Real estate broker Silvette Julian in front of a condo building known as…
CLARE TRAPASSO
Thursday, July 19, 2012
A two-story, waterfront penthouse in Long Island City is on the market for $3.25 million — a price that is expected to bring more notoriety, prospective buyers and businesses to the neighborhood, real estate experts said.
If the penthouse sells for the asking price, it will be the most expensive condo ever sold in Queens, experts said.
The previous record was set in 2008, when a Long Island City condo sold for about $3.05 million, according to PropertyShark.com.
The three-bedroom, four-bathroom property currently up for sale at The View, the roughly 180-unit condo developed by TF Cornerstone, was purchased in 2009 for $2.65 million, said broker Silvette Julian, who is handling the new sale.
“It’s such a beautiful penthouse,” said Julian, who added the owner sunk a substantial amount of money into updating the condo. “It [has] the most spectacular views.”
PHOTOS: An insider’s guide to Long Island City, Queens
Jonathan Miller, CEO of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, called the listing “an attention getter.”
It “may bring some other buyers, that may not have considered the neighborhood, to take a look,” he said. But “I wouldn’t say that it means that housing prices are going to rise.”
“The penthouse market is a unique part of the market,” he said. “Since Long Island City is closely linked to Manhattan, the housing prices … are more closely aligned with Manhattan.”
Median condo sale prices in the borough rose 4% in the second quarter of 2012 over last year, according to an analysis being released Thursday by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The volume of Queens condo sales are down about 5%.
But the condo inventory in Long Island City is dwindling, with only about 250 new units expected to hit the market in the next two years, according to a report released Monday by the local real estate firm Modern Spaces.
The lack of availability is expected to lead to a bump in condo re-sales, according to the report.
Gayle Baron, president of the Long Island City Partnership, a group that encourages local development, said sales of this magnitude could bring in more buyers and attract more retailers.
She said prices are going up because the economy is recovering and there are fewer apartments on the market.
“If you can end up with more space in Long Island City, with killer views and one [subway] stop from Manhattan, it’s easy to understand why these types of apartments are easily desirable,” Baron said.
