Manhattan

New York City is filled with lofts we love; their iconic style is synonymous with the city's historic architecture and industrial and creative recent past. Even as glass towers and luxury limestone hog the spotlight, the flexibility and bohemian spirit unique to these spaces continues to charm—and their value continues to rise. So it's still exciting to get a look inside whenever the chance presents itself. This loft co-op in the Cast Iron Historic District is a prime example. Built in 1900, the now-landmarked building at 131-135 Prince Street was the second co-op in Soho. This 1,800 square-foot home, on the market for $3.295 million, boasts its own presentation website with a level of design that rivals some of the city's more luxurious new developments, complete with full-color isometric views of each room. Though it looks like a lovely loft in a prime location in any light, the fabulous visuals certainly don't hurt.
Take a look around

Distinctive Homes

February 19, 2016

Skyline Wars: What’s Rising in Hudson Yards, the Nation’s Largest Construction Site

By Carter B. Horsley

Carter Uncut brings New York City’s breaking development news under the critical eye of resident architecture critic Carter B. Horsley. This week Carter brings us the third installment of “Skyline Wars,” a series that examines the explosive and unprecedented supertall phenomenon that is transforming the city’s silhouette. In this post Carter zooms in on Hudson Yards. The Hudson Yards neighborhood in Far Midtown West is one of the country’s most active construction areas. Construction cranes dot its emerging skyline and dozens more are promised now with the district's improved connection to the rest of the city. Last fall, the 7-line subway station at Eleventh Avenue and 34th Street opened with one-stop access to Times Square. The newly-minted station features a lengthy diagonal escalator bringing commuters to the front-door of the huge mixed-use project being created over the rail yards west of Tenth Avenue between 30th and 33rd streets. Originally, a second station was contemplated on 41st Street and Tenth Avenue but transit officials claimed it could not afford the $500 million expenditure, despite the enormous amount of new residential construction occurring along the far West 42nd Street corridor. Nevertheless, the finished Hudson Yards station deposits straphangers into a new diagonal boulevard and park between 10th and 11th Avenues that will ultimately stretch from the Related Companies / Oxford Property Group's Hudson Yards master plan northward to 42nd Street.
read more from carter here

February 19, 2016

Reasonably Priced Condos at NINE52 in Hell’s Kitchen Hit the Market, Starting at $679K

After years of decay, the second building of the old Saint Clare's Hospital in Hell's Kitchen has been reborn. Named NINE52, due to its address near Ninth Avenue at 416 West 52nd Street, the seven-story red-brick structure has been rehabilitated into 155 affordably-priced condominium homes. Seven units at NINE52 hit the market earlier this week with asking prices starting at $679,000 for 450-square-foot studios, $859,000 for 725-square-foot one-bedrooms, and $1.319 million for an 875-square-foot two-bedroom. According to CityRealty's February Market Report, the median price-per-square-foot for closed condominium sales in Midtown West over the past 30 days stood at $1,833, a bit above the $1,603-per-square-foot asking prices at NINE52.
Get a look at the apartments

February 19, 2016

Morris Adjmi-Designed Commercial Building Coming to Controversial Noho Site

Yesterday, Ironstate Development filed permits to construct a nine-story, 46,000-gross-square-foot office and community facility building at 363 Lafayette Street in Noho. The long-vacant parcel spans the entire block front of Lafayette Street between Bond and Great Jones Streets and sits adjacent to the to the live/work studio of renowned artist Chuck Close at 20 Bond. The Real Deal reported in 2008 that Close filed a lawsuit against the previous property owner, Olmstead Properties, to prevent the construction of an office building that would block the loft building's natural light, which he argued many of the artists inside depend on. But the project seems to be moving ahead.
More details ahead

February 18, 2016

$3M Warm and Spacious Flatiron Loft Needs No Excess or Eccentricity

Located on a bustling but attractive street in the indisputably popular and convenient Flatiron District, this fourth-floor loft co-op at 14 West 17th Street looks like a home we might not want to leave. Asking $2,975,000, the two-bedroom-plus-office loft maintains a balance of well-preserved history, modern style, and the kind of warmth found in a custom renovation. The co-op's current owner is Henri Bendel department store president Chris Fiore, who purchased it for $1,275,000 in 2006–a significant leap in value, but there has clearly been some investment in the space, and the neighborhood's ascent goes without saying. What works so well here are elegant finishes and loft charm, done well enough that the home doesn't need to distract with quirky artists' effects or super-luxury finishes by an ambitious developer or expensive designer.
Have a look around

Distinctive Homes

February 18, 2016

Full-Floor Loft With an Actual Artist’s Studio Asks $3M in Soho

By Emily Nonko

Back in the '60s and '70s, pretty much every Soho loft doubled as an art studio. Artists fought successfully to legally convert the former manufacturing buildings into live/work lofts, and today there's still a special zoning resolution that permits the use of former industrial spaces as homes only if the resident is an artist certified by the city. That zoning rule is often ignored, and with Soho lofts priced into the millions, you don't see many left that include studios. But this one, which occupies the entire second floor of 123 Prince Street, is the exception--at least when it comes to the art studio. (The price, of course, is high, at $3.125 million.) The open apartment has been built out with a lofted bedroom, office, studio space and mini bar.
Take a look around

Distinctive Homes

February 17, 2016

Looks Like Sarah Jessica Parker Is Combining Two West Village Townhouses

Carrie Bradshaw may not have been able to make her mind up about men, but Sarah Jessica Parker is more indecisive when it comes to real estate. The actress and hubby Matthew Broderick sold their Greenwich Village townhouse for $20 million back in March, which came after quite a few price cuts and almost three years on the market. And just a couple of weeks ago, they were seen checking out the Shephard, a new condo conversion in the 'hood. But it looks like SJP misses her townhouse, because broker-to-the-celebs Dolly Lenz shared an Instagram picture today, announcing that the couple is the buyer of two adjacent brick homes at 273 and 275 West 11th Street. Her caption implies that the power duo will combine the residences, which would result in a 50-foot-wide, 13,900-square-foot mega mansion, according to Curbed. The properties were last listed for $35 million total.
Find out more

February 17, 2016

Get a Head Start on the Creative Possibilities in This $2.5M Funky Tribeca Live/Work Loft

If you're looking for quintessential loft living in downtown Manhattan (and you're not looking for a bargain), Tribeca is the perfect spot to start. The once-industrial-reborn-as-fancy neighborhood is filled with historic former factory and warehouse buildings (many converted to co-ops and condominiums) and new buildings made to look like them. The co-ops that occupy the former sail factory at 474 Greenwich Street are the real deal (we toured a similarly one-of-a-kind higher-floor unit in the same building a while back). For $2.5 million, this ground-floor live/work residence has the space, the artistic pedigree, the decidedly colorful present, and the totally flexible future for the loft-seeking buyer.
See the entire funky space

February 17, 2016

Pro Golfer Cristie Kerr Gets a Hole in One With $6M West Village Condo Sale

It's reported that pro LPGA golfer Cristie Kerr has over $15 million in career earnings, and it looks like her bank account is about to get even fatter, as city records show that she and her husband/agent Erik Stevens have sold their West Village condo for $5.9 million. The couple bought the impressive three-bedroom home at 1 Morton Square back in 2009 for $2.3 million, but then enlisted famed interior designer Thom Filicia to give the high-floor residence a luxurious, modern renovation that, according to the listing, cost more than $1 million.
Check it out

February 16, 2016

My 1,640sqft: Inside Chef Devin Gaffney’s Rent-Stabilized Classic Six on Billionaires’ Row

By Diane Pham

Our ongoing series “My sqft” checks out the homes of 6sqft’s friends, family and fellow New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to chef Devin Gaffney's Central Park South home. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch! Whenever 57th Street and the few blocks that cluster Central Park South make the news, headlines usually swirl around how there's a brand new multi-billion dollar tower on the rise or how a condo in One57 just broke some city record. But lest we forget, many mere mortals like ourselves still fill out the more elfin edifices surrounding these supertalls. One such resident is Devin Gaffney, a chef (he's whipped up dishes at Brooklyn's beloved Speedy Romeo and No. 7) who not only grew up in the area, but moved away, spent 10 years in Brooklyn, and then moved back to the island into the same apartment he called home during his formative years. Ahead, Devin takes us through his eclectic, art-filled (many works centuries-old) classic six in a 1913 construction built for musicians just a block from Carnegie Hall, a block from Central Park, and right smack in the middle of one of New York City's most coveted and most expensive areas.
Go inside Devin's home here

February 12, 2016

Rafael Viñoly Files Plans to Construct a 60-Foot Addition for Pershing Square Capital

In December, the Post reported that Bill Ackman had tapped starchitect Rafael Vinoly (the designer of 432 Park Avenue) to re-imagine 787 Eleventh Avenue along Manhattan's "Automobile Row" in Hell's Kitchen. Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management intends to relocate to the top floors of the building, and permits filed yesterday indicate that plans are moving forward. The 100-foot-tall structure will receive a two-story, 60-foot-tall addition, which will add nearly 20,000 square feet of construction floor area to the 460,000-square-foot building.
Find out more

Architecture And Design

February 12, 2016

Apply Today for an $827/Month Apartment at the Controversial Towers Next to St. John the Divine

The Enclave at the Cathedral is a set of two brand-new rental buildings in Morningside Heights from the Brodsky Organization. Offering a total of 428 residential units, the 13- and 15-story undulating towers were involved in quite a bit of controversy for their position obstructing the 123-year-old Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which just happens to be the world's largest cathedral. But if this little issue doesn't bother you, and you earn between $29,726 and and $51,780 annually, you can apply starting today for one of 87 affordable units, according to the NYC HDC. They include 27 studios priced at $827/month; 40 one-bedrooms at $931/month; and 20 two-bedrooms at $1,123/month.
Find out if you qualify

February 12, 2016

Buyout Legends: Developers Paid 15 CPW Hermit Holdout $17M to Move Into a Free Apartment

What do you do when you're a developer who has a 52,000-square-foot property with one tenant...who won't leave? While we've all heard legends about holdouts in rent-controlled apartments getting big buyouts from deep-pocketed developers, none to date could beat the good fortune of Herbert J. Sukenik. The reclusive septuagenarian lived in his 350-square-foot apartment (which happened to have four exposures and Central Park and two river views) at the Mayflower Hotel for three decades. But he ended up walking away with $17 million, the most money ever paid to a tenant to leave a New York apartment, and walked into an almost-free, 2,200-square-foot, 16th-floor home in the venerable Essex House on Central Park South.
So what happened?

History

February 12, 2016

Revealed: Central Park Tower Shows Off Its Retail Base

Now dubbed the Central Park Tower, Extell's 1,550-foot-tall supertall on Billionaires' Row was originally known as the Nordstrom Tower, so named because of its ground-floor tenant who will be opening their first Manhattan flagship store. But despite the fact that we architecture nerds were saying "Nordstrom" for years, we had no idea how the store would actually factor into the 95-story building's overall design (which was recently knocked down from a whopping 1,775 feet with the loss of its spire). But now, the Seattle Times (the department store is based out of the Washington city) has revealed renderings of the retail base, reports NY Yimby.
All the details and renderings

February 11, 2016

Penny Marshall Lists $5.5M UWS Penthouse With Terrace, Views and a Fireplace in the Bathroom

Director, actress, producer and “Laverne & Shirley” star Penny Marshall is parting ways with the Upper West Side penthouse at 470 West End Avenue that she purchased back in the early 1980s. Marshall just listed the 1,800-square-foot penthouse with a wrap-around terrace and Hudson River views for $5.5 million. The Bronx-born actress, who has been based on the left coast for some time, used the two-bedroom pad as a pied-a-terre, and it certainly makes an impressive one. Though the interiors don't appear to have been updated recently, dramatic pre-war details (11-foot-plus beamed ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces, paneled doors and original hardware) and 1,050 square feet of private outdoor space don’t ever go out of style; with some updating, this will definitely be a "Big" beautiful space.
Check out the rest of the penthouse

February 11, 2016

HOK Architects Files Permits for 21-Story UES Condo Tower, Will Yield New Subway Entrance

Yesterday, Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum (HOK) filed permit applications with the city's Department of Buildings to construct their first residential tower in the city–an 18-story, mixed-use condominium tower at 147 East 86th Street on the Upper East Side. The 210,000-square-foot project will anchor the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 86th Street and will sit directly atop the Lexington line's 86th Street subway station, for which the developers will build a new entrance. The $340 million project is being shepherded by a joint venture among Stillman Development, Ceruzzi Properties, and Kuafu Properties, who will build retail on the first few floors of the building and high-end condo units up top. Much of the site is owned by the the estate of real estate mogul Sol Goldman. Filed plans show that the development will contain 63 units and rise 210 feet, the maximum height allowed in the zoning district.
More details and renderings this way

February 11, 2016

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week – 2/11-2/17

By Lori Zimmer

In a city where hundreds of interesting happenings occur each week, it can be hard to pick and choose your way to a fulfilling life. Art Nerd‘s philosophy is a combination of observation, participation, education and of course a party to create the ultimate well-rounded week. Jump ahead for Art Nerd founder Lori Zimmer’s top picks for 6sqft readers! Even if you’re not into Valentine’s Day, it's no excuse not to celebrate a love-filled weekend of art and design. For the next month, you can take your lover or best friend to play in the glittering "Heart of Hearts" installation in Times Square or experience true beauty at the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. Check out private arts club the Norwood without becoming a member for the Sweetheart Ball or try the Out to See arts and film celebrations happening down at the South Street Seaport. On the actual day, check out a tech-savvy sculpture show at Lyles & King, and then have the main event at House of Yes for LUST, an immersive and sexy arty dinner soiree. Then, wash off all the saccharin sweetness of Valentine’s Day with a good old nerdy film fest about infrastructures at the Van Alen Institute.
All the best events to check out here

Events & Things To Do

February 11, 2016

Groundwork Begins at Downtown Supertall 45 Broad Street

Wasting no time getting started, Madison Equities and Italy-based Pizzarotti Group have begun soil testing at the site of their upcoming supertall tower 45 Broad Street. After 6sqft revealed a trio of preliminary renderings last month, Pizzarotti Group's CEO Rance MacFarland told Curbed that the tower will stretch 1,100 feet high and have 86 floors. He also shared that it will contain 245 condo residences catering to "entry- and mid-level buyers."
Get a look at the current site

February 11, 2016

$685K Chelsea Micro Apartment Was Renovated to Maximize Space and Design

By Emily Nonko

If you're going to live in a really small apartment, you may as well get it custom designed to maximize as much space as possible. Such is the case with this very cozy one bedroom at 221 West 21st Street, a nondescript five-story co-op building in Chelsea. This unit has been gutted, renovated and redesigned by MySuites & Co., a boutique real estate and design firm based in Soho, and furniture and textile designer Nightwood New York. The result–the Chelseagold. MySuites says it feels more like a 700-square-foot apartment than a 500-square-foot pad, and we think the charming interior design almost makes up for the lack of space.
See the rest of the micro apartment

Distinctive Homes

February 11, 2016

Notorious Novogratz Townhouse Where Heidi Klum Summered Sells for $14.5M

It only took nine years and a $10 million price chop, but the notoriously-hard-to-sell townhouse at 400 West Street has finally found a buyer for $14.5 million, reports the Post. Husband-and-wife design team Bob and Cortney Novogratz bought the West Village townhouse for $4.3 million back in 2007, and then undertook a complete renovation, adding an indoor basketball court, eight-person elevator, and insane rooftop terrace complete with a pizza oven and hot tub. All these amenities, coupled with the colorful and funky decor, caught the eye of Heidi Klum, who rented the home several times over the years, most recently for $70,000/month this past summer.
See the full spread

February 11, 2016

Construction Begins on 40-Story Marriott Hotel Replacing Antiques Garage in Chelsea

After an 11-year run, the popular Antiques Garage flea market, where bargain hunters haggled over an eclectic assortment of used goods, shuttered its weekend fairs in the summer of 2014. Like many soft sites around the Flower District, the parking garage used by the market at 112 West 25th Street was purchased by development interests, namely Extell, who later sold to Lam Generation for $68 million. Since the purchase, the three-story garage has been razed and groundwork has finally begun for a 330-room, four-star Marriott Renaissance Hotel. With the help of some unused neighboring development rights, Lam's tower will grow to 140,000 square feet of floor area and stand roughly 450 feet high over its mid-rise Chelsea locale. The neighborhood's current tallest building, Chelsea Stratus, is just one lot away and rises 25 feet higher than Lam's upcoming tower.
More details ahead

February 10, 2016

For $1,900/Month, You Can Get an East Village Studio With a Claw-Foot Tub in the Kitchen

We've seen apartments with showers proudly displayed in the kitchen before (like this $1,795/month unit on the Lower East Side), but now city dwellers who can't afford a separate bathroom can get an upgrade–in the form of a fancy clawfoot tub in the kitchen. EV Grieve noticed two listings in the East Village at 328 East 6th Street for studios that seem to tout their "tenement roots" by overemphasizing the "beautiful claw foot tub in the living space" (and by living space they mean directly next to the sink where you'll wash your vegetables). They're available for $1,800 and $1,900/month, which, according to the listings, is "the best deal for the dollar in this hood."
Check 'em out

February 10, 2016

Floor-Through Noho Loft With Four Exposures Hits the Market for $3.25 Million

By Emily Nonko

At 55 Great Jones Street, a historic 1910 building in Noho, each of the seven stories has been converted into lofty co-op apartments. This one occupies the entire fifth floor for a total of 2,200 square feet. And because the building is surrounded by two squat, single-story structures, the unit comes with a rare four exposures. Never a bad thing to complement an apartment that's lofty to begin with.
Take an interior tour

Distinctive Homes

February 10, 2016

POLL: Are You a Fan of Bjarke Ingels’ Design for the Spiral?

On Monday, 6sqft brought you the latest reveal from starchitect Bjarke Ingels, a cascading supertall tower set for Hudson Yards and known as the Spiral. It caught people’s attention not only for the architect attached to it, but for its series of landscaped terraces and hanging gardens that twist around its glassy facade. The interior views are […]

Soho Cast-Iron Building Regains Its Lost Floors…and Then Some

A rendering of the new addition (L); A historic view of the building from a 1930s tax photo (R)

February 10, 2016

Soho Cast-Iron Building Regains Its Lost Floors…and Then Some

By Emrys Fitzgerald

A truncated two-story building in Soho's Cast-Iron Historic District is regaining its lost floors, and then some. In 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a four-story addition to 29 Greene Street that sought to recapture the structure's original design, and now steel framing is heading up. Built in 1878 as a four-floor building with a classic cast-iron front, a fire destroyed the top two floors sometime before the area's landmark designation in 1974. Enough historic detail remained for the Commission to include the building in the district, and now its remaining cast-iron elements will be used to replicate the facade on upper floors.
More details ahead

February 9, 2016

Actress and Comedian Ellie Kemper Buys $2.8M Classic Upper West Side Co-op