PMG’s Kevin Maloney on Billionaire’s Row supertall: a financial “disaster”

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Property Markets Group’s Kevin Maloney did not mince words about 111 West 57th Street.

“From an architectural point of view, it’s a marvel,” the firm’s founder said of the Billionaire’s Row supertall that rises over 1,400 feet high yet is just 60 feet wide. “Financially it was a disaster.”

Maloney spoke about the challenges of the project faced on Tuesday at a panel on supertall development at the National Association of Real Estate Editors’ annual conference in Miami.

“We recently completed, and not really too successfully, this tiny tower in Manhattan,” he said. “That project took us about 11 years.”

Speaking to a group of reporters afterward, Maloney pointed to a difficult sales environment when the project launched sales in 2018 — already delayed two years because of a softening market — that only became more challenging after Covid shut down the city starting in 2020.

Maloney’s PMG developed the project beginning in 2013 with Michael Stern’s JDS Development. The developers defaulted on a $725 million loan from Apollo Global Management and AIG in 2017 after rising construction costs led to capital shortfalls.

Nearly a decade later, the building appears to be cashing in on its original promise. Sotheby’s International Realty broker Nikki Field and her team took over sales of the building from Corcoran in July 2024 with 23 units left to sell.

Field’s team has gone on to sell $480 million in closings and contracts since taking over, according to data previously provided by Field’s team, including deals for a triplex penthouse asking $56 million and a duplex penthouse asking $45 million.

The sales progress has helped pay down a $200 million loan, which was senior to Apollo’s debt, leaving Apollo as the project’s sole lender.

At the panel, Maloney spoke about the challenges of developing in New York, where land costs have continued to rise in recent years. “There’s more capital required, and it has to get significantly more in return,” he said.

But PMG has remained active elsewhere, particularly in Florida. Last month, the firm, along with Lion Development Group, Eden Residential and Sterling Equities, launched a short-term rental-friendly Palm Tree-branded condo project in Miami.

PMG also has two condo projects in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood with Lndmrk Development, one using the Frida Kahlo brand. The developer has also launched sales this year at the second phase of a Brickell condo development and its planned Delano Residences Miami, a supertall using the Art Deco Miami Beach hotel brand.

Despite Maloney’s words of caution, PMG has not written off New York entirely. Last month, the firm and The Carlyle Group secured a $370 million bridge loan for its 517-unit property in Gowanus.