3 months in, 1212 Fifth already half sold

Condo conversion of old residence for Mount Sinai staffers on East 102nd Street benefiting from lack of competition, among other things. Five-bedroom fetches nearly $5 million.

The Closing: Hal Fetner

The Real Deal on the town

Durst Organization President Douglas Durst, the Fetner family and various brokers, public relations gurus and hangers-on mingled at the grand debut of Durst Fetner Residential’s new 55-unit condominium development at 1212 Fifth Avenue last night, enjoying market chit chat and sensational appetizers.

Viewing Central Park From on High at 1212 Fifth Avenue

Four units on the 9th floor, ranging in price from $745,000 for a 1BR to $3,310,000 for a 3BR. The rooms were spacious and everything was brand new and shiny. The real selling point has to be the view of Central Park, though, which would be perfect for showing off to guests or gazing out at, eyes unfocused.

Focused and active

While the tower remains Durst’s central focus, it remains active in other areas, particularly residential housing with its Durst Fetner affiliate. The firm recently opened condos at 1212 Fifth Avenue in Harlem, and it has a mixed-use rental project planned in Herald Square. One of the city’s most talked about projects, the Bjarke Ingels-designed West 57th Street, which resembles a pyramid, is undergoing land use review. “The demand for rental residential market is strong and we expect it to stay strong,”…

Keeping the classical elements

Few places can pull off prewar and modern in tandem quite like Fifth Avenue. “We wanted to keep the classical elements,” says Adam Rosenberg of Durst Fetner, which is developing 1212 Fifth. “It’s part of the character and charm.”

Hearst to Open 2011 "Designer Visions" Showhouse

1212 Fifth Avenue, designed by Durst Fetner Residential with interiors by S. Russell Groves, features 55 units, including one-bedroom to five-bedroom apartments. Apartment units range from 800 to 3,600 square feet. The building includes a residents’ gym, children’s playroom and owner’s lounge, as well as access to a swimming pool, health club and parking lot next door at 4 East 102nd Street.

5th Annual Designer Visions to hit Manhattan

Premiering October 5th (exclusive opening night), design lovers can also expect a series of events through the year’s end. Taking place at the 1212 Fifth Avenue Residences, this year’s theme pays homage to New York City’s Central Park. Focusing on romance and grandeur each of the three design magazines have their designers and film ready for interior interpretation.

Hearst Magazines Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of 'Designer Visions: Cinema Style'

Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Corporation, has partnered with Durst Fetner, developers of The 1212 Fifth Avenue Residences, to present the fifth annual “Designer Visions” program, a showcase of three apartments created by Hearst titles House Beautiful, Town & Country and VERANDA.

What Once Seemed Too Far Is Now Just Right

Part of the building’s appeal lies in its renovation. The developers kept the prewar feel of the residences, including restoring the 90-year-old neo-Baroque ceiling in the lobby, festooned with rosette medallions. And then there is the fact that the prices are well below what they would be farther south, hovering around $1,500 per square foot, with a nearly 2,400-square-foot three-bedroom apartment on a middle floor priced at $3.41 million, and an 1,800-square-foot three-bedroom at $2.66 million.

Great Wall Falls: Dursts Finally Leave Manhattan

Douglas Durst and his cousin Jody may be the most powerful pair in New York real estate. They’ve taken up Seymour Durst’s Midtown empire and stretched it across Manhattan, so why not try the trick on another island far, far away?

Fetner signs first deal at 1212 Fifth condo

The first unit at 1212 Fifth Avenue is in contract, the West 57th Street pyramid is continuing as planned and construction will begin at 855 Sixth Avenue next April, Harold Fetner, president and CEO of Durst Fetner Residential, an affiliate of the Durst Organization, said in an interview with the New York Observer.

Wave of new development gains momentum

Meanwhile, Durst Fetner’s much-lauded West 57th Street plan, a pyramid-like rental designed by Bjarke Ingels, is undergoing land use review. It also has plans for a $350 million, 40-story rental tower, with a commercial base at Herald Square. The tower will be located at a long-stalled development site on Sixth Avenue, spanning West 31st and 30th Streets. The project is to be designed by Cook + Fox, architects of Durst’s One Bryant Park, and more details will be revealed around October, said Fetner.

Hal Fetner on 1212 Fifth, 855 Sixth and More

Since 2008, Hal Fetner has been the president and CEO of Durst Fetner Residential, the joint venture with the Durst Organization that has developed high-end residential projects across Manhattan and the New York metro region. Besides the Epic and the Helena, a pair of LEED Gold projects completed several years ago, the group has most recently spearheaded developments at 1212 Fifth Avenue, 855 Sixth Avenue and West 57th Street, the high-concept, 600-unit residential building between 11th and 12th avenues. Mr.…

1212 Fifth Avenue Officially Hits Market, Starting at $735,000

In mid-June, 1212 Fifth Avenue whetted our appetites with the unveiling of its renderings and floorplans. We’ve been waiting ever since for the starter pistol on sales, and here we go! Reps for the building tell us the project—a fast-moving Durst Fetner Residential conversion of an old Mount Sinai Medical Center employees’ residence—got Attorney General approval this morning to start sales.

Mixed results for second quarter Manhattan sales

“We’re very bullish on the larger apartments,” said Hal Fetner, president and CEO of Durst Fetner Residential, which is beginning sales at 1212 Fifth Avenue, a condo converted from a Mt. Sinai hospital building, with a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units. Prices are an average of around $1,300 per s/f. Fetner said that there remained a disparity between desirable, high-end product and the middle of the market, particularly for new development. “The condos that are coming online right now, in these…

Median sales price rises for luxury Manhattan condos

“I think the market is warming up,” said Damon Pazzaglini, chief operating officer at Durst Fetner Residential, a New York residential developer. “But I think there is a lack of supply for what people really want. It is a market where people are not going to buy something they don’t really want.” He added, “I’m hearing there is no supply of new three bedrooms.”
It’s in this area where Pazzaglini believes developments like Durst Fetner’s 1212 Fifth Avenue, an upscale condo development, can fill the void.

At Apartment House, a Blend of the Old and the New

The apartments themselves, mostly sprawling three-bedrooms with solid oak floors priced at $1,500 a square foot, are remarkably light-filled for a pre-war building, largely due to the developer’s decision to punch out dozens of new windows along the building’s facade.

Is 2011 Turning Into the Year of the Condo Conversion?

1212 Fifth Avenue: This East Harlem project, a $47 million conversion of an old Mount Sinai Medical Center building, recently unveiled its website and floorplans. Now Crain’s learns that the project will hit the market next month for around $1,000/square foot. Sound like a fair price?

Developers are getting the urge for condo conversions

Next month, 55 condominiums in a classic prewar building on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park will hit the market at prices starting at $1,000 per square foot. The opening comes after 18 months of work to convert the 15-story, brown-brick and white-limestone property, which once housed Mount Sinai Medical Center staffers, into modern luxury residences.

1212 Fifth Avenue Completes Renovation, Reveals Floorplans

Looks like sales at 1212 Fifth Avenue are about to get underway, with the launch of a flashy new website revealing the available floorplans. The $47 million conversion of the old Mount Sinai building by the Durst Organization was announced back in summer of 2009.

Money available for 'good' NYC real estate projects

In the past year, major lenders have been providing construction financing to well-capitalized lenders like Durst Fetner Residential, which is doing a total gut renovation and redevelopment of the classic building at 1212 Fifth Avenue at 102nd Street, as well as for the Litwin Organization’s projects on the West Side including Lincoln Center.

Durst Tops Out on Rare UES Rental Tower

Great views of the Park are much-talked-about and rarely achieved. And so with a mixture of awe and schadenfreude, The Observer went near the top of Durst Fetner Residential’s new 42-story tower, and looked clear across the sparkling vista of Central Park on a spring morning.

Inside the Urban Paradise

Blonsky’s next challenge is to get the word out about the park’s northern areas. According to the study, the park’s south side near 59th Street drew 27 million visits. The north side, near 110th Street, drew 9 million visits.  “The south end of the park gets such a huge amount of people because of the tourism,” Blonsky said. “We’d like to see them go up to 104th Street because that’s one of the beautiful areas of the park.”

"Central Park Skyline's New Addition; Fifth Ave.'s New (Old) Condos"

1212 Fifth Avenue, a 57-unit pre-war building will begin formal sales in June, and right now the $47 million renovation is humming along.

"Condos Break Glass to Try Classic Style"

The owners of a 1925 building on upper Fifth Avenue are finishing a gut renovation while preserving the brick and limestone facade, the latest example of a developer trying to attract wealthy buyers with the allure of early 20th-century architecture.

Pyramid Tower To Rise On Manhattan's West Side

It’s now an empty lot, but big plans are in the works to turn a stretch of West 57th Street into an eye-popping, ultra modern tower. “The design of the building is really quite interesting. It is a 600 and some odd unit residential rental in the shape of a pyramid with a sloping roof,” explains Durst Fetner Residential C.E.O. Hal Fetner.

Durst Opens New Era with BIG Apartment Pyramid

Back when we first got a glimpse of Dutch architect Bjarke Ingel’s new apartment project for Durst Fetner, it immediately became the most exciting new project in at least a generation. Though seen only in comic-book form and as a fleeting still from a flythrough video (see below), the building at 57th Street and the Hudson River became an immediate sensation.

Pyramid Scheme: Bjarke Ingels reinvents the New York apartment building

Architects mature slowly; prodigies are rare. Yet at an age when most of his peers are still sitting in cubicles, laboring over light fixtures and door handles, Bjarke Ingels, a photogenic 36-year-old Dane with offices on two continents and projects on three, is about to revamp one of New York’s basic units: the apartment building.

New Skyscraper Ignites Growth Below 34th Street

A real-estate group led by developer Douglas Durst plans to break ground within the year on a $350 million skyscraper just south of Herald Square, in one of the first major private construction projects to move forward in the wake of the downturn.

The Sunshine of the Leasing World

Packes often operates as an unseen hand on new development projects. She does everything, from selecting the architect and supervising layouts to making sure the marketing materials are the right color to staffing the leasing office, said Ofer Yardeni, managing partner at Stonehenge Partners. At many projects, she also stays on after the initial lease-up to handle re-rentals. But she often partners with developers’ in-house teams, so her name is nowhere on the project.

Daring to differ - Creative opportunism pays off for Dursts

Durst’s ability to radically change course is part of an opportunistic, trailblazing approach that for years has made it one of the city’s most successful developers. Its methods have helped it continue to grow throughout a recession that has sidelined many of its rivals. In the past year alone, the developer has been busy. Along with partner Bank of America, it not only recently completed the city’s second-tallest building 1 Bryant Park. It also refinanced the $1.3 billion property twice, despite the worst…

Crain's New York Business

Durst’s ability to radically change course is part of an opportunistic, trailblazing approach that for years has made it one of the city’s most successful developers. Its methods have helped it continue to grow throughout a recession that has sidelined many of its rivals. In the past year alone, the developer has been busy. Along with partner Bank of America, it not only recently completed the city’s second-tallest building—1 Bryant Park—it also refinanced the $1.3 billion property twice, despite the worst…

Condé Nast to Move to Skyscraper at Ground Zero

Conde Nast’s current landlord at 4 Times Square, the Durst real estate family, whose building played an important role in rejuvenating Times Square, is also on the verge of playing a larger role at 1 World Trade Center. On Thursday, the Port Authority board is expected to grant initial approval to a deal in which the Durst family would take over marketing and leasing the downtown skyscraper and pay $100 million for a 10 percent stake in the project.

BNY Mellon Eyeing 1 WTC

Insiders confirmed that BNY Mellon has expressed interest to the PA regarding 1 WTC, but was told to hold off until the PA completes a prospective partnership deal with Douglas Durst. Sources emphasized that the BNY Mellon scenario is merely in the talking stage—“but it’s a very plausible idea,” a downtown insider said. “All of a sudden, with Durst involved, 1 World Trade looks like a hot commodity.”

The New York Observer

Douglas Durst, the taciturn scion of a three-generation real estate empire, has been selected to buy a stake in One World Trade Center, besting in a bidding contest Stephen Ross, the aggressive developer who chairs Related Companies.