By Sarah Trefethen
Manhattanites in search of Central Park living without the CPW price tag have another option.Ever since it was completed just before the 2008 market crash, the luxury condos at 111 West 110th Street have been setting and breaking records for sale prices in Harlem. Now, the 5,400 s/f full-floor condo on the 17th floor of the 19-story building is on the market for an asking price of $11 million. The six-bedroom apartment, which has six full bathrooms and five half-baths, is also available to rent for $22,000. “Not everybody is looking for 5,400 feet, but anybody who’s looking for that should see this,” said Daniel Douglas, an SVP with the Corcoran Group.
Douglas and SVP Eileen LaMorte are marketing the space. The apartment has been on the market for more than 100 days, according to StreetEasy, but Douglas stands by the asking price of just over $2,000 psf. The slightly smaller unit on the building’s 18th floor sold in 2008 for about the same price per square foot. The apartment features floor-to-ceiling windows to take in the sweeping 360-degree views, and a balcony stretches along the southern face. Few buildings in Harlem rise above 15 stories, Douglas points out, and that, combined with the area’s wide streets, creates an experience of air and light unrivaled to the south.“You can see all the way to where the earth curves,” Douglas said.
Luxurious touches include his-and-hers bathrooms in the master suite and an open kitchen with twin, oversized Viking refrigerators, two dishwashers and a professional six-burner Viking Stove. A private parking space is accessible by elevator directly off the concierge-staffed lobby. Building amenities include a gym and rooftop terrace. “If you go to any other side of the park, you’ll pay twice as much or more for the same thing, and you may not find the same thing,” Douglas said.West 110th Street, also known as Central Park North, is as distinct from the rest of Harlem as Central Park West is from Columbus Avenue, he said. While 111 is a new development, much of the street is lined with stately brick apartment buildings dating back to the early twentieth century. “They’re all kind of grand buildings,” Douglas said. “Central Park North is kind of a unique street, it has more interesting historic buildings than the brownstones to the north.”
In recognition of this unique character, Douglas is making a case that StreetEasy should re-designate the area as Central Park North, rather than Central Harlem. “Just like that strip of fifth avenue is designated as Upper Carnegie Hill, those buildings are grander and bigger than the ones on Madison,” he said. At the same time, proximity to Harlem’s cultural offerings is another selling point of the location, he said. “Harlem has a lot going on,” he said. “There are no stores and no restaurants on 110th Street, but as you walk along the avenues, you find that the places to entertain yourself are as good as along Broadway” in the Upper West Side.
