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The Trump administration is vastly expanding the scope of condominium purchases eligible for lower-down-payment loans.
The move, announced Wednesday by the Federal Housing Administration, could help revive the entry-level condo market for first-time buyers because FHA-backed loans require only a 3.5% down payment and lower credit score than conventional loans.
— The Wall Street Journal
The move, in the works since 2016, could help provide a modest pathway for more Americans to afford real estate purchases, though tight supply and a pronounced focus on luxury housing on the part of developers could dampen the effects of the new measure. View full entry
Miami’s high-end real-estate market has drastically slowed in the past several years, as the Latin American buyers who led a frenzy of postrecession purchases have all but disappeared. South American economies that were roaring in the early years of the decade, including Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, are now facing severe economic distress, which has devalued their currencies and left purchasers from those countries with far less buying power in the U.S. — wsj.com
Oversupply, the unknown threat of climate change, and shifting immigration patterns are pushing high-end condominium prices downward in Miami, where, The Wall Street Journal reports, sales have fallen off 24 percent from last year. “There’s just an abundance of inventory,” Alexandra... View full entry
Manhattan’s latest crop of new luxury developments continues to attract a steady stream of buyers.
At the ultra-pricey 220 Central Park South in Midtown, the grand limestone skyscraper designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, four more units officially sold, including New York City’s most expensive closing in May: a three-bedroom aerie for nearly $26.5 million.
— The New York Times
The NYT's Vivian Marino provides an update on the biggest recent luxury real estate transactions in New York City with notably pricey purchases at Robert A.M. Stern's 220 Central Park South and 250 West 81st Street towers and also at the newly opened Hudson Yards mammoth development. "Philip I... View full entry
Sutton Place residents filed a lawsuit Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to stop a luxury condo tower from rising on East 58th Street.
The plaintiffs, a group called the East River Fifties Alliance, are residents from the surrounding neighborhood, including condo owners whose views would be blocked by a roughly 800-foot tower under construction at 430 E. 58th St.
— crainsnewyork.com
Construction on NYC's Sutton 58 condo project was previously halted after Sutton Place residents secured a rezoning proposal. The rezoning mandated squatter buildings making Sutton 58 noncompliant. Since then a city zoning board granted the project a reprieve, resulting in the resident's lawsuit... View full entry
The Austrian branch of Penda reveals a residential high-rise for Tel Aviv defined by arches and cascading terraces. The design responds to the broad display of the city’s Bauhaus era and responds to the city's climate challenges rather than opting for another glass tower. Tel Aviv Arcades... View full entry
Developers on Monday unveiled plans for Chicago’s second-tallest skyscraper, a tapering shaft of metal and glass that would soar above historic Tribune Tower, resemble the top of Batman’s black mask and be only 29 feet shorter than Willis Tower.
If completed, the $1 billion-plus project to repurpose Tribune Tower and build a skinny, 1,422-foot high-rise just northeast of it would bring more than 700 residences and 200 hotel rooms to an area north of the Chicago River.
— chicagotribune.com
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture are working with Los Angeles developers Golub & Co. and CIM Group to build Chicago's next skyscraper. Their design would take over Trump International Hotel & Tower's title of second-tallest in the city. Current plans for the new tower have... View full entry
Developer Lightstone has finally presented the first official reveal of 130 William, the highly anticipated condominium tower designed by British architect Sir David Adjaye. His first tower in city, Adjaye will be adding to Manhattan's iconic skyline with a 800-foot, 66-story residential tower in... View full entry
Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group has agreed to buy Tribune Tower for up to $240 million, marking the end of media ownership for the historic North Michigan Avenue building and the beginning of a new chapter, likely as part of a mixed-use redevelopment. [...]
Tribune Media unveiled conceptual plans last year to redevelop the parcel, adding several buildings to maximize the space with residential, retail and hotel components.
— chicagotribune.com
The Tribune Tower sale previously in the Archinect news: Chicago Tribune Tower inches closer to hotel & residential redevelopment View full entry
In November 2015, Bjarke Ingels‘ released images of a pair of asymmetric, twisting towers along the High Line at 76 Eleventh Avenue then at the beginning of this year, the design changed to a simpler silhouette with more space in between the two buildings. Now it has been revealed through another group of renderings glass crowns at the 300- and 400-foot tops, the retail podium and plaza fronting the High Line, and two amenity-filled podium bridges that will connect the towers. — 6sqft.com
San Francisco's Millennium Tower has been sinking at a rate of two inches per year since it was completed in 2008, which is about ten inches more than the builders had anticipated the building settling for its entire lifetime. Not to be boring, the tower is also tilting slightly to the northwest... View full entry
As luxury condominiums go, 152 Elizabeth Street displays an unusual rigor and finesse: this is not an exercise in overindulgence, but in refined balance. With its 32,000 square feet split between seven individual residences, Tadao Ando's floor-to-celling windowed, burnished... View full entry
The cherry atop 520 West 28th, Penthouse 37 contains five bedrooms and six-and-a-half bathrooms, including a corner master suite with two windowed dressing rooms and his-and-hers baths nestled on its lower level, which also houses three guest en-suite bedrooms, a utility room, and a wet bar. — Forbes
Running at a little over $7,269 a square foot, Zaha Hadid's one and only High Line-adjacent luxury penthouse design features a sinuous metal exterior with floor to ceiling glass windows between 10th and 11th avenues in Chelsea. Ismael Levya Architects worked with Zaha Hadid Architects to create... View full entry
A group of developers on the short list to buy Tribune Tower want to convert the Gothic Michigan Avenue landmark into condominiums, apartments and even a hotel [...]
The property also comes with something all developers love: land for new buildings. A buyer could build one or two more towers on the parking lot next door and on space created by demolishing some of the existing Tribune building that is not landmarked. [...]
— Crain's Chicago Business
In other recent Chi-Town news on Archinect:Embattled Lucas Museum may move to S.F.'s Treasure IslandAerial cable cars proposed for ChicagoChicago Spire's gaping hole to be hidden behind piles of dirt View full entry
It has been whispered about for months, but now it’s official: Vornado Realty Trust is offering up a palatial four-floor apartment at 220 Central Park South that is priced at a record-smashing $250 million.
The massive condominium will encompass floors 50 through 53 of the Robert A.M. Stern-designed limestone tower, and it will span some 23,000 square feet [...]. The asking price works out to nearly $11,000 per square foot.
— therealdeal.com
Previously on Archinect: This $250M mega penthouse might become New York's priciest home View full entry
Brooklyn is finally getting a new skyscraper development worthy of its 2.6 million populace. Today, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved SHoP Architects‘ vision for 9 DeKalb Avenue, a rehabilitation of the landmarked Dime Saving Bank that will marry it with a dramatic, supertall skyscraper behind, the first 1,000+ foot building to arrive in the borough. To bring back more of the building’s grandeur, its exterior and interior spaces will be restored. — 6sqft.com
