Harlem Buyers Get a Free Car With Parking Spot

In more ways than one, Windows on 123 reminds us of the heady Harlem days of yore—2007, or perhaps, dare we say it, 2006. (Yup, we said it. Deal with it.) Last week the luxury condo development, made up of a 26-unit building at 117 West 123rd Street (at Lenox Avenue) and a smaller sibling a few doors down, held a lavish rooftop opening party with live jazz and booze a-flowin'. Such events are few and far between with brokerages shuttering Harlem offices as the local market founders, but the party was just the beginning. Windows on 123, the Times' Josh Barbanel reported over the weekend, has also revived a long-lost throwback to bubblier days: the attention-grabbing giveaway. Purchase one of the building's smaller parking spaces—just the right size for a Smart Car—and the developers will throw in the Smart Car for free. The spots cost $65,000, while Smart Cars sell for $15,000.

If the Smart Car thing sounds like a joke, it's because that's how the whole idea got started. Barbanel writes:

Though low-cost mortgages are hard to come by in some new developments, Mr. Bennett said he was not worried. He said he was not looking for first-time buyers. “We are trying to attract a much more established crowd,” he said, “empty nesters moving from Connecticut or downtown, an artsy crowd.”

Prices at Windows on 123 average just over $700 per square foot, he said, but the layouts are larger than in some other Harlem projects. Two-bedrooms range from about $750,000 to $970,000.

David Daniels, a broker at the Corcoran Group, threw out the idea of a free car with a parking-place purchase almost as a joke at a marketing meeting, Mr. Bennett said.

“My partner and I looked at each other and smiled,” he said.

Will Connecticut empty nesters and Downtown hipsters be in on the joke? That remains to be seen. For now, the Windows on 123 website has some new renderings, seen in the gallery above. Godspeed, little guy.
 

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