Manhattan

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

Images (L to R): 363 Bond Street, 525W52, Offerman House and 100 Steuben

July 22, 2017

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

Images (L to R): 363 Bond Street, 525W52, Offerman House and 100 Steuben Tour Hell’s Kitchen’s Industrially-Inspired 525W52 Courtesy of Field Condition [link] Bond Street Development Redefines Living Next to the Gowanus Canal; See Inside [link] New Rentals Launch with 1 Month Free at Historic Offerman House in Downtown Brooklyn [link] Leasing Kicks Off at […]

Real Estate Trends

Nearly complete tunnels under Hudson Yards need more funding to finish

Photo of Hudson Yards Amtrak tunnel encasement via Tutor Perini

July 21, 2017

Nearly complete tunnels under Hudson Yards need more funding to finish

By Devin Gannon

Currently, the first part of two box tunnels under the Hudson Yards development, below 10th and 11th Avenues on Manhattan’s west side, sits mostly finished. While construction of the final piece has yet to begin, when it’s complete the remaining section would link the tubes to the proposed new tunnel under the Hudson River, providing better access to Penn Station. However, according to the New York Times, both tunnel projects, which fall under the multi-billion dollar Gateway Program, lack the funding needed to finish.
More details here

July 20, 2017

eBay exec’s madly mod and colorful Chelsea pad asks $2.2M

By Michelle Cohen

eBay executive and Fab.com shopping site founder Bradford Shellhammer raced back from a vacation weekend to tour the Chelsea home he's now selling for $2.2 million. He's looking for more space that's "more about texture than color," the New York Post reports. In the years he's been a resident at 575 Sixth Avenue, Shellhammer has transformed the Chelsea loft into a Memphis-style-meets-mid-century-modern masterpiece in sherbet hues, complete with art by Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Refinery29 once called the home “The Most Colorful Apartment We’ve EVER seen.”
Have a look

Distinctive Homes

July 20, 2017

Colorful Pop art-filled East Village townhouse designed by Annabelle Selldorf asks $7.5M

By Michelle Cohen

The neighborhood is known for its tiny, cramped apartments, so living in an East Village townhouse already seems impossibly fortunate. But this four-story, 5,200-square-foot townhouse at 26 East 5th Street has the extra bragging rights to a top-to-toe renovation by starchitect Annabelle Selldorf. Built in 1900, this single-family home uses a 35-foot deep extension to add light and square footage, and the current residents have packed those square feet with a colorful Pop art collection and perfectly imperfect details. Minus the art, it's asking $7.5 million.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

Photo via Nick Allen on Flickr

July 19, 2017

Experts say NYC’s noise issues will only grow worse

By Devin Gannon

With its 8.5 million residents, honking taxis, constant construction and vibrant nightlife scene, New York City remains one of the noisiest places on Earth. Although quieter neighborhoods like the Upper East Side once offered a quiet reprieve from the city’s cacophony, these pockets of peace are getting harder to find as NYC’s population expands. As the New York Times reported, despite the fact that noise pollution has already been linked to harmful health effects like stress, hypertension and heart disease, about 420,000 noise complaints were filed citywide with the city’s 311 hotline in 2016, more than doubling the number of complaints made in 2011.
Find out more

July 19, 2017

Strikingly modern duplex rents for $15,000/month in a historic West Village co-op

By Emily Nonko

A renter gets the best of both worlds at this West Village apartment: a modern duplex with lofty, white interiors set in a historic, 1848 Greek Revival building along a cobblestone street. The building in question is 288 West 12th Street, a five-floor, eight-unit co-op. This particular three-bedroom can be rented for a cool $15,000 a month. Over 1,525 square feet, there are details like a wood-burning fireplace, 18-foot ceilings, and customized closets, not to mention access to a 350-square-foot private garden space.
See more of the modern pad

Distinctive Homes

July 19, 2017

The history of Fort George: Manhattan’s long-lost amusement park in Inwood

By Devin Gannon

Did you know Washington Heights and Inwood used to be home to a giant amusement park? In 1895, the Fort George Amusement Park opened on Amsterdam Avenue between 190th and 192nd Streets, overlooking the Harlem River in what is now Highbridge Park. Located in the same spot as George Washington’s fight against the British, "Harlem’s Coney Island" rivaled Brooklyn’s Coney Island with roller coasters, Ferris wheels, a skating rink, fortune tellers, music halls, casinos, and hotels.
Learn more about the Fort George Amusement Park

History

July 19, 2017

New York State gets approved for $550M loan for new Moynihan Station

By Devin Gannon

The first phase of Governor Cuomo’s plan to revamp Penn Station wrapped up last month with two new entrances opening on the corners of West 31st and West 33rd Streets and Eighth Avenue. Plus, the West End Concourse was expanded and now boasts a new color scheme, LED screens and murals. Adding to the project's progress, the state was approved for a federal loan on Tuesday for up to $550 million for the second phase of the plan, which will convert the Farley Post Office across the street into Moynihan Train Hall, expanding Penn Station floor space by 50 percent, as reported by Politico NY.
Find out more

July 19, 2017

Colorful decor pops against massive brick walls at this $6,950/month Gramercy rental

By Michelle Cohen

If you love Gramercy and you're into classic lofts and/or pre-war apartments you'd have to be thick as a brick to pass up this $6,950 two-bedroom rental opportunity–because this sizable sunny second-floor walk-up at 116 East 19th Street is of all of the above. Gut-renovated and air-conditioned, the apartment's multitude of brick serves as a reminder that you're in a New York City building and not, say, a North Carolina time share.
More lofty brick this way

Distinctive Homes

July 18, 2017

$2,500/month Soho studio fits a lot of storage and charm into 200 square feet

By Emily Nonko

The Soho cooperative 57 Thompson Street is full of apartments we like: like this cozy one bedroom asking $730,000 last year, or this dreamy two bedroom that was up for rent, or this straightforward one bedroom asking $625,000 last fall. Next up is the studio apartment #5F, now on the rental market for $2,500 a month. Located on a high floor of the six-story brick building, it's a bright, renovated space with pretty pre-war details intact and a good amount of storage for just over 200 square feet.
The bedroom nook is beyond cozy

Distinctive Homes

July 18, 2017

Asking $6,800/month, this compact Nolita penthouse has a sweet rooftop terrace

By Michelle Cohen

This effervescent and efficient top-floor apartment at 14 Prince Street in chic downtown boutique district Nolita has just arrived on the rental market. For $6,800 a month the compact, smartly renovated "penthouse" spans 920 square feet, has one (big) bedroom and offers the rare-in-NYC bonus of a private terrace.
See the rest of this bright Nolita pad

Photo via Wiki Commons

July 17, 2017

Hess Triangle is NYC’s smallest piece of private land

By Dana Schulz

If you've ever walked by the busy intersection of 7th Avenue South and Christopher Street, you've likely seen people snapping photos of the iconic corner-facing Village Cigars, but what you probably didn't realize is that they were standing on top of New York City's smallest piece of private land. The Hess Triangle sits on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of this Greenwich Village crossing, a small concrete slab with an embedded mosaic that reads "Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated For Public Purposes."
Find out the story behind this cryptic message and one of the city's best historic remnants

History

July 17, 2017

First closings commence at Zaha Hadid’s 520 West 28th Street

By Michelle Cohen

The architect’s signature curves and organic indoor and outdoor architecture made the late Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid’s 520 West 28th Street 6sqft’s Building of the Year. Now, closings have begun in the stunning Chelsea condo, starting with a pair of two bedroom units. Residences 9, which sold for $6 million, and 14, which sold for $6.2 million, are 2,147-square-foot two-bedroom homes with private balconies.
Find out more

July 17, 2017

Emma Stone’s former Chelsea townhouse gets a price chop and new looks inside

By Michelle Cohen

Back in January 6sqft reported that the 25-by-85-foot landmarked Greek Revival townhouse at 436 West 20th Street--with 9,000 square feet of interior space and a fully-stacked celebrity pedigree--had been re-listed for $19.75 million. The home, whose residents have included Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Glenn Close, Courtney Love and Olivier Sarkozy, has been on the market since 2010. Returning this summer for $18.75 million, the Chelsea home's five-unit configuration might prove daunting to prospective buyers, though a thorough structural and aesthetic renovation in 2013 plus the promise of almost $600,000 a year in rent certainly sound like positive attributes.
Take a look

On this day in 1645, a freed slave became the first non-Native settler to own land in Greenwich Village

Plan of New York map courtesy of Curriculum Concepts International

July 14, 2017

On this day in 1645, a freed slave became the first non-Native settler to own land in Greenwich Village

By Devin Gannon

In 1626, the Dutch West India Company imported 11 African slaves to New Amsterdam, beginning New York’s 200 year-period of slavery. One man in this group, Paolo d’Angola, would become the city’s first non-Native settler of Greenwich Village. As the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) discovered, and added to their Civil Rights and Social Justice Map, as a recently freed slave, d’Angola was granted land around today’s Washington Square Park for a farm. While this seems like a generous gesture from a slave owner, d’Angola’s land actually served as an intermediary spot between the European colonists and the American Indians, who sometimes raided settlements. This area, in addition to Chinatown, Little Italy, and SoHo, was known as the “Land of the Blacks.”
Find out more

History

July 14, 2017

Rosie O’Donnell drops $8M on a swanky Midtown East penthouse

By Annie Doge

Nearly two years after selling her chic Greenwich Village penthouse, Rosie O'Donnell finally has a new NYC home (she spends the majority of her time at her other house in Nyack). According to city records, Rosie dropped $8 million on a triplex penthouse at Midtown East's 255 East 49th Street. The uber-modern residence is a sprawling 3,563 square feet and has swanky features like a black granite fireplace in the living room, a huge glass walled television in the master bathroom, a sculptural Guggenheim-inspired staircase, an indoor two-person Swedish sauna, and a giant rooftop terrace with views of the Empire and Chrysler Buildings and the East River.
Take a look around

July 14, 2017

After three years, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s childhood home on the UES sells for $25M

By Dana Schulz

James T. Lee, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' grandfather, was a prolific NYC developer at the beginning of the 20th century, bestowing upon the city some of its most elegant co-ops like 998 Fifth Avenue and the Rosario Candela-designed 740 Park Avenue. He himself took up residency in the latter building when it was completed in 1930 and gifted another apartment in the Upper East Side building to his daughter Janet and her husband John V. Bouvier; Jackie O lived there with her parents between the ages of two to seven. In more recent years, hedge fund manager David Ganek and his wife bought the duplex in 2005 for $19.1 million, using it to also showcase their impressive modern art collection. The couple first listed the home for $44 million in 2014, and after several price chops, it's finally sold $25.25 million reports the Journal. Jacob M. Safra of the billionaire Safra family, of Brazilian banking fame, is the buyer.
Take a look

July 13, 2017

Meryl Streep’s daughter, actress Mamie Gummer, lists classy Chelsea apartment for $1.8M

By Annie Doge

When Meryl Streep is your mother it's hard not to get recognized, but actress Mamie Gummer has earned herself plenty of accolades in her own right, from starring in "Emily Owens, M.D." and having a title role in "The Good Wife" to winning a Drama Desk Award for her appearance in the play "Ugly Lies the Bone." True to her under-the-radar persona, Gummer's Chelsea apartment is simple yet classy, and according to LL NYC it's just hit the market for $1.8 million.
Check it out

Live around the corner from Harlem’s new Whole Foods for $1,015/ month

Image via Whole Foods’ Facebook

July 13, 2017

Live around the corner from Harlem’s new Whole Foods for $1,015/ month

By Devin Gannon

Image via Whole Foods' Facebook New Yorkers earning 50 percent of the area median income can apply for two affordable one-bedroom apartments for $1,015 per month at 40 West 126th Street. The Central Harlem multi-family building was renovated in 2013 and is just steps away from the 2 and 3 train lines, an abundance of restaurants and bars like the Red Rooster and Sylvia's, the Studio Museum in Harlem, both the Apollo Theater and National Black Theatre, and the city's latest Whole Foods that's set to open next week.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

July 13, 2017

Art Nerd NY’s top art, architecture, and design event picks – 7/13-7/19

By Lori Zimmer

Art Nerd New York founder Lori Zimmer shares her top art, design and architecture event picks for 6sqft readers! This week, party it up at PS1 Moma’s Night at the Museum, then get to the roots of the salsa movement in New York with the Museum of the City of New York’s walking tour. The Center for Architecture leads a tour about the space-age architecture of the 1964 World’s Fair, and the Design Trust for Public Space hosts a potluck at the park outside of the Holland Tunnel. Speaking of public space, Madison Square Park’s art installation will be the scene to experience yoiking, a northern Norwegian practice of channeling animal spirits with the voice. Interesting. Then, this weekend is all about outdoor festivals. Head to Governors Island for free kayaking, boating and fun for City of Water Day, or to the Rubin Museum for their annual free block party. Finally, Bar Tabac shuts down Smith Street in Brooklyn to celebrate Bastille Day—a French festival of food, drinks, and petanque!
Details on these events and more this way

July 13, 2017

Dry ice and solar power to be used in city’s $32M rat battle

By Michelle Cohen

Mayor Bill de Blasio declared Wednesday that he wanted "more rat corpses" in a $32 million crusade to rid the city's most plagued neighborhoods of the scurrying scourge. The New York Times reports that parts of lower Manhattan, the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx are the focus of the latest campaign that hopes to reduce the number of rats in those areas by 70 percent by the close of 2018. Among the battle's newly-forged weapons are 336 $7,000 solar-powered rat-proof garbage bins and an EPA-approved–and apparently very effective–method of killing rats in their holes using dry ice.
Psst...hey...pizza over here

City Living

July 13, 2017

One of NYC’s rare rooftop ‘cottages’ is for sale, asking $3.5M in the East Village

By Michelle Cohen

The listing calls the two-unit, three-story property that tops the condominium building at 72 East 1st Street "the most unique property in the East Village," and while it may not be the entire city's most interesting, it's definitely among them. The lower unit is a full-floor penthouse duplex, above which is perched a perfect replica of a New England cottage. The property is for sale for $3.5 million; while much has been written about the city's handful of rooftop cabins and cottages, they rarely appear on the market. In this case, the Nantucket-style cottage is an artists' studio, which makes it even cooler.
Check out this little sky cottage

July 12, 2017

Rent the lavish parlor floor of this 1900s Soho townhouse for $6,500/month

By Emily Nonko

Not every Soho apartment is a former warehouse loft--and here's proof. This one-bedroom unit takes up the parlor floor of the 20-foot-wide 1900s townhouse located at 200 6th Avenue, one block south of Houston Street. Stretching over 1,300 square feet, the interior is loaded with drool-worthy prewar details that include herringbone hardwood floors, two working fireplaces, crown molding, antique chandeliers and wall-mounted candelabras. For good measure, there's a nice display of exposed brick in the bedroom--a typical feature of the traditional Soho loft. The condo is up for rent for either six months or a year, asking $6,500 per month.
Go inside

July 12, 2017

Apply for 22 affordable units in East Harlem’s HAP Ten, from $913/month

By Devin Gannon

The HAP Ten building at 2211 Third Avenue and 121st Street in East Harlem was created by HAP Investment Developers and designed by Karl Fischer Architects, who employed a gray brick facade with metal panels and several rows of glass balconies. Starting tomorrow, New Yorkers earning 60 percent of the area median income can apply for 22 affordable apartments in the 108-unit building, ranging from $913/month studios to $1,183/month two-bedrooms. Amenities include a concierge, fitness center, rooftop terrace, parking, outdoor entertainment space, and bike room.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

First look at Central Park Tower’s palatial amenity spaces and apartment layouts

Central Park Tower renderings (Extell / AS+GG)

July 12, 2017

First look at Central Park Tower’s palatial amenity spaces and apartment layouts

By Michelle Cohen

We expected that Central Park Tower, the city's tallest-tower-to-be swiftly rising at 225 West 57th Street, would be giving Midtown record-smashers like 432 Park Avenue a run for their trophy-tower money. And now newly-revealed details uncovered from the building's EB-5 brochure offer a first glimpse of what the upcoming supertall's rivals could be up against. The preliminary overseas marketing images spotted by CityRealty show off the 1,550-foot-tall building's apartment layouts and the ultra-luxe amenity spaces that will sit high above the hotel and Nordstrom, the building's flagship retail tenant. Developer Gary Barnett's new condo development is the most expensive ever attempted in the city and is projecting a $4 billion sellout including retail and hotel tenants.
Sky palaces and amazing amenities this way

July 12, 2017

Construction of Columbia’s Manhattanville campus to create $6.3 billion in local investment

By Devin Gannon

More than ten years after it was first proposed, the expansion of Columbia University into Manhattanville is finally coming together, with its first building opening on Harlem’s west side. While some residents worried the expansion would infringe on the Harlem community, the president of the university, Lee Bollinger, said the ongoing construction will result in roughly $6.3 billion in local investment. As the Daily News reported, the school paid $578 million to minority-, women-, and locally owned firms for construction work in the last five years. The project also created more than 1,500 construction jobs each year.
Find out more

Real Estate Trends

My 415sqft: Go inside a mini Union Square penthouse filled with Moroccan rugs and collectibles

6sqft’s ongoing series “My sqft” checks out the homes of New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to the Union Square penthouse studio of Leonard Shaver. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch!

July 11, 2017

My 415sqft: Go inside a mini Union Square penthouse filled with Moroccan rugs and collectibles

By Dana Schulz

When Leonard Shaver moved into his studio penthouse 20 years ago, he never thought he'd be there two decades later. But thanks to a 320-square-foot terrace that not only makes the space feel twice its size but offers sweeping views of the skyline and Empire State Building, resurgence of the Union Square area, and the way his system of "organized chaos" has suited him, he now couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Admittedly a bit of a "hoarder," Leonard has an impressive set of Moroccan rugs, along with collections of Limoges Mona Lisa plates, Baccarat crystal, and shoes (yes, he even keeps them in the oven a la "Sex and the City"). 6sqft recently paid Leonard a visit to check out his home and learn about how he makes the small space work for himself and his two dogs Hunter and JJ.
Take the tour of Leonard's mini penthouse

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