The tsunami of supply matters less to rental projects than it would for condo buildings, where timing the market is more important, Spitzer said.
“If you’re building rentals for a 50-year time horizon, it’s a very different proposition,” he said.
Spitzer took over the family business in 2014, six years after resigning as governor in the wake of a sex scandal. In addition to 420 Kent, he’s planning an apartment and office project on West 35th Street in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards area, on a parcel the firm bought for $88 million in 2013.
Beach Volleyball
The Williamsburg project, to begin leasing next spring, will have amenities such as a beach volleyball court, two swimming pools, a demonstration kitchen and communal piano -- “the usual,” said Charles Morisi, an executive with Spitzer Enterprises who oversees the project. All apartments will have floor-to-ceiling windows, the better to showcase the views, according to Spitzer.
“The only possible reaction is, ‘That’s amazing,’” Spitzer said. “With views like this, we’re going to do fine.”
One-bedroom rents are likely to start at $2,800, with two-bedrooms estimated at $4,500 to $6,500, said David Maundrell, who oversees marketing of new developments in Brooklyn and Queens for brokerage Citi Habitats. “A couple of very unique, very large apartments,” with space for a formal dining area, will rent for $7,000-plus, he said.
Access to the project doesn’t depend on the L train, scheduled to shut down in April 2019 for 15 months. That should appeal to the well-heeled entrepreneurs and Wall Streeters who are likely to populate the apartments, according to Maundrell.
“‘You may find someone in the finance world, and he takes the J, M, Z train to Wall Street every day,” he said. “But on the weekend, you see him, he has a half-sleeve tattoo that his boss doesn’t even know about. They will live here.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.