Sharif El-Gamal’s 45 Park Place condo in Financial District finally launches sales

It’s been a long road to the site’s redevelopment

By Zoe Rosenberg@zoe_rosenberg Jun 5, 2017, 11:18am EDT

The 50 luxury condos of 45 Park Place have finally come to market after nearly a decade in development. Five listings in the building quietly rolled out at the end of last week, offering two- to four-bedroom condos ranging in size from 1,512 square feet to 3,238 square feet.

Current asking prices with Stribling range from $3.725 million to $12.3 million, landing the average price per square foot for the five listings just above $3,000. That number is poised to soar to $3,400, per an earlier Times profile on the building, indicating the pricier of this awaited property’s condos have yet to come.

The sales launch of 45 Park Place has been a long time coming, and firmly plants in the past the tribulations developer Sharif El-Gamal of Soho Properties faced in realizing the luxury condo and adjacent three-story Islamic center and museum designed by Jean Nouvel.

The development company quietly picked up 45 Park Place in 2009 for a meager $4.85 million. Then a shuttered Burlington Coat Factory that was badly damaged during September 11, the site was being used as an annex space for Tribeca’s Al Farah mosque.

At the time of its purchase, the Palazzo-style building at 45 Park Place was calendared for landmark consideration, and had been since 1989. An August 2010 vote by the Landmarks Preservation Commission determined that the building would not gain landmark status, paving the way for the site’s redevelopment.

The road following was contentious, but former mayor Michael Bloomberg was having none of it, saying at a 2010 ceremony on Governors Island:

Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question – should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here.

Soho Properties was adamant from the get-go about hoping to create an Islamic culture center with programming similar to a Y on the site. Donald Trump, then merely a New York real estate player, tried to purchase the site for 25 percent more than the developer had paid, adding that he had “much better real estate, believe me. This is not good real estate at all.” The headline-grabbing offer was shot down.

El-Gamal continued to expand his hold on the block between Church Street and West Broadway, purchasing 43 Park Place for $8 million in January 2013. Demolition plans, a predecessor to construction, appeared in April 2014, quickly followed by word that starchitect Jean Nouvel—he of 53W53—would lead the design charge for the Islamic cultural center, now dubbed Park51. Plans for the condos that would rise at 45 Park Place were officially filed in May 2014, and construction kicked off in June 2016.

“We are long-time believers in Tribeca and the larger Downtown market, which has only increased in value since 2009,” a spokesperson for Soho Properties told Curbed. “The site was a jewel 10 years ago, and is even more desirable today, with the rise of the New Downtown and the influx of so many new neighbors, including residents, major corporations and retailers.”

The SOMA Architects-designed tower is now on the rise, with construction poised to wrap in early 2019. “We are proud to be working with such an extraordinarily creative design team and excited to see 45 Park Place coming to fruition,” Sharif El-Gamal said in a statement announcing the sales launch. “It is humbling to see our vision for, not only the building, but the overall neighborhood, materializing.”

In addition to lead architect Michael Abboud of SOMA, designer Piero Lissoni is handling the building’s interiors. Jean Nouvel will design the tower’s plaza and garden, as well as the proposed Park51.

A breakdown on the apartments and their finishes, per previous coverage on Curbed:

One-bedroom loft residences, on floors six through 15, come with a Boffi On/Off Kitchens with white matte lacquer folding doors that are electronically controlled. Kitchens throughout the rest of the building will feature Boffi full-height white lacquer cabinetry, Corian kitchen islands, and Gaggenau appliances including an under-the-counter wine refrigerator. Master bathrooms will include dual-sink vanities and custom glass enclosed wet rooms with tubs by MOMA Design, who have also crafted vanities for the powder rooms.

Floors 24 through 39 will give way to larger three- and four-bedroom apartments that will span the whole floor. Great rooms in each apartment will have triple exposures, and master bathrooms, with walls clad in Italian textured Pietra d’Avola raw limestone, appear equally exposed.

The tower’s piece de resistance, and likely a major contributing factor to the building’s $3,400 average price per square foot, are its duplex penthouses. The spreads come with custom-designed Lissoni sculptural staircases, terraces, corner master suites, and kitchens decked out in Boffi and Gaggenau appliance packages.