Posen’s 16W21: A New Kind of Design

Zac Posen’s newest project, the new condo building 16W21, has been gaining quite a bit of buzz. The famous 29-year-old fashion designer and Anna Wintour protégé has been keeping annoyingly mum about the whole thing but snippets of information from others in the know have given us something to report.

Posen’s real estate venture was scheduled for its grand opening March 18, but we all know how real estate works (read: always behind schedule). The building is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues on 16 West 21st St. in New York. It is 14 stories divided into nine units, stocked with one garden townhouse, five full-floors, two duplexes, and a triplex penthouse. While the prices on the penthouse are still TBD, the rest of the apartments are set in the $2 to $3 million price range.

Some have doubts as to Posen’s degree of involvement in the whole project. But knowing how the fabulous designer works, we’re thinking that’s not the case.

Though this is not the first fashion-cum-real estate designer idea (read up on the Armani-Shvo and Corcoran Sunshine-Peter Som cases), this was among the first partnership announcements since the Great Recession. Some have questioned Posen’s reasoning for picking such a difficult time to get into real estate, to which he answered, “I see the recession as an opportunity to get into new ventures.”

We’re working on the, “patience is a virtue,” thing (as we’re sure you are as well). But somehow we’re thinking this is definitely worth the wait. Here’s a tip, though: The ad campaigns have started and the building’s website, www.16W21.com, is up and running beautifully.