By Devin Gannon, Thu, May 23, 2019 The building at 450 West 15th Street is connected to Chelsea Market via a bridge; photo via Wikimedia
Google on Wednesday picked up a 325,000-square-foot building in Chelsea, adding to its ever-growing footprint in the Manhattan neighborhood. According to the Financial Times, the company bought the building at 450 West 15th Street from Jamestown Properties for $600 million. In addition to its headquarters at 111 Eighth Avenue, Google owns the apartment buildings across the street and the Chelsea Market building, which it bought last year for $2.5 billion. And the company will serve as the primary tenant at Pier 57, a mixed-use development on the Hudson River.
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By Cait Etherington, Wed, May 22, 2019 Image via WikiCommons
6sqft’s ongoing series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week, we cover everything you need to consider when raising chickens in the city.
In a city where simply finding a balcony large enough for a pot of basil can be a challenge, one may be surprised to discover that chicken coops can be found across all five boroughs. Chickens were once primarily kept by older city residents, including many who come from places in the world where a backyard supply of fresh eggs is taken for granted. More recently, everyone from Park Slope housewives to Bushwick hipsters appears to be embracing the backyard chicken craze.
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By Dana Schulz, Fri, May 17, 2019 Photo via Flickr cc
In addition to supplying members with Kiehl’s products and trendy classes, Equinox fitness clubs will now offer co-working spaces. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Equinox is partnering with co-working company Industrious to open furnished office spaces near their gym locations. Equinox is owned by Related, the mega-developer behind Hudson Yards, and therefore the first outpost will open later this year at 35 Hudson Yards. The luxury fitness chain is also opening at the 72-story tower its first hotel (where rooms start at a whopping $700/night) and its largest fitness center in the world, complete with a rooftop pool overlooking the Vessel.
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By Devin Gannon, Mon, April 29, 2019 75 Rockefeller Plaza via Google Street View
Ten floors of an office tower in Rockefeller Center will be converted into short-term rentals, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. RXR Realty, which has leased the tower at 75 Rockefeller Plaza since 2012, has partnered with Airbnb to transform a portion of the 87-year-old building into roughly 200 units of high-end lodging. In a press release, RXR CEO Scott Rechler described the new venture as a “travel experience that immerses guests in a dynamic, thriving community in the heart of Rockefeller Center that’s vastly different than anything else in the market today.”
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By Cait Etherington, Mon, April 22, 2019 Photo via Flickr cc
More than 17 percent of New Yorkers are over the age of 60, and over the coming two decades, this number is expected to rise to well over 20 percent. To address the specific needs of older New Yorkers and to ensure the city is able to fully benefit from their presence, New York City has launched an Age-Friendly Neighborhoods Initiative. Modeled after similar initiatives in cities around the world, it is described as “an opportunity to build upon the rich experiences of older adults and leverage the strengths of local neighborhoods that make each New York City community unique.” This article explores what “age-friendly” neighborhoods look like and examines five NYC neighborhoods where at least 25 percent of residents are already 65 years of age or older, from the Upper East Side to Brighton Beach.
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By Alexandra Alexa, Fri, April 12, 2019 Image via Flickr cc
Renting remains an increasingly popular choice in cities throughout the country, where on-the-go millennials with mobile jobs and lifestyles prefer to remain untethered to a specific location. But often, making rent doesn’t equate with staying on budget or having the amount of space you really need. A new study by RENTCafe looks into the issue of rent burden, asking how much space a typical income would get you if you limited your rent to no more than 30% of your income. Their findings show that in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Boston spending 30% of your income on rent means you’d have to live in less than 300 square feet of space.
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By Michelle Cohen, Mon, March 25, 2019 220 Central Park South. Image via Vornado Realty Trust and Robert A.M. Stern Architects.
Calls for a so-called pied-à-terre tax have increased since hedge fund manager Ken Griffin closed on a penthouse at 220 Central Park South for over $239 million in January, for a residence that the billionaire will be using as “a place to stay when he’s in town.” And State Budget Director Robert Mujica stated recently that a pied-à-terre tax could be combined with other revenue solutions to help fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $40 billion in capital needs. Owners of some of the city’s highest-priced real estate, however, could face a dramatic dip in their property values if the tax plan is enacted, the Wall Street Journal reports, after an analysis that showed how the heftiest tax would be levied on a small number of houses, co-ops, and condos with market values of $25 million or more. The new tax could potentially slash the value of this handful of pricy properties by almost half.
How much is half of too much?
By Devin Gannon, Mon, March 25, 2019 Photo by Zachary Tyler Newton
Governors Island is gettings its first permanent home for artists this year as the effort to turn the 172-acre former military base into a year-round cultural hub continues. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) announced on Monday plans to transform a 1870s warehouse into a 40,000-square-foot center for arts and educational programming. In 2009, LMCC became one of the first tenants on Governors Island, which opened to the public in 2005 after serving as a base for the Army and then the Coast Guard for more than two centuries.
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By Michelle Cohen, Thu, March 21, 2019 Image: Flickr cc
Developer Related Companies’ high-profile condominium at 520 West 28th Street, designed by the late Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, launched sales in 2015 to a flurry of hype and hubris. The highly-anticipated West Side residence was Hadid’s first ground-up structure in New York City, offering homes that ranged from $4,950,000 to a $50 million penthouse. Crains reports that since that glittering launch, though, only 16 of the building’s 39 units have sold, calling the offering “a rare bust.” The sales figures reflect about a 40 percent sell-through that looks even lower when square footage is considered: The building’s biggest units remain unclaimed, including its three penthouses. Of the 16 apartments that have sold, 14 were bought in 2017. Only two units sold in 2018, and none so far this year.
Will Hudson Yards bring more buyers?
By Devin Gannon, Wed, March 20, 2019 Via The Collective
London-based communal living company The Collective has purchased a hotel in Long Island City with plans to convert the building into a space for co-living. The Paper Factory Hotel, located at 37-06 36th Street near the Astoria border, will be transformed into a space for “short-stay” co-living, which the company says will give members more flexibility in the length of their stay. The first phase of the conversion adds cultural and educational space to the building’s ground floor; the second phase adds 100 more bedrooms to the hotel’s existing 125 rooms. More this way
