NEW YORK CITY-After being faced with foreclosure, loan defaults and litigation, a formerly troubled condominium complex in Battery Park City has received a new lease on life. The Related Cos., the original developer of 225 Rector Pl., has bought back the building from Yair Levy and has reintroduced it to the Manhattan marketplace.
The company – also the developer of One Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side and the Townhouses at Superior Ink in the West Village – is bringing 181 units back to the market with new amenities and design features. “The Related name alone is a powerful draw,” Sherry Tobak, director of sales at Related tells GlobeSt.com. “The fact that Related has taken over the building has drawn brokers to us and has drawn neighborhood buyers directly to the building because the reputation of the company is as such that people are excited to get into a Related building.”
Related, which developed the building in the early 2000s, sold the property to Levy in October 2005. After the building changed hands, an investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office revealed that Levy spent the residents’ reserve fund on his personal and general business expenses, GlobeSt.com previously reported. Residents sued, and in a June 2011 decision, a New York State Supreme Court judge banned Levy and his company, YL Rector Street LLC, from selling apartments in the state. The judgment also included a $7.4 million restitution to the Rector Square Condominium for defrauding residents and homebuyers.
Now with Related back in the picture, it has partnered with Clodagh, an internationally renowned hospitality designer. Best known for her work on hotels and spas, Tobak says the design was inspired by the Hudson waterfront and surrounding parks. “She likes to use natural elements of air, earth, fire and combine that with her contemporary details,” Tobak says. “All of that has gone through the redesign of our lobby, our hallways, our amenities, our pool, our children’s playroom , which we just added to the building that we didn’t have in the building. It just changed the environment in the building tremendously. We are offering two separate palettes to our buyers, a metropolitan palette and a signature palette. One is a bit richer, one is a bit deeper, but both are absolutely stunning and luxurious.”
The building currently offers studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedroom units, and Related will launching the sales of three-bedroom and penthouse units in the fall. Prices for studios start at $495,000, and penthouses can range all the way to $2 million.
With the new construction and design now complete, the property is beginning to regain its swagger. “There’s definitely increased demand,” Tobak says, noting that the property is 25% occupied, and more deals are expected to close soon. “We’ve been open for only two weeks, and we’ve probably seen about 20 people a day. Battery Park City always has been known as a beautiful, peaceful waterfront community is now becoming a 24/7 community,” she adds, noting that the anticipated arrival of the World Trade Center, retail and the transportation hub, is generating buyer foot traffic. “Our timing couldn’t be better to come on at a time where the area is just opening up,” she says. “We are just in a very, very good timeframe.”
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