Overview

Living in the shadow of the Carlyle hotel (quite literally during the a.m. hours), the Mark hotel is a Madison Avenue institution, although not one that would immediately come to mind when drawing up a lists of landmarks.

The hotel was designed by Shwartz & Gross, early 20th-century architects who had a major hand in the Central Park West skyline—which, as it happens, can be seen from top floors of the Mark. (The top floors of the Mark are, in fact, the only ones for sale, but more on that below).

All-in-all, the Mark was a very nice, certainly luxurious hotel, which up to now seemed to be content with resting on the laurels of its unparalleled location (the corner of 77th and Madison) as its main selling point. As a building, it is another historical gem in a historical neighborhood full of them. Now, however, world-class designer Jaques Grange is stepping in to renovate and ensure that the inside of this building becomes something to set it apart.

Interiors

As alluded to above, one gets the sense that those involved with this property are very conscious of its grounding in the culture and history of the Upper East Side. The Jaques Grange design jibes with the overall Upper East mood where world-renown French interior decorators certainly don’t find themselves out of place. For the Mark, Grange designs not only the interior but the furnishings as well. The interiors combined with such auxiliary features as the new Frédéric Fekkai salon on the premises aggregate into an entity that will quickly transform the purchaser into a fully integrated Upper East Side resident. Of course, coming prepackaged as the Mark does, he or she will transform into a prêt-á-porter Upper Eastsider, as opposed to the more properly bespoke Upper Eastsider whose personal taste is created and expressed by a personally selected and consulted-with interior designer, stylist, etc. (It must be noted that there are a handful of 3 bedrooms that may be purchased unfurnished).

As for the specific nature of Grange’s designs, they combine “a modern sensibility with traditional aesthetics.” This style is described as “eclectic,” when, of course, it could not be more routine. To be fair, though, Grange has a stature in the design community that suggests it was he who was responsible for making this style so prevalent. The bottom line is that his reputation is impeccable.

I have actually been in just about every room in the pre-renovation Mark hotel when I was scavenging their liquidation sale. Many of the best views in the front of the hotel look out on the Carlyle, and, I suppose, a view of the Carlyle is one advantage the Mark has over the Carlyle. In the rear of the building, one finds surprisingly pleasant views of impeccable town houses with immaculate gardens.

A recent view of the entrace under construction

Amenities

Occupants enjoy all the amenities of the top-of-the-line luxury hotel lingering just below them. In addition, Grange is designing Bar Mark on the ground floor. There will also be dining at the Sant Ambrose and salon treatments at Frederic Fekkai’s aforementioned Salon Mark. Residents will have signing privileges at all three of these establishments, making them tantamount to amenities.

Location

By every calculus not based on thrift, the upper east side of Manhattan will always come up among the premier neighborhoods in the world. However, it is a large and nuance swath of the island full of variety and pitfalls. 86th Street east of Park and west of York, for example, has all the characteristics of a low-end shopping mall. The entirety, or close to it, of 2nd and 1st avenues is a study in drudgery. East End Avenue is wonderfully serene but can seem dreadfully remote. Lexington Avenue becomes very nice in the Lennox hill area, and Madison doesn’t become a fully formed neighborhood until one reaches the high 70s. Live in the 60s and you trip over tourists out shopping, and museum mile swarms with tourists out for culture.

For all the fuss about 10021, especially now that it’s being cleaved in two, I tend to think of Carnegie Hill as preferable—it certainly abuts some of the nicest parts of the park. The Mark finds itself in a pleasant part of the Upper East Side in between Lennox and Carnegie Hills. The upper 70s between 5th and Park are home to many of the most impressive town houses in America. Eli Zabar’s E.A.T., the diner that sells lox priced like caviar and caviar priced like diamond-encrusted caviar, typifies the feel of the area. E.A.T. is very much the local diner in a locale where there is a real down-home neighborly feel, but it is also the clearly the neighborhood for narrowly defined tax bracket.

Units and Pricing

The condominiums are only on the top floors of the Mark. Units start at $1 million and go up over $10 million. There are studios, 1 bedrooms, and 2 bedrooms. Additionally there is a 3 bedroom on each floor that comes unfurnished. The units are of various sizes, with studios in the range of 500 square feet, the 1 bedrooms in the 1,000 range, and the 2 bedrooms ranging a bit over 1,600 square feet. There is also a 2,400 square foot penthouse with a terrace.

Investment Potential

The most interesting thing about the new Mark hotel is that it is not your typical condo conversion. In the famously controversial condo conversion at the Plaza, the condominiums—while enjoying hotel amenities—are largely segregated from the hotel side of operation. The hotel aspect of the Plaza is, I suspect, more of a perfunctory gesture to such pesky concerns as the magnificent history of New York than something the El Ad group is actually interested in. In addition to the Plaza, the Drake and the Stanhope are both being converted to condos, but I feel it is the Mark which has the most noteworthy conversion strategy. I have been led to understand that the specific details are these: a tenant will be able to buy one of these furnished domiciles in the normal fashion. If they do not live there year round or perhaps only occupy it during the work week, they will have the option of allowing management to use it as one of their hotel rooms and receive 70% of the room rate.

To me, this arrangement speaks directly to people who work in the city and whose regular home is in the New York orbit but outside or on the fringe of the commuting range, Danbury springs to mind as an example.

If the Mark’s unique arrangement should fit a tenants needs, I think it is a clever way to minimize any investment risks.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at 11:31 am and is filed under Blogroll, Mark Condominium - 25 East 77th 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.