Real Estate Trends

Since 6sqft checked in last November, Harlem's most anticipated condominium building, Circa Central Park, has wrapped up its structural frame and is preparing to be covered in its glass, metal, and brick skin. Now, as we await sales to officially launch, the building's designers, FXFOWLE Architects, give us our first full look at the building inside and out.
Lots more info and renderings

January 28, 2016

Comedian Louis C.K. Buys Third Unit in West Village Brownstone for $565K

By Annie Doge

Louis C.K. is a self-professed lover of the Village, and he's certainly putting his money where his mouth is, as he's just picked up a third unit at 345 West 4th Street, a ten-unit co-op. The comedian and his ex-wife, painter Alix Bailey, paid $564,900 for the country-charming studio, according to The Real Deal. The former couple (C.K. has spoken publicly about retaining a good relationship with his ex for the sake of his two daughters) bought their first unit in the building in 2006 for $250,000, and then another in 2013 for $475,000.
See the rest of the pad

January 28, 2016

Affordable Housing Lottery Launched for Lincoln Center Tower, Units Start at $566/Month

Glenwood Management has just launched their affordable housing lottery for 52 below-market rate apartments within their soon-to-debut rental tower at 175 West 60th Street. Situated within the Lincoln Center area of the Upper West Side, 20 percent of the building's 257 units will be set aside for low-income residents and will range from $566/month studios to $931/month two-bedroom units.
Find out if you qualify

January 27, 2016

Facebook Co-Founder Revealed As Buyer of $23.5M West Village Townhouse With an Underground Tunnel

By Annie Doge

When it was revealed last week that Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes sold his massive Soho loft for $8.5 million, it was also speculated that he and husband Sean Eldridge were the buyers of a $23.5 million West Village townhouse. When that sale hit records in September, the name on the deed was revealed as Tom van Loben Sels, the same person behind the recent Soho transaction. The Post now confirms through their sources that the power couple are in fact the lucky new owners of the historic home at 157 West 12th Street. According to the paper, the landmarked home has an underground tunnel. The ten-foot-wide and "well-lit" passageway apparently has "no tunnel feel at all" and starts in the home's finished basement, ending at a staircase that leads to the carriage house that can be used as a guest house. Other perks of the three-bedroom, 4,164-square-foot spread include a wine cellar, home theater, wood-burning fireplace, exposed brick, 19th-century columns, and a "book-lined library" (likely a selling point considering the men had a similar room in their last place).
More here

Real Estate Trends

January 26, 2016

Beautiful Brick and Wood Make This West Village Rental Beyond Cozy

By Emily Nonko

If any "Sex and the City" fans out there have lingering dreams of renting a lovely apartment in a West Village brownstone, this two-bedroom unit is looking promising. (Only steps from Magnolia Bakery, the listing says!) It's a fourth-floor walkup on the top-floor of the brownstone at 283 West 11th Street. Once inside, it isn't hard to warm up to this apartment, with its fireplace, exposed brick, and overall charm. Plus, there's a roof deck, which is shared by the building, right above you. It is now on the rental market for $5,600 a month—so sadly no, not a rent most freelance writers like Carrie could afford.
Take a look around

January 26, 2016

Could This Modern Residential Tower Replace the Historic Barney’s Building at 115 Seventh Avenue?

Bargain hunters were distraught when Loehmann's shuttered their NYC locations two years ago. It perhaps hit hardest at their Chelsea location, at the northeast corner of 16th Street and Seventh Avenue. Later that year it was announced that upscale retailer Barney's would be opening a five-level store in the space, which also happens to be the site where they were founded in 1923, and remained until 2007. Next door, at the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 16th Street, also once part of Barney's downtown flagship, 6sqft has uncovered a rendering showing a modern residential tower with a retail base that may replace the historic Romanesque-style building.
Get the full story right here

January 25, 2016

First Look at JDS Development’s Boutique Condos Coming to Williamsburg

By Heather Cooper Vivares

Near the Williamsburg waterfront and steps away from Bushwick Inlet Park (home to the famed Smorgasburg), Largo Investments and minority partner JDS Development have hatched plans to build a boutique condominium building at 71-73 North 7th Street. The four-story, 15,000-square-foot development will expand upon the structural bones of an existing single-story building, ultimately creating four capacious apartments.
More details on the project

January 24, 2016

Friedland Properties Finally Settles on Design of 2230 Broadway

By Heather Cooper Vivares

Foundation work continues apace on Friedland Properties' and Rose Associates' upcoming 72-unit apartment tower at the southeast corner of Broadway and West 80th Street. Tentatively addressed as 2230 Broadway, the building will rise 18 stories and 227 feet to its rooftop stair bulkhead. This stretch of Broadway on the Upper West Side enforces a 210-foot height cap (to its highest occupiable floor) to keep new developments in scale with their surrounding historic context. According to building permits, Stephen B. Jacobs Group are the architects. Evidently, the project has gone through several iterations of design, but it seems the team has settled on this recently posted conservative red brick building with a light stone base and cornice lines. The new rendering is also in line with DOB filings and an elevation posted at the construction site.
More on the building

January 22, 2016

Modern, Massive Loft in Prewar Flatiron Building Asks $7.895 Million

By Emily Nonko

Space, volume and abundant light—those are the three virtues of this Flatiron loft apartment at 260 Park Avenue, according to its listing. When it comes down to it, we'd have to agree; it's hard to argue with 3,287 square feet of open loft space that includes a "great room" that spans more than 46 feet, 12 enormous windows covering multiple exposures, and a master bedroom that comes with a double walk-in closet that's probably the size of some studio apartments. This condo sits within an eight-story prewar building that long served as the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers. Well-known economist Richard Thaler purchased it in 2012 for $5.94 million and he's now trying to unload it for $7.895 million.
Take the tour

New Renderings for Chinese Lantern-Inspired Skyscraper at 470 Eleventh Avenue

Reaping the seeds of the Bloomberg administration's sweeping 2005 rezoning of the far west side, a consortium of developers led by Siras Development hopes to begin construction this year on a dramatic 720-foot skyscraper at 470 Eleventh Avenue. Anchoring the southeast corner of Eleventh Avenue and 38th Street, the 47-story tower will soar from a quarter-acre site across from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center that the developers purchased in 2014 for $110 million. The mixed-use project dubbed Hudson Rise will boast a total of 380,000 square feet split between a commercial podium, 328 hotel rooms/hotel condos, and topped by 40 condominiums that that will be marketed to Chinese buyers. Archilier Architects are the tower's designers, and though the firm has designed numerous large-scale developments in China, this will be their first in New York. Said to be inspired by traditional Chinese lanterns, the tower will be one of the most spatially complex skyscrapers in the city, distinguished by a vertical stack of alternating, cantilevering, and interlocking volumes that are clad in an array of facade treatments.
More details and renderings ahead

January 22, 2016

SOM Architects Reveal New Renderings of Hudson Yards-Adjacent Manhattan West Towers

Click here to enlarge overview map >>

Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has released new drawings of the Brookfield Properties-developed Manhattan West project located between 32nd and 33rd Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues, Dezeen reported today. The glass-clad Manhattan West towers–punctuated by green public space–will be rising next to the Hudson Yards development. The five-million-square-foot project will include two office towers, a rental tower with 844 apartments at 435 West 31st Street, retail space and a new landscaped public plaza designed by James Corner Field Operations, the firm responsible for the design of the High Line.
Take a look at the latest images

January 21, 2016

Facebook Co-Founder Gets $8.5M for Massive and Masculine Soho Loft

By Annie Doge

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and husband Sean Eldridge, financier and former Democratic congressional candidate, make quite the power couple. So it comes as no surprise that the dapper duo got $8.5 million, just below the $8.75 million asking price, for their bespoke Soho loft at 30 Crosby Street. They bought the home for $4.5 million in 2010, and then undertook a serious renovation that resulted in a masculine but elegant interior. It hit the market back in August, and now the Observer reports that the massive 4,100-square-foot pad has been picked up by Helliot Property Holdings Inc.
Take a look around

Amtrak Estimates Penn Station and Hudson River Tunnel Projects Will Cost $24B

January 21, 2016

Amtrak Estimates Penn Station and Hudson River Tunnel Projects Will Cost $24B

When Governor Cuomo announced his $3 billion revamp of Penn Station earlier this month, skeptics were quick to point out that all the glassy new structures and reconfiguration of waiting rooms won't do anything to help the fact that the Hudson River rail tunnels are crumbling. Clearly on the same page, Amtrak announced yesterday a detailed overview of the entire infrastructure project, and it comes in at a whopping $23.9 billion. According to the Times, "the largest share of about $7.7 billion [will go towards] building the new Hudson tunnel and repairing the existing tunnel. The project includes a host of other elements, including expanding Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan at an estimated cost of $5.9 billion, and replacing rail bridges in New Jersey."
Find out more

January 21, 2016

Broker Ipsum: The Real Estate Babble Generator

You may have heard of Lorem ipsum, the placeholder text commonly used in design and publishing, but have you heard of Broker ipsum? The new tool, a brokerbabble generator, comes from NeighborhoodX and pokes fun at the sometimes rambling jargon used in real estate listings. Simply tell Broker ipsum how many paragraphs you need and you'll get a mashup of common listing terms and Latin words such as "Stunning views commodo ligula eget dolor" or "Classic 6 quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque one-of-a-kind, pretium quis, sem."
READ MORE

January 21, 2016

Colorful, Classic and Costly—This Full-Floor Flatiron Rental Loft Asks $9,800/Month

To be honest, we're finding this 2,500 square-foot full-floor rental loft in a pre-war Flatiron District building at 4 West 22nd Street super exciting... It's got a somehow just-right combination of gorgeous loft bones, creative-cool decor, lots and lots of space, and two actual bedrooms (that are decent-sized) plus possibly room to create a temporary third, actual closets, and a kitchen that looks like it can't wait to cook, party, or both at once; the neighborhood is a fortunate confluence of everything newly-trendy in Manhattan. The rent, it seems, has been assigned accordingly at $9,800—the owners are banking on plenty of people getting just as excited.
Take a look inside

January 21, 2016

Victoria’s Secret Angel Lais Ribeiro Struts Into $2.5M Chelsea Condo

Victoria's Secret Angel and top model Lais Ribeiro recently closed on a 1,279-square-foot, two-bedroom unit in the Karl Fischer-designed Slate condo at 165 West 18th Street listed at $2.49M (h/t NYP). The 25-year-old Brazilian model has walked for Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs among others, and has a seven-year-old son, Alexandre. The unit–for which Ribeiro reportedly paid close to the $2.49 million ask–has a private balcony, walls of floor-to-ceiling windows, and Brazilian hardwood floors.
Check out the new model HQ

January 20, 2016

Units Come Online for 180 East 88th Street, Tallest Building Between 72nd Street and Albany

In spite of a bristling array of glass spires erupting into our man-made mountain range and a global high-rise boom remodeling world cities into alien, cutting-edge anonymity, Manhattan stubbornly manages to appear tellurian. But Joseph McMillan's integrated real estate investment and design company DDG has emerged as one firm genuinely committed to nurturing and progressing our architectural zoo of a city. Their past projects–345 Meatpacking, 41 Bond Street, XOCO 325, and 12 Warren– transcend common architectural styles, clad in a unique palette of materials and composed of an uncanny mashup of parts informed by context, nature, and technology. DDG's latest exotic specimen comes to the architecturally conservative Upper East Side 'hood of Yorkville, at 180 East 88th Street (1558-1556 Third Avenue). The 32-story, 521-foot development will not only be the team's first uptown building, but also their first high-rise. DDG purchased the three-lot parcel from Muss Development for $70 million in 2013, and groundwork earnestly began last spring.
Lots more details and renderings this way

January 20, 2016

Lovable Park Slope Apartment Perched on the Top Floor Asks $3,900 a Month

By Emily Nonko

Yes, a top floor apartment can often mean an annoying walk up the stairs to get there. And for this prewar building in Park Slope, at 523 8th Street, that's likely the case. This apartment is located on the top floor of the four-story, 11-unit building. But we'll venture to say this walk-up is worth it, considering how charming the space is. It's a two-bedroom rental with details like tin ceilings, carved entryways, and lovely views of the treetops below. It's also just a half block away from Prospect Park.
Check it out

Staten Island’s Abandoned Farm Colony to Undergo $91M Development for Senior Housing

Rendering via Nancy Owens Studio

January 20, 2016

Staten Island’s Abandoned Farm Colony to Undergo $91M Development for Senior Housing

Over a year ago, 6sqft shared the news that Staten Island's abandoned farm colony was set to undergo a massive rehabilitation that included a large senior housing building and a massive public park. And just yesterday, the City Council approved the New York City Economic Development Corporation's plan to sell 45 of the site's 96 acres to Staten Island developer Raymond Masucci for $1, according to the Times. Mr. Masucci will pour $91 million into the project, dubbed Landmark Colony, rehabilitating five crumbling Dutch Revival-style structures, tearing down five more but saving their stones for reuse, preserving a 112-year-old dormitory "as a stabilized ruin," constructing 344 condominiums for the 55 and older crowd, and designing 17 acres of public outdoor space.
More on the project and the history of the site

January 19, 2016

It Only Makes Sense to Buy a Home in NYC After 18 Years, Longer Than Anywhere in the U.S.

Renting in New York can get exhausting–the dreaded lease renewal letters, the constant moves, the thought of shelling out tens of thousands of dollars each year to pay someone else's mortgage. But is it really worth it to buy a home in NYC? According to data from personal finance site SmartAsset, it's only a good decision after you've lived in New York for 18.2 years, longer than anywhere else in the nation by far (h/t Business Insider). The study looked at 29 major cities across the U.S. and calculated their breakeven point–"the point at which the total costs of renting become greater than the total costs of buying." As a baseline, they used a household earning $100,000 annually with a 4.5 percent mortgage rate, a 20 percent down payment, and $2,000 in closings costs.
More details ahead

Real Estate Trends

Confirmed: Calatrava’s WTC Transportation Hub Will Open First Week of March!

Santiago Calatrava: WTC Transportation Hub , New York (Photo: Mega Projects and Skyscrapers, via YouTube)

January 19, 2016

Confirmed: Calatrava’s WTC Transportation Hub Will Open First Week of March!

The Port Authority has announced today in a press release that the World Trade Center Transportation Hub—anchored by architect Santiago Calatrava's Oculus–will open the first week of March. The hub will link the World Trade Center PATH station and "enable travelers to have a seamless connection with 11 New York City subway lines and the East River ferries in addition to access to PATH trains."
What about the mall?

January 15, 2016

Fox and News Corp. Ditch Plans to Move Into 2 World Trade Center

By Diane Pham

Big news on the 2 World Trade Center front. After several months of negotiation and hashing out design plans, News Corp. and 21st Century Fox Inc. have decided not to move into the new tower. The Post first broke the news, reporting that the media companies will remain at their Midtown headquarters at 1211 and 1185 Sixth Avenue where they currently have a lease in effect until 2020. "After much careful consideration we have decided to maintain our New York headquarters and other business operations. We have extension options that could continue our occupancy on Sixth Avenue through 2025,” the companies wrote in a joint statement. Sources added that the move would have been "a huge distraction for the companies' global operations."
FInd out more here

January 15, 2016

Introducing Astoria’s Newest Rental Building: The ‘L’ @ 31st Drive

By Heather Cooper Vivares

Future Astoria renters, meet The "L" @ 31st Drive. Located on a sedate block at 23-36 31st Drive, the "L" is a brand-new 22-unit building with rentals ranging from $2,000/month studios to $3,200/month two-bedrooms. The design hewn by Gerald Caliendo Architects features a modern concrete and glass exterior rising five stories in height. Complementing its streamlined exterior, interiors boast floor-to-ceiling windows, light hardwood floors, clean white walls, and stainless steel appliances.
See more here

The Federal Government Will Start Databasing Secret Buyers of NYC Luxury Real Estate

The Time Warner Center, one of NYC’s most notorious buildings for secret foreign investment

January 13, 2016

The Federal Government Will Start Databasing Secret Buyers of NYC Luxury Real Estate