Manhattan

And so it begins! Closings at Macklowe Properties/CIM Group's Billionaires' Row blockbuster 432 Park Avenue have officially commenced with its first sale showing an impressive $18.116 million figure, as city records released this afternoon reveal. The unit is #35B, a massive 4,003-square-foot, three-bedroom pad with four-and-a-half baths, a private elevator landing, and 10-foot by 10-foot windows providing southern and western exposures with park views. Documents show that the palatial home was purchased via a LLC, 432 PARKVIEW.
more on the sale and the floor plan here

January 8, 2016

Man Overcharged by Landlord for 16 Years Awarded $900K and a $784/Month Apartment

Score one for the little guy! After having his rent-stabilized apartment illegally deregulated and his rent jacked up to more than five times what it should have been, an appellate court has awarded Upper West Side man Lane Altschuler $900,000 in damages, and they've re-stabilized his 1,500-square-foot pad to just $784 a month. According to the Daily News, Altschuler moved into the three-bedroom, two-bath unit at 478 Central Park West back in 2000, but his landlord, Mann Realty, illegally began raising the rent shortly after he got settled. The figure eventually ballooned to $3,750 a month in 2009, right after the building was converted into luxury condos.
more on what happened here

Affordable Housing

January 8, 2016

Supermodel Gigi Hadid’s Nolita Apartment Closes for $2.3M

By Annie Doge

Just yesterday, 6sqft reported that supermodel Gigi Hadid was spotted checking out a $6.5 million apartment at Noho's 10 Bond Street along with new flame, former One Direction member Zayn Malik. Her timing couldn't have been better, because according to city records released today, her current home at 250 Bowery, nearby in Nolita, has closed for $2.3 million. The unit, which was owned by a trust in the name of her mother Yolanda Foster (of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" fame), first hit the market this past July, asking $2.45 million. Gigi bought the ultra-modern pad in 2014 for $1.92 million, but rumor has it she decided to sell after a stalker tried to break in.
See more of the space

January 8, 2016

Scofflaw Taxi Baron’s Big, Bold Tribeca Penthouse Back on the Market for $25M

The meter’s running again on the Tribeca penthouse belonging to Simon Garber, the yellow cab king (his company, SLS Jet Management, is one of the city's largest taxi medallion owners) who made news a few years ago for squeezing drivers with fake fees. In 2014 reports had the 6,300-square-foot duplex–plus 2,450 square feet of outdoor space–in the lavish 101 Warren Street condo ready to hit the market for $27 million. After only a few days the listing mysteriously disappeared, only to reappear as a rental, asking a traffic-stopping $100,000 a month. Last June, Compass re-introduced the listing for sale at $30 million, which soon slunk to $25 million, then disappeared again. Now it’s back on the market, this time at the slightly-trimmed but still hirsute $25 million.
Get a shiny eyeful, this way

Distinctive Homes

January 8, 2016

New and Improved Design for Shalimar Management’s 543 Second Avenue

In a well-wishing New Year note, Charles Fridman, president of Shalimar Management, announced that their planned ten-story residential project at 543 Second Avenue will break ground this year, and he's now unveiled a revised set of renderings depicting a substantially different design. Evolving from banal to brutal, the previously thin-skinned, glass-and-metal design has been beefed up into an energetic, cast-in-place concrete structure of undulating floor slabs and tilting exterior columns. Fridman's page states: "We’re planning a 10 Story rental building with 1-2 bedroom apartments. Each apartment will have its own balcony, and part of the building will cantilever over our other property at 249 East 30th Street." Outdated building applications from early 2014 detail a 12-story building housing 18 units spread across 19,000 square feet of floor area. New permits have yet to be filed and according to Fridman, the team came close to building the previous design, but "thankfully" held off.
Find out more ahead

January 7, 2016

Renderings Revealed for Governor Cuomo’s $3B Penn Station Overhaul

6sqft asked readers yesterday if Governor Cuomo would finally be able to get the Penn Station overhaul off the ground, after various news outlets reported that he would be announcing a plan to do just this. The majority of you said it wasn't going to happen, but it looks like the long-envisioned project has just gotten one step closer to reality. During a press conference yesterday at Madison Square Garden, the Governor revealed that he'll be heading up a major revamp of Penn Station, which he called "un-New York," according to Gothamist. The more than $3 billion redevelopment has been dubbed the Empire Station Complex, and a request for proposals will go out this week, due back in 90 days (not good news for the decade-old deal with developers Related Cos. and Vornado Realty). As expected, it includes the long-stalled Moynihan Station project that will convert the adjacent Farley Post Office into a large waiting area, similar in size to the main room at Grand Central. This will increase the size of the nation's busiest transit hub by 50 percent and will connect to the current station by a network of underground tunnels. Though several options are on the table for a redesign, the renderings released by the Governor's office show a glassy and light structure that's quite unlike the current space that Cuomo described as "dark, constrained, ugly, a lost opportunity, a bleak warren of corridors… a miserable experience and a terrible first impression."
More details and renderings ahead

January 7, 2016

$1B Expansion Planned for the Javits Center

It seems like Governor Cuomo's had enough of ugly Manhattan buildings. Fresh off his announcement of a $3 billion overhaul of Penn Station comes another major redevelopment plan–a $1 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Center, already the nation's largest meeting place. First reported by Curbed, the project will increase the building by 1.2 million square feet, adding five times the current meeting space and bringing the total square footage to a massive 3.3 million. Renderings from FXFOWLE show a glassy structure that will house a 58,000-square-foot ballroom (Cuomo says it will be the largest in the northeast), 22,000 square feet of outdoor event space, and a four-level truck garage that will supposedly get 20,000 vehicles off the streets.
See all the renderings

Real Estate Trends

January 7, 2016

Lower East Side Rental at Historic Federal Rowhouse Packs in Lots of Personality

The modest Federal townhouse at 511 Grand Street on the Lower East Side has managed to hang in there since 1829. And today it is boasting a really cool rental apartment on its second and third floors, while the ground floor is home to a cafe. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit belongs to artists Steve Mumford and Inka Essenhigh, who rent it out as a short-term, fully furnished rental. This time around it's available from April 1st though September 30th, asking $5,000 a month.
See more

January 7, 2016

Supermodel Gigi Hadid Checks Out $6.5M Selldorf-Designed Noho Pad

Supermodel du jour Gigi Hadid was spotted having a look at one of the last remaining units in the Annabelle Selldorf-designed Noho condop at 10 Bond Street. The Post reports that the Palestinian/Dutch beauty viewed the 2,775 square-foot, three-bedroom unit #3B with new flame, former One Direction-er Zayn Malik, in tow. Hadid–whose mom is "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Yolanda Foster–put her smaller Noho pad on the market last summer for $2.45 million after being harassed by a stalker who broke into the apartment and stalked her online. Her latest interest (the apartment, not the boy, who appears to have replaced ex-boo Joe Jonas) looks to be a step up, and not only in price, at $6.49 million. Selldorf designed the interiors as well as the building itself, which boasts 98 feet of continuous glazing in living areas and weathered steel and cast terra cotta panels inspired by the neighborhood's historic cast iron construction.
Find out more

Celebrities

January 7, 2016

Revealed: Brack Capital’s 90 Morton Street Condo Conversion to Have Terraced Penthouses

Here's our first look at Brack Capital's condominium conversion 90 Morton Street, also known as 627 Greenwich Street. The former printing building was built in 1911 and sits where the commercial lofts of Hudson Square (West Soho) scale downward into the West Village. Brack, headed by Isaac Hera, purchased the 120,000-square-foot corner building for $105 million in late 2014, and in September, the team submitted a $326 million offering plan to the office of the New York Attorney General. Building permits filed for the long-stalled conversion project last summer detail a 35-unit (29 condos) building that will remain 12 stories. It will only gain 1,649 square feet of construction floor area, and it appears its upper floors will be reconfigured into a succession of terraced penthouses. Though the architect of record is listed as Isaac & Stern Architects, the projecting volumes of the upper stories remind us of the work of Eran Chen's ODA Architects. ODA served as the design architects for Brack's 15 Union Square West and the James Hotel in SoHo.
More details ahead

January 7, 2016

Tina Fey Buys the $9.5M Unit Above Her Current Upper West Side Co-op

By Annie Doge

Funnywoman Tiny Fey pissed off her Upper West Side neighbors recently when it came to light that she's on the board of the American Museum of Natural History, and therefore approved the institution's controversial expansion plan. Unfortunately, it looks like she might be digging herself further into a hole, as she's just bought the co-op above her current apartment at 300 West End Avenue, meaning she and hubby Jeff Richmond will likely be taking down some floors and walls to create one large duplex. According to the Observer, who broke the news, Fey paid $9.51 million for the new four-bedroom unit, much higher than the $7.5 million asking price.
Check out the new digs

January 6, 2016

Revealed: New Renderings of Renzo Piano’s SoHo Tower at 555 Broome Street

Here's a closer look at Renzo Piano's much-anticipated condominium tower planned for a full block-front in West SoHo, between Broome and Watts streets. Dubbed The SoHo Tower, the 25-story building is being developed by way of a partnership between SHVO, Halpern Real Estate Ventures, Itzhaki Acquisition and Bizzi & Partners Development. The team picked up much of the development site in 2014 for $130 million, and yesterday, the Commercial Observer reported they've secured the final portion of the project site at 555 Broome Street for $9 million.
Even more images of the new tower here

January 6, 2016

Britney Spears’ Former Penthouse Hits the Market for $7.6 Million

The apartment that once belonged to the pop star behind "Hit Me Baby One More Time" is now on the market. Yes, Britney Spears' old Noho penthouse at 14 East 4th Street, a.k.a. the Silk Building, is looking for $7.6 million. This price tag is only the latest in a saga of trying to sell the place. It begins in 2002, when Britney purchased her penthouse for $3 million. She quickly listed it in 2004 for $6 million and the unit went through many price cuts before finally selling in 2006 for $4 million. The new buyers then listed the apartment in 2008 for $6.595 million and experimented with different price cuts until 2011; it never sold. Then it hit the market last year for $9 million, now it's back with another price cut. This apartment is about as unpredictable as its former owner.
See the interior

January 6, 2016

$1.4M for a DIY Duplex on a Heavenly Hell’s Kitchen Block

Tucked into the top two floors of 521 West 47th Street, a 1910 co-op loft building that was once a commercial bakery, "Penthouse C" is a package deal priced at $1.4 million consisting of units #3C and #4C and the roof space above them. The listing calls it an "Extremely rare and exciting 'once in a lifetime' chance to combine two authentic lofts plus the corresponding roof space to create your own 3-4 bedroom 3 bath penthouse," though that may take some doing; in their current form, the two spaces offer two different flavors of loft-y bohemian charm.
Check out this unique space

Distinctive Homes

January 6, 2016

POLL: Can Governor Cuomo Finally Get the Penn Station Overhaul off the Ground?

After chatter last month that the state may reboot the plan to expand Penn Station into the adjacent Farley Post Office, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Governor Cuomo will announce this week a full overhaul for the nation’s busiest transit hub. It’s expected that his plan will indeed include the projected $900 million post office redevelopment […]

Real Estate Trends

January 6, 2016

First Look at Madigan Development’s Upcoming Hudson Square Tower at 111 Varick Street

At the edge of the Holland Tunnel's Jersey-bound vortex, Madigan Development is planning to build a 15-story, 49-unit residential building at 111 Varick Street. Anchoring the southwest corner of Broome and Varick Streets in West Soho (aka Hudson Square), the tower is replacing a multi-story parking garage and will sit adjacent to another planned 19-story residential tower at 568 Broome Street. Renderings of 111 Varick show a blocky building clad in a drunken checkerboard pattern of glass and stone. While it has yet to be confirmed if the building will be a condo or rental, large layouts and its prime location between Soho and Tribeca allude to condos.
Find out more

Blackstone’s Purchase of Stuy Town Includes $625M in Air Rights

Photo via Wiki Commons

January 6, 2016

Blackstone’s Purchase of Stuy Town Includes $625M in Air Rights

Photo via Wiki Commons Less than three months ago, the Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge's colossal purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village went public. At the time, it was revealed that as part of the $5.46 billion deal Blackstone would reserve 4,500 of the complex's 11,200 apartments for middle-income families for the next 20 years, with an additional 200 units set aside for low-income tenants. But what's just come to light is the $625 million worth of air rights that came along with the buy. The majority of the roughly one million square feet will be transferred elsewhere, but about 250,000 square feet will remain within Stuy Town. As the Post first reported, "These include 200,000 square feet for a community facility, 25,000 square feet for residential and 25,000 square feet for commercial use."
More details this way

Real Estate Trends

January 5, 2016

Radio Rabble-Rouser Don Imus Lists CPW Pad With Terraces and Endless Views for $19.8M

A Central Park West penthouse belonging to controversial radio and TV jock Don Imus just hit the market for $19.8 million. The duplex co-op atop the 1928 Rosario Candela-designed 75 Central Park West, owned by Imus and his wife, Deirdre, for decades, is wrapped by gorgeous terraces and offers seriously breathtaking park and city views; for that seriously breathtaking price, you'll also get a good-sized two-plus-bedroom street-level maisonette to use as guest quarters or as an office.
Take a look

January 5, 2016

The City’s First Wi-Fi Kiosks Unveiled Today!

As Crain's first reported, the first of the city's upcoming 7,500 LinkNYC Wi-Fi kiosks have officially rolled out today. Two new "links" (as they'll be called), have sprouted up along Third Avenue in the East Village, one at the corner of East 15th Street and the other at East 17th Street. Each kiosk measures 9.5 feet tall and will be equipped with a gigabit-speed Wi-Fi connection with a 150-foot range, charging stations, a touch-screen that provides maps and info about city services, and a speaker phone that will let users make domestic calls—and all for free! The kiosks are meant to replace NYC's 6,000 now-defunct pay phones.
more info on what's to come here

REVEALED: 45 Broad Street, Slated to Be Among the Highest Condo Buildings Downtown

** UPDATE as of 1/6/16: Pizzarotti CEO Rance MacFarland confirmed to Curbed that 45 Broad Street will be a 1,100-foot-tall, 86-story supertall tower. It will have 245 units that will cater to “entry- and mid-level buyers,” as well as five floors of commercial and retail space.

January 5, 2016

REVEALED: 45 Broad Street, Slated to Be Among the Highest Condo Buildings Downtown

Last October, it was announced that the long-vacant lot in the heart of the Financial District at 45 Broad Street would be redeveloped into a 65-story residential skyscraper by way of a partnership between Pizzarotti IBC and Madison Equities. Now, via Pizzarotti's project page, we have our first look at the design of the 300,000-square-foot CetraRuddy-designed tower that the development group affirms "will be the highest condo in Downtown Manhattan." The team will have to move quickly, though; at least two condo towers are proposed to be taller including Shvo's supertall at 125 Greenwich Street.
More details ahead

January 4, 2016

Affordable Housing Lottery Kicks Off at 1770 Madison Avenue–Units Start at $822/Month

Starting tomorrow, qualifying New Yorkers will get the chance to apply for one of seven available units at a brand spanking new development located at 1770 Madison Avenue in East Harlem. According to the NYC HPD, studios will start at $822 a month, while one-bedrooms will go for $886 a month. The new rental building wrapped construction at the end of 2015 and market rate units were listed in December with studios priced at $2,295 a month and up to $2,995 for a one-bedroom. Lucky lottery winners and market rate renters at this address will enjoy a locale just four blocks from Central Park and the convenience of living next to the 2, 3 and 6 trains.
Find out if you qualify here

Affordable Housing

Automat by Berenice Abbott, 1936

January 4, 2016

Horn & Hardart Automats: Redefining lunchtime, dining on a dime

In the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s Automats were a New York City dining staple for a hard-working lunch crowd, a modernist icon for a boundless machine-age future. At their height there were over three dozen in the city, serving 800,000 people a day. And nearly everyone who actually experienced Automats in their heyday says the same thing: They never forgot the thrill of being a kid at the Automat. Created by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart in Philadelphia in 1902, coin-operated Automats were lovingly-designed Art Deco temples to modern efficiency. Sleek steel and glass vending machine grids displayed sandwiches and main dishes as well as desserts and sides, each in their own little boxes, square and even, clean and well-lit. You put a coin in the slot, opened the door and removed your food—which was reportedly quite good, as the founders took terrific pride in their craft.
What was it about the experience that made for such a lasting memory?

January 2, 2016

Greenwich Village Apartment With Cottage-Like Charm Asks $2.25 Million

There's definitely something quaint about this apartment at 13 Downing Street, a 16-unit cooperative right in the middle of Greenwich Village. Its cottage-like vibe comes from exposed brick, a fireplace and lots of earth tones. It also feels cozy without being cramped, and spacious without being sprawling. The two-bedroom home is now on the market for $2.25 million after last selling in 2013 for $1.199 million.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

December 31, 2015

Isay Weinfeld’s Jardim Condominium Rises to Street Level Along the High Line

Foundation work for Isay Weinfeld's Jardim condominium is finally wrapping up and portions of the Chelsea development are now climbing to street level. Rising from the swampy banks of a bygone stream, the mid-block site at 525 West 27th Street is giving way to a set of two 11-story condo buildings encasing an elevated garden oasis. A partnership between Centaur Properties and Greyscale Development Group is responsible for the 95,000 square-foot complex; they purchased the site formerly occupied by the Pink Elephant nightclub in 2014 for $45 million.
Find out more

Should the City Impose a ‘Window Tax’ for Billionaires’ Row Central Park Views?

Google Earth rendering from CityRealty showing some of the supertalls around the south end of Central Park

December 31, 2015

Should the City Impose a ‘Window Tax’ for Billionaires’ Row Central Park Views?

"The builders are charging up to $100 million for apartments that offer helicopter views of lush foliage, jagged skylines, soothing rivers and angelic clouds. They lure the superrich, many with suspect foreign assets, to sky-high mansions. They enrich themselves by exploiting weak zoning rules to pour hideous implants into Manhattan cavities." All of this, says Max Frankel, who was the executive editor of The Times from 1986 to 1994 and lives half a block from Central Park, may need some consequences. And he wonders if this should come in the form of a "user fee," where residents of these Billionaires' Row towers would have to pay a monthly "window tax" based on how high in a given tower their unit is located. And according to his "back-of-the-envelope calculations," this could bring in roughly $1 million a year per building for the city to use on public projects like street work, parks, education, and affordable housing.
More details ahead

December 31, 2015

Lofty Duplex Carved Out of an UES Limestone Mansion Asks $3.975 Million