NYC Approves Billionaires' Tower

One of the proposed Manhattan super-skyscrapers that I mentioned last month has been approved by the city. At a comparative height of more than 100 floors, it will have only 100 apartments.

Ever want to look down on the Empire State Building? How about from your apartment? In three years, well-heeled buyers will be able to do that from the top floors of a 1,350-foot tower that won approval Tuesday. The building’s roofline is 100 feet higher than New York’s famous skyscraper — minus its iconic antenna — and will rise like a serrated knife next to Steinway Hall on W. 57th St. The new-old tandem, due for completion in 2016, will contain about 100 apartments. Construction should start next spring, and the famed piano company will move out of its 1925 home. The designers said they got their inspiration for the sleek structure from early cloud-busters such as the Empire State and Woolworth buildings.  .

The New York Times weighs in:

Thomas Bender, a cultural historian at New York University, said the ultraluxury towers represented a flouting of the social distribution of wealth around the world. “These are the kinds of buildings that the robber barons built,” Professor Bender said, “but it’s also what you see in rapidly developing societies where billionaires seek to distinguish themselves in the midst of poverty.” A century ago, the beauty of the 840 acres that make up Central Park inspired another boom in ultraluxury housing: Millionaires’ Row. The Astor, Vanderbilt, Frick and Whitney families built mansions along a stretch of Fifth Avenue north of 50th Street. In 1905, Andrew Carnegie erected a four-story, 64-room palatial home at 91st Street. But the new luxury towers are not aimed exclusively at New Yorkers or even Americans.

Apartments at the upper floors of the above building are expected to sell for $50M and higher.