Bonuses spur apartment buys

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Bonuses spur apartment buys
BY LORE CROGHAN
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
Sunday, February 19th, 2006

What could be more fitting? One third of the apartments at 55 Wall St. have been sold to Wall Street bankers who are rolling in dough from their latest bonuses.

Broker Dolly Lenz signed sale contracts with Wall Streeters for 18 condos in the first week that her firm, Prudential Douglas Elliman, became sales agent for the historic building near the New York Stock Exchange.

Before that, she did 21 deals with bonus-funded buyers at the condo conversion, which is called the Cipriani Club Residences.

Some investment bankers picked out penthouses for more than $3 million, while others went for the $2 million one-bedrooms. They'll all get furnished flats - with maid and butler service, and a spa where they can get massages.

Wall Street bonuses for 2005 will be at a record high, according to state Controller Alan Hevesi - a staggering $21.5 billion. And while it's early in the game, it looks like bonus recipients will spend record sums on Manhattan apartments.

"It's already on fire," Lenz said, "but it's going to get hotter."

Apartment-shopping began in December - when rainmakers from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs started finding out how big their checks would be - and should continue through March.

The pace of their purchasing is at least as fast as it was during last year's ultra-busy bonus season. And the size of their individual bonuses is bigger, said another Elliman broker, Leonard Steinberg, who specializes in downtown luxury apartments.

Wall Street money is responsible for generating sales momentum at development projects even if they're not in the Wall Street area.

At the Link, the condo tower Elad Properties is constructing at 310 W. 52nd St., bonus recipients signed 12 sales contracts in December - half the month's total, said Tom Elliott. In January, Wall Streeters made 16 purchase deals - half that month's tally as well.

Many buyers were in their 20s and 30s who picked $800,000 one-bedrooms - modest choices for Masters of the Universe.

All over Manhattan, the city's savviest dealmakers - whose careers often depend on their ability to know when and where to buy and sell - are pouring millions into apartments. Their bullish buying should reassure others who are anxious about the value of their own homes.

"We'll have a really strong first quarter," Corcoran senior vice president Sharon Baum said. "The second quarter will be the same - or even stronger. And Wall Street money will be the main driver."

The three bidders for a $10 million Central Park West apartment are all Wall Streeters with bonuses, she said. So are the two bidders for an $8 million Park Ave. apartment Baum is offering.

Wall Streeters also made five of seven recent buys at 200 Chambers St. - a luxury condo high-rise under construction three blocks north of Ground Zero. The apartments they picked cost $1.7 million to $2.3 million.

"The bonuses are coming through for us," said Cory Walter of The Marketing Directors, the building's sales agent.

In the Flatiron district, at 655 Sixth Ave., one bonus recipient is spending $5.4 million to combine two duplex penthouses. Each apartment in the 1880s-built cast-iron building has four bedrooms and a terrace.

Even the Hudson, a luxury development at 225 W. 60th St., near West End Ave., has caught Wall Street's eye. The area has a cluster of construction sites.

The apartments run from about $1,000 to $1,500 per square foot - while flats just a couple blocks east are $1,700 a square foot. Once neighboring buildings are constructed, the condos at the Hudson should increase in value, brokers said.

"They like the investment potential," said Ramona Mahtani of The Developers Group, the sales agent for the building.

To get their attention, she bought ad space on phone kiosks in the financial district - and plastered them with posters with slogans like "You Know Where You Can Stick Your Bonus" and "Parlay Your Bonus Into A Sound Investment."

The ads worked. Sixteen of the 38 sale contracts she has signed are with Wall Street bonus spenders. One person bought a $2.9 million penthouse. Others took two-bedroom units, which cost about $1.6 million.

Marketing that speaks directly to Wall Streeters is proving effective.

Newspaper ads for 70 Washington St. in Dumbo call the waterfront Brooklyn development "The Only Value Play For Your Bonus."

Toby Klein of Two Trees Management got compliments about the ad - and customers. She has sold $2.2 million penthouses to two Wall Street bankers, plus less expensive apartments to six others.

Klein's not surprised.

"There's a lot of money out there," she said. "We expected to get a share of it."