High Line Co-Founder Say Park Failed Residents Of Chelsea

When Robert Hammond first conceived of turning a disused elevated railway on Manhattan’s West Side into a high-design “linear park,” he thought it would attract maybe 300,000 visitors a year. He and co-founder Joshua David didn’t really think about what the High Line could do to the neighborhood, apart from adding a little extra breathing room.

“This was right after 9/11,” Hammond says almost two decades later, sitting in his glassy office perched above the now-famous planked pathway. On a February afternoon, walkers are admiring views of the Hudson River and park greenery hushed grey by winter. “People were worried about buildings falling apart, and whether the stock exchange would leave town,” he says. “New York’s future was not guaranteed.”

In 2016, seven years after it opened, nearly 8 million bodies would flock to the High Line—that’s more visitors than to any other destination in New York City. With those visitors came riches the park’s founders never predicted: Between the glossy condos, eateries, and museums that have flowered around its steel girders, the High Line is set to generate about $1 billion in tax revenues to the city over the next 20 years.

“Instead of asking what the design should look like, I wish we’d asked, ‘What can we do for you?’ People have bigger problems than design.”

By these measures, the High Line is a runaway success. But by one critical metric, it is not. Locals aren’t the ones overloading the park, nor are locals all benefiting from its economic windfall. The High Line is bookended by two large public housing projects; nearly one third of residents in its neighborhood, Chelsea, are people of color. Yet anyone who’s ever strolled among the High Line’s native plants and cold-brew vendors knows its foot traffic is, as a recent City University of New York study found, “overwhelmingly white.” And most visitors are tourists, not locals.

“We were from the community. We wanted to do it for the neighborhood,” says Hammond, who is now the executive director of Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit that funds, maintains, programs, and built the space (New York City owns it, and the parks department helps manage it). “Ultimately, we failed.”

Now he’s course-correcting. Hammond is striving to bring in more diverse park-goers to the High Line’s narrow pathways, and to new public spaces around America. On top of changes to how FHL engages with neighbors, Hammond has founded the High Line Network, a coalition of designers and planners building “adaptive reuse” parks in the High Line mold. Leaders from 17 projects at different stages of life in the U.S. and Canada—think Atlanta’s rails-to-trail BeltLine, Dallas’ highway cap park, and the 51-mile L.A. River overhaul—have been meeting over the past year to share insights on how to turn disused infrastructure into bustling public amenities.

A lot of the conversation focuses on nuts-and-bolts topics, like capital financing and marketing strategies, attendees say. But at every convening (there have been four since June, in New York, D.C., Toronto, and Houston), Hammond and others have opened up the question of equity—“sort of like a Trojan Horse,” he says—and driven at it hard, to figure out strategies for keeping public parks inclusive.

It’s harder than it should be, and the stakes are much higher than visitor statistics. The network of project leaders is tackling a long overdue conversation about how to improve neglected neighborhoods, without pushing away the very people they intend to serve.

The ugly side of “adaptive reuse”

As American downtowns repopulate and densify, green space is at more and more of a premium. Very few open lots that could be turned into parks remain around urban cores; often, land that becomes available holds remnants of the industrial past. That’s why so many of these “adaptive reuse” projects—with sleek aesthetics that often highlight, rather than hide, the old highway/flood channel/railway—are getting built.

Meanwhile, city governments rarely have room in their budgets, or even imaginations, to redevelop those tracts on their own. It’s largely up to private funders to bankroll these projects—and it’s mostly private individuals who dream them up. From an investor standpoint, the High Line’s stunning successes make these projects no-brainers to back: Green space draws new businesses and dwellings. There’s big redevelopment money to be made. So they partner with city governments, hungry for a heftier tax base, to do it.

But these obsolete bits of infrastructure generally have people living near them, and often, they are park-poor, low-income communities of color, forgotten in the shadows of that very strip of concrete or steel. This is true for many of the 17 projects involved in the High Line Network. Planners and designers—who are usually white—may try to engage residents in dialogue; often, they fail.

During the High Line’s planning stages, Hammond and David set up offices inside a local community agency in order to make themselves accessible to public housing tenants, and solicit their opinions on design. But the questions they asked at their “input meetings” were essentially binary: Blue paint, or green paint? Stairs on the left or the right? They rarely got to the heart of what really mattered.

“Instead of asking what the design should look like, I wish we’d asked, ‘What can we do for you?’” says Hammond. “Because people have bigger problems than design.”

His organization finally did launch a series of “listening sessions” with public housing tenants in 2011. What people really needed were jobs, Hammond says, and a more affordable cost of living. Residents also said they staying away from the High Line for three main reasons: They didn’t feel it was built for them; they didn’t see people who looked like them using it; and they didn’t like the park’s mulch-heavy programming.

Those findings led to the several new initiatives. In 2012, FHL launched a suite of paid jobs-training programs aimed at local teenagers, focused on environmental stewardship, arts programming, and educating younger kids. The organization also started to partner with the Elliot-Chelsea and Fulton Houses, the two public housing projects, to develop their programming schedule. That’s how “¡ARRIBA!”, a summer series of Latin dance parties got started—a resident thought it up, and it’s been a big hit. Friends of the High Line also started putting on occasional events within the public housing campuses themselves, avoiding the swarms of tourists.

But there’s a lot the High Line could have done before it opened that it can’t make up for now. Its designers might have paid stronger attention to a few basic principles of attractive public spaces, and specifically those that attract low-income and minority park-users. “The more open and visible a place is, the more easily you transition into it,” says Alexander Reichl, a professor of urban studies at Queens College who has studied social mixing patterns at the High Line. The High Line’s elevated structure naturally preempts street-level walk-ins, but its designers also chose to put in very few staircase entry points, further limiting access.

“The question we're constantly challenging ourselves on is: Who is this project really for?”

There are also no areas for open play, and a long list of posted rules: No “throwing objects” (including, say, a ball), no rollerblades, bikes, or skateboards. It stands to reason that the park would need to prohibit these activities within its narrow confines, but research shows that these kinds of common recreations draw people of color in particular to parks. “How much can you do with an elevated park space?” says Miguel Acevedo, director of the Fulton House Tenants Association. He says he doesn’t fault FHL, given how much they’ve reached out to his community in recent years. Still, “our residents don’t feel it’s a park that is available to them.”

Perhaps more critically, Friends of the High Line could have worked harder from the start to advocate for affordable housing. Hammond likes to say that his park gets too much credit and too much blame for Chelsea’s explosive makeover—city zoning codes were already changing to support redevelopment in the mid-2000s. But the fact is, the High Line has become a symbol of the “new” New York, a city of profound inequality. Luxury high-rises and catwalk clothiers have taken the place of Chelsea’s old bodegas and butchers; neighborhood income disparities are among the city’s most extreme. People can’t afford to shop nearby, and the prospect of shouldering a market-rate rental is laughable. Even though public housing costs haven’t increased for public housing tenants, displacement anxieties are running high.

“The scariest thing is being in this kind of district—especially with the kind of president we have today,” says Acevedo. He could see public housing in Chelsea targeted for redevelopment. “With NYCHA in a large deficit, too, it’s very serious.”

Acevedo wishes that FHL had pushed the city harder to keep more of the land values that the High Line created for affordable housing and public services; although a zoning amendment approved in 2005 did encourage some low- and middle-income rate units to be built, it wasn’t nearly enough. Hammond agrees. “There could have been more government action through zoning changes,” he says. (He also wishes he’d gotten the city to use more tax revenues to fund his own organization.)

But that’s just it: in hindsight, it might be obvious, but few could have anticipated the High Line’s downright gravitational pull on tourists and developers. For new projects that are modeled after it, however, it’s not too late to plan around the social problems that accompany economic success. Hence, the High Line Network. “I want to make sure other people don’t make the mistakes we did, and learn how to deal with these issues,” says Hammond. “We certainly don’t have all the answers.”

The equitable redevelopment toolkit

Other projects in the High Line Network are paying much more than lip service to equity concerns. Washington, D.C.’s 11th Street Bridge Park is national leader on this topic. That $45 million project is making a park out of an old highway bridge spanning the Anacostia River, touching one of the poorest sections of the District. There are sure to be dramatic increases in home values there, and displacement is a real risk. So project leaders are moving ahead of time.

“The question we're constantly challenging ourselves on—with staff and publicly—is, who is this really for?” says Scott Kratz, the project’s director. “For us, before we even engaged a single architect or engineer, we had 200 meeting meetings where we asked: ‘Is this even something you want?’ Going out and getting permission, and then having the community shaping every aspect, has been critical.”

Not everyone would agree that the park will be good for long-time residents. But the most important test will be whether the project can successfully mitigate displacement ahead of time—and so far, the organizers are putting money where their mouth is. In 2015, Kratz and his team released a set of equitable development goals, generated by a working group of local stakeholders. They included neighborhood hiring targets for construction and operations, a strategy to help nearby businesses serve the park, and plans for a land trust to buy up disused properties for future housing projects. The Bridge Park’s organizers have raised $1.5 million so far to implement those goals, including the land trust, which it’s setting up with a nonprofit housing developer. A $50 million investment by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation will further anchor its equity work.

Kratz points to Atlanta’s BeltLine as another leader in keeping affordable housing and equity at the top of their priority list. That $2.8 billion project will turn 22 miles of rusting freight rails into a ribbon of trails, parks, and transit-friendly developments connecting 45 neighborhoods. Special bond measures have created tens of millions of dollars to incentivize affordable housing developments, and several hundred below-market-rate units have already been built.

But it’s a massive project, with unique challenges for each of the enclaves it reaches. Ryan Gravel, the urban planner who first conceived and proposed the BeltLine concept, stepped down from the project’s steering board in September 2016 over concerns about affordability promises not being kept. Funds generated by additional proposed bonds, for example, would only be “a drop in the bucket when compared to the need,” Gravel wrote in his resignation letter, signed by another board member who also stepped down. Gravel figured he’d do better from the outside with his new focus—advocating for equitable development.  

“If you care about the places you’re working in, then you have to be talking about this,” he says. “Because in a growing economy, if you’re building a greenway trail or a transit station or improving a school, it will drive up land values.”

The answer is not not to build parks and other improvements, Gravel says, or to hold neglected places back. The problems are essentially financial, and there are ways to fix them, whether it’s traditional tax credits, (which are already hurting under Trump), subsidies to renters, inclusive zoning, land value capture, or clearing paths in zoning codes for snug accommodations like accessory dwelling units or tiny homes.

Not every tool is right for every city. But tools do exist. “It’s mostly about finding the will,” says Gravel. “That comes from leadership. But the public also needs to say this is important, and needs to demand that we do better.”

Even though he’s no longer officially part of the BeltLine’s development, Gravel has still been attending the High Line Network meetings. He’s been pleased to hear other cities talking openly about equity: The $1.3 billion L.A. River revitalization project is feeling a lot of pressure from housing advocates in Frog Town; New York City’s Lowline—the world’s first underground park—is working hard to engage longtime Lower East Siders in its design. Hammond is proud to report steady changes in the High Line’s visitor make-up: In 2015, 44 percent of park-users who hailed from New York City were people of color, up 20 points from 2010. However, tourists still dominate the space.

The High Line Network should help keep its many ambitious projects accountable to their equity promises, and that is a good thing. Gentrification and displacement concerns arise with almost any new development in this era of city-building, but when it comes to turning certain corners of forgotten neighborhoods into beautiful parks, these anxieties can be especially painful—after all, public spaces are supposed to be for everyone.

Still, big challenges lie ahead, not least of which is the fact that the leaders of the projects in this network are themselves overwhelmingly white. Perhaps this is the most overlooked piece of the puzzle: A diverse set of voices should be at the design table from the get-go.

The same goes for the folks doing the pushback, according to Acevedo.

“I represent people who’ve been here 40 years, and this is all they have,” he says. “I’ll fight tooth and nail to protect them. But people like me, we need to make sure that the next generation knows: if you’re not part of the fight, you might not be living here in the future.”

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110 Third Avenue, Unit 10D

110 Third Avenue, Unit 10D

East Village, Manhattan

2 Bed  |  2 Bath  |  1,103 SqFt

Offered At $7,900 / mo.

Condo  |  Doorman  |  Gym  |  Roof Deck  

Enjoy open city views south and east from this corner unit with floor-to-ceiling windows.

This open and modern unit features upgraded quite soundproof windows as well as motorized blinds. The beautiful oak floors run throughout the entire apartment. The true chef style kitchen opens to the dinning area and living room which creates a downtown loft feel to the apartment. Perfectly located between Union Square and the East Village. With amenities such as a fully equipped fitness center, landscaped common rooftop terrace, Fresh Direct certified refrigerated storage, full time concierge, and bike storage, its a perfect a fit. 

 

One-third Of All Manhattan Apartment Leases In January Included Concessions

New York City residential landlords are continuing to rely on renters’ incentives to keep vacancies at bay, a trend that is expected to become more widespread throughout 2017.

The number of leases with concessions reached new highs in January, according to the monthly rental report from Douglas Elliman. In Manhattan, 31 percent of all new leases included some form of concession last month, nearly double what it was a year ago. In Brooklyn, 18 percent of leases had concessions, compared to just 5 percent last year.

“Landlords are trying to strike a balance and that means fine tuning rents to fit market conditions,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel and author of the report. He predicts landlords will use concessions even more aggressively in 2017.

“I don’t think we’re at the end of this — nothing is changing and there’s a lot of product coming in,” he said. “The rental market is going to get weaker before it gets stronger.”

In Manhattan, the vacancy rate fell slightly from 2.3 percent from 2.8 percent in January 2016. That’s a sign concessions are working, although they are “painful for landlords,” said Miller.

The borough’s median rental price, after concessions, was $3,259, essentially the same as January last year. Softening in the market continues to be particularly acute at the high end. The median rent of a Manhattan studio was $2,600, a negligible change from last year. But for three-bedrooms, the median price was $5,500, a drop of almost 7 percent. While non-doorman median rent went up 2.8 percent to hit $2,800, the median price for doorman rentals fell back 1.2 percent to $3,750.

Luxury rentals, which account for the top ten percent of the market fell again this month, dropping 5.5 percent year-over-year to a median price of $7,595.

In Brooklyn, the effects of vast amounts of luxury rental product is also being felt. The median rent in the borough was $2,702, after taking concessions into account. That’s a fall of 2.8 percent compared to January 2016, when median rent was $2,779. Just like in Manhattan, the lower end of the market held firm or saw modest gains. But the two-bedroom median rental price was $3,025, a fall of 4 percent year-over-year. For three-bedrooms, it was $3,318, a fall of 8 percent. The luxury market dropped just under one percent to $5,119.

“In the last six months in 2016, you started to see a run-up in Brooklyn in the use of concessions,” said Miller. “Even though the concessions are still less than in Manhattan, the amount of concessions tripled over the year, whereas in Manhattan it doubled.”

The market in northwest Queens continues to be “choppy,” according to Miller. The median rent fell 2.4 percent year-over-year to $2,700. Out of all the leases signed last month, 38 percent included concessions. The concessions are driven by the uptick in new development rentals, which had a market share of 34 percent last month, more than double what it was this time last year.

It Might Cost The City $28M To Clean Up Yesterday’s Storm

For fiscal year 2017, the city budgeted $88 million for snow removal and has already spent $26 million. But yesterday’s dump of the white stuff could bring that number up to $54 million. DNAinfo reports that Comptroller Scott Stringer estimates it could cost NYC taxpayers between $19.9 and $27.9 million to dig out from Winter Storm Niko, which is based on the average of $1.99 million per inch of snow that the city has paid over the past 14 years.

Though parts of Queens got close to eight inches of snow, Central Park saw only five and most of Brooklyn between five and seven. Taking a median of six inches, this leaves the city with enough money to dig out 24 more inches of snow before the end of the year based on the average of $1.99 per inch. However, in fiscal year 2016, it cost an average of $3.28 million per inch of snow, and in 2014, removal costs hit an all-time high of $130.6 million.

These costs come in addition to the $21 million the city spent purchasing new equipment like smaller salt spreaders and snow haulers to accommodate narrow streets in Queens and Staten Island, bringing the total number of pieces of snow equipment to 2,300. In a statement Stringer said, “It’s always important to remember that snowstorms cost money, and the more transparent we are about those costs, the better we’re able to budget in the future,” Stringer said in a statement.

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Biggest Price Cuts On Luxury Units This Week

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Price chops in the city’s ultra-luxury market are showing no signs of slowing down.

In total, 15 properties in the over-$10 million market saw a discount of more than 5 percent in the period between Jan. 31 and Feb 6, according to data provided by StreetEasy. 

The biggest reduction was at One Madison Park, where a two-floor condominium had its asking price slashed by a whopping $5.5 million, or 17 percent.

Here’s a look at the biggest price cuts in New York City’s luxury market last week:

23 East 22nd Street, 55/56

23 East 22nd Street, 55/56
Previous Price: $32 million
Current Price: $27 million ($4,070 per square foot)
Percentage Drop: 17 percent

This five-bedroom, five-bathroom “showcase” apartment at One Madison Park was first listed in May 2015, asking $37 million. It was pulled from the market just a few days later, and returned in April last year with a $32.5 million price tag. Last week, the apartment at the Related Companies, CIM Group and HFZ Capital Group-developed property was reduced by $5.5 million, or 17 percent.

The 6,620-square-foot apartment, offered as raw space only, spans across two full floors, according to the listing. If you do happen to have $27 million to spare, buying this apartment would put you in pretty close proximity to Rupert Murdoch. In 2014, the media mogul paid $57.3 million for the four floors above this particular pad, including a triplex penthouse and a three-bedroom on the 57th floor. He listed the penthouse for $72 million in 2015, but yanked it from the market a year later.

CORE’s Jim St. Andre has the listing. He wasn’t available for comment.

151 East 58th Street, 47A

151 East 58th Street, 47A
Previous Price: $13.9 million
Current Price: $12 million ($3,922 per square foot)
Percentage Drop: 14 percent

The owner of this One Beacon Court condo is Scott Kurnit, chair of shopping website Keep.com. But if this recent discount is anything to go by, he may be keeping this 3,000-square-foot home.

Kurnit put the pad up for sale last November with a $13.9 million asking price. Last week, $2 million, or 14 percent, was lopped off the asking price.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment has floor-to-ceiling windows, 11-foot-high ceilings, custom flooring, views of the city and Central Park, a kitchen outfitted with top-of-line appliances and custom closet spaces.

The Vornado Realty Trust-developed building is also home to another notable price reduction. Billionaire hedge funder Steven Cohen has been trying to find a buyer for his apartment there since 2013. Its asking price has been dropped from $115 million down to $72 million over the years.

Compass’ Victoria Shtainer and Gabriel Zapata have the listing. The brokers could not be reached for comment.

535 West End Avenue, HiFlr

535 West End Avenue “Hiflr” 
Previous Price: $22.7 million
Current Price: $20 million ($2,366 per square foot)
Percentage Drop: 12 percent

This high-floor apartment — as it’s known for privacy reasons — spans 8,450 square feet across seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and features custom herringbone hardwood floors, a corner library, a formal dining room and a butler’s pantry. First listed in August last year, according to StreetEasy, the apartment at the Extell Development building was slashed by $2.7 million last week.

Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group has the listing. He declined to comment.

56 East 66th Street

56 East 66th Street
Previous Price: $17.9 million
Current Price: $16 million
Percentage Drop: 11 percent

This 8,000 square foot townhouse has eight apartments across five floors. It could, however, be turned into a single-family mansion with a limestone facade, six bedrooms, five bathrooms and an eat-in kitchen. There’s also potential for fireplaces, a “dramatic” open staircase, a private garden and an elevator, according to the listing.

Built in 1905, the townhouse was on the market for $17.9 million in October, but was dropped down to $15.9 million. It’s claim to 15 minutes of fame? Andy Warhol lived close by at number 57.

The current owner used an LLC to buy it for $14 million in 2015, records show.

Lisa Simonsen and Kristin Lukic of Douglas Elliman have the listing. Neither brokers were available for comment.

720 Park Avenue, #23C

720 Park Avenue, 23C
Previous Price: $22.5 million
Current Price: $20.1 million
Percentage Drop: 11 percent

The chance to own a pad in one of the city’s most exclusive co-op buildings just got a little cheaper — but it’ll still set you back $20 million. Apartment 23C at 740 Park Avenue is a six-bedroom, six-bathroom duplex spanning nearly 7,000 on the second and third floors. The apartment is owned by Mark Magowan, the president of publishing house Vendome Press, and his wife Nina, according to the New York Times. They bought the apartment in 1986. It features a circular staircase, four reception rooms, a gourmet kitchen and breakfast room.

It’s not the first time a expensive pad at the building has been slashed in price. In November, hedge funder David Ganek cut the price of his place at 6/7A, where a young Jacqueline Bouvier lived with her parents in the 1930s, back to $29.5 million. It’s still on the market, according to StreetEasy.

The Trump boost has been helping lately, so I’m encouraged,” said Kirk Henckels, of Stribling, who has the listing with colleague Jennifer Callahan. “The ultra-luxury market has not been good for the last six months or more, but we had as many showings in the past ten days as the first ten days after it hit the market.”

$60 Iceberg Water

Harrods, the famous department store in London, is a cabinet of curiosities when it comes to luxury. Now it is preparing to launch Svalbarði “luxury water”, at £50 ($63) a bottle if there ever has been such a thing. 

The product was conceived by Jamal Qureshi, a Norwegian-American Wall Street businessman when he visited a remote Norwegian island in the Svalbard archipelago in 2013 and brought back melted iceberg water as a gift for his wife.

A few years later, he got an approval from the governor of Svalbard and now charters an icebreaker and harvests the icebergs in Kongsfjorden, 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole. Once 15 tons of ice is collected by the crew, it’s melted and bottled by hand. The company says that only micron filters and UV light are used to preserve the water’s natural composition and pure taste. The water is almost entirely mineral free, with no nitrates or pollutants.

There are two expeditions per year, producing 13,000 bottles each time. Each batch will be sold as a limited edition.

The aerial view of Svalbard.

The 750ml bottle looks more like a bottle of wine than water. The mint-colored ring around the top symbolizes the polar rings and the wooden bottle top symbolizes drift wood.

Harrods was chosen as the first store to stock this product and the global launch is scheduled for February 15.

If you’re looking for something unusual other than packets of tea or chocolates on your next visit to the Harrods Food Hall, the Svalbarði water is certainly uncommon. Can a bottle of water be worth £50 ($63)? That’s for you to try and decide.

Svalbarði will be exclusive to Harrods for now but can be shipped worldwide.

Samantha Bee Gets New $3.7M Riverside Drive Co-op

Now that political commentator Samantha Bee is into her second season hosting “Full Frontal” it looks like she wants to put down some permanent roots near the show’s west side studio at CBS. According to city records, she and her husband, fellow comedian Jason Jones, dropped $3.7 million on a somewhat basic Riverside Drive co-op.

The top-floor home home has lovely details like beamed ceilings, picture moldings, and hardwood floors. A bright living space is anchored by a marble mantle that was original to the Plaza Hotel. Through glass-paneled French doors is a less formal den, which features a custom walnut wall unit.

Directly adjacent to the living room is the dining area, which is open to the eat-in kitchen.  Here you’ll find granite counters, a large island with a table attachment, high-end appliances, and a farmhouse sink.

Glass-paned French pocket doors lead to the other wing where there are four bedrooms–perfect since Bee and Jones have three children. The master has another custom built-in walnut wall of cabinetry and its own half bath.

It appears that the co-op is move-in ready, so Bee will have plenty of time to work on her Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Most Beautiful NYC Homes To Hit The Market Last Week

Every week, Curbed covers dozens of market listings that vary in price, location, size, grandeur, quirkiness, and other distinct characteristics. If they managed to capture our attention, that means there’s definitely something special going on. But some of these homes are so lovely that they warrant a special kind of notoriety as some of the prettiest homes currently up for sale in New York City. And so, here it is: five listing that have that special "je ne sais quoi" that separates them from the rest. Happy gawking!

↑The brokerbabble calls this Williamsburg two-bedroom duplex “the ultimate loft space, a rarity these days,” which, okay, sure. The apartment itself is pretty nice, if not the ultimate loft space: it has positively enormous 18-foot ceilings, with exposed brick walls that hark back to the building’s past as a former factory, and pretty stellar views of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

↑Designed by Parish & Schroeder and built in 1898, this magnificent Upper East Side mansion, asking a whopping $45 million, has six bedrooms, more than seven bathrooms, two galleries, a wine cellar, solarium, and even a card room linked to the library via a secret passageway.

↑With striking details, a celebrity pedigree, and views of the Met, the park, and the Chrysler Building, this $4.295 million pre-war co-op is about as Upper East Side as it gets. It was also once the home of pioneering TV personality Julia Meade.

↑$35 million buys you this 10,000 square foot Upper East Side townhouse featuring “elegant yet comfortable modern day living.” That means six bedrooms, including a master suite with his- and hers- dressing areas; endless living spaces; a grand spiral staircase; eight and a half bathrooms; and a caretaker’s apartment on the cellar floor. The home also boasts a “lush” rooftop garden, centrally controlled sound, heat, and lighting systems.

↑A Chelsea townhouse that we’ve previously labeled one of Chelsea’s strangest homes, and the Wet and Wild ‘Pool House’ is now back on the market for the umpteenth time, and it’s asking $13.8 million for its quirky spread. So what makes this six-bedroom townhouse so over the top? Take for instance the the saltwater swimming pool in the middle of the living room, into which an 18-foot high waterfall drains, or think of the double height solarium that leads to a manicured garden, and there’s more...

Best Countries To Live In If You’re Super Rich

Even the super rich are feeling a bit down on America right now. So for anyone with a spare million or billion dollars who is looking for an escape route, the folks at Lotto Land have put together this handy-dandy infographic that shows the best places to live for the super rich.

The typical contenders are all there: Saudi Arabia, Australia and Norway all take top slots. But there are also few surprises thrown in like Bahrain, Canada, Brunei and even the United States in a few categories (we’re number 10 for purchasing power, wahoo?). Scandinavia swept the rug in the Better Life category, while the Middle East took most of the slots in the best tax rates for the rich bracket.

Overall, the best country for the super rich to live in is Australia, followed by Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, Brunei, Bahrain and Germany. See below for all of the rankings.

De Blasio Pushes Again For New 2.5% ‘Mansion Tax’ On Sales Over $2M

Mayor De Blasio will renew his call for a “mansion tax” before this state Legislature in Albany today, reports Politico. In support of rent subsidies for 25,000 low-income senior citizens, the mayor has detailed a proposal that will raise the property transfer tax to 2.5 percent for any sale above $2 million. “We are asking for some basic tax fairness from the wealthiest New Yorkers so low-income seniors can afford their rent and continue to call the greatest city in the world their home,” the mayor said in a statement.

As Politico is quick to point out, the proposal is expected to struggle for Legislative support in the state capital. In 2015, the Mayor asked a similar tax be rolled into negotiations of the 421-a tax abatement that expired early last year, where sales over $1.75 million would be taxed 1 percent, and sales over $5 million would see a 1.5 percent tax. The increased rates would have provided another $200 million a year in revenue to be directed towards affordable housing initiatives, but the idea was rejected by state lawmakers.

As it stands, home sales over $1 million are subject to a 1 percent tax. The city’s Office of Management and Budget estimates 4,500 homes will sell for $2 million or more in the upcoming fiscal year, which would mean another $336 million in revenue for the city if the proposal were to be adopted.

Regardless, flop or not, the call alone will do a lot to enliven De Blasio’s supporters.

“DOA,” said one real estate official to Politico. “But it works for the mayor in terms of running for re-election and is a red meat issue for much of his base.”

Indeed, the mayor is up for re-election this year, and similar to his first campaign, he’s taken on affordable housing and income equality as his mantles. De Blasio also counts seniors as one of his most reliable voting blocs, many of whom have organized to support his previous housing proposals.

[Via Politico]

Map Reveals How Manhattan’s Working Population Moves From Home To Work In 24 Hours

Odds are if you’re reading this post right now, you’re probably at work in Midtown.

Created by Joey Cherdarchuk, “Breathing City” is a hypnotic visualization that tracks Manhattan’s working and resident population as they move from their home to their office.

To build the map, Cherdarchuk pulled population, employment, land use and building footprint data from the U.S. Census Bureau and New York City Planning, and plotted it against a breakdown, hour by hour, of what the Bureau of Labor Statistics deems a “typical” workday for the average American (“Manhattan probably has a different profile than the US average, but close enough,” he admits).  

Per Cherdarchuk, the roughly 1.5 million people living in Manhattan and 2 million people working in Manhattan were assigned the schedule. And as you’ll see ahead, New York is truly the city that never sleeps. 

Apartment or Townhouse: Which Was The Better Investment To Make Back In 2007?

Who’s getting the most bang for their buck: Manhattan’s townhouse investors — or those who went the apartment route?

Since 2007, townhouse prices in the borough increased significantly more than apartment prices, according to an annual decade report from Douglas Elliman. The median price of a townhouse last year was $4.9 million, compared to $3.1 million in 2007 — a jump of 59 percent. By comparison, condominiums and co-ops collectively had a median sale price of $1.1 million in 2016, an increase of 28 percent from the $860,000 median price in 2007.

While the figures look dramatic, it’s worth remembering that townhouses make up just 2.6 percent of total Manhattan residential sales.

“It’s a luxury niche market,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel and author of the report. “Whereas the apartment market is the market that’s expanding, particularly on the condo side.” Miller said the past decade was characterized by a significant uptick in new development and, up until the past year, an “insatiable demand” for high-end real estate.

The median price of a co-op last year was $771,000, a 14 percent jump from $675,000. For condos, the median sales price rose 58.5 percent between 2007 and 2016, going from just over $1 million to nearly $1.7 million in 2016. Over the past decade, the average price per square foot for apartments jumped significantly, going from $1,120 in 2007 to $1,771 in 2016.

There were 11,459 apartments sold last year, compared to 13,430 in 2007, an all-time record, according to Miller’s figures. Last year, 5,435 condos sold compared to 5150 in 2015, a jump of 5.5 percent year-over-year. However, the co-op sales numbers fell significantly, going from 6,805 to 6,024 between 2015 and 2016, a drop of 11.5 percent.

While overall sales for apartments have been drifting down since 2014, Miller said he expects the number to stabilize and potentially increase in 2017. He added the notion that rising interest rates will cool the market is an “incomplete” characterization.

For luxury townhouses, which is the upper 10 percent of all Manhattan townhouses, the median price was $19.3 million. That figure represented a 29 percent jump from $14.9 million in 2007.

For townhouses Downtown, the median sale price last year was $7.5 million, a 75 percent jump from $4.3 million in 2007. On the east side, the median price for townhouses was $8 million, a 15 percent jump from 2007. The median sale price on the west side last year was $7.1 million, a 52 percent jump from a decade ago.

Most townhouse sales occur in northern Manhattan, where the median price last year was $2.1 million, a 55 percent jump from the $1.3 million median price nearly a decade ago.

The Monthly Update - February 2017

With one month under our belts, we're seeing a brisk start to the new year, and all indicators are looking positive for a robust 2017 in the New York City real estate market.

Our new administration's plans to deregulate and cut taxes have Wall Street — and pretty much all other key economic indicators — predicting continued growth for business, and the Dow finally topped the much anticipated 20,000 mark in the last full week of January.

Gordon Gollob, managing director at Compass’s world headquarters in New York, said he’s seeing (dare we say it) "bidding wars" back on the table for apartments priced in the $2 million to $3 million range. Further solidifying the positive press we’ve been seeing recently, in the first week of January, the weekly luxury market report from Olshan Realty tracked 50 contracts signed at$4 million or higher, matching the record set back in 2014. But, as our market still pulls itself out of the doldrums of 2016, some wavering is to be expected, and the third week of January saw the lowest number contracts signed at $4 million or higher — only three more than the slowest third week of January on record. As the saying goes: Two steps forward, one step back.

While things do seem to be outpacing 2016, many in the industry still feel the current market climate is a shifting one and that only well-priced properties, marketed strongly and effectively, will reap the benefits being forecasted by the elite market indicators of the world.

 

 

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The Numbers
↑815

In Manhattan January saw 1,262 new properties come to the market, which is an increase over December's 447 new listings. 

Beautiful Apartments That Came To Market Last Week

Every week, Curbed covers dozens of market listings that vary in price, location, size, grandeur, quirkiness, and other distinct characteristics. If they managed to capture our attention, that means there’s definitely something special going on. But some of these homes are so lovely that they warrant a special kind of notoriety as some of the prettiest homes currently up for sale in New York City. And so, here it is: five listing that have that special "je ne sais quoi" that separates them from the rest. Happy gawking!

↑After several years off the market, one of the units in the American Express Carriage House—so known because it was built in 1866 as a stable for horses used by the American Express Company—has returned to the market, with a $4.75 million price tag. Exposed brick walls in the living room nod to the building’s history, though there are ultra-modern touches, like the chef’s kitchen, or a hallway “illuminated by artistic neon blue lights.”

↑This immaculate Upper East side co-op is so stylish it’s hard to imagine, you know, actually living there, but $8.5 million would get you the privilege. The listing doesn’t include a floor plan, so it’s not exactly clear what’s going on here, but what we do know is that there are the five bedrooms spanning across 3,825 square feet, and the apartment is dripping in pre-war details.

↑It may be thoroughly modern, but there’s nothing generic about this two-bedroom duplex loft, which has an dreamy rustic-industrial vibe going. Priced at $1.469 million and “pin-drop quiet,” the loft comes with plenty of covetable design elements.

↑A Brooklyn Heights co-op with a million-dollar view just hit the market asking shockingly less than that. This New York City anomaly is a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment within an Art Deco building and sports lovely views onto New York Harbor, the Manhattan skyline, and Brooklyn, all for just $840,000. The apartment itself isn’t too shabby either.

↑This charming early-20th-century home in Brooklyn’s Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Historic District comes with six bedrooms a huge wraparound porch and gable roof with dormers. The original details include a mahogany-covered parlor, stained-glass windows, carved wood mantels, and a balcony off the master bedroom. It’s asking $2.48 million.

 

28 East 10th Street, Unit 10H

28 East 10th Street, #10H

GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN

3 Bed  |  3 Bath  |  2,004 SqFt

Offered At $6,300,000

Taxes: $1,791 / mo.  |  CC:$2,558 / mo.  |  Condo  |  Doorman  |  Gym  |  Roof Deck  

 

Classic millwork and thoughtful details abound in this gorgeous three-bedroom, three-bathroom residence in Greenwich Village's esteemed Emory Roth-designed Devonshire House.

Spanning 2,004 square feet, this elegant home's split-bedroom layout offers a well-planned backdrop for gracious entertaining and serene daily living. Interiors by Victoria Hagan beckon you inside to enjoy an oversized living room, offering a relaxing and intimate environment on a grand scale. Beamed ceilings guide you toward the adjoining dining room — separated from the living room by lovely built-ins, desk space and a wet bar — where sumptuous meals arrive from the refined open kitchen. This marble-lined and windowed cookery delights with state-of-the-art appliances by Wolf, Bosch and Sub-Zero surrounded by ample cabinet space and a massive island/breakfast bar.

Escape to the expansive master suite to enjoy rows of large closets and a well-appointed en suite bathroom. At the opposite end of the home, you'll find another well-crafted bedroom with en suite bathroom and two immense closets, while a third bedroom sits adjacent the home's third luxurious full bathroom, outfitted with an in-unit washer-dryer.

The Devonshire House is a pre-war condominium designed by the revered Emory Roth. Residents enjoy full-time doorman, superintendent, gym, common room, central laundry and a bike room. Set on 10th Street near University Place, the building is on a quintessential tree-lined street in the literal heart of Greenwich Village. Within steps, you'll find the amazing restaurants, nightlife and entertainment this exciting district is known for, and iconic Washington Square Park is just minutes away. Transportation is unbeatable with nearby N/Q/R/W, 4/5/6, L, A/C/E, B/D/F/M and PATH trains waiting to whisk you to your destination.

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Bowery Wall’s newest mural by PichiAvo

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The Bowery Wall stands as one of the city's most coveted spots for public art, with a history that stretches back to 1982, when Keith Haring cleared out piles of trash from the sliver of a lot and gave the city one of his iconic, day-glo murals.

Haring's original piece was destroyed, but in 2008 developer Tony Goldman (who owned the lot) and downtown gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch hired an artist to replicate the work on the site, and a succession of commissioned murals have followed. Among the all-star street artists who have put their stamp on the highly visible corner are Futura 2000, Swoon, Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos, Revok and Pose, Aiko, Cope2, Retna, JR, Faile, Maya Hayuk, and Kenny Scharf.

And now it's PichiAvo's turn, and their piece, mostly finished yesterday afternoon after a full week of work, is a stunner. The mural follows the Spanish duo's signature "Urban Mythology" style: they spray on a layer of old-school tags and throw-ups, then lay down an epic Greco-Roman-looking classical scene, then finish up with more graffiti on top.

At the moment, the never-ending construction along that stretch of Houston Street has turned the space directly in front the wall into a parking lot, but you can still get a good view of PichiAvo's piece from the sidewalk. It will be on display for at least another three months.

When Will Fannie, Freddie Switch To New Credit-Scoring Model?

Borrowers probably know that their credit score is a crucial factor in their ability to qualify for a mortgage. They might also know that their score can vary depending on the type of scoring model their lender uses. If it’s an old, outdated version, they might get a lower score. If it’s a newer, more advanced model, they’ve got a better shot at being scored more fairly.

That brings up a long-festering controversy: The two behemoths of the mortgage business — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — continue to use a credit scoring model that even its developer, FICO, says is not as “predictive” as its much newer models. Worse yet, Fannie and Freddie require that all lenders who want to submit loan applications to them must use the same, outdated technology.

The net result, agree critics from the lending industry, consumer groups, civil rights organizations and even a bipartisan coalition of legislators in Congress, is that many applicants don’t get the credit scores they deserve. Meanwhile, many other consumers — estimates put the figure at more than 30 million — aren’t even scoreable using the models currently employed at Fannie and Freddie. Disproportionately, critics say, these are people who don’t make heavy use of the credit system or are young and don’t yet have much information in the files of the national credit bureaus. Large numbers of them might qualify for a mortgage, say scoring experts, if they were simply given a fair shot.

Fannie’s and Freddie’s government regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, acknowledged the problem two years ago, when it directed the companies to begin examining how to improve their scoring systems. The FHFA told them to “conclude [their] assessment,” and “as appropriate, plan for implementation” of a better approach in 2016.

Since it’s now December and there have been no announcements about possible reforms, it’s appropriate to ask: When are Fannie and Freddie rolling out their new and improved scoring models and what will they look like? The question is especially timely given the release in late November of a new study from the Urban Institute documenting how recent credit standards in the mortgage arena have impacted millions of would-be borrowers.

Researchers found that roughly 1.1 million home-loan applicants were turned down in 2015 because the standards used to evaluate them were much more stringent than they were in the pre-housing-boom era, when defaults were relatively low. Between 2009 and 2015, “lenders would have issued 6.3 million additional mortgages,” researchers calculated, “if lending standards had been more reasonable,” as they were back in 2001.

A major culprit: a big shift toward the highest credit scorers when it comes to mortgage approvals. From 2001 through 2015, the share of borrowers approved for mortgages who had FICO scores above 700 jumped to 66 percent from 51 percent, while those approved with scores below 660 more than halved to just 14 percent from 31 percent. Preliminary figures for 2016 showed that credit scores of approved applicants at Fannie and Freddie averaged between 752 and 754, according to loan technology firm Ellie Mae. That stands well above the average score among all Americans of just 699, according to score developer FICO. (FICO scores range from 300 to 850, with low scores indicating higher risks of default.)

In response to the question, a spokesperson for the FHFA said that Fannie and Freddie continue to discuss their plans for scoring reforms with “a broad range of stakeholders” about the “cost, operational implications, and potential impacts on access to credit.”

Who exactly are some of these “stakeholders” and how do they see this issue? Among the most directly affected are the banks and mortgage companies that deal with the two companies daily. They strongly favor a move to more advanced scoring models to broaden the base of potential home buyers and borrowers without exposing themselves or Fannie and Freddie to higher risks of default.

Michael Fratantoni, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in an interview that “by sticking to old models we are disadvantaging” sizable numbers of consumers. Groups such as Fratantoni’s also want to see the introduction of advanced scoring models from companies other than FICO permitted as an option by Fannie and Freddie. One possible example is VantageScore Solutions, LLC, which offers a rival system now used in most other segments of lending.

“We are on the record for more competition in this space,” Fratantoni said. “We shouldn’t be locked into just one set of scores.”

Nor should millions of potentially credit-worthy consumers.

Kenneth R. Harney is a syndicated columnist.

15 Broad Street, Unit PH3910

15 Broad Street, Unit PH3910

FINANCIAL DISTRCT, MANHATTAN

4 Bed  |  3.5 Bath  |  3,000 SqFt

Offered At $4,700,000

Taxes: $1,186 / mo.  |  CC:$2,609 / mo.  |  Condo|  Doorman  

 

TOWNHOUSE IN THE SKY priced to sell QUICKLY! Pre-war Condominium Duplex Penthouse Designed by the iconic Philippe Starck.

Set in a corner high above Wall Street, this four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom haven offers panoramic city and water views from rows of oversized windows wrapping the home's northern and western exposures, accentuating the towering, 11-foot-tall beamed ceilings. 
On the main level, you'll find an expansive 18-foot by 32-foot great room, providing ample room for dining and relaxing as sparkling river views and bright sunshine provide a stunning backdrop. Nearby, the open custom kitchen is expertly outfitted with custom cabinetry, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances by Miele and Bosch, and Sub-zero. A well-appointed guest suite with en suite full bathroom, plus a large foyer closet and powder room with in-unit washer-dryer complete this gracious level.
Upstairs, you'll find serene private quarters, including the impressive master suite. Two massive walk-in closets attend to wardrobe needs while the en suite bathroom boasts white Thassos marble floors, Duravit soaking tub, a walk-in shower and a marble dual vessel sink vanity. Two more spacious bedrooms one with an en suite bathroom plus additional closet space fill out the rest of this upper level.
Set at the intersection of Broad and Wall streets, 15 Broad is a 42-story white glove building offering a near-endless list of amenities including doorman and concierge services, dry cleaning/laundry, housekeeping services, lounges and children's rooms, a bowling alley, and a state-of the art fitness center with swimming pool, yoga/ballet room, basketball and squash courts. The building's crowning glory is the stunning 5,000-square-foot roof terrace. Placed in the middle of the Financial District, this home provides direct access some of the best dining the city has to offer, plus proximity to the thriving South Street Seaport neighborhood and newly unveiled Westfield World Trade Center shops. 4/5, J/Z and 2/3 are literally just outside your doorstep.

Live in Ryan McDonagh's Loft, Just Below Taylor Swift for $5.75M

Now’s your chance to get in at Tribeca‘s celebrity heavy condo, the Sugar Loaf Building at 155 Franklin Street. Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh has listed his $5.75 million three-bedroom apartment, which is situated right below Taylor Swift’s palatial, lofty pad. And at 155 Franklin, all things revolve around Taylor Swift: Sir Ian McKellen was staying in Peter Jackson’s apartment and got evicted when Jackson sold the unit to Swift; and Orlando Bloom sold his apartment soon after Swift moved in with rumors of paparazzi annoyance. But if you don’t mind the crowd of fans, this unit boasts 2,450 square feet as well as the same exposed brick and timber-beamed ceilings that decorate Swift’s nearby abode.

According to the Observer, McDonagh bought the third-floor apartment in 2014–the same year Swift moved in–and paid $5.2 million it. Swift paid a much higher price of $20 million to Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson for the top two floors of the building.

The loft is decorated with 11-foot ceilings, many south and east facing windows, exposed brick galore and timber-beamed ceilings.

A snazzy new kitchen was outfitted with Calacatta gold marble and custom white cabinetry, as well as a massive six-seat breakfast bar. Other upgrades include new floors and lighting.

The master bedroom has its own ensuite bathroom with a double vanity and separate soaking tub. A second bedroom was outfitted as a nursery–as the Observer points out, McDonagh and his wife had their first child last October.

Any buyer will have to wait until they spot Taylor Swift in the lobby–she is currently living in a West Village townhouse while she completes renovations to her upstairs apartment. The building, however, offers plenty of privacy, with a video intercom system to see visitors and grant access though your phone or tablet.

44 East 67th Street, Unit 8DE

44 East 67th Street, Unit 8DE

LENOX HILL, MANHATTAN

3 Bed  |  3 Bath  |  1,810SqFt

Offered At $3,995,000

Taxes: $2,235 / mo.  |  CC:$2,207 / mo.  |  Condo|  Doorman  

 

Rare opportunity to live in one of New Yorks poshest neighborhoods one block from Central Park. This three-bedroom, three-bathroom condominium in the beautiful art-deco building designed by famed architect, Rosario Candela could be your perfect Lenox Hill full time residence, investment or pied-et terre. 
Flooded with sunlight and oversized windows throughout make this 1,810-square-foot home feel light and airy. The massive living room spans 18-feet by 27-feet and is topped by gorgeous beamed ceilings.


The combined residence offers a convenient split bedroom layout with the master suite and en suite bathroom situated to the east and two more nicely sized, windowed bedrooms one with another en suite bathroom situated to the west. Storage is never a concern in this large home with spacious closets lining each bedroom, plus even more roomy closets in the foyer and an in-unit washer-dryer hookup.


Set in a full service elevator building, 44 East 67th offers full-time doorman service and bike storage and is pet-friendly. The renowned boutiques and shops of Madison Avenue Kate Spade, Fred Leighton, Armani, Michael Kors, Tory Burch and more are right outside your door. Peruse the neighborhood's numerous galleries and museums, followed by a meal at the delightful cafes and restaurants.

Your new home awaits.