The USA Today reports on the skyscraper building mania in New York City. Multiple building have been built or are under construction or planning that reach into the super skyscraper category although no new records heights are planned at this time. This seems like another indicator of the Skyscraper Curse. I explain the theoretical connection between the building of record high skyscrapers and business cycles in this paper. Here are a couple of snippets that are worth noting:
One such apartment tower under construction, 432 Park Avenue, will have a top floor higher than the Empire State Building’s observation deck. Another will have a top floor higher than any in One World Trade Center, which is officially (by virtue of its spire) the nation’s tallest building. The 432 Park penthouse has sold for $95 million; two duplex apartments at One57, now nearing completion, also are under contract, each for more than $90 million. Even a studio apartment on a lower floor at 432 Park (designed for staff — a maid or butler) costs $1.59 million.
For all this, residents never stop paying. Monthly charges (taxes, maintenance) are about $4,600 for a three-bedroom apartment on the 41st floor, and $13,000 for a six-bedroom unit on 87 with views of the Empire State Building to the south and Central Park to the north. A Chinese couple bought a small, $6.5 million apartment for their daughter to use when she’s in college — around 2030.
