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With the competition for affluent residential tenants as strong
as ever in the city, the developers and owners have to make strenuous
marketing efforts to promote their real estate investment and get the
required income from sold units.
In addition to the actual marketable value derived from the
quality of the building itself, its location and the amenities it
offers, there are other ways to add desirability, more connected to
a perception of what the building represents.
THE NAME
To start with, a name that evokes a sense of uniqueness, prestige and
impeccable quality is hardly a move in the wrong direction in that
sense, although the names derive from a variety of sources and
sometimes even "only" feature the building's street address --
although that is often chosen only after the address has been
considered advantageous to the building's image, in one way or
another.
In NYC, the naming convention started with the arrival of the high
quality multiple-unit apartment building in the late 1800s. High
quality in the sense that they were distinguished from the
then-prevalent tenement buildings for the lower-class and immigrant
populace by the better quality of life they offered, their location
and, last but not least, by the prestigious name that in itself
evoked an image of better living. As the truly luxurious apartment
building arrived to the scene in the early 1900s, they, once again,
had to be distinguished, ironically by moving away from the "made
up" names for individual buildings as these conjured the image of
the by now "merely" middle-class multiple dwellings. The street name
was to be the simple naming convention for the upper class apartment
building. Although the naming by street number has continued to date
(425 Fifth Avenue, for example), the
need for a distinguishing and value-raising identity in the glut of
residential construction in the post-war decades prompted the return
of The Name.
Trump, that is. Or could be, if judged by the prominence of that name
in so many of the city's most notable apartment buildings -- no less
than 10 namesake residential buildings, seven
of which are skyscrapers, including the world's tallest apartment
building. But in addition to the impression of a somewhat
self-aggrandizing scheme that Donald Trump's naming of buildings
represents, it also creates an image, almost a brand, that gives
similarly an impression, almost an expectation, of high quality --
and as long as a luxury tenant can/has to him/herself decorate the
condominium, at least in the new developments, the opulent style
generally linked to the Trump brand isn't necessarily an issue. Also
for many, especially outside NYC, the name of Trump
epitomizes quality in itself,
a fact not to be dismissed in the market game. In all, 22 buildings
have so far incorporated the name Trump.
Often the name of a building, similarly to several office buildings,
consists of a street "number" with a distinguishing name --
albeit the adress often only loosely connects with actual street
names and numbers, or even actual locations. The names of these
buildings usually have a "generic" number with affixes or names
that draw from the history or locations within the vicinity followed
by a "plaza", "towers" or other edifying definition. This name often
also acts as the official address of the building (even though it
usually still has an official street number, with the exception of
combined superblocks or other anomalies), further erasing the
distinction between a made-up building name and an actual address.
There are, however, streets where the name of the street in
itself is enough to give the development an aura of quality and
prestige; Fifth and Park Avenue addresses usually need only add the
street number to make a building desirable. Long numbers combined
with a numbered street are usually avoided, unless the number is
round or the litany "sounds good" when pronounced. Thus, it is more
likely that a development on a numbered street or a less desirable
neighbourhood (a relative term) will be given a name.
When choosing a name for a new project, the process will take
into account such factors as the locations in the vicinity, its
history, the preferences of the targeted clients, the effect the
name is hoped to evoke. Sometimes, the personal interests of the
builders influence the naming -- names of relatives, places or
persons of interest, the arts etc.
THE # OF FLOORS
Another marketing ploy widely in use is the representation
of the number of floors in a building as higher than there are
actual physical floors. That is used to give an illusion of a taller
building and an aprtment being higher up than the actual number of
floor in itself would indicate.
Thus, the 66-floor Metropolitan Tower,
for example, is marketed as a 78-floor building; curiously, the
next-door Carnegie Hall Tower is
"rated" at its actual floor number of 60 floors, even though it
is the higher of the two buildings.
Although the standard residential floor height is close to 9 ft,
the upper-market residential towers can have higher-ceilinged floors,
further adding to the height difference -- and to the incentive to
tweak the numbers and give a building more pizzaz by making the
marketed floors seem to be higher than what their actual floor number
would indicate. While the method is not totally illogical or out of
line if one considers the height of a floor from the ground as a
starting point, it will lead to "ghost floors" between the actual
ones and curious jumps between the highest commercial floors and
the residential portions in mixed-use buildings. (The new [Sept.
2003] Park Imperial on Bway at 56th has no less than 21 ghost floors
floors below its 48th-floor residential portion.)
It was the mixed-use Trump Tower on Fifth
Avenue started the twisted practice in 1983. The floor number
for the first residential floor was chosen as 30 because Trump
calculated its height, located as it was above 19 retail and
commercial floors -- each one higher than a residential floor -- as if
the lower floors were standard residential floors, dividing the 300 ft
height from the street by 10 ft per floor. Similarly, in his 72-storey
Trump World Tower, the number of floors,
90, has been reached by dividing the building's total height
(including the taller lobby and the technical floors) with the 10 ft
floor height.
It is also true, though, that if the psychology of higher floor
living attracts the clients, then why shouldn't a client buying
a multi-million unit have the satisfaction of a floor number that
reflects, in a way, an actual height from the street level. That's at
least what the marketers are thinking and as there have not been any
major qualms about the added number of floors with buyers, they seem
to be generally happy too.
The building code enforced by the New York City Department of Buildings
doesn't prohibit the unconventional numbering of floors, as long as the
floors are numbered; the state attorney general's office requires the
developers and marketers to state how many floors the building
actually incorporates and the "real" number of the floor that a
client will move into. The marketing floor plans are also required to
show these actual floors. The sellers cover their bases by making the
buyers sign a "release" in which they state that they understand the
difference between the real, physical floor and the floor number they're
being sold.
Info by The New York Times.
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© e t dankwa
23 February 2006