Manhattan Construction Costs

I am trying to find accurate and current estimates for construction costs for ground-up residential development in New York City. Specifically, high-end condos that sell in the $2,000-$3,000/SF range.

What do these cost to build currently - $800/SF hard costs and about $1,000/SF total? $1,100/SF? And more importantly, where do you find this info?

The cost estimate provided by RS Means came to about $330/SF, which of course is not accurate. Should I take that number and add $500/SF to outfit the interiors with high-end finishes? Stuck here.

Also looking for reliable info on land prices and air rights (which, I believe, are generally 50% of land prices?)

Can anyone please recommend a good source for finding this data? I need something more reliable than a news article from the NY Times or Real Deal.

Thanks!

2 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Affordable housing runs you ~275/ft, easy. That's open shop.

But unfortunately your question is too vague. What are you building? A 6 story block and plank execution will has vastly different pricing attached to it than a midtown supertall. Are we including soft costs? If so, what kind of architect. Hiring Frank Gehry is a much different proposition than [insert competent but undistinguished architect]. How well amenitized is the building? Are you building it union?

I think an estimate of $1,000/sf is very, very low. At a former shop, we built a small building with large units and I think that ran around 1,050/1,100 as a breakeven. That was a number of years ago, and as lots of folks on this site will tell you, construction costs have been inflating rapidly. I think if you want to hit $3,000/ft, you should be assuming at least 1,500/ft as your all in costs. Couple hundred bucks a foot on soft cost, ditto on financing, and maybe 1,000-1,200 on hard cost, if you're putting in super high end finishes

 

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