VIDEO: What It’s Like to Pull Into a $1 Million Parking Spot at Annabelle Selldorf’s 42 Crosby

Soho’s 42 Crosby Street left us all astounded last year when it was revealed that each of its ten on-site parking spaces would be priced at one-million dollars a pop. On a per square foot basis, the 200-square-foot rectangles will fetch more than the three-bedroom condominiums upstairs.

The cool modernists at Selldorf Architects designed the 111-foot tall building, which is now finally getting its layered facade of metal and glass. We admit, the exterior is not nearly as exciting as what’s depicted in the renderings, but remember, it’s not yet finished! So while we await Selldorf’s magic to fully brew, watch this terrific film created by VUW Studio, which shows what it feels like to be that lucky automobile coming home to its seven-figure parking spot.

Renderings and video courtesy of VUW Studio

42 Crosby has fully risen above its prominent corner at Crosby and Broome streets. The 50,000 square-foot project is being developed by Atlas Property Group who picked up the site for $16 million in late 2009, and ironically replaces a former gas station turned parking lot.

The building overlooks one of the most picturesque corners of the neighborhood, even in spite of the heavy afternoon Holland Tunnel traffic along Broome Street and the moonscape-like roadbed called Crosby Street. The project sits at the edge of SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District which was expanded two more blocks east in 2010. After three visits to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, where the team hammered out details regarding the project’s massing and design, they won approval for a sleek and quiet building that aligns with its neighbors and is be topped by a “virtually invisible” one-story penthouse.

The facade is adorned by sliding windows, glass guardrails, and rounded steel columns that will counterpoint the neighborhood’s red-brick and cast-iron fronts. From street level, the building will culminate with a projected band of steel, a reference to the fanciful cornices that crown the neighborhood’s buildings. The upper level of the duplex penthouse will be setback 20 feet from the building and northern lot line and create a spectacular terrace for the unit. When all finished, the building should shimmer like a new silver Benz—firm founder Annabelle Selldorf is German after all.

The ground floor will contain a retail storefront and residential lobby. Above will be ten spacious three-bedroom homes that the Times reported in May will be priced from $8.7 million to $10.5 million, or an average of $3,200 per square foot. Sales are expected to kick-off before year-end, and the building’s offering plan (already submitted to the attorney general) projects a total sellout of $119 million. That figure comprises the 10 residential units, two retail units, and 10 parking spaces.

Cars and residents will access the underground vault of vehicles by way of elevators. Owners of each of the ten one-million-dollar parking pads will hold a 99 year lease, which must be resold once the resident moves out of the building. Each spot will also provide some storage space and a charging station. Shaun Osher, chief executive of the brokerage firm CORE, provides a simple explanation for the steep price tags, telling the Times, “In real estate, location defines value and parking is no exception to that rule.” Last September 6sqft wrote about the handful of million dollar parking spaces in Manhattan. A few blocks west of 42 Crosby at 15 Renwick Street, there three parking spaces are also asking $1 million a piece.

[Follow updates and listing for 42 Crosby Street at CityRealty]

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