Overview

There are a lot of really cool things you can do if you live at this address. You can find the best retail on earth within 60 seconds of your apartment. You can lunch at incredible spots like Nello, La Goulue and Amaranth anytime you want. You can take a stroll through Central Park, visit Museum Mile, or make a trip to Midtown in under 5 minutes. You can even brag that Rosario Candela designed your building. All of this in one of the best residential neighborhoods in the world. It’s a shame that not too many people will be able to brag about living here because the units are large and expensive and current renting tenants have first crack during pre-market sales.

The 12-story brick pre-war building is being converted by Vornado, the proud builders of Beacon Court. Walter Melvin & SCLE are the project architects. Many would view this building as a classic condo conversion, ideal in the sense that pre-war architecture is coupled with brand new interiors.

Units & Prices

The ads around the facade of the building emphasize the 3-bedroom layouts in the building. If you visit the Corocran website they are showing five available apartments, each about 2,400 feet and priced around six million. Even if these units are worth the $2,500/foot they are demanding, you’ll want to consider the shocking taxes and maintenance costs which total about $7,000/month. Yikes. Had these hit the market a couple of years ago, even last year, I’d have more confidence about this pricing. While they do look a little pricey to me, they really are marketable apartments. This location is ultra-prime and our European friends can buy these for 45% off. At three million Euros, these units could get gobbled rather quickly. This sale could could work well assuming foreign buyers don’t focus in too closely on those high taxes.

The layouts vary but all are open with spacious living room, breakfast room, decent sized bedrooms and a maid’s room. The new finishes are what you’d expect with integrated cabinetry, gourmet kitchens, spa-like bathrooms–the works.

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A view looking west on 66th Street heading towards Central Park

A view south from the corner of 66th street. That white and glass building is Giorgio Armani.

Location

66th and Madison is prime space on the Upper East Side. Personally, I’d rather be on Park in the 70′s or 80′s which is perhaps a bit more residential, but 66th and Madison has plenty of conveniences of its own. As we mentioned above, you can walk to midtown which begins only six blocks down on Madison Avenue. You’re also one block from Central Park and a great part of it. The building itself has a few luxury retailers on the Madison Avenue side and more retail on each corner. Great restaurants are all over the place.

It should be pointed out that 66th Street runs west and is a central park through street. This does keep an annoyingly high level of traffic near the building during parts of the day. Fortunately the traffic is worse on the west side of the streets (this condo is located on the southeast corner) and usually disappears in the evening.

Investment Potential

Based on location alone it would get an A. The amenities will fit the building and the conversion should turn out quite nicely. The high prices and monthly carrying costs pose some risk to purchasers and keep our investment potential rating at a B.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under 40 East 66th Street. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.