Hopefully. End of Quarter one is approaching so hopefully in March. The suspense is too much. Such a dynamic project.
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More info.
Is 57th Street the Most Overpriced Block in the U.S.?
https://nyocommercialobserver.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/57th-street-dzidzovic3-of-27-april-02-2015.jpg?w=615&h=410
View of 57th Street from Eighth Avenue looking east (Photo: Arman Dzidzovic/Commercial Observer).
It all started innocently enough: a single building with a fancy design, a couple of apartments in the $90-plus million range, a few billionaires looking to park their money in New York luxury real estate…
But several buildings (and tens of millions of dollars worth of apartments) later, one has to wonder whether the strip of über-luxury condominium development on 57th Street—nicknamed “Billionaire’s Row”—has finally run its course.
Fifty-seventh Street has been a hot topic since at least 2009, when Gary Barnett’s Extell Development broke ground on One57 at 157 West 57th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue. Sales were swift at the building initially, with half of the units selling in 2012 and a record-breaking $100.5 million sale paving the way for a sea of development on the surrounding streets.
But the pace slowed afterward, which Mr. Barnett said was in part due to competition from neighboring condos and the fact that “the building is not completely done.” He said it will be 99 percent completed in the next few months.
"I think we’re seeing tremendous demand,” Mr. Barnett said. “Yes, there’s a slowdown mainly because there’s more to go around. … There will be an absorption issue.” He clarified that the absorption issue will be a factor only for those buildings “that get it wrong.” His buildings at 157 West 57th Street and the Nordstrom Tower at 225 West 57th Street (as well as Vornado Realty Trust and the Clarett Group’s 220 Central Park South) will succeed, he noted, because of “the long views” of Central Park, “the great amenity packages [and the] significant size and scope” of the units.
Others are not so sure. As the developers compete in building height (or is it length?) and prices, industry-watchers have had a field day addressing whether the city can handle more super-high-end apartment buildings—or will there eventually be a glut of $10-plus million inventory on this stretch of Midtown?
“There are definitely parts of London that are more expensive,” said Jeff T. Blau, the chief executive officer at Related Companies, which is developing a five-building mixed-use complex at Hudson Yards. “It’s by far the most expensive New York street, which to me doesn’t really make a lot of sense. I think the market is very, very strong in New York—I mean stronger than almost it’s ever been, which gives us a lot of confidence for what we’re doing. But I think there is a segment of the market that’s too speculative right now. When [One57] was built… they never dreamt that they would get the selling prices they got. And they didn’t need to in terms of their basis in the building. So it was a good profit because the market changed while they were under construction.” He added: “We had some opportunities to do basically the buildings that are going up now. We passed.”
…A block west, there is Extell’s 92-story 225 West 57th Street. It will be a condo with a full-line Nordstrom department store at the base, as well as a hotel and 199 residential units. Sales are expected to start in 2017, the same year when the project is expected to be complete, BHS data indicate. Excavation is already underway. Nordstrom Tower will be 1,500 feet tall without the spire.
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This is gonna be a GREAT and exciting Project that will add much needed space to W. 57th St.! Proud that the Nordstrom name will be used!
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Revealed: 217 West 57th Street, Official Renderings For World’s Future Tallest Residential Building
By Nikolai Fedak on April 20, 2015 8:00 AM
217 West 57th Street, the Nordstrom Tower
Last July, YIMBY obtained construction documents for the future Nordstrom Tower at 217 West 57th Street, and we translated the diagrams into renderings. And now, we have official renderings created by the architect, depicting Midtown (and potentially, the Western Hemisphere’s) future tallest tower.
Extell is the developer, and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill are designing. Permits for the tower have continued to shift slightly in recent months, but the documents YIMBY previously obtained indicated the building would have a roof height of 1,479 feet and a pinnacle height of 1,775 feet, which would make it the tallest residential tower on the planet. Final figures are likely to be within a hair of both numbers.
Compared to the world’s tallest buildings, 217 West 57th Street would rank fifth if it were built today, standing almost 1,000 feet shorter than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and by 2018 it may not crack the global top ten. But its roof will be substantially taller than both One World Trade Center and Willis Tower. The most recent figures put 217 West 57th’s Spire one foot below the WTC’s 1,776-foot pinnacle.
217 West 57th Street, facade close-up
Despite this, the slight elevation of Midtown compared to the Financial District (a net gain of approximately 70 feet) will mean that 217 West 57th Street’s spire will actually rise approximately 1,850 feet above sea level. While the WTC may retain the title of NYC’s tallest by spire height, 217 West 57th’s relative prominence to most New Yorkers will actually be somewhat greater. This serves as a reminder that New York is not Philadelphia, and any type of gentlemen’s agreement regarding One World Trade Center would undermine the spirit of the city where developers had previously been eager to vie for the title of tallest.
432 Park Avenue passed the WTC’s roof last year, and One Vanderbilt will likely do so in about 2017. 432 Park is currently regarded as somewhat tall relative to its surrounds, but the appearance of new buildings like 217 West 57th and 111 West 57th will quickly even out the disparities in the skyline, as will the rezoning of Midtown East, which may result in Manhattan’s tallest towers yet.
Nordstrom facade
Encouraging mixed-use development is essential for supertalls, and despite common criticisms, most of the new buildings along 57th Street are actually helping the streetscape. One57 is an exception to the bunch, and people seem to forget that even 432 Park Avenue will include two substantial components, one fronting Park Avenue and the other 57th Street, likely opening this year or next.
217 West 57th Street will host a 200,000-square-foot Nordstrom department store, along with offices, a hotel, and condominiums, with a gross total of 1,210,993 square feet.
Penthouse interior/view, 217 West 57th Street/Extell
The exteriors are accompanied by the first penthouse interior, as well as the floorplan for a two-story duplex, which may or may not be the uppermost residence. It will apparently include outdoor terraces, which may very well become the highest outdoor spaces in New York City.
Penthouse floor-plan and spire close-up
A photo by tipster ILNY shows the crane installation now beginning, and the supertall will soon begin rising above street level. 432 Park Avenue was at a similar stage as of October 2012, and layer after of layer of steel and concrete will soon cover the sub-levels of the future Nordstrom Tower, with completion expected by 2018.
217 West 57th Street foundation progress and crane base, photo by ILNY
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This will begin rising soon – so excited!!
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There was a nice rendering which added the other supertalls by a user called MarshallKnight.
http://m9.i.pbase.com/o9/06/102706/1/159813809.HwgtLBdr.r2b.JPG
IDK which ones looks the best? They are all good. So hard to choose 
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i’m in – i’m all in!
really looking forward to this one. i wish the roof was higher instead of 300’ of antenna/spire.
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Welcome mrnyc!
Diagrams Show Nordstrom Tower/217 West 57th Street Will Stand 1,795 Feet Tall, Becoming New York City’s Tallest Building
By Nikolai Fedak on May 11th, 2015 8:00 AM
The current race to the top of the skyline is the most impressive in New York City’s history, with ever-taller skyscrapers sprouting from the Financial District all the way to 57th Street. And YIMBY has now learned that 217 West 57th Street, aka the Nordstrom Tower, received a height boost between April and June of last year, pushing the tower’s pinnacle to 1,795 feet. That will make it the tallest building in New York City, the United States, and the Western Hemisphere.
While the spire was only increased 20 feet, the difference is significant because the old plans were just one foot shy of One World Trade Center’s beacon, which stands 1,776′ tall. The boost to the Nordstrom Tower’s parapet was more significant, and it rose from 1,478’10″ to 1,530′, which will further bolster the tower’s profile on the already-enormous Midtown skyline.
Extell’s extreme secrecy regarding the project helps explain the discrepancy in the plans, and Smith + Gill’s involvement should have also been foretelling of the increase. The height of the firm’s largest completed project to date, the Burj Khalifa, remained a secret until it had been completed, and the final height of the Kingdom Tower, currently under construction, is still unknown.
There is also a significant precedent for discretion when it comes to height in New York City, echoed in the city’s previous building booms. At the end of the 1920s, 40 Wall Street had just reached its 927-foot pinnacle when the Chrysler Building’s architect William Van Alen had a spire secretly constructed and raised to the top of his nearly-completed Midtown creation, pushing its height to 1,046 feet above street level, and giving it the title of the world’s tallest building.
Perhaps it is not so surprising then that New York’s current supertall boom is following a similar pattern, with another Midtown skyscraper set to grab the city’s top position from a newly-constructed Downtown rival (though if Silverstein is serious about Bjarke Ingels designing 200 Greenwich, perhaps One World Trade Center doesn’t have to be the tallest building in the complex after all, especially as its “iconic” pinnacle is already rather ordinary in terms of global tall building rankings).
Amongst the 57th Street towers, there has already been jostling for position. One57 topped-out at 1,005 feet in 2011, while 432 Park Avenue only reached its 1,397-foot peak last year. 111 West 57th Street was originally conceived to stand under 1,000 feet tall, before plans were adjusted to 1,397 feet, and now, post topping-out of its Park Avenue rival, 1,421 feet.
Continued tweaks at 217 West 57th Street would seem likely, but there is no reason it wouldn’t remain in the stratospheric air above One World Trade’s parapet, likely within a hair of the 1,800-foot mark. With the controversy surrounding One World Trade Center and its rivalry with the Willis Tower in Chicago, a new building that handily trumps both in terms of roof and spire height will resolve the debate surrounding the title of the country’s tallest building once and for all.
Besides minor shifts already mentioned, the design appears to have stayed fairly constant from renderings YIMBY had previously posted. The version YIMBY obtained most recently (created in-house at Smith + Gill) was created last summer, and also based on the newer schematics from June.
The roof height of the tower’s uppermost 93rd floor remains unchanged between both versions at 1,428’10″.
Permits for 217 West 57th Street do not appear to be accurate, and the most recent filings for the plywood fencing and sidewalk shed note a height of only 880 feet and 88 floors. This is the same thing that Related did with permits filed last summer for its 1,269-foot tall 30 Hudson Yards, when filings only indicated a height of 66 floors and 660 feet, and the tactic is not uncommon for high-profile projects. DOB permits also do not account for anything above a building’s roof height, so even the final job application figures could leave out the actual pinnacle height.
Despite the lack of transparency at the administrative level, work is making significant progress on-site, and concrete for the tower’s foundation has been pouring for months. It will likely be another several months before the superstructure climbs above street level, but within the next year or so the structure will be visible from surrounding blocks, and it will open its doors in 2018.
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I wonder when Gary B is going to unveil this.
Thanks to Yimby, we already know what it will look like.
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Great tower!
I like how NAMBLA members on SSP and SSC, who are not even New Yorkers, knock this great tower, which they’d love to have in their cities.
Today
Great updates!! This thing is gonna be amazing. Cant wait until we go vertical.
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Thx, Atl.
Me too!
Whenever we get a preview of the glass we will really understand what kind of presence this will have. I hope it’s not as mirror-like as 4wtc. The darker the color, I feel like the more imposing it will look. Just my 2¢.