Nothing seems to dampen the desire of real estate investors to buy property in Manhattan. A majority of these investors plan to develop residential condominiums or, in rare instances, residential rental apartments. Today, at least 30 developments are in different planning stages on the East Side of Manhattan.

Two six-story townhouses have been demolished on the former site of the famed Box Tree Restaurant and Hotel at 250 E. 49th St. A developer is building a 20-story condominium tower, which will have 31 residential units. A few blocks away, Time Equities is converting two brownstones at 342 and 344 E. 50th St. into 15 condominium apartments. Across the street, American Development Group and Langsam Property Services are doing a gut renovation of four five-story buildings. The developer is adding two floors to the property and will be creating a total of 24 residential condominiums.

A two-story addition is planned for a vacant four-story building at 936 First Ave., between East 51st and East 52nd streets. When it is completed next year, the property will have five full-floor residential units. Just two blocks north, at 948 First Ave. – the site of Billy’s restaurant, which closed last year – a residential tower will rise at 946-950 First Ave., industry sources say.

Last year, L.H. Charney & Associates sold 11 E. 36th St., the 12-story mixed-use office building for $17 million. The building is being converted into 68 condominium apartments and three commercial condominiums. At the corner of Fifth Avenue and 36th Street, demolition is nearly completed at 396, 398, and 400 Fifth Ave. Last month, Yitzhak Tessler paid about $150 million to Joseph Chetrit for the site, where he plans to construct a 50-story condominium. One block east of this site, at the corner of 35th Street and Fifth Avenue, Sam Chang is renovating the building for conversion into a limited service hotel. Adjacent to this site, on 35th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues, a local developer is building a 20-story residential rental tower for low- and middle-income tenants.

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The Manhattan borough president’s office and Community Board 8 have approved plans for the Witkoff Group’s 26-story, 100-unit residential condominium tower at 1123 York Ave. In the 1980s and ’90s, the site served as the East Side showroom for Potomakin Cadillac. More recently, the site served as a regional office for RCN Cable.

Directly across from Witkoff’s planned tower is the site of a five-story parking garage. Last month, the garage closed, and demolition is scheduled to begin on a new residential tower by Sheldon Solow. The tower will be directly adjacent to Mr. Solow’s 42-story, 334-unit rental apartment building called One Sutton Place North, which opened in the winter of 2002.

On September 7, the land use committee of Community Board 6 met to discuss Mr. Solow’s plans for the redevelopment of several sites that were owned by ConEdison. Mr. Solow is planning to build five residential buildings and two office buildings on four sites, which include the full block bounded by First Avenue and the FDR Drive and East 35th and 36th streets, the three blocks bounded by First Avenue and the FDR Drive and East 38th and 41st streets, and the eastern half of the block bounded by Second and First avenues and East 39th and 40th streets, a site known as 675 First Ave.

Demolition has begun at the site of the Collegiate Church at the corner of East 67th Street and First Avenue, across from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Last year, developers Simon Elias and Isaac Senhabar paid $143 million, or $400 a developable square foot, for the site, where they are planning to build residential condominiums.

The former Beth Israel Hospital North Singer Division at 170 East End Ave., between East 87th and 88th streets, has been demolished, and excavation is under way by Skyline Developers, an affiliate of New Jersey-based Garden Homes. In July 2004, they paid about $700 a developable square foot for the hospital and two adjacent buildings owned by the hospital. Construction will soon begin for a 19-story,110-unit condominium tower. Prices for apartments are expected to start at nearly $2,000 a square foot.

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In the winter of 2003, developer J.D. Carlisle Development acquired two buildings and the air rights from an adjacent garage at 10 W. 48th St. for $23 million. Construction is proceeding on the 33-story condominium tower, the Centria, with about 150 units, a spa, and a conference center. The building is east of Rockefeller Plaza and Fifth Avenue. In the spring, J.D. Carlisle bought a parcel on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and East 23rd and 24th streets. They paid about $83 million to a partnership of Y.L. Developers headed by Yair Levy and Serge Hoyda, who had purchased the site in 2003 for about $35 million. Demolition is now proceeding to make way for a 300,000-square-foot residential condominium tower with 292 units.

According to industry sources, a prominent New York City real estate investor who recently completed a residential rental tower on the East Side has purchased the parking lot adjacent to the headquarters of United Cerebral Palsy of New York at 122 E. 23rd St. Insiders expect that a new residential tower will be built on the property.

A few blocks east, at 232 E. 25th St., between Second and Third avenues, Arthur Leeds & Associates is developing a 13-story, 54-unit residential condominium building.

This summer, Thorwood Real Estate, a joint venture of Joe Sitt, a principal of Thor Equities, and Andrew Heiberger of Buttonwood Real Estate purchased a 7,500-square-foot, five-story commercial building at 158 Madison Ave. The joint venture is marketing for sale the Sundari Lofts & Towers, a 50-unit residential condominium.

Two vacant buildings at 47-49 E. 34th St., between Madison and Park avenues, have been vacated, and demolition is planned to build a residential condominium. Two blocks east of this site is a three-story office building at 225 E. 34th St., at the entrance to the Queens Midtown tunnel. In June, LCOR and California State Teachers’ Retirement System purchased the property, paying $73 million to Benenson Capital. The building will be demolished to make way for the Charleston, a 21-story, 170,000-square-foot condominium tower with 172 units.

Many question whether the city can absorb all these condominium projects. Others, myself included, wonder how many people can afford to pay $1,200 to $1,500 a square foot for an apartment. Yet demand for housing is far exceeding the available supply. The outlook for new condominiums and rental towers looks bright for the near-term future.

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and vice president at First American Title Insurance Company of New York. He can be reached at mstoler@firstam.com.