Mandarin Oriental condo sets new record for highest price per square foot
It’s not even a penthouse.
Apparently it doesn’t have to be a penthouse anymore to shatter a price record in Boston.
A relatively modest two bedroom, two and a half bath condo (well, maybe just modest by the standards of the superrich) has fetched $12.5 million at the Back Bay’s Mandarin Oriental, said Kevin Ahearn, president of Otis & Ahearn, a downtown condo marketing and brokerage firm.
While that’s one of the highest amounts ever paid for a condo in Boston, the record breaker is the price per square foot – a stratospheric $3,880 per square foot, according to Ahearn, who cites LINK, a real estate listing and reporting service.
“It’s shocking,’’ Ahearn said of the nearly $4,000-per-square-foot sale at the Mandarin. “That is the highest price by almost a thousand dollars a square foot.’’
The condo is situated on the 12th floor of the Mandarin. And while hardly small, at 3,222 square feet, it doesn’t stand out in terms of sheer spaciousness either. The condo previously changed hands for $5.4 million in 2011, three years after the posh Mandarin opened near the Prudential Center on Boylston Street.
The previous record for price per square foot was set last year, when a four bedroom, three and a half bath condo at the Four Seasons fetched $2,907 a square foot, or $10.2 million total. The condo came with a roof deck, an amenity the Mandarin unit lacks, Ahearn said.
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A two-bedroom, two-and-half-bath condo at the Carlton House (the old Ritz) overlooking the Public Garden, sold for $8.5 million, or $2,743 a square foot, last May.
The Mandarin’s record-breaking deal is a preview of coming attractions as Boston’s heated luxury market heads to the next level.
“It looks to me to be something that is going to expand and continue,’’ Ahearn said. “I don’t think it’s a one-off thing,’’ he said. “It’s a new high watermark. The world is awash in cash.’’
Meanwhile, a pair of new super-luxury condo towers is poised to take shape.
The trio of penthouses that will crown the 61-story Four Seasons tower is expected to fetch upwards of $20 million each, while the new Millennium Tower in Downtown Crossing is seeking $37.5 million for its penthouse.
By contrast, the opulent 14-story Mandarin features a five-star, 148 room hotel, 50 condos and 35 apartments, 25 of which are being converted into for-sale units.
For the moment, the Mandarin will keep its title as the most expensive place to live in Boston.
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