Three years in the past, the top of Apollo’s business actual property arm, Stuart Rothstein, spent a lot of the division’s earnings name massaging investor considerations about sales progress at 111 West 57th Street.
Apollo had simply written down its $82 million junior mezzanine loan on the mission after the Billionaires’ Row tower entered its fifth yr of gross sales with greater than half of its items nonetheless unsold.
“We have been definitely hopeful that there could be extra velocity by way of the variety of items that will be signed,” mentioned Rothstein.
Now in 2026, Rothstein’s hopes seem to have come true because the constructing has bought 58 of its 59 out there items. Simply its formidable $98 million quadplex penthouse remains to be out there.
The turnaround has been orchestrated by prime Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty dealer Nikki Discipline and her group, who took over sales of the building from Corcoran in July 2024 with 23 items left to promote.
The group has bought $480 million in closings and contracts since taking on, in response to knowledge by Discipline’s group. These offers included a number of the constructing’s priciest listings, together with a triplex penthouse asking $56 million and, final week, a 76th-floor duplex penthouse asking $45 million.
“My group has a historical past of saving properties,” Discipline mentioned. “It took us a few month to overview it after which resolve that we might reinvent it, rebrand it, reposition it.”
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“111 West 57th is actually bought out — a milestone Corcoran helped make attainable by promoting a major share of the constructing at its authentic pricing,” a Corcoran spokesperson mentioned. “We’re pleased with that work and glad to see the mission absolutely realized.”
The resurgence has adopted a broader pickup in New York’s luxury market. Manhattan recorded its second-best yr since 2006 for contract signings on houses asking at the least $4 million in 2025, in response to Olshan Realty. However lots of the latest largest offers within the metropolis have been in newer developments Downtown and on the Higher East Aspect, whereas a number of of the buildings on Billionaires’ Row have misplaced their luster in recent times amid gross sales slowdowns and worth cuts, making a resurrection on the constructing removed from a certain factor.
“The very last thing you need to do is are available as a rescuer and never ship expectations,” mentioned Discipline.
An extended highway
Developed by Michael Stern’s JDS Development Group and Kevin Maloney’s Property Markets Group starting in 2013, the mission was a part of the frenzy of ultra-luxury exercise clustered across the Midtown hall that started when Gary Barnett’s Extell Growth launched sales in 2011 at 157 West 57th Street.
The years main as much as a 2018 gross sales launch — delayed from 2016 due to a softening market — have been tough ones for the mission.
It confronted capital shortfalls from rising development prices and finally defaulted on a $725 million mortgage from Apollo World Administration and AIG. On the identical time, the builders confronted lawsuits from a spurned investor, AmBase, who alleged it had its shares within the mission improperly diluted (AmBase’s claims have since been dismissed in courtroom, which it has continued to attraction).
Stretching over 1,400 toes excessive and simply 60 toes large, 111 West 57th grew to become identified for its slender body, which grows narrower from a collection of feathery setbacks in the direction of the highest of the constructing.
When the constructing started promoting in 2018 with a group from Douglas Elliman, it notched various headline-grabbing offers, together with one for a $58 million penthouse in 2019. However by 2022, the builders tapped Corcoran to take over gross sales, who oversaw one other $100 million in gross sales within the first half of 2024 alone and closed out the 14 items within the Steinway Corridor portion of the constructing.
Two years later, Apollo gave Discipline a name, she mentioned, and so they needed to “get out as shortly as attainable.”
New pricing, new method
One think about Discipline’s favor was a collection of worth cuts put into place months earlier than her group took over, in response to knowledge by Marketproof. In March 2024, the constructing revised pricing down round 20 % on 9 items. A 69th-floor three-bedroom initially in the marketplace for over $30 million had its worth slashed 30 % to $20.5 million.
That has helped the remaining items promote for just below 8 % off asking costs after going for a median of 17 % underneath asking worth, in response to Marketproof. However underneath each gross sales groups, offers have closed for 10 to twenty % underneath the costs specified by the unique providing plan.
“They obtained practical with pricing,” mentioned Jorge Lopez, founding father of Mundi Group, which helped “the entire positives of the constructing” come into focus.
Lopez additionally credited the “refreshed method” he felt on the constructing, one thing that Discipline mentioned her group spent loads of time pondering by.
“It was not presenting extremely luxurious,” she mentioned. “You wanted a a lot better expertise from the curb on up by the presentation.”
Discipline turned over a lot of the constructing’s employees, which included bringing on a brand new normal supervisor from the Mandarin Oriental Residences and recruiting a Casa Cipriani alumnus for a newly-created foyer ambassador place to are likely to resident requests like hard-to-get reservations within the metropolis. She additionally introduced on Le Bilboquet to supply catering and complimentary breakfast seven days every week, and switched the constructing’s main entrance to be on 58th Road as an alternative of 57th Road.
The constructing additionally created some constructive buzz when Shark Tank star and entrepreneur Robert Herjavec moved to 111 West 57th from a competing Billionaires’ Row tower, One57, and publicly touted his pleasure about his new digs within the Wall Road Journal in August.
Lopez, who represented Herjavec within the deal, mentioned the credibility his shopper dropped at the constructing helped with a “particular price” — 10 % off the house’s $22.5 million asking worth.
Final April, well-known British developer Christian Sweet and his spouse, Emily Crompton-Sweet, additionally purchased a penthouse for $46 million, down 17 % from its $56 million asking worth, which got here with one other unfold within the Journal.
“A few massive names obtained larger reductions as a result of we needed them within the constructing, and we knew that they’d appeal to different patrons,” Discipline mentioned.
Discipline mentioned she additionally eradicated concessions and credit on the constructing, a preferred device for gross sales groups attempting to shortly transfer new improvement inventory. “The brokers ended up believing it was a greater constructing, and the patrons in the end proved that by placing their cash on the desk,” she mentioned.
The half a billion in gross sales has helped repay a $200 million loan, which was senior to Apollo’s debt, and has left the agency as the only real lender on the mission, with its mortgage set to mature this November.
“Apollo has our names on a plaque,” Discipline mentioned.
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