Warburg Blog

All of us at Warburg are pleased and proud that Twenty9th Park Madison Condominium, has been recognized as the Best High-Rise in New York by the esteemed Americas Property Awards. The annual awards recognize excellence in property-related fields and aim to encourage and promote an international standard in the real estate industry. Representatives from Espais Promocions Immobiliáries (Espais), the condominium’s developer, accepted the award on Nov.12 at the gala presentation dinner in San Diego. Americas Property Awards, presented in association with CNBC Arabia, The New York Times and Kohler, distinguishes the highest levels of achievement in a broad range of residential and commercial property-related fields. Entries for the competition are judged by a panel of real estate executives representing influential organizations such as the National House Building Council and International Real Estate Federation FIABCI. Two four-star winners were chosen from each of the 36 entry categories, which range from best architecture and interior design to top Web site and public relations company. Twenty9th Park Madison won the coveted four-star award in the category of Best High-Rise Development in the Americas. 

Located at 39 E. 29th St. in Midtown Manhattan and designed by H. Thomas O’Hara Architects, the elegant 34-story Twenty9th Park Madison features 142 residences ranging from studios to two-bedroom plus office penthouses. It was completed in September 2008 and to date over 70% of the units have been sold.  Many of the remaining homes feature open gourmet kitchens with top-of-the-line appliances by Sub-Zero, Sharp, Thermador and Fisher-Paykel. Sleek master bathrooms include wenge wood vanities, limestone tiling and soaking tubs with separate glass-enclosed showers. All homes feature high ceilings ranging from 9 feet to 13 feet, floor-to-ceiling windows, Italian teak hardwood flooring and outstanding Manhattan skyline views. A collection of ten luxurious penthouses offer kitchens featuring Viking ovens and cook tops, Statuary Carrara marble countertops, stainless steel backsplash and Marvel wine coolers, as well as bathrooms featuring Zuma whirlpool tubs and modern vanities and fixtures. 

The spacious roof deck includes four outdoor barbeque grilling areas, two custom pergolas, a sunbathing deck with an outdoor shower, and panoramic Manhattan views. Additional amenities include 24-hour concierge service, doorman, live-in superintendent, WiFi lobby with European-style cappuccino machine, fitness center with state of the art equipment and a yoga room, refrigerated storage for grocery deliveries, an on-site parking facility, complimentary bike racks and optional storage units.

Warburg Marketing Group and Senior Managing Director Richard Steinberg are the exclusive marketing and sales agents for Twenty9th Park Madison Condominium. To schedule an appointment at the on-site Sales Center, please call 212-488-5329 or visit www.Twenty9th.com. 

The commercial real estate industry will gather in New York City on Thursday, December 3rd for GreenPearl’s inaugural all-day “MULTIFAMILY INVESTMENT SUMMIT”, a conference for multifamily investors, owners, developers, brokers, lenders, architects, loan workout specialists and others in the field.

MULTIFAMILY INVESTMENT SUMMIT will bring together a diverse group of investors, ranging from high-net worth to institutional fund managers who will discuss the outlook for 2010 and the opportunities likely to unfold in terms of distressed and alternative buying opportunities.

Steven Goldschmidt, Senior Vice President of Warburg Marketing Group, will participate as a panelist for a discussion of Multifamily Development & Construction Outlook in the Face of Recession and Debt-Starved Environment.  Many construction and development deals are at risk in today’s tight lending environment. In this panel, a group of developers and investors will address, specifically, the challenges they face in an illiquid debt market which is forcing them to find alternative sources of capital. What are the challenges developers face today when attempting to secure financing? Other panels include:

Frederick Peters’ blog entry last night marked our 100th post! Thank you to all of our visitors for helping make the Warburg Blog such a wonderful success!

We hope you keep reading, keep commenting, and keep enjoying!

During the recent REBNY Residential Deal of the Year Awards and Charity Gala, the Award for Outstanding Service was presented to the Founders of the NYRS designation of the residential brokerage community for their four and a half years of hard work and dedication in creating a post graduate designation course designed to attract top industry brokers to help “raise the bar” in NYC by demonstrating ethics, professionalism and leadership. We are very proud that our own Steve Goldschmidt was among the recipients.

 The NYRS “Board Certified” designation distinguishes the graduate from their peers and is intended to provide the graduating broker with a distinct advantage when competing for exclusives and soliciting clients and customers, since the course is limited to brokers that achieve an advanced level of education, experience and established record of sales achievement.

 The curriculum consists of twenty-four hours of course work broken down, in most instances to eight separate three hour modules (several of which can be applied to a student’s NYS CE requirement). The criteria for attaining NYRS Status is: being an Associate Broker; having negotiated at least 50 transactions in NYC; closing at least $50M in sales or $17M (based on 12 x monthly rent) in rental transactions in NYC; completing a minimum of five year tenure in NYC real estate; all transactional criteria must be verified by the Broker of Record or Manager of each firm upon recommendation of a candidate; having completed 24 hours of NYRS coursework within a 1.5 year period.

For more details, visit the REBNY website http://rebny.com/ed_nyrs_courses.jsp

Smart sellers are taking advantage of the improved market to LOWER their prices! Yup, that is what I said. This is no time to raise the price. With activity increasing and more buyers in the marketplace than at any time in the last 16 months, now is the time to ask LESS for your property.

First, let’s get a few things straight. One: most of those bonuses you are reading so much about are going to be paid in options or deferred comp. The current income portion is probably not going to be all that big. Two: that Goldman partner who is going to be receiving a gigantic bonus probably already lives in her dream apartment. And how do you think she became a Goldman partner, anyway? It certainly wasn’t by finding OVERVALUED assets and snapping them up! And three: greed is no longer good. No one wants to appear ostentatious in this environment. if, as my wife believes, the world divides up into two kinds of people: those who brag about how MUCH they paid and those who brag about how LITTLE they paid, then the former type is SO 2007 and the it is the latter types who are in the market today.

So as a seller what you can do is trick the process by pricing very tight to value. We are seeing over and over again that these properties, looking cheap, are once again attracting multiple bids. Often below the asking price but sometimes at it or even above it.  Because psychologically it is much easier for buyers to enter the bidding game when a property is very well priced. And once they are bidding, they are hooked. At least that is the way I am, I have always searched hard for undervalued properties, but then been willing to bid up once someone else seemed to want them. Bidding is exciting, and hey, I want to win. Don’t you?

So as a seller, embrace your inner paradox. Less is (literally) more.