On a recent evening, a crowd of real-estate brokers, cocktails in hand, gathered at 225 Rector Place in Manhattan to toast the evening's honored guest: celebrityinteriordesigner and TV personality Jonathan Adler, who had recently staged two model apartments in the building with his name-brand line of furnishings.

The party was also something of a relaunch for the building, located in Battery Park City, by the current developer, Related Cos. A previous condo-conversion attempt had flopped in 2009 after another developer defaulted on its debts. But Related recently announced that about 50% of the apartments have sold since sales reopened in June