A Luxury Condo That Reveals the Way We Live Now

It’s not much to look at: an unremarkable four-story pile of bricks in Chelsea. But this humble building speaks volumes about the way we live now in this city.

The Amirian Group had originally planned to convert the former commercial building at 117 W. 21st Street into condos, but this week the developer filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings to erect a ground-up, 12-story building on the lot that will have nine luxury condo apartments, the Real Deal reports.

Now comes the interesting part. As we reported here, the city’s market for ultra-luxury apartments has been declared dead by the New York Times. So the Amirian Group is pricing the apartments to sell – for the low, low prices of just $5.5 million to $17.8 million.

David Amirian, head of the Amirian Group, said he tried to price below neighborhood averages for similar apartments because of the softening luxury market. “Like every other smart developer, you have to throw everything out the window,” Amirian said. “I think the market has changed, and we want to sell the units.”

Yes, this is the way we live now: apartments priced to sell fast carry a $17.8 million price tag.