Real Estate Trends

January 20, 2016

Lovable Park Slope Apartment Perched on the Top Floor Asks $3,900 a Month

Yes, a top floor apartment can often mean an annoying walk up the stairs to get there. And for this prewar building in Park Slope, at 523 8th Street, that's likely the case. This apartment is located on the top floor of the four-story, 11-unit building. But we'll venture to say this walk-up is worth it, considering how charming the space is. It's a two-bedroom rental with details like tin ceilings, carved entryways, and lovely views of the treetops below. It's also just a half block away from Prospect Park.
Check it out

Staten Island’s Abandoned Farm Colony to Undergo $91M Development for Senior Housing

Rendering via Nancy Owens Studio

January 20, 2016

Staten Island’s Abandoned Farm Colony to Undergo $91M Development for Senior Housing

By Dana Schulz

Over a year ago, 6sqft shared the news that Staten Island's abandoned farm colony was set to undergo a massive rehabilitation that included a large senior housing building and a massive public park. And just yesterday, the City Council approved the New York City Economic Development Corporation's plan to sell 45 of the site's 96 acres to Staten Island developer Raymond Masucci for $1, according to the Times. Mr. Masucci will pour $91 million into the project, dubbed Landmark Colony, rehabilitating five crumbling Dutch Revival-style structures, tearing down five more but saving their stones for reuse, preserving a 112-year-old dormitory "as a stabilized ruin," constructing 344 condominiums for the 55 and older crowd, and designing 17 acres of public outdoor space.
More on the project and the history of the site

January 19, 2016

It Only Makes Sense to Buy a Home in NYC After 18 Years, Longer Than Anywhere in the U.S.

By Dana Schulz

Renting in New York can get exhausting–the dreaded lease renewal letters, the constant moves, the thought of shelling out tens of thousands of dollars each year to pay someone else's mortgage. But is it really worth it to buy a home in NYC? According to data from personal finance site SmartAsset, it's only a good decision after you've lived in New York for 18.2 years, longer than anywhere else in the nation by far (h/t Business Insider). The study looked at 29 major cities across the U.S. and calculated their breakeven point–"the point at which the total costs of renting become greater than the total costs of buying." As a baseline, they used a household earning $100,000 annually with a 4.5 percent mortgage rate, a 20 percent down payment, and $2,000 in closings costs.
More details ahead

Real Estate Trends

Confirmed: Calatrava’s WTC Transportation Hub Will Open First Week of March!

Santiago Calatrava: WTC Transportation Hub , New York (Photo: Mega Projects and Skyscrapers, via YouTube)

January 19, 2016

Confirmed: Calatrava’s WTC Transportation Hub Will Open First Week of March!

By Michelle Cohen

The Port Authority has announced today in a press release that the World Trade Center Transportation Hub—anchored by architect Santiago Calatrava's Oculus–will open the first week of March. The hub will link the World Trade Center PATH station and "enable travelers to have a seamless connection with 11 New York City subway lines and the East River ferries in addition to access to PATH trains."
What about the mall?

January 15, 2016

Fox and News Corp. Ditch Plans to Move Into 2 World Trade Center

By Diane Pham

Big news on the 2 World Trade Center front. After several months of negotiation and hashing out design plans, News Corp. and 21st Century Fox Inc. have decided not to move into the new tower. The Post first broke the news, reporting that the media companies will remain at their Midtown headquarters at 1211 and 1185 Sixth Avenue where they currently have a lease in effect until 2020. "After much careful consideration we have decided to maintain our New York headquarters and other business operations. We have extension options that could continue our occupancy on Sixth Avenue through 2025,” the companies wrote in a joint statement. Sources added that the move would have been "a huge distraction for the companies' global operations."
FInd out more here

January 15, 2016

Introducing Astoria’s Newest Rental Building: The ‘L’ @ 31st Drive

By Heather Cooper Vivares

Future Astoria renters, meet The "L" @ 31st Drive. Located on a sedate block at 23-36 31st Drive, the "L" is a brand-new 22-unit building with rentals ranging from $2,000/month studios to $3,200/month two-bedrooms. The design hewn by Gerald Caliendo Architects features a modern concrete and glass exterior rising five stories in height. Complementing its streamlined exterior, interiors boast floor-to-ceiling windows, light hardwood floors, clean white walls, and stainless steel appliances.
See more here

The Federal Government Will Start Databasing Secret Buyers of NYC Luxury Real Estate

The Time Warner Center, one of NYC’s most notorious buildings for secret foreign investment

January 13, 2016

The Federal Government Will Start Databasing Secret Buyers of NYC Luxury Real Estate

By Dana Schulz

For the first time ever, the U.S. federal government will start identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end real estate, requiring those making all-cash transactions or hiding behind an LLC to disclose their names for entry into a law enforcement database. The regulation is kicking off in Manhattan and Miami-Dade County, two hotbeds of foreign investment, according to the New York Times. "The initiative is part of a broader federal effort to increase the focus on money laundering in real estate. Treasury and federal law enforcement officials said they were putting greater resources into investigating luxury real estate sales that involve shell companies like limited liability companies, often known as L.L.C.s; partnerships; and other entities," the paper explains.
More details ahead

January 13, 2016

WeWork’s Communal Living Concept on Wall Street Gets Its First Residents

By Michelle Cohen

Co-working space provider WeWork (which has 40,000 members in 19 US, European and Asian cities that share office space with perks like free coffee, cool furniture and a communal atmosphere) has launched their new "co-living" apartment concept, beginning with 45 units in a Wall Street building. FastCompany reports that last weekend, 80 new residents moved into furnished apartments at 110 Wall Street, where the company already runs a co-working space on the building’s first seven floors. They're part of what the company says is the first stage of beta testing for this community-driven concept, with New York City as the guinea pig. The concept is, according to a company spokesperson, "focused on enabling people to live more fulfilling lives. During this testing phase, we’ll be listening to feedback from our community." Plans are in the works to accommodate 600 people on 20 floors of the building.
Find out more about the latest co-living experiment

January 13, 2016

New Views of Robert A.M. Stern’s Limestone-Clad 70 Vestry Street

By Ondel Hylton and Heather Cooper Vivares

The Related Companies has launched the teaser website for its upcoming Tribeca condominium 70 Vestry Street. Related CEO Jeff Blau signed the purchase contract in December 2013 and closed on the six-parcel lot from Ponte Equities for $115.3 million in early 2014. Site excavation is already well underway, and new renderings of the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building have now surfaced. The project will pay homage to the neighborhood's distinctive warehouse architecture, and in true Stern fashion, will be clad in sumptuous French limestone.
More details ahead

January 12, 2016

New Renderings, Shape Shifts for Bjarke Ingels-Designed High Line Towers

By Michelle Cohen

New renderings have appeared via YIMBY for 76 Eleventh Avenue, the Bjarke Ingels-designed High Line-adjacent towers first revealed this past November. The planned project, developed by HFZ Capital with the goal of creating a "self contained kind of city," was expected to include a hotel, retail space, and around 300 luxury condos with prices to start at just below $4 million. The most noticeable changes from the earlier renderings, which showed the towers fitting together at an angle, show more space between the buildings, which now appear as more of a pair than two complementary parts of a "jigsaw-like" whole.
See what else has changed

Residential Projects Surface Along the Astoria Waterfront Ahead of New Ferry Service

By Ondel Hylton

The Astoria waterfront is poised to become the city's next high-density residential enclave, with more than 4,000 apartments planned within the Astoria Cove and Hallets Point developments alone. Just to the south, and more modest in scale, a six-story, 65-unit condominium building is preparing to rise from a block-through site at 30-05 Vernon Boulevard. City records indicate 3005 Vernon BLVD Joint Venture LLC purchased the lot for $3 million in 2014, and filed demolition permits in November to raze the existing one-story warehouse. Renderings provided by the building's architect, Young Kim of Tan Architect, show a white brick building with a glass curtain wall on its east- and river-facing elevations. As required by zoning, on-site parking is provided at ground level, and the garage roof will hold an expansive rooftop terrace. According to Young Kim, the development is moving forward and the team is in the process of filing building permits.
Find out more

January 12, 2016

See How 6 Columbus Circle Could Change the Central Park Skyline

By Ondel Hylton

Last Friday, a marketing brochure was released promoting the sale of 6 Columbus Circle, an 88-room boutique hotel that exudes a modernist '60s flair throughout its spaces. While the brick and limestone gem owned by the Pomeranc Group received an ungainly five-story addition in 2007, its ornate 58th Street facade survived intact–though now, its days may be numbered. The New York Observer reported last month that the owners have placed the building up for sale, tapping Cushman & Wakefield as exclusive marketers. With angled views of Central Park starting at less than 100 feet above street level, a source estimates the property could fetch a staggering $1,400 per buildable square foot, a pot of gold to developers' eyes. And the marketing brochure makes the possibilities very clear, conceptualizing a 700-foot-tall, mixed-use spire from the nimble, 42-foot-wide lot.
See how this could change the skyline

January 11, 2016

Two-Bedroom Loft in Former Little Italy Warehouse Asks $7,250 a Month

By Emily Nonko

This former warehouse building, constructed in 1915 at 138 Baxter Street, is right in the heart of Little Italy, just a block away from the Italian restaurants lining Mulberry Street. At some point, the seven-story building was converted into a six-unit apartment building, and this one is now on the rental market for $7,250 a month. It's a two-bedroom apartment with super high 14-foot ceilings, big windows and a nice open living, dining and kitchen area–it spans 1,200 square feet total. It's got all the loft bases covered, with some fun and funky interior decoration added on top. There have also been some sleek renovations in the kitchen and bathrooms.
Take a tour

January 11, 2016

Gramercy Park’s Luminaria Condo Conversion Lights Up in Preparation for Sales Launch

By Ondel Hylton

In anticipation of its official sales launch later this winter, Ben Shaoul's Magnum Real Estate Group has illuminated Luminaire, a 103-unit condominium-conversion at 385 First Avenue in downtown's Gramercy Park neighborhood. According to the marketing team, the cool-blue lighting scheme, specified by Magnum, is inspired by the building's floor-to-ceiling windows and sun-bathed units.
more here

January 11, 2016

First Look at the 331-Foot Sheepshead Bay Tower Set to Dwarf Its Neighbors

By Ondel Hylton

In Manhattan, much of Brooklyn, and parts of Queens like Long Island City, a 300-foot tower isn't even news. But out in the once-sleepy waterfront community of Sheepshead Bay, it's sure to get people talking. Last September, it was revealed that a joint venture between Muss Development and AvalonBay would be building a 30-story residential tower at 1501 Voorhies Avenue that would be four times taller than almost anything else in the area. Now, here's our first look at the large and rather glassy behemoth designed by Perkins Eastman Architects. According to revised building plans, the tower is two stories shorter than initially filed and has a height of 331 feet, 6 inches to the top of its rooftop mechanical bulkhead.
More details and renderings

January 9, 2016

First Look at Lions Group’s New Residential Tower in Long Island City

By Ondel Hylton

Another day, another Long Island City project unveiled. This new build comes in at 27-51 Jackson Avenue by way of Lions Group, who are already juggling three projects nearby: Jackson East, Jackson West, and ONE Queens Plaza. Last week, the LIC Post reported demolition permits were filed to raze the two small structures on the site. Construction permits have yet to be filed, but details from the project's EB-5 offering page show a 13-story, 38,500 square foot tower designed by Flushing-based Raymond Chan Architect. The project will rise directly alongside an under construction Gene Kaufman-designed Aloft Hotel at 27-45 Jackson Avenue.
More here

January 8, 2016

432 Park Avenue Records Its First Blockbuster Closing at $18.1M!

By Diane Pham

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

Could These Twin Glassy Towers Be Coming to the Greenpoint Waterfront?

By Ondel Hylton

Momentum is building along the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront. Since the Bloomberg administration's sweeping 2003 rezoning of the two-mile stretch of East River shoreline, nearly every buildable river-facing plot has been accounted for by developers. More than a dozen master plans are in the works, dominated by residential uses that scale upward to 50 stories and 600-foot heights. One remaining mystery lot is a block-long parcel in Greenpoint currently holding a two-story warehouse at 161-167 West Street (aka 53 Huron Street). The 65,000-square-foot site lies near the India Street ferry stop and is sandwiched between three development sites: Park Tower Group's ten-tower Greenpoint Landing master plan and Mack Real Estate Group/Palin Enterprises' 10 Huron Street (155 West Street), and The Gibraltar at 160 West Street.
More details ahead

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

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

By Ondel Hylton

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

By Dana Schulz

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

By Dana Schulz

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

By Emily Nonko

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

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

By Ondel Hylton

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

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