun deck with an attendant to hand out towels and drinks, a resident chef and a tailor, he said. Bankers who work 14-hour days and want to be pampered at home should find it appealing, he said.

For starters, he’s marketing 88 Greenwich St. to 1,000 brokers, with parties and property tours. Before open houses begin in February, he’ll run ads in The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

Asking prices run from $500,000 to $4 million.

Copyright ? 2006, Daily News, New York.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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