New Yorkers looking to get in on Extell’s latest development, an “affordable” luxury project known as One Manhattan Square, will have to wait their turn. The developer behind One57 is taking a geographically piecemeal approach for their forthcoming property, one aimed at courting buyers from Asia. Bloomberg News reports on this Far East-focused strategy. [President and founder Gary] Barnett’s Extell Development Co. will start sales of the more than 800 condominiums at his Lower East Side property exclusively overseas, including in China, Malaysia and Singapore, he said in an interview. Apartments at the 80-story tower, called One Manhattan Square, won’t be for sale in the U.S until early next year. They also won’t be breaking any price records. Barnett estimates that most of the One Manhattan Square condos will be listed at $1 million to $3 million. Homes in that range are in short supply in Manhattan, where developers—including Extell—have focused almost exclusively on building larger and lavish apartments aimed at ultra-wealthy buyers who view New York real estate as a haven for cash. “We think that’s a reasonable place to be,” Barnett said of the One Manhattan Square pricing. “There are a tremendous amount of people who would like to own something in New York City but are priced out because everybody’s building super-luxury.”
Barnett and Extell have a history as trendsetters. The publication notes that their development One57 begat a construction boom on Manhattan’s “Billionaire’s Row.” With Chinese buyers now the leading source of international real estate investment in the U.S., it remains to be seen if other developers will follow Extell’s lead of exclusivity for Asian buyers on affordable luxury in New York. In regards to the current state of the market, Barnett told Bloomberg: “We haven’t seen any slowdown in demand at all.” [Bloomberg News]