Real Estate Trends

July 22, 2015

New Renderings of 435 West 19th Street, Condo with Private Pools and a Sky Garage

Work has begun on on Six Sigma's upcoming condo at 435 West 19th Street, and the head-to-toe renovation/addition of the 1924 building seems intent on housing all the most outrageous frills of recent West Chelsea builds under a single roof. Boutique design-and-build firm Six Sigma acquired the 20,000-square-foot office building, once home to the photography studios and sound-stages of CityStage, for $21 million in August 2014. According to the developer's website, Pei Partnership, a firm founded by the sons of renowned Chinese architect I.M. Pei, is crafting the design. Pei Partnership, not to be confused with Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, was also the designers of The Centurion, the Midtown condo lavishly clad in a cascade of Burgundy limestone.
Find out more about this project
July 21, 2015

Buyers of Luxury Condos Can No Longer Hide Behind Shell Companies

Earlier this year the Times made waves in the real estate industry with a lengthy exposé zooming in on the growing trend of foreigners—many the subject of government inquiries ranging from environmental violations to financial fraud—using LLCs as a way to scoop up luxury properties and stash their cash while avoiding taxes. Now the paper reports that the De Blasio administration has imposed new disclosure requirements on those who intend to use shell companies as a vehicle to buy and sell property in the city. Under the new rules, these shell companies must now provide to the city both the names and tax IDs of all members involved in a transaction.
Find out more here
July 17, 2015

Inside the First Model Unit at 10 Bond; Scaffolding Goes Up Around 190 Bowery

More mysterious happenings for 190 Bowery: scaffolding has just gone up around the building. [Bowery Boogie] The first model unit at architect Annabelle Selldorf’s 10 Bond has been completed. It will be asking $7.1 million. [6sqft inbox; listings] The city plans to spend $2.8 million to beef up patrol on illegal Airbnb listings. [NYP] Annotating the corner of Mulberry […]

July 17, 2015

First Look at the Interiors of Nomad’s 212 Fifth Avenue

Here's our first look at what the residences of a highly anticipated condo conversion at 212 Fifth Avenue could look like. In March we revealed a set of whimsical renderings for a conceptual design whipped up by the visualization artists ASJNY. The actual plan going forward, approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission this past April, calls for a more sensitive touch. In addition to carving out 48 homes, the 1913 neo-gothic building's ground-level storefronts will be renovated, its parapets reconstructed, and the tower's stately limestone, terra-cotta and brick exterior will be restored, which may entail creating some additional windows.
More details ahead
July 17, 2015

Francis Ford Coppola Buys $2.5M Apartment in the Same West Village Building as Robert De Niro

Famed director Francis Ford Coppola, responsible for “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” has picked up a $2.5 million apartment at 32 Morton Street, according to The Real Deal. The West Village address is the same building where Robert De Niro and his stepdaughter Drena bought a $2.8 million penthouse back in December. Coppola’s new loft has two […]

July 16, 2015

SCDA’s Switchback Skyscraper Launches Teaser Site and Clears Its Midtown East Lot

Last November, 6sqft brought you news that a 29-unit boutique condominium would rise at the edge of Billionaires' Row, in that somewhat ambiguous zone occupied by Bloomingdale's and Bloomberg LLP. Now, the high-end development's teaser site has launched, which showcases a handful of images of the tower's common spaces, and we took a trip to the site to get a first look at the construction progress. Just last month, the two 4- and 6-story office buildings occupying the site at 116-118 East 59th Street were cleared, and recent Department of Buildings filings reveal that the envisioned $330 million tower will stand exactly 500 feet tall, making it spot-on-the-mark of what we (and other bean-counters) officially deem a skyscraper.
More details and renderings ahead
July 16, 2015

New Map Shows Where More Than 50,000 Rent Stabilized Apartments Have Been Lost

At the end of last month, the Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze rents for the first time on one-year leases for the city's more than one million rent stabilized apartments, which make up about 47% of the city's total rental units. They also increased rents on two-year leases by only two percent, the lowest in the board's 46 years. While this historic ruling is a huge win for tenants, it doesn't bring back the astonishing number of apartments that have been deregulated. Since 1994, nearly 250,000 units have lost rent regulation protections, and over these past eight years alone, New York City has lost more than 50,000 rent stabilized apartments. To put that staggering number into perspective, cartographer John Krauss has put together a handy map that shows where all of these 50,000 apartments are located (h/t Gothamist). Using scraped tax bills, he plotted changes in the number of rent-stabilized units, building by building.
How did your neighborhood fare?
July 15, 2015

From Clipper Ships to Condos: Construction Begins on 161 Maiden Lane at the Seaport

Site excavation has begun on a sleek condominium tower set to erupt into the forefront of one of Manhattan's most iconic and historical vistas. Developed by Brooklyn-based Fortis Property Group, a 5,000-square-foot site at 161 Maiden Lane is slated to give way to a 150,000 square-foot tower positioned to become downtown's first residential skyscraper directly fronting the East River. Earlier this month, Curbed (via Fredrik Ecklund's Instagram) revealed the project's official name of "One Seaport" and that it will rise 60 stories. Whether that number reflects actual floors or phantom Trump floors remains to be seen, but permits filed with the Department of Buildings last summer detail a 51-story, 640-foot glass prism designed by Goldstein Hill & West Architects (GHWA). Either way, given the project's location, small lot size and lack of height limitations, One Seaport promises to be a new marker in the downtown skyline that will provide its lucky residents with spectacular views of the bridges, Brooklyn, and beyond.
Click here for the past, present, and future of 161 Maiden Lane
July 14, 2015

For the Price of One Soho Apartment, You Can Buy 38 Homes in Memphis

We learned last week that the average sales price in Manhattan has skyrocketed to $1.8 million, and while this figure is definitely newsworthy, it's even more shocking when we look at the average price of an apartment in certain neighborhoods. Take tourist-friendly Soho, for example, where it costs an average of almost $3 million ($2,912,792 to be exact) for a residence. Many New Yorkers may be unfazed by this number–it seems that every day now we're being presented with seven-digit statistics. So the folks over at CityLab, decided to put it in perspective, mapping how many homes in cities across the country that $3 million price tag can buy.
See the breakdown here
July 14, 2015

Model Gigi Hadid Lists Pad Because of Stalker; Century-Old Greenhouse at Green-Wood Cemetery to be Renovated

The penthouse at The Edge in Williamsburg has hit the market for $3.85M. [listing; video] Supermodel Gigi Hadid reportedly listed her Noho apartment because she was being stalked. [NYP] The Chinatown McDonald’s housed within a pagoda-inspired design has gone out of business. [Bowery Boogie] Green-Wood cemetery’s greenhouse will be renovated into a visitor center. [Gothamist] NYC’s […]

July 13, 2015

New Video Reveals How SHoP’s 626 First Avenue Will Dance into Midtown’s East River Skyline

SHoP Architects' copper-clad fraternal pair of towers is finally rising along the East River, and a handful of newly uncovered images and a fly-through video reassure us that this dancing couple will be the boldest addition to the East River skyline in decades. Developed by Michael Stern's JDS Development Group, the nearly one-million-square-foot project, now known by its address 626 First Avenue, will contain a whopping 800 rental units, placing it in the league of other recent mega-rental developments such as Two Trees' Mercedes House (864 units), Silverstein's River Place (921 rentals), and Moinian's Sky (1,175 units). Like these others, JDS is promising to provide an extravagant amenity package that they claim "will set a new benchmark for rental developments."
Watch the video and find out everything 626 First Avenue will offer
July 13, 2015

‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ Townhouse Sells; Skyscrapers Could Soon Reach 2,000 Feet

The townhouse where Miss Holly Golightly lived in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” has sold for $7.4 million. [NYO] Midtown rents are getting so high many companies can’t afford them anymore. [NYP] Blink Fitness is leasing the entire Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope. [Crain’s] A structural engineer predicts that 2,000-foot towers are in the near future, and after […]

July 13, 2015

West Chelsea’s Tallest Tower Rises and Finally Reveals Itself

Residential construction along the High Line continues at full steam as a rash of activity along the park's northern extents rises higher and larger than earlier developments farther south. To provide a gradual transition from mid-rise West Chelsea to the enormous skyscrapers planned for the Far West Side, the Bloomberg administration in 2005 allowed more generous zoning between West 28th and 30th streets along Tenth and Eleventh avenues. Earlier this week Curbed, via ILNY's Flickr photostream, gave us our first look at West Chelsea's future tallest structure, a 425-foot rental tower at 319 Tenth Avenue that is part of a trio of buildings being developed by Long Island-based Lalezarian Properties.
Take a look at this new tower and learn more about it
July 10, 2015

LAST DAY to Win a Free Pass to the New York Times Cities for Tomorrow Conference (Worth $595!)

Cities for Tomorrow is back again for its second year, and we’ve teamed up with the New York Times to give one lucky 6sqft reader a free pass (worth $595!) to the event taking place July 20th–21st in Midtown Manhattan. Join leaders in the real estate, architecture and urban planning fields such as New York City’s police commissioner, […]

July 9, 2015

Construction Update: NYC’s First Micro Apartment Complex Is Now Fully Stacked

Moving day inches closer for those looking to claim a module in the city's first micro apartment complex. As of this week, My Micro NY is fully stacked, rising 120 feet from its site at 335 East 27th Street at the border of Gramercy in Kips Bay. The project, also known as Carmel Place, is the product of a city-sponsored design competition launched by former mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2012 as a way to test out if micro dwellings could be an answer to the city's housing shortage, and in turn give enough reason for adjusting NY's dated building codes to allow for smaller units better suited for today's shrinking households. As it stands, the legal minimum is 400 square feet, while My Micro NY's apartments measure a mere 260 to 360 square feet.
More images of the construction
July 9, 2015

Robert De Niro’s 15 CPW Rental Now Selling for $55M; Brooklyn Rents and Home Prices at a Record High

There’s a documentary film coming out about Brooklyn’s infamous Broken Angel House. [NYO] Sales launch at 200 East 62nd Street. [via 6sqft inbox; listings] The 15 Central Park West pad Robert De Niro has been renting just hit the market for $55M. [NYDN; listing] Don’t call Brooklyn the borough with better deals. Rents and home prices are at […]

July 7, 2015

Norman Foster’s Next Condo Tower Will Be 900 Feet; How to Shed Affordable Tenants

Jennifer Lawrence continues her search for a NYC pad, now with Chris Martin in tow. [NYDN] Much to locals’ dismay, reports confirm that Norman Foster’s new condo tower planned for Sutton Place will indeed be 900 feet tall. [NYDN] Rising mortgage rates could block millennials from buying. [AOL] How to get rid of rent-stabilized tenants and make a killing. [The […]

July 6, 2015

Royal Letdown: Queen Elizabeth Actually Won’t Be Coming to NYC

A few weeks ago, various media outlets reported that Queen Elizabeth had bought a $7.9 million apartment at 50 United Nations Plaza. City records listed the buyer of the three-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot residence as “Her Majesty the Queen in Right of New Zealand.” But as the Post informs us today, the royal family will not be taking up residence in NYC after all, as the actual buyer is the New Zealand government’s UN ambassador.
More details on the transaction