The long wait for the Second Avenue Subway is finally over and developers are moving into high-gear to reap rewards along the line’s once-remote Upper East Side blocks. One of the most bullish developers to surface is Icon Realty Management who is moving full steam on not one, but two high-end condo towers on Second Avenue in the low 80s.
Icon, led by Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen, submitted plans to the city for a pair of towers several years ago but have yet to fully reveal what exactly is in store. But now with construction permits fully approved, zoning diagrams have been made public showing us the scale and massing of the towers. The diagrams are also posted on-site where the taller building at 301 East 80th Street just reached street level and its shorter sister at 301 East 81st Street is about ten floors up.
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301 East 80th Street (1538 Second Avenue) via NYC DOB
301 East 81st Street (1562 Second Avenue) via NYC DOB
The southern site at 301 East 80th Street, also known as 1538 Second Avenue, will give way to a 30-floor, 72-unit condominium rising nearly 400 feet tall. One block north, a smaller tower at 301 East 81st Street (1562 Second Avenue) will rise 19 floors and have 28 condos inside.
The shorter 19-floor tower at 301 East 81st Street is now halfway up as of early September (CityRealty)
301 East 80th Street has reached street level (September 2018 | CityRealty)
Studio Sofield, the same firm behind the interiors of 111 West 57th Street, is listed as the designer of both buildings on documents marketing the retail spaces. SLCE Architects is listed as the architect of record on building permits. From what we can tell from the retail elevations, the design will embody pre-war stylings. Several similarly-scaled towers on the Upper East Side have nurtured the classical aesthetic, such as the Touraine, 40 East End Avenue and Brodsky's 135 East 79th Street. Several back, a now-dated rendering of 301 East 81st tower showed a stately design with a stone façade and gridded windows drawn up by Isaac | Stern Architects (shown below).
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Capture from retail leasing page for 301 East 80th Street (Icon Realty)
According to the floor schedule, the larger 301 East 80th tower will have no more than three apartments per floor above the sixth level and a triplex penthouse will span floors 27-29. Amenities are to include a swimming pool, a boxing studio, basketball court, yoga studio, children’s playroom, game room, bike parking, ground-floor retail.
Within the shorter 300 East 81st Street, most floors will have either one or two units per floor. The building will be topped by a duplex penthouse and there will be an amenity roof deck for residents.
The two high-rises will be a short walk north to the 83rd Street entrance of the Second Avenue Subway’s 86th Street station, providing efficient one-seat rides to prime areas of Midtown and downtown Manhattan. Many of the east side’s prestigious private schools and cultural institutions are close by. Carl Schurz Park and Central Park are also within walking distance.
Closing condo prices in the Upper East Side's Yorkville neighborhood have generally been in the upswing since 2012 and now average $1,505 a foot. Per our listings, the average price of a one-bedroom Yorkville condo is $915,000 ($1,306 / ft²) and two-bedrooms come in at $1,985,000 ($1,611 / ft²). Recent new developments that have helped push the closing average higher include Citizen 360, 389 E 89, and The Kent.
Average condo closing PPSF in Yorkville compared to Manhattan overal
The towers will be first high-rise ground-up projects for Icon, who owns and operates more than 1,800 apartments throughout the city. According to the Real Deal, “Icon began the assemblage in 2007 and bought six low-rise tenement buildings on the site at 1538-1564 Second Avenue for a combined $44.9 million by 2012 – with financing from M+T Bank.” The team recently finished a high-end ground-up rental in the East Village at 327 East 9th Street whose two units had a sticker price of $27,500 a month.
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
Just complete the info below.
Or call us at (212) 755-5544
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
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