4 Billion Dollars and a Dream

View the AllWaysNY Google Map of the Priciest NYC Properties

The New York Observer carried an article yesterday about the ten most expensive buildings in New York. After compiling the opinions of several local real estate mavens, John Koblin came up with:

Just like mother always said, if you’ve got a mid-century–present tower (doesn’t matter if the design is anything special, though ribbons or other wide expanses of glass are preferable), located in Midtown, with nice open floor plans, and some good buzz, you’ve got a winner. As to why some skyline icons like the Chrysler or Empire State did not fare well in the survey, Koblin points to their floor plans:

Something that New Yorkers regard as an engineering disaster—the MetLife Building girdling Grand Central Terminal, for instance—can be, for real-estate people, the gold standard for office towers. Why? A building like MetLife was designed specifically with bloated rent checks in mind, while the Woolworth Building’s tiny floor plates certainly were not. And higher rents mean higher sales prices.

The difference becomes even more evident when you compare the old floor plans of Woolworth Building (below left) with those of the new 7 World Trade Center (below right).