While some of the new residential development around New York City is likely to suffer from a drop in demand due to the credit crunch and Wall Street jitters, one bulletproof corner of the market is apartments in close proximity to New York City parks, which are selling at record prices. Apartments adjacent to parks in Manhattan, which include Central Park, Madison Square Park, Gramercy Park, and Carl Schurz Park, and in Brooklyn near Prospect and Brooklyn Bridge parks, are selling at premiums of at least 25%.

Last month, Mayor Bloomberg launched the first phase of the Schoolyards to Playgrounds Initiative, an $111 million investment toward the improvement of schoolyards, which will significantly advance his PlaNYC goal of having every New Yorker live within a 10-minute walk of a park or a playground. The PlaNYC initiative includes a $1.2 billion investment in the city’s parks and open spaces that would create new parks and recreational facilities and rehabilitate many existing park facilities.

Many of the 44 million visitors who travel to New York City this year will visit Central Park, a famed National Historic Landmark that is the most visited park in America. Residents of New York City and visitors who have a desire to own residences near Central Park are willing to pay record prices, in certain instances in excess of $3,000 a square foot.

A number of new condominium developments are in various stages of development all around Central Park.

Perhaps the most exciting condominium development is 15 Central Park West between Central Park West and Broadway and 61st and 62nd streets. The project comprises a 20-story building along Central Park West and a 43-story mid-block tower with a five-story retail base along Broadway. It is a joint venture of Zeckendorf Development LLC, Global Holdings, and Goldman Sachs’s Whitehall Fund. According to real estate sources, the development, which is scheduled to open this fall, is the most successful apartment building in the history of New York. All of the building’s 202 units have been sold, 15 for more than $20 million, including a penthouse bought by a hedge fund executive for $45 million.

In the fall, the first residents will move into the landmarked Plaza Hotel, a conversion development of Elad Properties, near the intersection of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue. Construction teams are working around the clock to ready the hotel for its 100-year anniversary on October 1. According to real estate sources, a number of units have sold for more than $50 million. Residents have the opportunity for full-time or fractional ownership.

Last year, the sales office opened at the Jumeirah Essex House, the 35 new condominiums that were created in the famed hotel at 160 Central Park South. In September 2005, the Dubai Investment Group paid $440 million to acquire the hotel portion of the building, with 606 rooms and nine of its 148 condominium apartments. The original condominium conversion of the hotel took place in 1974.

Next year, demolition is expected to begin on the 20-story, 124-unit residential rental apartment building at 220 Central Park South. The building, finished in 1954, is a through-block that extends to West 58th Street. The property was acquired in August 2005 for $132 million by a joint venture of Clarett Group and Vornado Realty Trust. Many of the tenants have vacated the building, which will be demolished to make way for a 41-story glass condominium tower. Units are expected to sell for more than $2,500 a square foot.

This fall the first residents are expected to move in to 48 new condominiums at the 19-story building at 111 Central Park North, a development of the Athena Group and the City Investment Fund. More than 80% of the units have been sold at the building at 110th Street and Lenox Avenue across from Central Park. Units have sold for record prices in Harlem, ranging between $1,200 and $1,700 a square foot.

The senior partner at Massey Knakal Realty Services, Shimon Shkury, said, “when the site for 111 CPN was originally purchased for $200 per buildable square foot in 2005, everyone thought that the price was way too expensive for the market. Even the developer originally expected to achieve sales of the units ranging from $850 to $1,100 per square foot. These expectations were shattered by the tremendous success, with units selling for nearly a 30% to 50% premium for a typical North Manhattan development.” As I reported earlier this month, construction is scheduled to begin later this year on a new mixed-use development that will house the Museum of African Art and a luxury residential condominium at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 110th Street. The new building would provide the museum with 85,000 square feet and include 115 luxury condominiums in a 20-story tower under a partnership between the museum and developers Brickman Associates and Sidney Fetner Associates. With a large number of the condominium units facing the park, industry leaders expect the units to fetch in excess of $1,200 a square foot.

The chairman of Metropolitan Valuation Services, Martin Levine, said: “We have observed that direct proximity to a park is one of the three most important factors in real estate; if the park is Central, it’s the first. Location, location, and location. Properties with direct views of Central Park have always achieved premiums. For example, recent condominium sales activity in the Plaza and 15 Central Park West illustrates premiums of 67% to 75% above otherwise similar non-park view units in these properties.”

He added, “A city park offers effectively a perpetual light and air easement guaranteeing unobstructed views and, given the commitment to quality of life issues of urban living, wonderful landscaped open spaces.”

Purchasers of the 23 ultra-luxury condominiums at 50 Gramercy Park North at the Gramercy Park Hotel are entitled to their own key to the private Gramercy Park. Apartments in the building cost between $6.25 million and $16 million.

Prospect Park is the 585-acre public park located in Brooklyn, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux after they completed Central Park. Sales are under way at On Prospect Park, the 114-unit, 15-story project in Prospect Heights that overlooks Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza, designed by architect Richard Meier. According to real estate sources, the average sales price is about $1,100 a square foot.

Another development adjacent to a park and the water in Brooklyn is One Brooklyn Bridge Park. The 14-story project is the largest residential conversion in Brooklyn’s history, located in Brooklyn Heights at 360 Furman St. The former Jehovah’s Witness Distribution Center is being converted into a 449-unit residential condominium. The building offers waterfront views of downtown Brooklyn and is situated within the planned 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park. The average selling price of units is in excess of $1,200 a square foot.

The president of RAL Companies & Affiliates LLC, Robert Levine, the developer of One Brooklyn Bridge Park, said: “Our project has partnered with Brooklyn Bridge Park to provide for guaranteed maintenance stream of monies to park. The partnership with the park allows for the creation and maintenance of what will be the largest park to be developed since Prospect Park.”

The president of Hamlin Ventures LLC, Abby Hamlin, said, “Being across from a park provides not only a nice view, but also far more light and air for the units — in perpetuity — than does a midblock site.”

“Manhattan is a very unique place to live. Any additions to a property that are perceived to add to the quality of life will also add a monetary value to that property. Apartments with a water view or located near a park will always command a higher price, as is true in many other locations, be it Manhattan or Eastern Long Island in the Hamptons,” the chief operating officer of Citi Habitats, Gary Malin, said. “In Manhattan, price increases can generally range from approximately 20 to 30% higher that have a water view or are located near a park, depending, of course, on other factors such as the type and location of the building, the actual view of the water or park, the floor that the apartment is located on, and which New York City park you are near.”

Even the credit crisis has not placed a damper on the sales of residential units adjacent to many of the city’s prominent parks. People from all over want to live in New York City, especially near one of the greatest assets of our city, our fantastic parks.

Mr. Stoler, a contributing editor to The New York Sun, is a television and radio broadcaster, and a senior principal at a real estate investment fund. He can be reached at mstoler@newyorkrealestatetv.com.