The Apartments
Building a resort in a city is very different than building one in the country. “Any hotel in the city is very expensive” Doronin says, citing the cost of labor, real estate, and construction.

The apartment component of the hotel is therefore an effort to offset those expenses, which Doronin says can cost more than $3 million per room (which, if true, would put the price of the hotel conversion in the range of $300 million). “The residential component leverages and optimizes the price of the hotel,” he explains.

The building’s 20, Aman-branded apartments are priced at a premium, even by New York’s standards.

A 1,149-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath apartment will cost a hefty $5.9 million. Another one-bedroom, which admittedly will also include a “home office/den/library” and two bathrooms is spread out over 2,109 square feet and will cost a staggering $10.6 million. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment comprising 4,384 square feet will cost $26.6 million. A 6,287-square-foot four-bedroom, five-bathroom apartment near the top of the building (keep in mind that this is not the actual multi-story penthouse) will weigh in at a eyebrow-raising $58.3 million, which is $8 million more than a nearby 6,000-square-foot duplex penthouse atop the Plaza Hotel and actually facing Central Park.

The price of the penthouse itself hasn’t yet been released, but given that the four-bedroom apartment costs more than $9,000 a square foot, it’s safe to assume that the five-story apartment, which will feature both indoor and outdoor pools, will cost in excess of $100 million.

Jean-Michel Gathy is designing the hotel’s layouts and can be contracted to do residents’ furnishings and interiors, and the hotel’s services—including that famously discreet staff—will also be available to residents. “You will be able to call for a coffee, and the cappuccino will be presented at your door, still hot,” Doronin says.

The building is expected to be complete in 2020, but OKO Group will pre-sell apartments.

The sales team will face a crowded field: The penthouse is competing at the very top of the market, amid intense competition for an increasingly thin crowd of super-high-net-worth individuals. 520 Park Avenue has a triplex penthouse listed for $130 million; 432 Park Avenue’s penthouse is listed for $82 million; downtown, the Woolworth Building’s penthouse is listed at $110 million.

The rest of the planned Aman apartments will face similarly stiff competition. Down the block at 57th street, a forest of luxury towers nearing completion will be competing for the same, finite clientele.

Doronin isn’t worried. “This is a unique product,” he says. “I don’t see any competition, because for the moment, we don’t have any similar buildings.” The historic structure, the sterling brand, and the location, he says, will be enough to sell it out. “You can live in this building and don’t need to leave it,” he says. “We’ll have everything.”