Real Estate Trends

August 11, 2016

As Rental Inventory Increases, Landlords Are Offering Up More Concessions

According to Douglas Elliman's latest market report, landlord concessions (covering broker's fees, offering free months' rent, doling out $1,000+ giftcards) have doubled over the past year for Manhattan and Brooklyn rentals, coinciding with a roughly 30 percent increase in inventory in both of the boroughs. Jonathan miller, author of the report, told DNAinfo, "There’s just been more product brought into the market through more development. More inventory has brought more concessions, more modest price growth and kept vacancy rates elevated. This has been a five-year development boom. It’s already having an impact."
What's going on?

Real Estate Trends

August 10, 2016

New Renderings of Bjarke Ingels’ High Line Towers Show Crowns and Amenity Bridges

By Dana Schulz

It was all the way back in November 2015 that 6sqft got a first look at Bjarke Ingels' pair of asymmetric, twisting towers along the High Line at 76 Eleventh Avenue. At the beginning of this year, the design changed to a simpler silhouette with more space in between the 28- and 38-story buildings, and now NY Yimby has revealed yet another group of renderings that reveal even more revisions. The fresh images reveal the glass crowns at the 300- and 400-foot tops, the retail podium and plaza fronting the High Line, and two amenity-filled podium bridges that will connect the towers (an idea perhaps borrowed from SHoP's American Cooper Buildings).
See all the renderings here

August 10, 2016

Revealed: Kenneth Park Architects Reimagine Penn Plaza as a Vibrant Public Space

By Michelle Cohen

The past decade has seen an increasing effort to transform New York City's under-utilized–and sometimes dismal–public spaces into pedestrian plazas and other vibrant and attractive public oases. From Columbus Circle and Times Square to Downtown Brooklyn's Willoughby Street, new car-free spaces encourage passersby to linger and enjoy their surroundings. Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), one of the city's biggest landlords, has been working on a similar transformation of the urban sprawl that surrounds Penn Station and Madison Square Garden by implementing kiosks, seating and attractive architecture. Now, CityRealty.com has revealed new renderings from Kenneth Park Architects (KPA) showing their ideas and recommendations for repositioning retail space and optimizing pedestrian and vehicular circulation.
Take a look at the reimagined Penn Plaza

August 10, 2016

Ashton Kutcher Asks Governor Cuomo to Veto Airbnb Regulatory Law

By Dana Schulz

In June, both houses of the NYC legislature passed a bill that would impose fines of up to $7,500 on advertisers of illegal short-term Airbnb rentals. Current state law dictates that an apartment can’t be rented out for less than 30 days if the lease holder isn’t present, and a recent report estimated that 56 percent of the site's 2015 listings fell into this category. Though the law has been this way since 2010, it has yet to be seriously enforced. But ahead of the Governor's January deadline to sign the bill into law, big names in the tech sector, including actor, venture capitalist, and Airbnb investor Ashton Kutcher, are asking Cuomo to veto the bill.
More details ahead

August 10, 2016

Infographic: How Long Would it Take Top Olympians to Scale NYC’s Supertalls?

By Dana Schulz

Michael Phelps took his world record to 21 gold medals last night; Usain Bolt is poised to become the first athlete to win three golds at three Olympics; and Serena Williams (tied with sister Venus) has the most gold medals of any tennis player in the games. To have a little fun with these athletes' stats, CityRealty.com put together this infographic that shows how long it would take the Olympians to sprint, serve, and swim their way to the top of New York City's three tallest planned and built residential buildings -- the Central Park Tower, 111 West 57th Street, and 432 Park Avenue.
Check out the full-size infographic here

August 9, 2016

Apartment in Miles Davis’ Old Upper West Side Townhouse Sells for $500K

By Annie Doge

Just a couple months ago, an apartment in Miles Davis' old Upper West Side townhouse hit the market for $495,000, and the Post now reports that the charming one-bedroom has sold for $500,000 to "a woman who 'loves' the building’s jazz-music history." The jazz legend lived in the Renaissance Revival brownstone at 312 West 77th Street from roughly 1960 until he moved to LA in the mid '80s, often hanging out on the stoop with his neighbors and hosting other jazz greats like Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Dizzy Gillespie. And it was here that he wrote the music for his albums "Kind of Blue" and "Bitches Brew." After he headed west, the home was divided into six apartments.
See more of the apartment

August 9, 2016

Fire Island: Culture, Sand Dunes and Real Estate

By 6sqft

For New Yorkers looking for a break from the city’s summer pollution and noise, Fire Island has much to offer. Accessible via the Long Island Railway and Fire Island Ferries, the narrow strip of land running along Long Island’s south shore is one of the region’s few vacation spots that city residents can reach without a […]

August 8, 2016

27,000 Tons of Floating Concrete and Fabulous Feats of Engineering Make Pier 57 Peerless

By Michelle Cohen

In the summer of 1952, when the American economy was emerging with a roar from the stagnation of the Great Depression and World War II, engineer Emil H. Praeger was chosen to create a replacement for the Grace Line’s old Pier 57 which had been destroyed by fire. Described by the New York Times, the key to what makes the resulting replacement pier so special lies hidden below the pier shed in the Hudson River at the foot of West 15th Street; Rather than resting on a conventional pile field, the bulk of its weight is held up by three floating concrete boxes known as caissons, which are permanently anchored underwater. The unique foundation of the abandoned pier is the same foundation that will host a $350 million renovation of what is being called the SuperPier by RXR Realty and Youngwoo and Associates, thanks to a lease from the Hudson River Park Trust, with new tenants to include Google offices and Anthony Bourdain's new food market.
Find out more about how enormous blocks of concrete can float

August 6, 2016

Brooklyn’s Tallest Tower Finishes Construction and Commences Leasing

By Ondel Hylton

Back in 2007, a run-of-the-mill row of three- to four-story walk-up buildings bounded by Willoughby, Bridge and Duffield Streets was ordered to vacate to make way for a soaring mixed-use skyscraper developed by AvalonBay Communities. Without warning, shopkeepers were given between 30 and 120 days to clear out or face court eviction, evidence of the impact of gentrification on Downtown Brooklyn. The district's 2004 rezoning sparked the development of thousands of new apartments (6,400 in the pipeline according to our latest count) and is finally getting a dusting of office space too. Now, after an arduous, decade-long journey of assembling an 11-parcel site, clearing and excavating it, and throwing up nearly one million square feet into the air, Avalon has finally finished construction and has kicked off leasing of the building's upper collection of homes called Avalon Willoughby Square.
Get the scoop on Avalon's deals

August 4, 2016

If You’re Seeking Loft Perfection This $7,200/Month West Village Rental Is For You

By Michelle Cohen

This downtown Manhattan loft in a near-everything-cool spot at 321 West 13th Street between the West Village and the Meatpacking District may not be family-sized, but it definitely seems that no expense was spared in making this an authentic loft to call home. On the rental market for $7,200 a month ($7,500 furnished with Eames, Platner and an impressive art collection), the fifth-floor (by elevator), one-bedroom condo has a rare level of custom interior design that's understated and over-achieving when it comes to comfort and cool. Add open city views, a washer-dryer and plenty of closet space and you can see why that perfection theme keeps coming up.
View loft perfection from all angles

Interview: FXFOWLE’s Dan Kaplan on Building a More Sustainable New York City

By Diane Pham

Since opening in 1978, FXFOWLE has grown to become one of New York’s most prolific architecture firms, transforming the skyline with new and updated additions like the slick and sloping 35XV in Flatiron, showstoppers like 4 and 11 Times Square in Midtown, and their conversion of a massive Village medical complex into a luxurious celeb-filled residence called The Greenwich Lane. While FXFOWLE’s […]

August 3, 2016

Find Prewar Manhattan Glamor in Modern Midtown for $10K a Month

By Michelle Cohen

For old-world Manhattan living it would be hard to argue with the Parc Vendome, from its award-winning formal English tea gardens to graciously-configured apartments—like this 2,000 square-foot, two-bed-plus-office beauty—with wood-burning fireplaces, entry galleries and capacious closets. Built in 1931, the elegant two-building complex at 333 West 56th Street was converted to condominium apartments in 1983. In addition to space and charm and a fortunate location blocks from both Lincoln Center and Central Park, you'll have an impossibly lovely south-facing private terrace and open city views, all for $10K a month (gas and electric are included).
Get a closer look

August 2, 2016

Famed Basketball Sportscaster Marv Albert Buys $10M Tribeca Penthouse

By Annie Doge

It was all the way back in the fall of 2014 that sportscaster Marv Albert sold his Lincoln Square penthouse for $15 million. We're not sure where he's been living since, but he's just picked up another penthouse, this time at 5 Franklin Place in Tribeca, the new luxury condo from ODA Architects. According to city records released today, "the voice of basketball" paid $10.3 million for the 3,700-square-foot, four-bedroom home that comes with an additional 660 square feet of terrace space.
See what the place looks like

August 2, 2016

City Will Study Residential Rezoning of Gowanus, But Locals Want More Affordable Housing

By Dana Schulz

When the area surrounding the Gowanus Canal was designated a Superfund site by the EPA in 2010, it seemed all but impossible that the contaminated, warehouse-laden neighborhood could get on par with the rest of Brooklyn. But recent years have brought major cleanup efforts along the 1.8-mile Canal, leading to new additions like a Whole Foods (quite possibly the first sign of gentrification) and subsequent interest from developers in creating higher end housing. This fall, reports DNAinfo, the Department of City Planning will launch a study to explore a rezoning of Gowanus that would allow for more residential developments in what is currently an industrial section. Locals, however, have similar concerns to those who opposed the recent, controversial East New York rezoning--that it will only incentive developers, causing displacement of longtime residents, and that any affordable housing put forth in the plan would still be out of reach for the lowest income residents. They've therefore created their own redevelopment plan called Bridging Gowanus, which, as the Times notes, calls for "greater density and more affordable apartments in return for improvements and guarantees that preserve the precarious soul of the district."
More details ahead

August 2, 2016

Tom Brady and Gisele Pick Up a $20M Pad in Robert A.M. Stern’s 70 Vestry

By Annie Doge

Pre-deflategate, in 2013, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen bought a sprawling apartment at glassy Flatiron tower One Madison. The following year, they put it on the market for $40,000 a month, and it rented out in just two days. But it looks like they'll soon be selling, as the Post reports that the power couple has picked up a $20 million+ pad at Robert A.M. Stern's forthcoming Tribeca project 70 Vestry Street. Though it's not confirmed which unit they acquired, sources say it's 5,000 square feet, on a high floor, and comes with a large terrace. Rumor also has it they chose the waterfront building because of the privacy that its covered porte-cochère entrance provides.
More this way

August 1, 2016

Two-Bedroom Williamsburg Condo With Pool Views Gets a Price Chop to $1.5M

By Emily Nonko

The Williamsburg development 135 North 11th Street probably starts looking good to buyers every summer considering it boasts its own private pool, complete with lounge chairs and cabanas. This particular apartment, a two-bedroom unit, looks down upon the pool from a private balcony. The funky space has just gotten a price chop, reducing from its ask of $1.62 million to $1.495 million last week. It last sold in 2011 for $728,048.
Take a look around

August 1, 2016

Could Facebook’s Entry Into Residential Real Estate Offer a Model for Housing in Expensive Cities?

By Michelle Cohen

Facebook recently proposed a plan to create 1,500 apartments for employees near their Menlo Park, California campus, with 15 percent of the housing set aside for low-income families. According to Wired, "Urban planners and local developers call it a generous gesture that could bring sorely needed housing to the area." The company wants to construct two new office buildings and a hotel on land near its original campus to accommodate thousands of planned hires. Some people argue that the tech company getting into the property development game will actually drive up housing prices in a market that's already one of the nation's most expensive areas.
Would company housing help in New York City?

August 1, 2016

$3M Prospect Park South Mansion on Michelle Williams’ Street Sold in Only Two Hours

By Michelle Cohen

Recently, 6sqft brought you a look at an extraordinary 23-room mansion at 1305 Albemarle road, freshly-listed at a neighborhood record-setting $2.98 million. According to the listing agents (h/t Curbed) this impossibly grand home entered contract two hours after it officially hit the market. The head-turning house just happens to be on the same street in quiet Prospect Park South as the Colonial Revival-style mansion recently purchased by Michelle Williams; it was a key location in the Oscar-winning film “Reversal of Fortune,” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” did some filming on the home’s first floor. We don't know if it was the fame factor, the 10,000-plus-square-foot size, the 30-foot Ionic columns at the entrance, or the unbelievably massive and dramatic third floor ballroom complete with wet bar, but we can see plenty of reasons this house would find a new owner in a flash.
See it all right here

July 31, 2016

Revealed: Rem Koolhaas’ First NYC Building in Gramercy

By Dana Schulz

As 6sqft previously reported, "thirty-eight years after the publication of his acclaimed book 'Delirious New York,' Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his global architecture firm the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)... have finally landed their first ground-up New York City commission." And now, CityRealty.com has uncovered the first official renderings of the two-towered condo development, located at 122 East 23rd Street in Gramercy. The Pritzker Prize winner has designed a crystalline glass and concrete facade with a chiseled corner on the north building that exposes its glass edges. In between the two buildings will be a courtyard surrounded by private apartment terraces. The courtyard will lead into a pool area, children's play area, and screening and party rooms on the building's lower levels. There will also be a robotic parking system that brings cars to underground storage.
More details

July 29, 2016

The Bronx Dethrones Brooklyn for Most Residential Permits Issued

By Dana Schulz

For the past four years, Brooklyn has had more residential permits issues through the Department of Buildings than any other borough. But according to a report from the New York Building Congress shared by DNAinfo, during the first six months of 2016, the Bronx has taken the lead, accounting for nearly 32 percent of all permitted units, a major jump from its 11 percent average over the past four years. For comparison, last year Brooklyn had a staggering 26,000 units permitted, but this year fell to 1,400; the Bronx had 1,900 units authorized this year. Brooklyn's sharp decrease is part of a city-wide drop after the 421-a program expired at the beginning of the year that caused developers to rush to get their permits in at the end of 2015. But the Bronx's surge is likely due to a huge affordable housing push: "More than 43 percent of the units that began construction in the first six months of this year under Mayor Bill de Blasio's ambitious affordable housing plan... were in the Bronx."
More on the trend

Real Estate Trends

July 29, 2016

Floor-Through, Two-Bedroom With Historic Touches Asks $9,500/Month in the Village

By Emily Nonko

Charm abounds at this two-bedroom West Village apartment, which spans a full floor of the 1875 brownstone building 69 Perry Street. The interior boasts some beautiful historic details like moldings, carved fireplace mantles and original shutters. The fully-furnished apartment also comes with the owner's impressive collection of antique mantel pieces, 19 century paintings and antiques, and an Italian ceramic collection. Overall, not a bad spot to cozy up for a year.
See more of the apartment

July 28, 2016

Hip Apartment With Spacious Private Balcony Asks $695K in Ridgewood

By Emily Nonko

This super-stylish condo apartment comes from the Glenridge Mews, a complex in Ridgewood, Queens comprised of nine interconnected buildings with private walk-ways lined with lush greenery and landscaping. The outdoor space doesn't end at the apartment, as the 1,089-square-foot pad comes with a 75-square-foot private balcony large enough for a modest outdoor dinner party. And inside, tons of windows and exposures to the east, west and south ensure a bright, cheerful spot that's now asking $695K.
Take a tour

POLL: Will Whole Foods Drive Up Real Estate Values in Harlem?

A rendering of the new Harlem Whole Foods

July 28, 2016

POLL: Will Whole Foods Drive Up Real Estate Values in Harlem?

By Dana Schulz

6sqft has previously written about the Whole Foods Effect--the pattern of real estate values increasing when a new grocery store opens nearby. In fact, national data from Yahoo! Finance showed that "homes with a Whole Foods in the ZIP code appreciated by nearly 34 percent." And here in New York, the Effect seems to be taking hold in Harlem, where a Whole Foods will open next year at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue in a six-story commercial building spanning over 200,000 square feet (other tenants will include Burlington Coat Factory, Nordstrom Rack, Olive Garden and TD Bank). Citi Habitats agent Chyann Sapp told the Post that "there’s a one-bedroom two blocks away for $1,800. And the owner said that once Whole Foods opens he thinks he could easily get $2,000, $2,100 for it." The store was first announced in 2012, at which time the area's price per square foot was $594, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel. As of 2015, it had risen to $839. Similarly, townhouse prices have doubled from $2 million to $4 million in this time.
Is Whole Foods behind it?

Real Estate Trends

July 28, 2016

Rupert Murdoch’s Multi-Terraced West Village Townhouse Sells for $27.5M in Just Five Months

By Michelle Cohen

Last August 6sqft reported that News Corp. head and Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch had put his West Village townhouse–the one he'd bought just five months prior for $25 million–on the market. Now, just five months after listing the 25-foot-wide, four-story brick home for $28.9M, the house has found a buyer, the New York Observer reports. Whomever is behind the entity known as West 11th Street, LLC has purchased the 6,500-square-foot Greek Revival manse for $27.5 million. The deal represents a $2.5M profit for Murdoch (and we all know how much he needs a few more million).
See what else makes this townhouse so buy-able

July 26, 2016

Maya Angelou’s Historic Harlem Brownstone Finds a Buyer for $4M

By Dana Schulz

The historic Harlem brownstone of author, poet, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou listed for $5.1 million in February, and after a drop to $4.95 million in March, it's now found a buyer for a reduced price of $4 million, The Real Deal tells us. Dr. Angelou purchased the four-story home, built in 1909 in the Mount Morris Park Historic District, sight unseen in 2002 to serve as her northeast residence when she wasn't teaching at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. But she didn't move in until 2004 (vandals had turned it into a "dilapidated shell"), when East Harlem-based architect Marc Anderson had completed a gut renovation that added contemporary amenities such as an elevator, two skylights, and a basement entertainment area, while retaining historic details like the original oak-front door, wainscoting, carved banister, and decorative fireplaces.
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