Apartment rentals New York with Clinton Rental Apartments

Developers Leaping from Condominiums to Rentals

Property developers turning to rentals over condosNeed a condominium, but can’t get a mortgage? Well, there’s good news for people in that fix with some New York City property developers are converting residential developments planned as condominiums into high-end, rental apartment buildings instead. Such conversions have been seen in a variety of locations around the city. With people buying less and renting more, there is an unprecedented demand for larger apartments, which has also been proved to be extremely lucrative in the real estate scene.

The Storied History of Sheffield 57

When Sheffield 57, Sheffield 57 on 57th Streeta luxury Manhattan apartment building on 57th Street, was originally built in 1979, it was a colossal building, standing 58 stories tall and holding 845 New York apartments for rent that tended towards the small; it was a building for lower-income families who wouldn’t mind the cramped living conditions if it meant they could live in the Clinton neighborhood.

Fast forward to 2005, when real estate investor Kent Swig bought the building for a then-unheard of $418 million, with an eye towards consolidating the apartments for rent and turning them into luxury condos for sale. But the purchase and subsequent plans for renovation sparked a battle between the developer and the tenants who already lived there. Renters wondered what would happen to their apartments, whether they’d be able to stay, and if they’d be able to put the rent they’d already paid towards a purchase.

More Rentals Rising West of Midtown West

Far West Side ManhattanThe words Manhattan and real estate development have long been synonymous, so it should come as no surprise when The Real Deal recently announced that the Gotham Organization would be taking on one of the largest new construction projects in Manhattan yet. The Gotham Organization project is expected to cost over $520 million and consists of four separate buildings spanning an entire Manhattan city block at 550 West 45th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue. Out of the 1,238 expected units for rent, close to 600 of them will be constructed with low-, moderate- and middle-income New Yorkers in mind.

New Developments In Clinton... Or Is It Hell's Kitchen?

Painting of Hell's Kitchen in New York CitySince a renaming campaign that began in over 50 years ago, some things have officially come off the menu in Hell’s Kitchen—grit and squalor, gang bivouacs, dire poverty. In 1959, the Manhattan neighborhood stretching from 34th to 59th Street west of 8th Avenue attempted an image makeover when grisly gang violence took the life of two young boys and generated waves of negative media coverage. That year it was alternatively named Clinton—but not unanimously. 

Artists and residents in the community have argued name-politics since the beginning. Where HK has a plucky cachet, Clinton rolls of the tongue with glass sterility. Is the neighborhood a niche for Bohemians, or young urban professionals? Is graffiti art or blight? Are high-rises the future? Technical name grumbling still fills the air, but any stroll through the warehouse-y neighborhood will reveal a juxtaposition of both worlds.

Breakthrough: End of Drilling on 7 Train Expansion Into Hudson Yards Brings More Good News For Emerging Neighborhood

Yesterday, we wrote about the the latest development in the ongoing boom in new construction luxury rental apartment buildings in greater Hudson Yards -- a neighborhood that is sometimes (if unfortunately) called The Linc, and which encompasses the western edges of Chelsea and Clinton. If it seems like we've been covering the goings-on at Hudson Yards a lot here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog, that would be because we have. It's not every day that you get to see a new neighborhood rise before your eyes in Manhattan, after all, and the presence of blockbuster new construction luxury rentals such as the LEED-certified Emerald Green, one of Manhattan's most impressive new green rental apartment listings, and the equally impresive 505 West 37th Street have already given Hudson Yards its share of blue chip new luxury rental listings. And now, with news that the planned expansion of the 7 train into Hudson Yards has finished drilling, this new neighborhood is close to a new subway link to the rest of New York City -- and possibly to a new life as one of Manhattan's most desirable residential neighborhoods.

Meet The Townsend, The Newest Luxury Rental Building In Hudson Yards

No, we're still not going to call the rising residential neighborhood in West Chelsea and West Clinton -- Hudson Yards, to some -- by the name real estate types have tried to hang on it. But just because we're not going to call "The Linc" The Linc doesn't mean that we won't call it one of Manhattan's fastest-growing markets for luxury rental apartments. While it's unclear whether we should classify the apartments for rent in greater Hudson Yards as Chelsea rental listings, Garment District apartment rentals or Clinton rental listings, the fact remains that the bumper crop of new construction luxury rental buildings in the neighborhood, highlighted by superstar LEED-certified rental Emerald Green, have helped turn this formerly desolate stretch of Midtown West into one of the more interesting places to rent an apartment in Manhattan. With news that the second phase of The High Line will reach Hudson Yards' southernmost regions and that an expanded 7 train could make it increasingly accessible to the rest of the city, the future seems bright for Hudson Yards. In that sense, then, perhaps the announcement of an impressive new luxury rental apartment building in Hudson Yards shouldn't be too surprising. Still, by any standard, the just-finished Townsend -- a 569-unit luxury rental building at 350 West 37th Street -- is a pretty cool development, and another sign of how hot Hudson Yards has become.