Sales at Central Park Tower are ‘decent’ says Extell founder

Extell Development Company is pulling back the curtain on its New York crown jewel, the uber pricey and for-the-most-part secretive Central Park Tower. In step with an interview with Extell chief Gary Barnett published in the Wall Street Journal, the company has launched a new website for the world’s tallest residential building featuring new visuals of the spacious condos and 50,000 square feet of amenities.

It’s an interesting choice for the notoriously press-shy Barnett to agree to such public maneuvers; the Journal makes no small effort to note that the luxury building boom created by Extell—a portmanteau of excellence and intelligence—is enjoying a less swift current of buyers than it once was. At that, sales volume at the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed tower has been “decent,” says Barnett.

Manhattan home sales were down 14 percent in 2018, the largest drop they’ve seen since the financial crisis of 2009. Couple that with the inundation of super luxury condos on the market that Extell’s own One57 kicked off. It is, as the Journal puts it, a “challenging climate” in which to sell some of the world’s priciest dwellings. But Barnett seems undeterred, telling the Journal, “[w]e’re certainly going through a dip in the market, but we’re priced for that dip.”

Of the 179 condos in Central Park Tower, which officially hit the market in October, no fewer than 18 will be priced below $60 million. The condos, starting on the building’s 32nd floor, are available in two- to eight-bedroom configurations. Some apartments will feature 1,500-square-foot grand salons with 12-foot ceilings, while all apartments have kitchens with Miele appliances and cabinetry by of-the-minute designer Smallbone of Devizes.

The building’s expanded website also gives a new glimpse at the building’s touted amenity spaces, which will include an indoor and outdoor pool on the 14th floor accompanied by cabanas and loungers as well as surrounding areas for dining. The building will also host a 100th-floor tenant bar, dining room, and cigar room. All amenity spaces will provide “a unique experience complemented by five-star service,” the website reads.

Barnett declined to say how many of Central Park Tower’s condos have sold to date. Closings are anticipated later this year.

• Central Park Tower [official]
• The Man Behind Billionaires’ Row Battles to Sell the World’s Tallest Condo [WSJ]
• All Central Park Tower coverage [Curbed]