Manhattan

December 13, 2016

Renderings revealed for 724-foot Lower East Side tower, final piece of controversial site

The historically low-income, low-slung neighborhood of Two Bridges--the area along the East River, near the footings of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges where the Lower East Side meets Chinatown--has become a high-rise hotbed over the past year. Despite the controversy that the four planned projects, all upwards of 700 feet, have caused, they're moving along fairly swiftly, and The Lo-Down now has the big reveal for the final site--Starrett Group's 259 Clinton Street. Perkins Eastman Architects have designed the 724-foot, 62-story glass tower, which will have ground-floor retail and 732 apartments, 25 percent of which will be permanently affordable with a good chunk being set aside for low-income seniors.
More details and renderings ahead

December 12, 2016

Westbeth Artists Housing starts its own post-it therapy project, ‘Write Now’

By Metro New York

A West Village exhibit is taking a page from the fluttering layers of post-it notes scrawled with messages of hope and frustration that have cropped up in underground passageways around the city since the election. The “Write Now” exhibit is adopting the zeitgeist—this apparent need among New Yorkers to both purposefully express their feelings and […]

Events & Things To Do

December 12, 2016

Office landlord SL Green may trade One Vanderbilt for J.P. Morgan’s two Midtown office towers

By Dana Schulz

SL Green, the city's largest office landlord, "pulled off one of New York's biggest office deals of 2016" when they secured $1.5 billion in construction financing for their supertall tower One Vanderbilt, which is expected to ultimately cost a whopping $3.14 billion. The developer is now looking to rake in even more dollars off the deal, reports the Wall Street Journal, as they've proposed to J.P. Morgan Chase (one of the Syndication Agents in the financing) a swap out where the bank would trade its two headquarters buildings at 383 Madison Avenue and 277 Park Avenue for the recently-under-construction, 1,401-foot office tower.
More on the story

Real Estate Trends

December 12, 2016

Willem Dafoe unloads Lower East Side co-op for $860K

By Annie Doge

Though he's usually cast as the villain, off screen, Willem Dafoe leads a much less destructive life, splitting his time between Rome, Los Angeles, and NYC with his Italian-born wife Giada Colagrande. While in the big apple, the actor resides in a West Village penthouse, but in 2005, he and his son Jack purchased a Lower East Side co-op for $606,000. It went on the market for $850,000 in May, and judging by the listing photos (a little bit artsy, a little bit messy), it was either the younger Dafoe (a public-policy researcher) or another renter who was living there. The Observer reports that it's now sold above ask for $860,000.
See the place here

December 12, 2016

Governor Cuomo is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about Second Avenue subway opening deadline

By Michelle Cohen

Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s chief of staff, said Friday that Governor Andrew Cuomo was “cautiously optimistic” about a December opening for the long-awaited Second Avenue subway project, according to AM New York. After several weekly visits to the under-construction 72nd Street site, the governor appeared confident that the MTA would be able to meet the project's December 31 deadline. U.S. representative Carolyn Maloney had also expressed confidence in the Second Avenue subway meeting its year-end deadline.
Find out more

Transit

December 12, 2016

Historic 1865 Chelsea firehouse was Andy Warhol’s 1949 refuge, now renting for $33K

By Michelle Cohen

The Chelsea Firehouse at 323 West 21st Street would be an historic icon based on its origins alone, beginning in the late 19th century as an actual firehouse, built to accommodate a shiny new horse-drawn steam pumper engine (h/t Daytonian in Manhattan). The mid-Victorian era structure not only survived the ensuing decades, but in 1999, Architectural Digest featured the duplex shown here, by then one of three luxury apartments, calling it "indisputably one of a kind." In the years between, the building was home to free-spirited performers and artists, including Andy Warhol and Philip Pearlstein who sought refuge here from seedy lodgings in the East Village. The designer-renovated, uniquely-configured 4,000 square-foot duplex in this storied building is now on the rental market for $33,000.
Find out more about this iconic home

December 10, 2016

Live like ‘Doctor Strange,’ Flatiron penthouse at 21W20 hits the market for $13.5M

By Ondel Hylton

Since being released last month, Marvel's "Doctor Strange" has grossed over $635 million worldwide, centering on the alternate dimension of an egotistical surgeon turned wizard, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. A few key scenes are filmed in Dr. Stephen Strange's spectacular Flatiron loft; the fictional abode would lie just west of Broadway and directly south of the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street. Coincidentally, a palatial and similarly-situated residence has just been released at Gale International's boutique condominium development 21W20. The full-floor unit, known as Penthouse One, boasts 4,841 square feet of interior space and 541 square feet of outdoor terraces and is just one of two remaining homes at the 13-unit project comprised of four penthouses designed by Beyer Blinder Belle.
READ MORE

Distinctive Homes

December 9, 2016

Duplex penthouse atop a prewar Tribeca condo renting for $25,000/month

By Emily Nonko

An opulent duplex penthouse that's been on the market since last year is trying its hand as a rental. Located at the Powell Building, a prewar Tribeca condo at 105 Hudson Street, the apartment is up for grabs at $25,000 a month. It first hit the market in 2015 asking $9 million, and has been slowly price chopped down to its current ask of $7.995 million. That sales or rental price will get you four bedrooms over 3,000 square feet, 3,300 more square feet of outdoor space and stunning views from the top of the building.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

December 9, 2016

The Urban Lens: Harlan Erskine explores an eerie Midtown after midnight in 2008

By Alyssa Alimurung

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment Brooklyn resident Harlan Erskine highlights the Midtown lobbies and streets past midnight, during the Great Recession. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. Though Midtown is now booming with larger-than-life skyscrapers and blockbuster condos along the likes of Billionaires' Row, 9 years ago at the peak of the Great Recession, it was a much different story. In 2008, Brooklyn photographer Harlan Erskine took to the city after dark and documented the ghost town that was Midtown. While New Yorkers are today used to seeing bustling crowds spilling into the streets at all hours, Harlan's photographs depict the polar opposite: empty office lobbies, streets and sidewalks.
photos this way

Places

December 9, 2016

Public petition asks Mayor de Blasio to back East River Skyway

By Dana Schulz

A month ago, U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, City Councilman Stephen Levin, and State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol drafted a letter to the Mayor, urging him to advocate for the East River Skyway as a solution for the impending L train shutdown. Building on this momentum, a digital petition addressed to de Blasio has launched on Change.org where the public can show their support for the plan, as well.
Find out more

Transit

December 9, 2016

Rent model Erin Heatherton’s rustic-chic West Village condo for $15K/month

By Michelle Cohen

Back in October Sports Illustrated and Victoria’s Secret model—and onetime Leonardo DiCaprio arm candy—Erin Heatherton put her renovated 1,345 square-foot, two-bedroom Village condo at 1 Morton Square on the market for $2.85 million; we don't know if her thorny relationship with the building's condo board has had anything to do with it, but the two-bedroom apartment's rustic-chic interiors like exposed beams, stacked wood in the kitchen and stunning La Cornue range, plus a massive custom walk-in closet, have not yet found the model buyer: The apartment is now on the rental market for $15,000.
Take the tour

December 8, 2016

NYU reveals design for $1B 23-story building at controversial Greenwich Village site

By Dana Schulz

NYU's controversial plan to replace their Coles Sports Center site at the corner of Mercer and Houston Streets received approvals way back in 2012, but due to community opposition and lawsuits, they only filed plans and began demolition this October. The Wall Street Journal now shares the first renderings of the hulking, 23-story, 735,000-square-foot building at 181 Mercer Street designed by Davis Brody Bond (who's also responsible for the 9/11 Museum) and KieranTimberlake. It will cost a whopping $1 billion and host a bevy of uses, including 60 classrooms, common spaces, two cafes, practice/instruction rooms for the arts, three theaters, a giant athletic facility that'll have four basketball courts and a six-lane lap pool, 30 to 60 faculty apartments, and a 420-bed freshman dorm.
Lots more renderings and details

December 8, 2016

Norman Foster will design 985-foot tower at 50 Hudson Yards

By Dana Schulz

It's been 14 months since developer Related Companies bought the site of a former McDonald's at 34th Street and 10th Avenue, the final parcel needed to complete Hudson Yards. Initial reports said the site of 50 Hudson Yards would hold a 62-story, 1,000+ foot commercial tower, but Related and Oxford Properties Group have now revealed that the structure will rise 58 stories and 985 feet and be designed by starchitect Norman Foster. As first reported by Curbed, the news comes on the heels of BlackRock's decision to sign a 20-year lease for 15 floors, or 850,000 square feet, in the building, leaving their long-time Park Avenue home in a show of confidence in the mega-complex.
Get more details ahead

December 8, 2016

Make your stay in NYC an authentic one: Sleep in a closet-sized space for $3,500

By Michelle Cohen

This second-floor walk-up at 235 West 18th Street is about as much like an average NYC rental apartment as you could get for a month or two in town, which is clearly the intended purpose of this furnished Chelsea pad. The listing states that it's available for one to twelve months, but there are towels on the beds, AirBnB-style, along with other bare-bones necessities. Knowing that makes it seem a lot more acceptable that one of the apartment's two "flex" bedrooms appears to be in an actual closet—which isn't so bad if you're only in town for the holidays. And to be fair, whole rooms in some of the city's hipper boutique hotels appear to be in closets also. The listing says the apartment "comfortably sleeps 4," which apparently means at $3,500 you're getting a pretty good bargain.
Make yourself right at home

Distinctive Homes

December 7, 2016

Expansive Flatiron loft stuns after undergoing a 10-year renovation by Frampton Co.

By Rebecca Paul

Located in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, this massive loft measuring an incredible 4,500 square feet was designed specifically by NYC-based Frampton Co. to meet the needs of a young family. Its transformation was realized through a collaboration between the designer and client in a series of projects spanning a decade. Updates over the ten years have included everything from the initial property scouting and spatial arrangement, to transforming the bedrooms into nurseries, to adding a playroom and library to the already amenity-laden space.
READ MORE

Distinctive Homes

December 7, 2016

$1.41M for an opportunity to combine two West Village units into one lovely apartment

By Emily Nonko

Here's an opportunity for a New Yorker not afraid to renovate. Two small one-bedroom apartments at 41 Perry Street, in the West Village, are being offered as a package with the opportunity to combine them into one larger pad. The listing promises that the transformation into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment will be easy—it's been done several times before in this building—but it'll cost $1.41 million with renovation costs on top of that. Separately, each apartment is asking $715,000 and $695,000.
Take a look at both

Distinctive Homes

Former Citicorp Center is the city’s newest landmarked building

Images: Lemessurier and 6sqft

December 7, 2016

Former Citicorp Center is the city’s newest landmarked building

By Michelle Cohen

The Midtown building formerly known as Citicorp Center has just been designated a city landmark. The building, now known simply as 601 Lexington Avenue, is one of 12 buildings in Midtown East to be given landmark status by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. This newest batch of landmarks brings the number of official historic buildings in the area to 50, Curbed reports. The 59-story office and retail tower, designed by Hugh A. Stubbins & Associates, was completed in 1978. It was considered quite innovative for its time, with distinctive features that included a 45-degree angular roof and a base of four stilt-like columns. The latter allowed it to cantilever over Saint Peter’s Church, also on the site. There is also a privately owned public space that connects the buildings to the Lexington Avenue-53rd Street subway station.
The distinctive tower will be dwarfed, but preserved

December 7, 2016

Condos at 432 Park selling at an average discount of 10 percent

By Dana Schulz

432 Park Avenue may be the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere and home to the most expensive apartment closing this year, but throughout 2016, the tower's ultra-luxury condos were selling at an average discount of 10 percent, according to an analysis by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. for Bloomberg. And a recent transaction saw an even greater price cut; Lewis Sanders, founder and CEO of Sanders Capital and former CEO of AllianceBernstein, bought an 88th floor penthouse for $60.9 million, 20 percent less than its $76.5 asking price.
What's the deal?

Real Estate Trends

December 7, 2016

Congress will only cover $7M of NYC’s $35M Trump security bill

By Dana Schulz

Just two days after Mayor de Blasio formally requested $35 million in federal funding to cover security at Trump Tower for the 73 days from the November 8th election to inauguration day on January 20th, republicans in Congress decided to earmark a mere $7 million towards protecting the President Elect while he's in the Big Apple. Of the pending decision, the Mayor said, "NYC taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for 80 percent of the national bill to protect Trump Tower. DC must step up to pay us back what we’re owed," reports the Post.
The full scoop

Celebrities

December 7, 2016

This $845K Chelsea studio’s sleep loft, brick walls and terrace are dreamy

By Michelle Cohen

This Chelsea-meets-Meatpacking studio at 221 West 14th Street checks the boxes for charm, neighborhood amenities and convenience, and it possesses that elusive bonus item: an attractive outdoor space with at least enough room for a rosé al fresco. For $845,000 it's not exactly a steal, though if neighborhood comps are a factor—which of course they are—then it becomes one. The second-floor townhouse condominium's layout works, allowing the space to be a small studio, yet solving the problem of having your bed next to the fridge.
What else do we love about it?

Distinctive Homes

December 6, 2016

Charming, compact triplex with a roof deck asks less than $1M in Gramercy

By Emily Nonko

Over at 160 East 26th Street in Gramercy Park you'll find quite this charming one-bedroom apartment with some outdoor space and a decent price tag. The apartment--which is one of the most compact triplex units we've ever seen--is asking $850,000. On the first level it manages it hold a living area, dining area and kitchen, then there's a bedroom above, and finally a private roof deck that is sure to charm you.
Take a look inside

Distinctive Homes

December 6, 2016

5 places to buy affordable modern art in New York City

By Lori Zimmer

Our ongoing series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week Art Nerd New York founder Lori Zimmer shares her top five shops for scoring affordable art in trendy Manhattan. Manhattan is a treasure trove of fine art. The gallery districts have shifted from Soho to Chelsea down to the Lower East Side, populating each neighborhood with clean white walls and a rotating collection of pieces from a roster of painters, sculptors, and mixed media artists. Although viewing the art the city has to offer is free, taking a piece home can be a major hit to the wallet. I've rounded up a list of great places in Manhattan to not only see art, but to also buy art affordably. Kickstart your burgeoning collection, or find a unique gift, at one of my picks below.
5 spots to score great art here

December 6, 2016

‘Tonight Show’ announcer and ‘SNL’ writer Steve Higgins buys $1.8M classic UWS co-op

By Dana Schulz

Steve Higgins, announcer of "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and SNL writer and producer, and his wife Ellen have dropped $1,797,000 on a traditional Upper West Side co-op according to recent city records. Though the listing says it'll need a renovation, the two-bedroom, pre-war apartment at 131 Riverside Drive has the coveted bones of a classic six--a large entry foyer, handsome fireplace mantle, 9' 10" ceilings, and attractive crown and picture moldings.
READ MORE

December 6, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio loses $2 million on sale of his eco-friendly Greenwich Village apartment

By Annie Doge

A $2 million real estate loss sounds like quite the hit, but to environmental activist and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, whose net worth is $217 million, it probably won't make too big of a dent. Back in 2014, he dropped $10 million on a three-bedroom Greenwich Village condo in The Delos, an uber eco-friendly building that boasts vitamin C-infused showers, purified air and water, in-duct aromatherapy, and posture-supporting flooring. He rarely resided there (he owns another environmentally conscious apartment in Battery Park City), but has been renting the apartment for $25,000 a month since March 2015 to Bill Clinton's economic policy advisor Jonathan Orszag. Now the Observer reports that the apartment has sold to an LLC for $8 million.
See the whole spread

December 5, 2016

De Blasio asks feds for $35M to cover 73 days of Trump Tower security

By Dana Schulz

White House North, Dump Tower--call it what you will, but Trump Tower has been causing a major headache for the city ever since the President Elect announced that he hopes to spend weekends in his penthouse at the Midtown tower and that wife Melania and son Barron will continue to reside there during his presidency. Initial estimates put the cost of protecting the building at $1 million a day, but after City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Dan Garodnick launched a petition last week demanding that the federal government cover these costs, Mayor de Blasio has officially asked for a total of "$35 million to cover the 73 days stretching from the election on Nov. 8 to Jan. 20, inauguration day," reports the Post, a lesser amount of roughly $480,000 a day.
More details ahead

Celebrities

December 5, 2016

One Vanderbilt confirms 1,020-foot observation deck

By Dana Schulz

It's been almost a year since 6sqft first heard inklings that One Vanderbilt--the city's second tallest tower--would offer a sky-high observation deck, and now that developer SL Green has secured $1.5 billion in construction financing and broken ground on the 1,401-foot supertall, they'e confirmed that the tower will, in fact, have an sky deck. Bloomberg reports that the viewing platform will be located at the 1,020-foot mark, which will make it the third-highest indoor-outdoor observatory in the city after the forthcoming 1,100-foot deck at 30 Hudson Yards and the Empire State Building's at 1,050 feet (One World Observatory is at 1,250 feet, but it's not outdoors).
Find out more

December 5, 2016

There’s an ‘exotic’ Christmas tree selling for $1,000 in the Village

By Dana Schulz

$1,000, as the Post notes, could pay for more than 600 meals for the homeless at the Bowery Mission, or 25 holiday gifts for in-need New Yorkers through the Winter Wishes program. It could also get you an "exotic" white fir Christmas tree off the street in Greenwich Village. Sixteen-year tree saleswoman Heather Neville, who runs a stand at Seventh Avenue and 11th Street, is charging $77 per foot for a 13-foot tree, which equals $750. Add to that a $200 stand, $25 delivery and setup fee, and $20 for the three men doing the job, and you've got yourself a four-figure Christmas tree.
If you think this is bad, just wait