World’s Tallest Residential Building Tops Out

Central Park Tower. Image courtesy of Extell Development

Extell Development has topped out construction at the world’s tallest residential building, Central Park Tower, which rises 1,550 feet. The 179-unit supertall condo building is located on 57^th Street in the heart of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, along what is known as Billionaire’s Row, due to the popularity of developers building sky-high luxury residential towers with record-setting prices.

The development firm first announced the Central Park Tower project in 2016, when it revealed it had brought on a foreign investor, the U.S. subsidiary of Shanghai Municipal Investment, SMI USA, to help develop the $3 billion skyscraper. Fast forward to January 2018, when Extell announced it had secured $1.1 billion in financing for Central Park Tower from J.P. Morgan and a hedge fund.

High-profile design and amenities

Designed by architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), known for contributing to the completion of other supertalls such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, the condo tower’s façade will feature combined elements of glass, satin-finished stainless steel and vertical and horizontal details that draw in light. Rottet Studio is designing the interiors of the units, which will span from two- to eight-bedrooms and range in size from 1,435 square feet to more than 17,500 square feet. Apartments at the high-profile building start at $6.9 million.

The tower will include Central Park Club, an exclusive private club that will have around 50,000 square feet of luxury amenities for residents spread across three floors. A 300,000-square-foot Nordstrom department store will open in October at the base of the tower and will serve as the company’s flagship store.

With the construction milestone, Extell now owns the tallest residential buildings in both Manhattan and Brooklyn; in April of this year, the development firm topped out construction at Brooklyn Point, a 720-foot-tall condo tower in Downtown Brooklyn. The tower is being designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and is expected to be completed early next year. However, that could change when developer JDS Development Group completes 9 DeKalb Avenue, a supertall also rising in Downtown Brooklyn that will rise 1,066 feet once completed. JDS landed $664.1 million in financing for the 575-unit rental/condo tower in May.