Extell’s One Manhattan Square has now begun closings

Three years after sales launched at Extell’s Lower East Side skyscraper, One Manhattan Square, the building is getting ready for its next phase: occupancy.

Closings have officially begun at the condo development, which has become a towering presence on the Lower East Side. The building has 815 apartments, and the first residents of the tower will begin moving in sometime this month.

The massive building, which is Extell’s first projct in the neighborhood, has been years in the making: The megadeveloper—also responsible for behemoths like One57 and the forthcoming Central Park Tower—picked up the site at South and Cherry streets where a Pathmark once stood in 2013. The grocery store came down in 2014, and construction on Extell’s building began soon after. It topped out in 2017.

Extell would not disclose how many apartments have found buyers since the building launched sales, but a quick glance at StreetEasy shows dozens that are in contract. Last year, amid the slowdown of New York’s real estate market, Extell waived common charges for buyers at its new developments (including One Manhattan Square) free common charges. They also benefit from the building’s 20-year tax abatement through the 421-a program. (Extell built an affordable housing development nearby to qualify for the program; that building, at 229 Cherry Street, has more than 200 below-market-rate units.)

Extell is still in the unique position of having gotten out ahead of the competition: JDS, Starrett, and a team effort of CIM Group and L+M Development Partners, are also developing skyscrapers that are due to rise within a several-block radius of each other, ultimately adding more than 2,000 apartments (a mix of market-rate and affordable, both condos and rentals) to the neighborhood over the next few years.

The other buildings are still in the earliest phases—they received approval from the City Planning Commission last year—while Extell’s will finish up by the end of the year.