Manhattan

A one-bedroom on the 57th floor of Trump Tower closed earlier this month for $1.825 million, marking just the second sale of 2018 at the Midtown building, as Mansion Global first reported. Comparatively, there were seven sales in 2017 and eight in 2016 at the building, developed by President Donald Trump. While the sales slump at Trump Tower reflects a broader decline in sales at luxury properties across Manhattan, politics surrounding the building may also be playing a role.
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Uncategorized

McNally Jackson bookstore announces move after 136% rent hike

McNally Jackson bookstore on Spring Street. Image by Carl Mikoy via Flickr.

October 22, 2018

McNally Jackson bookstore announces move after 136% rent hike

As one of New York City's finest all-around independent bookstores, McNally Jackson booksellers on Prince Street is a literary standby for the latest bestsellers as well as thought-provoking political non-fiction, art books, cards, magazines, readings and more. Though the shop occupies a spot on one of the city's most highly-trafficked "High Streets," it has endured for 15 years, long enough to be taken for granted. But that would, of course, be a mistake in the city's current environment of empty storefronts in high rent neighborhoods because only Amazon can afford the rent. And right about the time Amazon has opened a storefront in Soho, the beloved bookseller is moving out after the rent was raised to $850,000--a 136% increase. Fear not, the owner is opening again in a new location, but unlike other, less gutsy mom-and-pop proprietors, she has no fear of being very vocal about the issue, Fox5 NY reports.
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FREE RENT: This week’s roundup of NYC rental news

Images (L to R): The Niko East Village, 30-78 43rd Street, 633 Marcy Avenue and The Essex

October 20, 2018

FREE RENT: This week’s roundup of NYC rental news

By Ondel Hylton

Images (L to R): The Niko East Village, 30-78 43rd Street, 633 Marcy Avenue and The Essex 633 Marcy Avenue in Bed-Stuy Debuts Spacious 2- and 3-Bed Rentals from $2,565/Month [link] The Greystone: Prewar Upper West Side Rentals with Amenities from $2,395/Month [link] The Essex Launches: Tallest Building in Essex Crossing Offers Rentals with 1 […]

Real Estate Trends

October 19, 2018

$16M Upper West Side mansion with NYC’s third-largest ballroom will also accept bitcoin

This 10,720-square-foot, 32-foot-wide mansion with Riverside Park as a backyard and river views was built in 1879 as part of the Upper West Side's "gold coast." When hedge fund manager Roy Niederhoffer purchased the home for $12.9 million in 2013, it had been split up into multiple units. Niederhoffer restored the six-story home to its original mansion-style glory and is now selling the home for just under $16 million. The grand home at 40 Riverside Drive is possessed of the city's third largest ballroom in a private house, and as Bloomberg reports, the seller is accepting bitcoin, as he's a fan of the cryptocurrency.
Tour this impressive West Side manse

Distinctive Homes

Developers of controversial Two Bridges towers pitch $55M in transit and open space improvements

Via Handel Architects

October 18, 2018

Developers of controversial Two Bridges towers pitch $55M in transit and open space improvements

During a City Planning Commission hearing on Wednesday, local residents and officials of the Two Bridges community voiced their strong opposition to four towers planned for the Lower Manhattan neighborhood. Those who testified against the buildings questioned the developer's draft environmental impact study (DEIS), which found the projects would not cause displacement, amNY reported. Developers also announced measures to mitigate the potential adverse effects on the neighborhood, which include upgrading the F train station at East Broadway, improving public parks, and implementing flood protection measures.
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The East Coast’s largest Trader Joe’s opens at Essex Crossing

Image courtesy of Trader Joe’s.

October 18, 2018

The East Coast’s largest Trader Joe’s opens at Essex Crossing

Yet another Trader Joe's store has landed in New York City; the quirky discount grocery chain's newest location is scheduled to open tomorrow at the new Essex Crossing development on the Lower East Side, Bowery Boogie reports. The new TJ's–the seventh in Manhattan–is located in the lower level of 400 Grand Street, and the 30,000-square-foot emporium is being hailed as the largest one on the Eastern Seaboard.
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October 18, 2018

Where I Work: The Four Freedoms Park team talks Louis Kahn, FDR, and preserving a legacy

As a media sponsor of Archtober–NYC’s annual month-long architecture and design festival of tours, lectures, films, and exhibitions–6sqft has teamed up with the Center for Architecture to explore some of their 70+ partner organizations. In 2012, 40 years after it was conceived by late architect Louis Kahn, Four Freedoms Park opened on four acres on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. Part park, part memorial to FDR (the first dedicated to the former president in his home state), the site was designed to celebrate the Four Freedoms that Roosevelt outlined in his 1941 State of the Union address--Freedom of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear. In addition to its unique social and cultural position, the Park is set apart architecturally--the memorial is constructed from 7,700 tons of raw granite, for example--and horticulturally--120 Little Leaf Linden trees are all perfectly aligned to form a unified sight line. And with these distinctions comes a special team working to upkeep the grounds and memorial, educate the public, and keep the legacy of both Kahn and Roosevelt at the forefront. To learn a bit more about what it's like to work for the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy, we recently toured the park with Park Director Angela Stangenberg and Director of Strategic Partnerships & Communications Madeline Grimes, who filled us in on their day-to-day tasks, some of their challenges, and several secrets of the beautiful site.
Take the tour!

October 18, 2018

Style icon Beatrix Ost’s $4M Hotel Des Artistes duplex is just as fabulous as you’d imagine

By Annie Doge

Designed as an artist's cooperative apartment building and the largest "studio" building in the city, the Hotel Des Artistes at 1 West 67th Street on the Upper West Side is one of NYC's most famous and illustrious buildings. As one of a constellation of style stars in Ari Seth Cohen's "Advanced Style" universe, former model, artist and muse to fashionistas of all ages Beatrix Ost is beloved for her perfect balance of creativity, confidence and cool. In a rare confluence of New York City fabulousness, the apartment Ost has shared with her husband, Ludwig Kuttner, since 2006 is on the market for $4 million–and the offbeat but ridiculously stylish space is every bit what we'd expect.
Take the tour

October 18, 2018

‘Real Housewife’ Jill Zarin prepares to downsize, lists Upper East Side condo for $3.3M

By Annie Doge

After her late husband, Bobby Zarin, passed away earlier this year, original "Real Housewives of New York" cast member Jill Zarin has put her Upper East Side condo on the market for $3.3 million, after living there for 18 years. Since her daughter is also out of the house, she told Forbes, "it's time for a change of scenery," which likely be warmer weather since she added, "Since I love tennis, I want to spend more time in a climate that is suited for it." Likely in anticipation of selling, Jill renovated the three-bedroom apartment at 401 East 60th Street less than a year ago, working with designers at Schoeller + Darling on a contemporary makeover.
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Trump name finally gets dumped from Upper West Side apartment building at residents’ request

Photo via Nick Normal’s Flickr

October 18, 2018

Trump name finally gets dumped from Upper West Side apartment building at residents’ request

In May, after a year of resistance from the Trump Organization, a judge ruled that an Upper West Side condo could have the president’s name expunged from the exterior of their 46-story building. Condo owners at 200 Riverside Boulevard voted to remove the bronze letters spelling “TRUMP” on the building, where they have hung for nearly two decades. Today they get their wish as their building joins three neighboring ones in dumping the Trump sign, the New York Times reports. Workers will remove the offending letters from the front and rear facades of 200 Riverside Boulevard; the building will become known merely by its address, like so many others in the city.
Find out how they did it

Policy

October 17, 2018

‘Law & Order’ leading lady Mariska Hargitay lists stylish UWS brownstone for $10.75M

It's hard to believe actress Mariska Hargitay has been starring as NYPD Lieutenant Olivia Benson on "Law & Order: SVU" for nearly two decades, but when it comes to her living situation, she likes to change things up a bit more. She and her husband, actor Peter Hermann, bought a stunning Upper West Side brownstone for $10.7 million in 2012, and they've now put it on the market for $10.75 million. Hermann told the Wall Street Journal that they've decided to sell because their "family needs have changed," but they'd remain in the neighborhood. The six-story, 6,000+ square-foot home is located at 45 West 84th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus, and is "loaded with color and vibrancy,” according to Hermann, thanks to a collaboration with designer Jeffrey Bilhuber.
Take the grand tour

October 17, 2018

Asking $1.35M, this chic Village floor-through with a private garden is two studios waiting to merge

This prime Greenwich Village floor-through home at 19 West 9th Street just off lower Fifth Ave offers a fortunate opportunity: Located on the original garden floor in a row of three adjoining 1870s Italianate townhouses comprising a 16-unit boutique co-op, the space, asking $1.35 million, is currently divided into two studio units. The two apartments had previously been one open floor plan, and rejoining them, according to the listing, is as easy as re-opening a hallway closet to connect front and back.
Take a peek

Distinctive Homes

October 17, 2018

1940s Upper East Side Modernist mansion gets a price chop to $35M

Known as the Sherman Fairchild Mansion, the modern-fronted townhouse at 17 East 65th Street is one of those New York City sights that might cause you to do a double-take in the middle of an otherwise sedate Upper East Side sidewalk. The current façade of this five-story home was designed by William Hamby and George Nelson in 1940 for aviation pioneer/inventor Sherman Fairchild. Well-known architect Michael Graves was commissioned to design yet another facade for the home in 1979, but that version was never built. The 25-foot-wide, 9,440 square-foot modern townhouse has been on and off the market since 2014, beginning last year at $40 million. Now, this unique townhouse has engineered yet another re-debut with a discount, asking $35M.
Have another look inside

West Chelsea’s Starrett-Lehigh building to be expo space, food hall

Rendering courtesy of RXR.

October 17, 2018

West Chelsea’s Starrett-Lehigh building to be expo space, food hall

Plans for the block-deep Starrett-Lehigh building on Manhattan's far west flank just below Hudson Yards have been in discussion since the building was purchased by RXR Realty in 2011. RXR recently announced that the former freight terminal, built in 1931 and named a city landmark in 1986, will get new public life as a huge event and expo space, plus retail and a food hall. The 43,000-square-foot project will be designed by ICRAVE, who brought LeDistrict to downtown and are creating another food hall in nearby Hudson Yards.
Find out why the West Side needs another food hall

Uncategorized

October 16, 2018

A pastel kitchen takes the cake at this sweet East Village co-op, asking $550K

Everything about this East Village co-op can be described as cute, but it's the newly renovated kitchen that really has us swooning. Listed for a surprisingly reasonable $549,000, the one-bedroom pad at 633 East 11th Street also boasts chic whitewashed brick walls, ridiculously charming decor, and windows with rustic shutters.
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Distinctive Homes

Reserve tickets to celebrate Halloween with de Blasio at Gracie Mansion

Via de Blasio’s office

October 15, 2018

Reserve tickets to celebrate Halloween with de Blasio at Gracie Mansion

Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray on Friday opened the free ticket giveaway for festivities at Gracie Mansion this Halloween. From Friday, October 26 to Sunday, October 28, guests will be able to tour the historic home decked out in a haunted theme and enjoy activities like face painting, story-telling, a magic show, and arts and crafts. Expect both tricks and treats from the couple at this annual spooky celebration.
Here's how to get tickets

Events & Things To Do

October 15, 2018

15 Hudson Yards reveals model home with shoppable interiors by Neiman Marcus fashion director

The first phase of the Hudson Yards megaproject, including the public square and gardens and its centerpiece, Vessel, as well as The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, which will be anchored by NYC's first Neiman Marcus store, is preparing to open this March. Now, Fifteen Hudson Yards has announced that that Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing has designed and styled the interiors for a new model home at the 88-story luxury condominium. Furthering the connection between the upper-crust department store and the development's high-end aspirations is a freshly-launched Neiman Marcus microsite that will allow people to purchase select items in the residence.
Interiors you can buy, this way

October 15, 2018

Artist Abby Leigh unloads Upper West Side co-op for $4.8M

Abby Leigh may be famous around the world for her contemporary art, but here in NYC, she's becoming just as well known for her big-ticket real estate wheeling-and-dealing. In June of 2014, just three months after her husband, Tony-winning “Man of La Mancha” composer Mitch Leigh, passed away, she bought a $4.8 million Upper West Side artist co-op at 27 West 67th Street. The following year, she both listed her Upper East Side townhouse for $28 million (it sold for $20.4 million in 2016) and bought an $8 million home in one of the turrets of the former New York Cancer Hospital on the Upper West Side. And perhaps now Leigh has decided she only needs one UWS residence, as she's just unloaded the 67th Street residence for $4.8 million according to property records, breaking even on the sale.
Get a look around

October 15, 2018

The Village’s beloved pink townhouse lists as an $11M fixer-upper

Often noted for its unusual studio window and bright coral hue, the five-story townhouse at 114 Waverly Place was built in 1826 as part of a row of nine houses constructed for Thomas R. Mercein, who was at the time city comptroller and president of New York Equitable Fire Insurance Company. A dramatic overhaul in 1920 designed by William Sanger for portrait painter Murray P. Bewley is responsible for the building's quirkier design elements, which are credited to a German Expressionist style known as Jugendstil, a mix of English Art Nouveau and Japanese applied arts. This unusual Village house is now on the market for $11 million–with a few caveats.
Check it out

Sales launch at Extell’s Central Park Tower, the world’s tallest residential building

Via Extell

October 15, 2018

Sales launch at Extell’s Central Park Tower, the world’s tallest residential building

Sales have launched for Central Park Tower, the tallest residential tower in the world, Extell Development announced Monday. Located at 225 West 57th Street, the 1,550-foot tower is rising on Billionaires' Row, a strip of ultra-luxury residences at the southern end of Central Park in Midtown. While Extell hasn't officially released pricing for its 179 condos, the Real Deal reported last year that 20 of the units have a price tag of $60 million and higher, with a $95 million penthouse being the most expensive. If the building achieves its projected $4 billion sellout, the tower would become the most expensive condo project in New York City.
More here

Real Estate Trends

October 15, 2018

For $29M, an Upper East Side townhouse designed by the historic architects of NYC’s elite

The NYC architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich designed some of the turn-of-the-century's most sophisticated structures, from the Knickerbocker and Colony Clubs to the Rockefeller's upstate estate Kykuit to a slew of uptown mansions. At the time, they veered away from the popular Beaux-Arts style and popularized an Anglo-American mix of Neo-Classical and -Federal designs. One such example is this grand townhouse at 15 East 88th Street, just listed for $28.8 million. As the listing states, it's one of their few intact mansions remaining in private hands. And since it's had only a few owners over the years, it retains its historic details and stately facades.
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Distinctive Homes

How a Greenwich Village brownstone became known as the ‘House of Death’

Photo of 14 West 10th Street via Wikimedia; Photo of Mark Twain via Wikimedia

October 12, 2018

How a Greenwich Village brownstone became known as the ‘House of Death’

Despite its picturesque exterior, the building at 14 West 10th Street in Greenwich Village has a not-so-cute history. Since being constructed in the 1850s near the start of the Civil War, 22 people have died in the home, referred to as the House of Death. And as the New York Post reported, some of their spirits allegedly have never left. Residents have reported sightings of the spirit of Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, who lived at the building between 1900 and 1901, and other bone-chilling ghosts who have haunted the Greenwich Village block for over a century.
More on the haunted home here

October 12, 2018

Marvel Architects reveal condo conversion of 200-year-old Nolita school

Marvel Architects has completed its school-to-condo conversion in Nolita, bringing seven condos and one private townhouse to the former site of the Old St. Patrick's School on Prince Street. The project restored the facade of the four-story building, which was built in 1826, as well as its dormer windows and arched doorways. Because the interiors of the building, dubbed the Residences at Prince, were not landmarked, the architects were able to add new modern elements like steel columns and white oak floors while retaining original brick walls and roof timbers.
See it here

October 12, 2018

Nolita loft boasting barrel-vaulted ceilings and exposed brick asks $2.4M

By Emily Nonko

This Nolita loft is open, airy, and spans an impressive 1,800 square feet. The design is spot-on, too, complementing the lofty bones of the apartment that include vaulted, barrel ceilings and exposed brick. The building, 40 Great Jones Street, is believed to be built in the late 1800s. But everything here is thoroughly modern, from the flexible great room to the glass-panelled master bedroom.
Take a look inside

Distinctive Homes

How the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council has kept art thriving through FiDi’s ups and downs

Photo via LMCC

October 12, 2018

How the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council has kept art thriving through FiDi’s ups and downs

By Cait Etherington

When the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) was founded in 1973, it set out to bring the arts to Lower Manhattan, a neighborhood that already had an established reputation for being first and foremost a site of business, not pleasure. What the organization’s founder, Flory Barnett, could not have foreseen at the time of the LMCC’s founding is that over the coming four decades, Lower Manhattan would face more challenges than nearly any other New York City neighborhood. From the attacks on 9/11 to the devastating fallout of the 2008 economic crisis to the occupation of Zuccotti Park in 2011, in recent years, Lower Manhattan has been at the epicenter of some of the city’s and nation’s most historic moments. Throughout these events, the LMCC has persisted and in many respects, played a pivotal role in helping the neighborhood transition into the vibrant and diverse neighborhood it is today: a place where people not only work but also live and spend their leisure time.
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Events & Things To Do

October 12, 2018

A touch of Versailles comes to the Upper East Side in this luxuriant $2.2M co-op