They Sell . . . Air?

The price of unused air rights for buildings has reached a new high:

The price of air has gone up in Manhattan.

It’s now $430 a square foot.

Two New York City developers have agreed to pay a record-setting amount for “air rights” so they can build a 35-story apartment tower with views of Central Park from the high floors.

The brothers William L. and Arthur W. Zeckendorf are set to pay $430 per square foot — more than twice the going rate — for unused air rights over Christ Church and the Grolier Club at Park Avenue and East 60th Street. Christ Church will collect more than $30 million; Grolier will get about $7 million.

Air rights allow developers to build taller by buying the space over low-scale buildings and transferring it (on paper, if not in reality) to spaces over adjacent buildings. Although such transfers occur elsewhere in the country, the prices do not run as high as they do in Manhattan, which, after all, is an island and generally provides developers with one option: up.

The rights will be transferred to a site west of the Grolier Club on East 60th Street, where the Zeckendorfs and their partners own three tenements that are to be demolished.

If it all goes as planned, the developers will be able to build a taller tower than the zoning ordinarily allows.

Not only did Christ Church sell its air rights, but it apparently sold its address as well:

In a separate deal with Christ Church, the tower will also have a coveted Park Avenue address, despite its location on 60th Street.

All of which leads one to wonder just what else you can sell . . .

See also: Christ Church United Methodist.