Luxury condos at the converted Waldorf Astoria building set to debut amid a glut in Manhattan’s residential real estate market
- When the Waldorf hotel reopens in 2022, it will have 375 rooms, far fewer than the version that made it a household name
- More than two-thirds of the condos being marketed at the Waldorf have two bedrooms or fewer, with a 526-square-foot studio listed at US$1.7 million
New York’s closed Waldorf Astoria will re-emerge this week as a condo building, testing whether nostalgia for a cherished landmark can spark high-dollar deals in a market glutted with luxury homes.
The Park Avenue property, a high-society hang-out that counted Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe as tenants, has been getting primed for this moment since 2015. That’s when China’s Anbang Insurance Group bought it for a record US$1.95 billion with plans to convert a portion of the 1,400-room hotel into for-sale apartments.
Five years later, the Waldorf is still a construction zone, Manhattan is awash in ultra-luxury condos and the property’s once high-flying owner has had its wings clipped. Units will not be ready until 2022, but the developer says the time is right to let the condo-buying public have a look. Their chance will come Tuesday, when a sales office with a model apartment opens.
“So many people – from New York, from all over America – have been inquiring and are very, very interested in owning a piece of something that could never be owned before,” said Dan Tubb, who is overseeing sales at the site for Douglas Elliman Development Marketing. “We know the market is what it is, but we’re seeing a level of passion and interest for the building that no other building really possesses.”
