6sqft | NYC local news, events, and apartments

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

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

NYPL Digitizes 180,000 Historic Items; Will the Penn Station Overhaul Inherit an Old Problem?

The New York Public Library has released a digital collection of more than 180,000 photographs, postcards, maps and other public-domain items. [NYT] Tour the home of the architect who did a gut job on her already-renovated apartment. [The Cut] Here’s what the internet looked like back in 1996, when it only had 10 million users. [Business […]

Uncategorized

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

Distinctive Homes

For $5.5M, this Flatiron condo with four-bedroom potential is a prize for loft-lovers

Every inch of this $1.8M Fieldston home was hand-crafted by an artist resident

For $1.5M, get (way) off the grid in Gilded Age style on your own private island in Alexandria Bay

This six-story $13.9M Upper West Side townhouse has all of life's luxuries under one roof, with an elevator to get there

Bethenny Frankel lists her Bridgehampton property for $6M

From rental income to solar panels, this $3.5M Bed-Stuy brownstone checks all the boxes

For $20.5M, West Village townhouse meets suburban mansion behind a historic facade

A Victoria's Secret model's angelic East Village flat with a solarium and terrace asks $2.9M

A grown-up townhouse with a Bushwick address–and a koi pond–asks $2M

Bill Murray's former Snedens Landing home asks $3.7M

VIEW ALL

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

Custom Painted Bagel Clocks Are the Perfect Wall Decor for Your NYC Breakfast Nook

By Rebecca Paul

New York is famous for many things but one of the most iconic as far as food culture is concerned is the bagel. Now New Yorkers and tourists alike can enjoy this delightful round bread not only on their breakfast plate but also on their wall with the Bagel-O-Clock! These fully customizable bagel wall clocks are available in several flavors including plain, pumpernickel, poppyseed, sesame and twister, and can be garnished with variety of bagel-friendly toppings. Each clock is an original piece painted by the young Canadian artist Charlotte Ficek.
READ MORE

January 7, 2016

Housing Lottery for Two $918/Month Apartments Across From MoMA PS1 in LIC Starts Today

The affordable housing lottery for 21-03 46th Avenue in Long Island City officially opens today, and the brand new one-bedroom luxury units will be a mere $918, according to the NYC HPD. Apartments have private terraces, ten-foot ceilings, Brazilian cherry floors, chef's kitchens with stainless steel appliances, and in-unit washers/dryers. Plus, the address is right across from MoMA PS1 and just a block away from the E, M, 7 and G subways. The catch? The building only has eight units and only two of these are deemed affordable.
Feeling lucky? Find out if you qualify.

Affordable Housing

January 7, 2016

Half of the Earth’s Population Squeezes Onto Just One Percent of Its Land

Click here for a full size version >> It's widely known that most of the world's population is concentrated in and around cities, but this cool map created by Max Galka (h/t CityLab) shows us exactly what that spatial disparity looks like. Using NASA's gridded population data, which zooms in on the number of people inhabiting every nine-square-mile patch of the Earth, Galka colored all the areas boasting more than 8,000 inhabitants with yellow cells, while those with less than that number were marked black. What's visualized with 28 million cells mapped is that half of the world's inhabitants (about 7.4 billion people to date) occupy just one percent of the Earth's land. The rest of the population is sparsely dispersed over the other 99 percent.
See more here

City Living

January 7, 2016

Inside NYC’s First Medical Marijuana Dispensary; Rug Alarm Clock Forces You Out of Bed

Take a tour of Columbia Care, NYC’s first medical marijuana dispensary, located in Union Square. [Curbed] Ruggie is a rug alarm clock that forces you to get out of bed and stand on it. [Contemporist] Track all your favorite food trucks with this fun new app. [NYCTruckFood] The Upper East Side got the most parking tickets in 2015. [DNAinfo] […]

Uncategorized

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

$1.7B Light Rail Connecting the Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront Proposed

The dream of a Brooklyn-Queens light rail is moving further into the realm of reality. Back in July last year, 6sqft reported that an advisory committee comprised of developers, transportation experts and civic organizers was in the midst of forming to address the need for a more robust transportation system that could connect underserved, but booming, areas of Brooklyn and Queens. Now as the Daily News tells us, a non-profit advocacy group called Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector has officially materialized to tackle the issue, and they've just released a detailed proposal revealing the route and the potential design the modern streetcars could take on.
Find out more about the proposal here

Transit

January 6, 2016

Art Nerd New York’s Top Event Picks for the Week – 1/7-1/13

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! The now-appropriate temperatures don't mean you have to hunker down inside to kick off 2016. Each night this month, check out iconic artist Laurie Anderson's tribute to dogs in Times Square. Whitehot Magazine's Noah Becker turns on his curatorial eye for a group show at Berry Campbell, and famed photographer Ricky Powell partners with some nouveau street artists for an exhibition of collaboration. Experience the ghosts of Christmas trees past at Michael Neff's Suspended Forest exhibition in Queens, or explore the ideology behind pleasure with Katya Grokhovsky. Learn something new with Dr. Vanessa Sinclair at the Morbid Anatomy museum, or with the work of the late Charles Bukowski at Cornelia Street Cafe. Finish the weekend off by challenging yourself to be your most daring during the 15th Annual No Pants Subway Ride.
All the best events to check out here

Events & Things To Do

January 6, 2016

‘Inception’-Inspired Coffee Table Takes the Horizonless City to New Dimensions

By Rebecca Paul

Inspired by the 2010 movie "Inception", this wild wave-like coffee table was designed by Cyprus-based designer Stelios Mousarris. While this isn't the first time we've seen a designer draw from the impressive visuals of this stellar film (see: 'Inception'-Inspired Map Shows a Horizonless NYC), Mousarris is the first to take the mind-bending map concept beyond our screen and into three-dimensions.
see more images of this amazing design 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

Online Lottery for ‘Hamilton’ Breaks the Internet; Tour Donald Trump’s 1987 Connecticut Mansion

The online lottery for “Hamilton” crashed after more than 50,000 people tried to score cheap tickets. For now, it’s back to the streets. [Vulture] Take a tour of Donald Trump’s Greenwich, Connecticut home in 1987. [Mashable] These trucks have rear screens that show oncoming traffic so other drivers can safely pass them. [Digital Synopsis] Exploring Harlem’s […]

Uncategorized

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

Everything you need to know about affordable housing: applying, getting in, and staying put

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

THE 6SQFT SHOP

The best websites for buying and selling used furniture in NYC

The 6 best furniture rental companies in NYC

8 best places in NYC to thrift for home goods

Everything you need to know about using a guarantor in NYC

15 quintessential NYC gifts for the New Yorker in your life

New York City's best holiday markets of 2023

Raising chickens in NYC: Laws, tips, and everything else you need to know

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

Snag the Greenest Seat in Town: Gufram's 1972 Pratone Chair is Shaped Like a Patch of Grass

VIEW ALL

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

January 5, 2016

Ceramic ‘Wall Pockets’ Turn Plain White Walls Into Green Vertical Gardens

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

Is your home so cramped that you can't even find space for a new plant? Well, what about your walls? Studio Harm en Elke came out with a simple and sweet solution that creates pockets for your wall. Dubbed "Wall Flowers," these little ceramic vessels can hold single flowers, a small cactus, shoots or any other modestly-sized plant.
Learn more about these green wall plant pots

Neighborhood Tours

January 5, 2016

Long Island City Rental Tower Will Offer Micro Units for ‘Gen Y Professionals’

Yesterday, 6sqft discussed how Long Island City's Purves Street is a hotbed of construction activity with no less than four residential towers underway along the 500-foot, one-block stretch. On a site situated between Thomson Avenue (where the pioneer condo Arris Lofts rises) and Court Square, Twining Properties has begun excavation work for a 27-story, 168-unit rental tower at 44-14 Purves Street. According to the developer's project page, the rental tower will be known as Watermark Court Square and is to offer "efficient apartment layouts designed for mobile professionals." The handsome albeit unremarkable design by Handel Architects is faced with grey brick and large windows. According to Department of Buildings filings, the ground-up, 302-foot-tall tower will rise along 44th Drive, while a two-story existing building will be rehabilitated along Purves.
More details and renderings

January 5, 2016

Developer Uses Katz’s Deli to Sell Luxury Condos; Are Oceanscapers the Future of Architecture?

Developer Ben Shaoul is using hipster-fied images of Katz’s deli to sell his new condos at 196 Orchard Street. [Bowery Boogie] Forget the selfie stick, there’s now a selfie camera that’s worn like a bracelet. [Mashable] Architect Vincent Callebaut has conceived floating villages that are 3D printed from plastic waste and algae. Each underwater village could house […]

Uncategorized

January 5, 2016

Freestanding Colonial Home Surpasses $1 Million in Flushing

These days in New York, it's hard to get very far without running into impossibly high price tags, whether it be for a luxury condo or a Brooklyn brownstone. And in this case, you can go very far–all the way to Flushing, a Queens neighborhood that's close to Long Island–and you may still do a double-take at the pricing. The property in question is a freestanding Colonial home at 40-27 166th Street, just a few blocks from the Broadway Long Island Railroad stop. Flushing may be known as New York's second Chinatown, but this home is located in a much more suburban area, where the houses come with front lawns and garages. As for the price, it comes in at $1.15 million.
See the interior

Distinctive Homes

January 5, 2016

Median Sale Price in Manhattan Hits 27-Year High at $1.15M

If you thought you were going to get a deal on a Manhattan apartment this year, you might want to reconsider your big plans. A new report from Douglas Elliman shows that in the fourth quarter of 2015, the borough's median sale price jumped 17 percent to $1.15 million, breaking a 27-year record, according to The Real Deal. If that wasn't enough to make you pause, the report also shows that the average sale price increased 12 percent to $1.9 million and the average price per square foot rose more than 28 percent to $1,645, both record setters. And while co-op sales were down 4 percent, condo sales were up a staggering 28.6 percent, with a median price of $1.7 million. Luxury listings are in a class all their own; their median sale price reached $6 million, a 25 percent increase.
More on the trends ahead

Real Estate Trends

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

Dr. Zizmor of Subway Ad Fame Retires and Sells Bronx Mansion All in One Day

Local celebrity Dr. Jonathan Zizmor has been both charming and perplexing subway riders for decades, thanks to his dermatology ads that subtly peddle cosmetic surgery against a rainbow background. But these will soon be a thing of the past, as the Daily News reported this morning that Dr. Zizmor has officially retired and closed his Upper East Side practice. And just hours later, Curbed broke the news that the doctor's Mediterranean Revival mansion in the Fieldston section of the Bronx has gone into contract for $3.075 million after three years on the market. (Bet you never thought you'd hear so much Dr. Zizmor news in day!)
Take a tour of his grand home

Real Estate Trends

January 4, 2016

94 Years Ago Today, NYC Debuted the World’s First Three-Colored Traffic Lights

Did you know the three-colored traffic light, now a staple in most of the world, was invented right here in NYC? The year was 1922, and special deputy police commissioner Dr. John F. Harriss tested his system of lights to save time for "both the pedestrian and the motorist." Today, on the 94th anniversary of the lights' installation, the Times took a look back at a historic article the paper published at the time. It described how Harriss "began experimenting yesterday with powerful signal lights which will be installed from week to week until traffic in most of Manhattan will be simultaneously started and stopped by red, green and yellow lights all operated by a single switch in Times Square."
The rest of the history this way

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

January 4, 2016

Interior Steel Boxes From OODA Can Transform Any Open Space Into a Fully Functional Apartment

By Rebecca Paul

Designed by the Portuguese architecture studio OODA, these interior boxes make it possible to transform any empty room into a fully-functional apartment. Each free-standing unit comes complete with all of the comforts of home including a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, office and storage area.
READ MORE

January 4, 2016

Are Bagel Scoopers Ruining NYC?; Raccoons Invade Brooklyn

“Should I Scoop Out My Bagel?” An age-old New York question and the title of a new book. [NYP] This Greenpoint laundromat has 20 vintage pinball machines and a secret speakeasy. [NYT] A new study shows that shared office coffee machines are as gross as you’d think. [Fast Co. Design] Raccoon complaints in NYC are […]

Uncategorized

January 4, 2016

Own an Upstate Greek Revival Mansion Built By a Circus Entrepreneur for $2.5M

Behold the Gerard Crane House, a granite-clad Greek Revival mansion built on 30 acres upstate and named for its original owner. Crane was a prominent Somers, New York resident who started exhibiting exotic animals in the 1800s, eventually becoming a circus entrepreneur. He built this home for himself in 1849. Since his death in 1872, the house and estate have stayed a private residence with very few alterations made. And even though it's on the market, there will be very few changes to come, as the property is a designated historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Even the interior of the home looks like a time capsule of Gerard Crane's life.
See more photos of the $2.5 million stunner

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 4, 2016

Website Launched for Rabsky Group’s New Long Island City Rental Tower ‘The Halo LIC’

To say that Long Island City is undergoing a construction boom is a bit of an understatement. The city's second most populous borough is building a business district...er high-rise bedroom community that will soon rival many American downtowns. The blocks along Jackson Avenue from the Pulaski Bridge to Queens Plaza have been sprinkled with development dust, and at the center of it all is a short dead-end street named Purves where four residential buildings are now under construction and four others have recently finished. Near the street's southeastern terminus, Simon Dushinsky's Rabsky Group has topped off its 26-story, 284-unit rental tower at 44-51 Purves Street and applying the last bits of the building's glass, metal and brick facade. In addition to a number of renderings and a new website, we've uncovered that the 308-foot tall building will be called 'Halo LIC," which we learned is an adjective for something silvery, or an archaic word for money (how fitting). The site was previously planned to give rise to a pair of shorter towers by the Criterion Group but the 28,000 square-foot lot was flipped in 2013 for $32 million.
find out more here

January 4, 2016

In the Historic ‘Fruit Streets’ of the Heights, a $4.5M Townhouse With a Private Garage

Tucked into one of the city’s more picturesque enclaves on Orange Street in Brooklyn Heights, this four-story, nearly-3,000-square-foot townhouse offers modern comforts with a nod to its historic surroundings. At an ask that doesn't raise eyebrows in a neighborhood whose graceful townhouses range from pricey to record-setting–sometimes regardless of interior state–this brick-clad row house, while not loaded with grand details, gets warmth from wood beams, exposed brick, a wood-burning fireplace and restored window moldings while providing turnkey touches like central air and an updated chef's kitchen. Another plus is a private garage, not exactly common in brownstone Brooklyn.
Have a look inside

Distinctive Homes

520 Fifth Avenue

Midtown West

Live at the center of NYC

1 beds starting at $2,445,000
2 beds starting at $3,435,000
3 beds starting at $6,775,000

Learn More

January 3, 2016

Meike Harde’s Stockwerk Shelf Pops Up From Flat to Six Levels High

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

With limited space, New Yorkers need to be smart about how they furnish their homes. One clever solution is the use of adaptable furniture, like the brilliant Stockwerk shelf, a clever pop-up piece that can expand from almost flat to a fully functional six-level height. Created by young German designer Meike Harde, this shelf can also be delivered as a flat-pack item, yet there's no need for complicated assembly with those dreaded Allen wrenches.
Learn more about this pop-up shelf

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

Ancient Syrian Architecture Coming to Times Square; Why Is the Pineapple a Symbol of Hospitality?