A sloping project that teetered after original developer HFZ Capital Group went bankrupt during the pandemic continues to right itself under its new owners.
One High Line has sold a penthouse, No. PH26, for $49 million, according to the latest Olshan Luxury Market Report, a weekly round-up of contact signings. The sale represents a hefty score for a new condo and is the latest in a series of big-ticket trades at the 236-unit West Chelsea site.
And the deal — which occurred Jan. 8, according to Olshan — is the second blockbuster sale at the two-tower project in recent months. Another penthouse at the West Chelsea site, No. PH36, went into contract last June for $52 million, records show.
The median sale price of a new-development unit at the end of last year was just above $2 million, according to the brokerage Douglas Elliman.
Other penthouses that have traded since last year have nabbed lofty numbers, too. In December, No. PH33A sold for $26.5 million, according to the listings service StreetEasy, a few months after No. PH32A went into contract, in August, at $25 million.
Similarly, No. PH34A found a buyer at $28 million, according to the data; and No. PH35A fetched $30 million, though none of the penthouse deals have yet closed. No. PH35B, a four-bedroom listed at $26 million, remains on the market. And four penthouses appear to have not yet been released for sale, based on a review of the offering plan.
The buyer of the most recent penthouse, No. PH26, is not yet in public records and unknown. Deborah Kern, a Corcoran Group agent marketing the project, which uses the address 500 W. 18th St., had no comment.
A 7,400-square-foot unit with five bedrooms, 6½ baths and four exposures, plus a 4,800-square-foot wraparound terrace with Hudson River views, No. PH26 sits in the complex’s eastern tower, one nearest to the High Line elevated park. Both the east and west towers — with 26 stories and 36 stories, respectively, and both designed by avant-garde architect Bjarke Ingels — appear to twist and lean.
The project’s journey to completion had several twists of its own. In 2015, at the height of the last condo boom, HFZ, under the leadership of once-high-flying Ziel Feldman, bought the full-block property at 11th Avenue for $870 million from Edison Properties when it contained parking lots.
The $1,000-per-square-foot rate for the site, one of the last developable parcels along the popular High Line, was among the highest prices ever paid for a development parcel in New York. Feldman later borrowed almost $1.3 billion from the British hedge fund TCI for the project, then known as XI, as in the Roman numerals for 11. But he apparently ran out of funds after breaking ground on the $2 billion project and halted construction in 2019.
COVID brought more problems to XI and other HFZ projects, as investors sued to recover funds while Feldman became enmeshed in a nasty dispute with longtime partner Nir Meir. TCI moved to foreclose at XI after Feldman reportedly owed $160 million on a portion of his debt. By 2022 the Witkoff Group and Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries had taken over the project for undisclosed terms and resumed construction.
About a quarter of 1 High Line's 236 units were in contract when buyers began to close on their purchases in September.
The complex will also offer a 120-room hotel with a restaurant and 17,000-square foot spa operated by the Faena brand, which will be across the lower floors of the eastern tower. It’s supposed to open by the end of the year.