Manhattan

Bethenny Frankel, "Real Housewives of New York City" star and outspoken founder of the Skinny Girl empire, finalized her divorce from ex-husband Jason Hoppy over the summer after four long years. Perhaps the most contentious part of the legal battle was that he remained in the Tribeca loft that she purchased in 2011 for just under $5 million while she hotel-hopped (she notoriously referred to herself as "the richest homeless person in Manhattan"). But things seem to be turning around for Frankel; she bought and renovated a $4.2 million Soho loft back in April 2015, and she's now finally listed the Tribeca condo for an impressive $6.95 million, reports Variety. The four-bedroom corner spread at 195 Hudson Street is cool and contemporary and boasts luxe details such as a 180-bottle wine fridge, decked-out closet/dressing room, and totally custom office (which made many an appearance on the Bravo reality show).
See the whole place here

October 6, 2016

Amy Schumer checks out a five-floor $15M Riverside Drive mansion

Comedian Amy Schumer is certainly looking to trade up from her modest one-bedroom on the Upper West Side. According to the Post, comedy's It Girl was recently spotted scoping out a $15 million mansion at 352 Riverside Drive, apparently dropping in for a peek after a run. The Beaux Arts-styled property dates back to 1900 and was designed by architect Robert D. Kohn for Adolphe Openhym, a wealthy silk merchant. As one would expect, the nine-bedroom home comes dripping in handcrafted details, including eight wood-burning fireplaces, ornate crown moulding and mahogany and oak staircases, among other details that harken to the mansion's storied past like its original dumbwaiter and staff call buttons.
have a closer look inside here

October 6, 2016

Five-story Chelsea townhouse with 22-foot ceilings renting for $22,000 a month

By Emily Nonko

This massive, modern townhouse is now up for rent--furnished or unfurnished--in Chelsea, at 241 West 17th Street. The five-story elevator building, which holds six bedrooms, a private garage and a living room with 22-foot ceilings, is asking $22,000 a month. It even has a finished basement, which could be used as a gym, wine cellar or playroom. The property previously tried its hand asking $11.5 million two years ago but did not sell. With all its modern, luxurious finishes, this definitely isn't your average New York townhouse.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

October 5, 2016

$730K for this cozy but charming one bedroom in Soho

By Emily Nonko

This very cute one-bedroom co-op at the Soho building 57 Thompson Street has hit the market at a price of $730,000. Besides the good location, just east of 6th Avenue, it's got nice details like painted exposed brick, arched windows and some newer finishes in the kitchen and bathroom. It's a small pad, sure, but it packs in enough charm to impress.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

October 5, 2016

Live in a massive $8M West Village loft for just $1 a month

Yes, you read that correctly--you can move into a luxury 3,400-square-foot West Village loft that cost $8 million and pay only $1 month. Metro brings us the deal of the century, which was posted by Rupert Hunt, Founder and CEO of SpareRoom.com, a platform that helps people find roommates and spare rooms. Hunt recently moved to NYC and is looking for two roommates to share the loft, which is located on Bleecker Street just off 7th Avenue South. Unbelievably, each of the available bedrooms has its own walk-in closet, private bathroom, and office area, as well as access to the massive, open-plan lounge/dining room/kitchen and the 1,500-square-foot roof terrace with 360-degree views and a 17-seat barbecue area. Why, you ask, is Hunt charging just a $1 in a neighborhood where rooms rent for around $1,800 (and probably much more for a giant, tricked-out apartment like this)? For starters, he doesn't need the money, and he's also really excited about living with roommates.
More on this insane deal and a look around the apartment

Distinctive Homes

October 5, 2016

POLL: Which Penn Station scheme do you prefer, Governor Cuomo’s or Vishaan Chakrabarti’s?

When Governor Cuomo revealed his plans for a new Penn Station-Moynihan Train Hall complex early last week, things seemed to be moving full steam towards a 2020 completion date thanks to flashy renderings and the selection of a high-profile developer-builder team. But architect Vishaan Chakrabarti was not convinced, and he and his firm the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism decided to create their own vision, one that repurposes Madison Square Garden, a facet of the plan he feels Cuomo failed to address.
Tell us which scheme you prefer

October 5, 2016

Jessica Chastain sells Greenwich Village duplex for $1.9M

After first hitting the market last September, Jessica Chastain's lovely Greenwich Village duplex has finally found a buyer according to city records. The actress bought the renovated two-bedroom at 250 Mercer Street in 2012 for $1.2 million and initially listed it as an $11,500/month rental before re-listing it for sale for $1.8 million in April. The buyer paid slightly over ask at $1.9 million.
See more here

October 5, 2016

Buried treasures from the city’s past will be on view at a new Manhattan research center

New York City has catalogued and created a digitized archive of the many buried artifacts from its past; Wednesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission is officially opening a repository of those countless artifacts. The New York Times reports that the Nan A. Rothschild Research Center–the first municipal archive devoted to a city’s archaeological collection, has found a home in Midtown Manhattan. More than a million artifacts will now be available for viewing by researchers and scholars by appointment; a digital archive is already available. The climate-controlled repository at 114 West 47th Street contains artifacts from 31 excavated sites from all five boroughs, including the city’s first major historical dig, the Stadt Huys (now 85 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan), which, when the artifacts were discovered in 1979, raised the idea that archaeological treasures were buried beneath old buildings.
Find out what you can dig up at the digital archive

October 5, 2016

The NYPL’s iconic Rose Reading Room reopens to the public today!

By Diane Pham

The New York Public Library’s Rose Reading Room and Bill Blass Public Catalog Room officially reopened to the public today at 10 AM. Early this morning, NYPL staff held a ribbon-cutting celebration for two adjacent spaces located on the third floor of the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue. Both rooms had been closed to the public for more than two years for repairs and restorations.
more details this way

October 4, 2016

Save the Carnegie Deli group offers $5M for the pastrami palace

By Metro New York

As Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is celebrated, Carnegie Deli might be getting a new start, according to Save the Carnegie Deli, a group dedicated to keeping the 79-year-old deli open. Samuel Mussovic, a man who said he is a former restaurant owner and was a Carnegie Deli dishwasher 30 years ago, announced on Monday […]

Uncategorized

October 4, 2016

Tribeca live/work loft with an impressive great room hits the market for $2.5M

By Emily Nonko

The great room in this live/work Tribeca loft, at 6 Varick Street, is the epitome of "sprawling." Spanning 1,418 square feet, it fits a kitchen, living room and dining area with space to boot. A bedroom has been carved into the corner, separated by shelving and a curtain. And the whole thing benefits from loft details like exposed wooden beams, white painted brick walls, hardwood floors and huge windows. All that space is now on the market for $2.5 million, after previously going up for rent two years ago.
Time to take a tour

Distinctive Homes

October 4, 2016

For $9.6M, an elegant Spanish Colonial condo awaits on the Upper East Side

On the one hand, you could say this mansion-esque 3,100-square-foot Spanish Colonial Revival-style home embodies classic Upper East Side pre-war co-op charm–at a condo price. A Park Avenue address in Carnegie Hill usually means the former, as do the home's 1928 bones, sprawling, palatial layout and stunning entry foyer. But this $9.6 million condo at 1235 Park Avenue is newly-renovated and though the price may be steeper, it comes with the flexibility a condominium generally affords.
Tour the rooms

Distinctive Homes

October 3, 2016

Madonna says in court papers that UWS co-op rules shouldn’t apply to her because she’s famous

"Express Yourself" is not a problem for Madonna when it comes to her real estate dramas. After getting caught posting fake "no parking" signs outside her Upper East Side mansion, she then sued the board of her Upper West Side co-op when they tried to enforce the rule that her children and staff can't use the apartment without her, the owner, present. The Post has now obtained court papers in which the diva asserts she should be exempt from the building rules since they knew she was a superstar when she moved there in 2004. "At that time, I was, and still am, a world-known performing artist... One West knew or should have known that I traveled extensively and owned other residences."
More from the court papers

Celebrities

October 3, 2016

Flood regulations may thwart plan to convert Lower Manhattan public spaces to retail

When plans surfaced last March for a rezoning of the Financial District that would allow property owners to bring in retail tenants to the underutilized public plazas and walkways at the base of their buildings, it was met with mixed reviews. While some felt it would increase foot traffic and create a more vibrant street presence, others thoughts it would result in a loss of public space, but a gain for developers. These concerns may be a moot point, however, as Crain's brings news today that the plan could be "upended by federal flood regulations being applied to more areas of the city since Superstorm Sandy."
What's the deal?

October 3, 2016

$5.75M Federal rowhouse in the West Village was once owned by Aaron Burr

It seems the hype of "Hamilton" the musical is having an affect on the real estate market. Just five months ago, the former East Village home of Alexander Hamilton, Jr. sold for $10 million, and now a rowhouse across town in the West Village that was once owned by Aaron Burr, who famously killed his father, is hitting the market for $5.75 million. The Post reports that the charming brick, Federal-style home at 17 Commerce Street sits on land that Burr owned just north of his country estate during the turn of the 18th century.
More history and a look through the house

October 3, 2016

For $2.6M, this Village loft has a floor plan that’s definitely off the grid

On a tree-lined Village block that's somewhere between bustling and quiet, with a certain unchanged kind of old school elegance, this three-bedroom co-op loft at 30 East 10th Street is spacious enough at 1,600 square feet, but expensive at $2.6 million. On the other hand, it's a corner loft, and well-proportioned–the co-op's layout is anything but cookie-cutter with big bedrooms nestled in their own orbits on opposite sides of the apartment.
Tour the loft

Distinctive Homes

September 30, 2016

Vishaan Chakrabarti reveals idea to repurpose Madison Square Garden as part of the Penn Station overhaul

Earlier this week, Governor Cuomo revealed plans to transform a revamped Penn Station-Moynihan Train Hall complex into a "world-class 21st century transportation hub." Despite the flashy new renderings and promise of a 2020 completion date, not everyone is sold on the plan, including Vishaan Chakrabarti, former principal of SHoP Architects and founder of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism. As outlined in the Times, he feels that Cuomo's scheme has one glaring omission--Madison Square Garden. Instead of demolishing the arena, as earlier plans had called for, Chakrabarti proposes repurposing it and "using its stripped skeleton to make a glass pavilion, which becomes a neighborhood gathering spot, not just a station." The venue would then move to the west end of the Farley Building.
Lots more details and renderings ahead

The Urban Lens: Photographer Bob Estremera captures vestiges of the Lower East Side’s early days

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, photographer Bob Estremera documents the historic buildings and businesses of the Lower East Side. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected].

September 30, 2016

The Urban Lens: Photographer Bob Estremera captures vestiges of the Lower East Side’s early days

When Bob lived briefly on the Lower East Side in 2011, he loved "walking its crumbling sidewalks and admiring it’s equally crumbling architecture." But the neighborhood's gentrification was already underway: "Tucked away among the little stores, restaurants, apartments and barber shops, upscale boutique restaurants were making themselves felt with prices and menus that could only be supported from clientele outside the neighborhood," he describes. So he decided to return to the LES and capture what he feels is the area's essence. In this resulting black-and-white series, he turns our attention to vestiges of the early days, "the decayed store fronts and once proud architecture and businesses that have vanished and others still clinging barely to life."
Hear more from Bob and see all the photos

Places

September 30, 2016

Beloved Carnegie Deli will shutter at the end of the year

By Metro New York

Iconic New York City restaurant the Carnegie Deli, which first opened in 1937, will close at the end of the year. Restaurant owner Marian Harper Levine told employees of the eatery’s closing Friday morning, reports said. “I’m very sad to close the Carnegie Deli but I’ve reached the time of my life when I need to take […]

Uncategorized

September 30, 2016

Tishman Speyer officially files plans for Bjarke Ingels’ $3.2B Hudson Yards tower

Developer Tishman Speyer has officially filed plans with the Department of Buildings for Bjarke Ingels' Hudson Yards tower The Spiral at 509 West 34th Street. As reported by The Real Deal, the filing confirms that the office tower will rise 65 stories and 1,005 feet and encompass 2.2 million square feet. When renderings were first released of the $3.2 billion project, which is distinguished by cascading landscaped terraces and hanging gardens, Ingels said his design "combines the classic ziggurat silhouette of the premodern skyscraper with the slender proportions and efficient layouts of the modern high-rise."
More details ahead

Skyline-altering tower to rise 928 feet along Fifth Avenue in Nomad

View to the southwest of the Empire State Building with a conceptual 928-foot-tall tower at the site of 262 Fifth Avenue.

September 29, 2016

Skyline-altering tower to rise 928 feet along Fifth Avenue in Nomad

By Katy Cornell

A near supertall skyscraper is coming to Nomad, according to a recent Department of Buildings filing for 262 Fifth Avenue. Boris Kuzinez, an Israeli-Russian billionaire, submitted plans last week for a 54-story, 928-foot-tall mixed-use tower on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 29th Street where a trio of pre-war buildings currently stand. The tower […]

September 29, 2016

New renderings for JDS and SHoP’s 1,000-foot Lower East Side supertall

Last 6sqft checked on the rental building at 247 Cherry Street in the Two Bridges area of the Lower East Side, it was revealed that the tower would rise to 1,000 feet, not surprising considering it comes from the supertall power team of JDS Development and SHoP Architects. And now, after a Community Board 3 meeting earlier this week where JDS and SHoP addressed the controversial project, CityRealty.com brings a new set of renderings that show close-ups of the 77-story building's green terra cotta facade and sky decks.
Check out all the new views

September 29, 2016

MTA board member asks who will pay for Penn Station overhaul

As 6sqft previously reported, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans early this week for a $1.6 billion overhaul of Penn Station, and further details revealed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would be responsible for $150 of the project's costs. Since those plans were released, questions have been raised about where that organization's share of the tab would be coming from in an already stretched budget.
So where is this money coming from?

September 29, 2016

Except for the $475K price, this charming studio embodies the old East Village spirit

Anyone who's been around long enough to remember what the East Village used to be like–before the days of shiny condos and SoulCycle–might say this rather romantic little 425-square-foot co-op studio at 88 East Third Street is just about as old school as you can get without having your bathtub in the kitchen. Yes, there’s a Starbucks on the corner, but this quintessentially quirky-cool block is still home to the infamous Hell’s Angels East Village clubhouse at number 77 (right next door to the New York Law School dorm). They won’t cause you any trouble, but those bad boys still ride, so we hope you like the sound of motorcycle engines.
Get a closer look

Distinctive Homes

September 28, 2016

Meryl Streep’s former Greenwich Village townhouse asks $28.5M