Closer Properties to Build Luxury Condos in Manhattan
The effort is being led by Chinese property tycoon Zhang Xin.
Closer Properties, led by Chinese property tycoon Zhang Xin, has acquired five adjacent parcels for $62.5 million at the intersection of East 79th Street and Lexington Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. At the site, the firm plans to build a luxury condominium development with ground-floor retail. A sixth parcel, expected to be acquired in June of next year, will bring the total site cost for the all-cash deal to $76 million.
The seller is W Financial, a Long Island, N.Y.,-based mortgage lender.
Demolition is expected to start in the first quarter of 2026 at the site. A completion date for the project was not disclosed. Plans call for the boutique condo development to include a full suite of amenities and ground-floor retail. Details on the amenities or the number of units to be built at the site were not available.
Avison Young represented the seller – David Heiden, Andrew Singer and Jarret Schochet of W Financial – in the disposition. Team members included James Nelson, Avison Young principal and head of U.S. investment sales, and Erik Edeen, principal and senior director of U.S. investment sales. The Avison Young Tri-State Investment Sales team also included Brandon Polakoff, principal and head of NYC investment sales, and Directors Alexandra Marolda, Charles Kingsley and Eric Karmitz.
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The project’s address will be at 150 E. 79th St. The first five properties are all low-rise residential and retail buildings at 150 E. 79th St., 152 East 79th St., 154 E. 79th St., 1135 Lexington Ave. and 1131 Lexington Ave. The sixth parcel is located at 1133 Lexington Ave.
Longtime international investor
This will be the first ground-up luxury residential development in Manhattan for Closer Properties, a Manhattan-based owner, operator and developer of Class A properties in New York City and Boston.
Zhang, founder and CEO of Closer Properties, said she had invested in New York City for nearly 20 years and been a property developer for 30 years. But this will be the first time Closer Properties will add ground-up development to their business scope.
She is well known as the co-founder and former CEO of SOHO China, one of China’s most prolific office property developers with more than 54 million square feet of developments in Beijing and Shanghai. Xin has collaborated with top global talents such as Zaha Hadid, Kengo Kuma and Kohn Pederson Fox to transform the skylines of China’s largest cities, where she is known as the ‘woman who built Beijing.’
In the U.S., notable investments include stakes in the GM Building and Park Avenue Plaza in New York City as well as the Lyrik in the Back Bay of Boston. Her U.S. investments have a total asset value of more than $5 billion.
Jason Kaufman, president of Closer Properties who was previously with Silverstein Properties, said he was involved with Xin on the acquisition and planning of the Disney-ABC Upper West Side portfolio in 2018.
