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New York Real Estate Developer Bruce Eichner has a new project on the drawing board, to build two 32 storey condominium towers in East Harlem.
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Ian Bruce Eichner the Founder and Chairman of Continuum
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Located at 1800 Park Avenue and 125th Street on the upper East side of Manhattan, the project is intended to provide 650 residential units. After paying an unheard of US$66 million for the land last October for such a location, the total project is expected to cost as much as US$475 million.
That much money should deliver some 600, 000 square feet of space with 70, 000 square feet of retail, but the developer and the local community are still at odds over the provision of affordable housing units as part of the deal for planning approvals.
So far just 70 affordable units are slated for the first of the two towers and none at all yet for the second.
Representatives for the developer, The Continuum Company, say they still haven’t obtained construction financing and are facing some pretty skeptical banks for building there to begin with. Of course to some extent this is all part of the last stage negotiations prior to obtaining final planning approvals, so the game has simply spilled over into the media – partly as a form of pressure on the developer most likely.
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Photo credit DNAinfo/Jeff Mays
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Continuum Senior Vice President William Wallace says merely that the company “remains open to exploring increased affordability”.
In the end it will likely come down to a handshake between the new Mayor Bill Blasio’s office and the developer to bring things to fruition. Only once the final plan is cooked, too, will the banks chip in construction financing in any case.
Other small details being argued over include the amount of parking versus retail space and, inevitably some parking may go for some more affordable units too one might envisage in the final horse trading.
In any case the building will represent a new beginning for East Harlem, or Spanish Harlem as it is also known, parts of which have been slowly gentrifying after decades of neglect and decay. The first of the two towers is expected to be finished by 2017.
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Photo credit : DNAinfo/Jeff Mays
About the Continuum Company
The Continuum Company is a privately held real estate development firm based in New York City. Continuum’s core business is the acquisition and development of residential housing, both for sale and rental, office, hospitality and retail space in New York, Miami, and Las Vegas. To date, Continuum has developed more than 12 million square feet totaling over US$6 billion.
About Bruce Eichner
Ian Bruce Eichner is the Founder and Chairman of Continuum. He is a seasoned developer of urban mixed-use properties, has a proven track record in real estate spanning more than three decades. His portfolio of projects in New York, Miami and Las Vegas include City Spire, One Broadway Place, The Manhattan Club, The Royale and Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. Outside of New York he has developed the Continuum, a 2-tower gated condominium community in South Beach, and the Cosmopolitan, a 3, 000 room resort and casino on the Las Vegas strip.
Mr. Eichner’s career in real estate follows almost a decade as an attorney, including terms as an assistant District Attorney and program development chief of a gubernational agency during Nelson Rockefeller’s tenure.
He has been married to Leslie for twenty five years; Leslie is Chief Creative Officer of Continuum. They have two children, Lindsay and Alexandra.
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