The Co-op Strikes Back: New Figures Set Stage for Comeback

Dec. 22, 2014 — Ask not for whom the bell tolls, a group of real estate executives told Gotham magazine earlier this month; it tolls for co-ops. After dismissing co-ops as an endangered species and lavishing all their love on condos, it looks like those execs are going to have to wipe some egg off their faces. The New York Observer reports, "As condo developers continued to build their castles in the sky this past year, betting on an inexhaustible supply of billionaires… the co-op market… quietly reclaimed its mantle with all the hauteur of a scorned socialite." Nobody puts co-ops in the corner. In 2013, the biggest co-op sale didn't even make it to $50 million, says the Observer, adding that this year, nine co-op sales topped that figure. The top two deals were the "$71.27 million sale of the French government’s apartment at 740 Park and the $70 million sale of late billionaire Edgar Bronfman Sr.’s penthouse at 960 Fifth Avenue." What was that about not having a thing going for them at this point? It looks more like this year the co-op proved it's the comeback kid.