Real Estate Trends

Plans for Bushwick Inlet Park, a 28-acre open space along an unused industrial stretch of the Williamsburg waterfront, first came about in 2005, when the Bloomberg administration rezoned the area to allow for new residential development in exchange for the open space. Fast forward to last week, and the city finally acquired the last piece of land for the project, the controversial Citistorage site. Now that the park is on its way to becoming a reality, a trio of grassroots creatives hopes to bring their alternative vision for the former Bayside Oil Depot site to the forefront. Maker Park is the proposal to adaptively reuse this seven-acre parcel's architectural infrastructure--namely the ten 50-foot decommissioned fuel containers--and create a "park as creative as the neighborhood around it." The Architect's Newspaper recently revealed the first set of renderings, which showcase performance venues, art galleries, hanging gardens, reflecting pools, and an adventure playground.
More views and design details

November 30, 2016

Designers at ArX Solutions offer their own take on a Waldorf Astoria interior renovation

The final checkout for hotel guests at the iconic Waldorf Astoria is March 1st, after which its new owner, Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance Group, will begin converting the 1,413 hotel rooms into 840 renovated hotel rooms and 321 luxury condos to the tune of $1 billion. Earlier this month, the developer filed these plans with the Department of Buildings, which also call for adding retail space, a restaurant, and a fitness center on the ground floors. They'll retain the historic ballrooms, exhibition space, dining rooms, and banquet rooms, but will still need approvals from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for any work on these public spaces; the building has long been an exterior landmark, but the LPC recently calendared a request to landmark the Art Deco interiors. Though no designs have been approved or confirmed, CityRealty dug up renderings from architectural visualization firm ArX Solutions that show their vision of space*.
More renderings and details

November 28, 2016

New renderings for COOKFOX’s 700-foot Financial District condo tower 25 Park Row

Over the summer, L+M Development Partners demolished the former Financial District flagship of J&R Music and Computer World to make way for a 54-story, mixed-use condo tower at 25 Park Row, just across from City Hall Park in an area quickly becoming a more vibrant, 24-hour neighborhood. Site excavation is now well underway for the 700-foot building, reports CityRealty, […]

November 28, 2016

Locals push for Sutton Place rezoning ahead of auction for site of planned 950-foot tower

Despite the fact that the site is headed to the auction block next month, local residents and elected officials are rallying to prevent the possible construction of a 950-foot condo tower on East 58th Street in tony Sutton Place. Curbed reports that the group, which includes Councilmen Ben Kallos and Dan Garodnick and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, have submitted a plan to the City Planning Commission that proposes a height cap of 260 feet for the area bounded by East 52nd and East 59th streets east of First Avenue where there is currently no limit on how tall apartment towers can be.
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November 21, 2016

‘Monk’ actor Tony Shalhoub drops $4M on classic Upper West Side co-op

By Annie Doge

Emmy Award-winning actor Tony Shalhoub of "Monk" fame, along with wife Brooke Adams, has picked up a $3,995,000 Upper West Side co-op, according to LLNYC. The pre-war pad at 15 West 81st Street boats a 60-foot-wide terrace with "side views" of Central Park and two master suites, as well as historic details like herringbone oak floors, nine-foot beamed ceilings, crown and base moldings, and original Emery Roth-designed doorknobs and hardware.
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November 21, 2016

Site of planned Norman Foster-designed Sutton Place condo tower to be auctioned off next month

The 262,000-square-foot project that includes plans for a 900-foot-tall luxury condominium tower drawn up by British architect Sir Norman Foster of Foster + Partners that embattled developer Joseph Beninati had hoped to build in the heart of Sutton Place is set to be auctioned next month, according to Crains. As 6sqft previously reported, the sale of the property at 3 Sutton Place was authorized in September to pay back creditors and partners who were owed money from the derailed project, and a source has told Crain's that an auction is scheduled for December 13 with bids due by December 8.
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The neighbors who arrived first: Cherry Street residents prepare for One Manhattan Square

Images via Extell and Google Maps

November 21, 2016

The neighbors who arrived first: Cherry Street residents prepare for One Manhattan Square

By Cait Etherington

Images via Extell and Google Maps The construction of Extell’s high-rise condo development at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge is now well underway. When complete, 250 South Street (formerly 227 Cherry Street) will rise more than 80 stories above the East River and be home to just under 800 units, but that’s not all. As the Extell […]

Real Estate Trends

November 18, 2016

UES studio Andy Warhol rented for $150/month sells for $10 million

In addition to being one of the world's most iconic artists, Andy Warhol appears to have had the Midas touch for real estate. In 2013, Warhol's one-time townhouse on Lexington Avenue sold $5.5 million—he paid just $60,000 for it in 1959; then last October, the artist's former Montauk compound, which he paid just $225,000 for in 1972, sold for a whopping $50 million; and now, as The Real Deal reports, the ramshackle Upper East Side studio he rented for paltry $150 a month has just traded hands for an incredible $9.9 million.
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November 18, 2016

Long Island’s ‘Amityville Horror’ house finds a brave buyer

Presumably unfazed by the gruesome murders that took place there in 1974, an anonymous buyer has picked up Long Island's notorious "Amityville Horror" house. The five-bedroom Dutch Colonial came on the market for $850,000 in June, and Newsday now reports that it went into contract this week. Likely due to the fact that the address is where then-23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot his parents and four younger sisters while they slept, the listing broker said she won't "discuss the terms of a sale until it’s closed."
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Real Estate Trends

Budget woes and design disagreements cause Port Authority to stall on new bus terminal plans

Just two months ago, West Side elected officials and the Port Authority agreed to move ahead on the 10-year, $10 billion capital project to replace the current Bus Terminal, releasing five design proposals for a new building. But officials at the bi-state agency "have reached an impasse" on the project due to budget concerns and disagreements on the design, reports Crain's.
The full story

Real Estate Trends

Richard Meier, Rafael Viñoly, and KPF release designs for Upper West Side waterfront development

Towers L to R: Rafael Viñoly, Richard Meier, Kohn Pedersen Fox

November 17, 2016

Richard Meier, Rafael Viñoly, and KPF release designs for Upper West Side waterfront development

Forty-two years after Donald Trump first proposed a mixed-use development on the Upper West Side waterfront, one of the final pieces of the puzzle is coming together. Curbed got their hands on sparkling new renderings of what's now being called Waterline Square, a trio of residential towers on the five-acre site between West 59th and 61st Streets that's part of Riverside Center. In addition to views of the glassy structures, which will offer a combination of condos and rentals, and a Mathews Nielsen-designed park, what makes the reveal so exciting is the roster of starchitects behind the towers--Richard Meier and Partners, Rafael Viñoly Architects, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.
More details and renderings

Upper West Side buildings to dump Trump name following petition

Trump Place Apartments courtesy of Nick Normal’s Flickr

November 15, 2016

Upper West Side buildings to dump Trump name following petition

“The building is beautiful, the service is impeccable,” Marjorie Jacobs, a resident of the Upper West Side complex currently known as Trump Place told Bloomberg in October, “But the name is very embarrassing." An outcry by similarly-minded residents and a petition have culminated in the decision to remove the president-elect's name from the buildings and instead name them according to their street addresses at 140, 160 and 180 Riverside Boulevard, reports Crains.
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Real Estate Trends

November 14, 2016

Queens, Brooklyn see ‘drastic’ rise in foreclosures

October brought a significant spike in home mortgage foreclosure rates, according to The New York Post, with more than 1,100 homes heading into foreclosure. That number represents a 32 percent increase from the previous month and a 37 percent increase from one year ago, with 400 new cases in Queens (nearly twice as many as a year ago). 365 cases were recorded in Brooklyn, a 20 percent increase, with the state overall seeing a 15 percent increase since September and 10 percent year over year, according research by Attom Data Solutions.
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Real Estate Trends

Trump Tower residents are sick of protestors; problem unlikely to improve

Photo via Kristal T/Flickr

November 11, 2016

Trump Tower residents are sick of protestors; problem unlikely to improve

Since Donald Trump announced his run for office, Trump Tower, where the President-elect both lives and keeps his political headquarters, has been a hotspot for protestors. While in the past few months, inconveniences haven't escalated far beyond anti-Trumpers stopping by to give the building the finger, after the 2016 election results were announced, it's become veritable zoo outside the 5th Avenue tower as thousands have convened to denounce (and to be sure, support) a Trump presidency. The situation has become a major disruption for residents of the luxury skyscraper who are now annoyed with the crowds. As The Post so fittingly writes, "It’s not so easy being a member of the 1 percent if you live at Trump Tower."
more on the complaints here

November 10, 2016

Real estate industry likely to benefit from a Trump presidency

The city's real estate industry isn't too worried about a Donald Trump presidency. Real estate insiders feel that the man whose family's fortune was made in the industry and padded by its favorable tax breaks, foreign investments and still-rising market will be unlikely to bite the hand that has fed it so well, Crains reports.
Loopholes safe; affordable housing not so much

November 10, 2016

Sports Illustrated model Kate Bock picks up sleek, $1.35M Greenwich Village duplex

By Annie Doge

Things have been heating up between Cleveland Cavaliers basketball player Kevin Love and Canadian supermodel Kate Bock, but the Sports Illustrated beauty doesn't seem to be settling down in Ohio anytime soon. The Post reports that she's the lucky new owner of this sleek Greenwich Village duplex, last listed for $1.35 million. Located in the Cast Iron Building at 67 East 11th Street, the one-bedroom loft boasts a mod, all-white interior highlighted by two enormous ten-foot windows and a contemporary floating staircase.
Take a look around

November 9, 2016

Soori High Line penthouse with its own private pool hits the market for $22.5M

By Emily Nonko

The new Chelsea condo Soori High Line, at 522 West 29th Street, has made headlines for apartments that come with their own private pools. And now one of the building's most luxurious condos has hit the market—a penthouse triplex asking $22.5 million. This pad boasts nearly 20 foot ceilings and one incredible, 25-foot-long, four-foot-deep heated rooftop pool.
Take a look

November 8, 2016

Even more pricey condos are coming to Billionaires’ Row

Back in September, there were murmurs that the Feil Organization had plans to convert a 57th Street office building into residences. As it turns out, Billionaires' Row will indeed soon find itself with another 34 high-end condos in tow. As Yimby first reports, plans were filed last week to convert a 14-story, 1907 commercial tower at 140 West 57th Street into a mixed-use property that would keep an existing grocery story at its base, but transform the building's upper 12 floors into 70,885 square feet of upscale living space.
more details here

November 7, 2016

Proposed Penn Station-topping free-fall ride gets new video, details

When developers at Brooklyn Capital Partners and designers at AE Superlab revealed their proposal to erect the world's tallest free-fall ride atop Penn Station, it seemed like perhaps a commentary on Governor Cuomo's big-ticket overhaul of the station. But in fact, the team hoped their 1,200-foot Halo, as it's being called, would rise along with the renovations, serving as "an interactive beacon for the city." As 6sqft reported, "the ride’s 11 cars... could be modified to move as quickly as 100 miles per hour giving it a top-to-base free fall of about six seconds." A freshly uncovered video shows this in action, and a new project website provides more details on the logistical components, 20-month construction time period, and $130 million in annual projected revenue.
Plenty more details this way

November 7, 2016

Interior renderings, more details revealed for Richard Meier’s Turtle Bay tower

The largest and tallest building in NYC from Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier is rising at 685 First Avenue, just south of the United Nations at 39th Street and First Avenue along the East River. Though developer Sheldon Solow bought the 30,000-square-foot site as part of his Turtle Bay South master plan 16 years ago, construction only kicked off in March. A couple months later, renderings were revealed of the 42-story slab tower's dark glass facade--a departure from Meier's typical beige designs and his first ever black building--and now the Times has shared the first interior renderings, along with new details about the residential breakdown (there will be 408 rentals and 148 condominiums) architectural specifics, and amenities.
More details and renderings this way

November 3, 2016

The number of high-income renters has tripled in the last 10 years

By Metro New York

In the last decade, with the recession and an unstable housing market, even those with stable incomes have become wary of investing in a new home. This turn towards renting is reflected in the increase among wealthy households, according to an analysis from RentCafe. The data shows that from 2005 to 2015, the number of […]

Real Estate Trends

November 3, 2016

Live like a ‘Dreamgirl’ in Jennifer Hudson’s former Apthorp apartment for $21K a month

By Annie Doge

If anyone needs another reason to covet a home in the amenity-packed Apthorp, the apartment that was recently home to"Dreamgirls" Oscar winner and singer Jennifer Hudson is on the rental market for a suitably diva-esque $21,000 a month (h/t New York Post). The 3,000 square-foot 11th floor unit in the elegant Upper West Side residence at 2211 Broadway has plenty of star power on its own with four bedrooms, a marble entryway, a formal dining room, fireplaces and separate residential suites.
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November 2, 2016

15 CPW still NYC’s most expensive building; 56 Leonard joins lineup of 100 priciest condos

Even after countless big ticket closings at blockbuster buildings like 432 Park Avenue and The Greenwich Lane, the long-admired Robert A.M. Stern-designed, Zeckendorf-developed 15 Central Park West (15 CPW) remains king. According to CityRealty's latest CR100 report—an index comprised of the top 100 condominium buildings in Manhattan—units in 15 CPW sold on average for $6,735 per square foot over 12 months, a number that is impressively higher than the index average of $2,824. Tribeca's Herzog & de Meuron-designed "Jenga tower," 56 Leonard also made its debut on the latest CR100, clocking an average price per square foot of $2,657.
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Real Estate Trends

November 2, 2016

Sales launch for Extell’s Lower East Side tower One Manhattan Square