The Lux Group, parent company of luxury kitchen brand Smallbone, has won a £13m contract to supply bespoke luxury kitchens and bathrooms for at a prestigious new development in Manhattan, New York.
The $2 billion project at 50 West 66th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan is a 52 storey skyscraper currently under construction by Extell Development Company and which designed by Snøhetta. Construction began in 2018 and is due to complete in 2024. Although the current floor count is 52, when complete, the skyscraper will have 69 floors.
The impressive contract will be Smallbone’s 12th collaboration with Extell Development with previous projects including other luxury New York skyscrapers such as the Central Park Tower and 35 Hudson Yards.
Whilst the contract is indeed impressive and furthers the rise of the Smallbone brand amongst the High Net Worth American market there is more to the contract than meets the eye, in that Smallbone and its parent Lux Group are in turn actually owned by a holding company of Extell Development, the developer behind the buildings which Smallbone have been supplying.
New heights for Smallbone Kitchens
It was certainly a very shrewd move by New York-based real estate specialist Gary Barnett (owner of Extell Development) in 2018, when he bought the business assets of former Smallbone of Devizes and Mark Wilkinson owner Canburg in a pre-pack deal. In doing so, he secured the future of the Smallbone and Mark Wilkinson brands, businesses and jobs and took the futures of Smallbone and Mark Wilkinson to new heights, both financially and literally, as the in-house bespoke kitchen brand for Extell Development and its luxury skyscraper projects.
Barnett said the following at the time of acquiring Smallbone: “Having deeply admired the company for many years, I was so keen to take this great opportunity to acquire these unique brands. Over the past 10 years, I have had the pleasure of working with Smallbone of Devizes on many projects, such as our One57 development in Manhattan, and was struck by its incredible design and making; it is rare to find this level of quality. I am looking forward to working to develop and evolve these luxury British, hand-made furniture businesses in the UK and around the world.”
Commenting on the 50 West 66th Street contract, Lux Group's Ron Shemesh said: “This is another major achievement for Smallbone in terms of high-end luxury residential developments in the history of its 45 years. Being part of an elegant 70-storey iconic condominium on the Upper West Side designed by world renowned architectural innovators Snøhetta.”
Extell's newest tower will have 127 ultra-luxury homes ranging from two bedrooms to full floors. The building boasts 50,000 square feet of amenity space including both an indoor and outdoor pool, squash court, full sized basketball and pickleball court, state of the art fitness center, Sky Lounge for entertaining and Porte cochere entrance. An 8/9th floor, 1600sq/ft, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom 'condo' in the new 50 West 66th Street is currently listed for sale at $4.6m.
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