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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

So, let's see, that works out to about 18.7 million dollars per acre. How 
many acres do you own?
Aw shucks, it's the location, location, location.
Sounds like a cozy deal to me.

$430 a Square Foot, for Air? Only in New York Real Estate
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: November 30, 2005
The price of air has gone up in Manhattan.
It's now $430 a square foot.
Two New York City developers have agreed to pay a record-setting amount for 
"air rights" so they can build a 35-story apartment tower with views of 
Central Park from the high floors.
The brothers William L. and Arthur W. Zeckendorf are set to pay $430 per 
square foot - more than twice the going rate - for unused air rights over 
Christ Church and the Grolier Club at Park Avenue and East 60th Street. 
Christ Church will collect more than $30 million; Grolier will get about $7 
million.
Air rights allow developers to build taller by buying the space over 
low-scale buildings and transferring it (on paper, if not in reality) to 
spaces over adjacent buildings. Although such transfers occur elsewhere in 
the country, the prices do not run as high as they do in Manhattan, which, 
after all, is an island and generally provides developers with one option: up.
The rights will be transferred to a site west of the Grolier Club on East 
60th Street, where the Zeckendorfs and their partners own three tenements 
that are to be demolished.
If it all goes as planned, the developers will be able to build a taller 
tower than the zoning ordinarily allows. In a separate deal with Christ 
Church, the tower will also have a coveted Park Avenue address, despite its 
location on 60th Street.
The Zeckendorfs are third-generation developers. The brothers disagree with 
experts who warn about a bursting housing bubble, at least when it comes to 
what the Zeckendorfs call "super prime" areas.
"We want to concentrate on the very high-end market where we see tremendous 
strength and a limited inventory," Arthur Zeckendorf said.
M. Meyers Mermel, a real estate broker and a trustee of Christ Church who 
helped negotiate the deal, said the money would help sustain the Methodist 
church's programs. Carolyn L. Smith, president of the Grolier Club, a 
storied society of bibliophiles, confirmed that her club voted on Monday 
night to approve the deal.
Previously, New York appraisers say that the high end for the price of air 
hovered around $200 a square foot.
"Nothing shocks me anymore," said Daniel F. Sciannameo, an appraiser at the 
Albert Valuation Group. "This market is absolutely crazy."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/nyregion/30air.html?ei=5094&en=f47c278e23647f71&hp=&ex=1133413200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1133366670-vePX6MpFc7DCfy6jDuccoA