Two-Thirds of Malabar's 145 Apartments Have Outdoor Space. That, Not the Address, Is the Argument.
ODA's pixelated concrete tower at 126 East 57th Street received its temporary certificate of occupancy in August 2026, eleven months after sales opened. Around 100 of its 145 apartments have a balcony, loggia, terrace or roof deck, which in Midtown is the rarer commodity. Listings run from $1.48 million to $13.5 million, and closings are expected in 2027.
Malabar Residences at 126 East 57th Street received its temporary certificate of occupancy in late August 2026. Sales had opened almost a year earlier, on 17 September 2025, which is the ordinary sequence for a Manhattan condominium and still worth noting: buyers were committing to floor plans for eleven months before anyone could walk the finished building.
The tower is by ODA, the practice led by Eran Chen, for MRR Development, a partnership led by Rotem Rosen with Anand Mahindra. It holds 145 apartments, from studios to three bedrooms, including four penthouses.
The facade is doing structural work, not decorative work
ODA's exterior is cast-in-place concrete arranged in cascading, pixelated tiers, and the massing is the reason the building works rather than a style applied over it. Stepping the volume is what produces the outdoor space. Around 100 of the 145 residences, roughly two-thirds, have a balcony, loggia, terrace or private roof deck.
In Midtown that ratio is the entire proposition. Private outdoor space is the scarcest thing a dense Manhattan block can offer, and most towers on comparable sites hand it to a few upper-floor units and call it a feature. Here it is close to the default condition.
The trade is legible from the street. A stepped tower gives up sellable floor area at every setback, so the developer has accepted a smaller building in exchange for terraces on most of the units. In a market where a two-bedroom with a usable terrace competes against a larger one without, that is a coherent bet rather than a flourish.
Not Billionaires' Row
The building sits on East 57th between Park and Lexington, and it is worth being accurate about what that means. Billionaires' Row is the supertall cluster along West 57th and the southern edge of Central Park: One57, 111 West 57th, 220 Central Park South, Central Park Tower. Sales copy for East 57th addresses regularly borrows the name. The trade press has been more careful, placing this site near or off the Row rather than on it.
Midtown East is a strong enough address on its own and does not need the borrowed one. The building is minutes from Central Park, the Bloomingdale's flagship and the Fifth and Madison retail corridor, with the 4, 5, 6, N, R and W at Lexington and 59th and the E and M at Lexington and 53rd.
Inside
Arrival is through a porte-cochere and a landscaped courtyard. The wellness floor holds a 42-foot double-height indoor lap pool, a spa pool, a cold plunge, sauna and steam rooms, a fitness centre and a pilates studio. There is a court for basketball and pickleball, a children's playroom, a demonstration kitchen, a bike room, resident lounges on the fourth and thirteenth floors with terrace access, and a rooftop terrace.
Where the numbers stand
Current listings run from about $1.48 million for a studio to $13.5 million for a penthouse, averaging in the region of $3,200 per square foot. Two penthouses are reported in contract nearer $5,000 per square foot. The most recent amended offering plan puts the projected sellout at $259.8 million.
In June 2026 the developer replaced a $170 million Bank OZK construction loan with a $200 million inventory loan from BHI. That is the financing a project takes on when it expects to hold unsold units through a sales run rather than race a construction deadline.
Closings were originally anticipated for early 2026. They are now expected in 2027.
