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Zeckendorf Towers on Union Square is the second largest condominium project under construction in the city; it's costing $80 million and contains 670 luxury apartments.
And, more than a year before anyone can move in, there are only 270 apartments left.
"We've really been able to market buildings well, and the Union Square project is unique," concedes a disheveled and very earnest-sounding Arthur Zeckendorf, vice president of Zeckendorf Co.
In a borough overrun with condominium units, the Union Square project stands out. While developers uptown on Broadway or York or Third Avenue sell snob appeal, the Zeckendorfs have created a complex whose location at transitional Union Square appeals to New Yorkers' hunger for prestige, rather than their desire for value. And its success -- the product of an ability to join public improvement and private profit -- illustrates why William Zeckendorf Jr., 57, and his sons Arthur, 27, and William Lie, 28, have arguably become the most important of the developers changing the face of Manhattan.
It's likely that not every residential developer will survive the next three, difficult years.
More condominium units are on the market now than at any time since the early 1960s, the result of last year's rush by developers to start construction before the state's 421-a property tax break expired. At the same time, tax reform has thinned the ranks of investors willing to buy scores of condominium units sight-unseen.
"The absorption of apartments has slowed somewhat, and we are seeing a change where it takes a buyer a longer time to make a decision," says Adrienne Albert, president of Marketing Directors Inc., a condominium marketing firm.
In general, New Yorkers tend to rent or buy between 3,000 and 5,000 additional luxury apartments each year -- approximately the same amount that were built each year until the boom began in 1985.
But this year, a whopping 15,000 apartments were completed, and next year another 15,900 will be ready for occupancy.
"I think we have a three-year supply of condos coming onto the market right now," says Yale Robbins, president of Yale Robbins Inc., which tracks the...