Trump looking for revival of N.Y.'s upscale market.

Trump Looking for Revival Of N.Y.'s Upscale Market

Embattled developer Donald Trump has high hopes for Manhattan residential real estate.

"The market is really changing for residential properties in New York," he said this week as he stood in what will soon be his living room high above the Manhattan skyline.

Mr. Trump ushered about 100 private bankers around his modern penthouse in the new Trump Palace as they wended their way through three of the city's more exclusive homes. The other two: a four-story, $14 million neoclassical stone mansion and a 4,500-square-foot Fifth Avenue apartment.

The tour, organized by the Corcoran Group to spur interest in these and similar properties, was attended by bankers curious to see what is on the market and to check out specific properties for clients.

Several bankers present said sales of upscale homes to foreign clients have been on the rise over the past few months.

"With interest rates down, they want to diversify," Kelly Maurice, senior international investment consultant in New York for Bank of Boston, said of her Brazilian clients. "They're always interested in a good deal."

An agent of the Corcoran Group just sold 45 apartments in Trump's building to a Hong Kong-based investor. Said president Barbara Corcoran, "It's the new New Yorker -- the wealthy foreigner."

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER