Extell Tops Out World’s Tallest Apartment Tower

Extell Development Company's construction of the world's tallest tower, a US$3 billion residential complex opposite Central Park, is nearing completion after the structure reached its maximum height.

The 131-storey tower, located on 217 West 57th Street along Manhattan’s “Billionaire’s Row”, will outreach 432 Park Avenue, which is 425 metres, 47 metres shy of Central Park Tower’s height.

Extell is co-developing Central Park Tower with Shanghai Municipal Investment, a leading infrastructural investment company responsible for the Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world.

On Tuesday, the skyscraper marked its “topping off” ceremony with the building on track to be opened in 2020, 15 years on from the development's inception.

The Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture-designed structure will feature 179 apartments priced from US$7 million for a two-bedroom.

Last year, it was reported that 20 of the 179 units will run north of US$60 million and above, including a penthouse for US$95 million. Closings are expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.

The largest penthouses, known as Duplex Residence Grand Salons, will offer wall-to-wall views over the city and disguised structural elements to limit any impact on the panorama.

Residents will have access to what Extell calls “one of the world’s most exclusive private clubs”.

Dubbed Central Park Club, it will be made up of 4,600sq m of amenities for residents only, including an outdoor terrace with a pool, a wellness centre with an indoor pool, and a ballroom and cigar bar on the 100th floor.

The tower will also feature a seven-storey Nordstrom department store at its base.

NY's swamped luxury market

Insiders predict the building will have a sellout of more than US$4 billion, which would make Central Park Tower the country’s most expensive condo project ever.

However, the city’s high-end residential market has been flooded with product in recent years, and developers have offered incentives and cut prices in order to push deals through.

Billionaires’ Row, the Midtown corridor known for its concentration of new ultra-luxury towers, saw the biggest decline in the value of contracts signed in the second quarter.

The median price of pending purchases dropped 91 per cent from a year earlier to $5.14 million.

New builds, specifically those located on Billionaires’ Row, have struggled for sales with close to 40 percent of seven recent towers in the Central Park South area remaining unsold.

Extell founder Gary Barnett said the super structure is entering an “oversupplied” market.

“Central Park Tower is the pinnacle of development in New York and is now the tallest residential building in the world.

“The slowdown people talk about in New York City is not demand driven, it’s supply driven.

“We have to price it at a reasonable range for this type of product and we have to be flexible when we're selling the really large units.

“That doesn’t mean to say that we won’t have to discount a little bit.”

While sales information for Central Park Tower has not yet been released, it is understood that Extell’s other super-tall tower on the Lower East Side, One Manhattan Square, has closed just 173 of 815 apartments.