Apartment rentals New York with High-End Rentals

Brooklyn, once a borough for small to mid-rise buildings is starting to add a few high-rises to its resume. 388 Bridge Street will have 53 stories and 378 units, of which 234 of them will be rentals. The other 144 will be condos that are expected to be up for sale sometime this coming spring. Near completion, the building seems to pierce the sky as you’re looking at the borough’s silhouette from a distance. But it isn’t the first building to go up and dominate Brooklyn’s skyline. 

Extreme Makeover: Luxury Rental Apartment Edition? That seems to be what many New York City landlords are going for. Luxury Rentals Manhattan has tirelessly covered the market’s high demand for rental units, with rates reaching all-time highs throughout the spring. This, along with a shift in the demographic of renters towards the higher-end, is prompting many landlords to finance million-dollar renovations in hopes of raising rental rates by 10 to 40 percent. And really, many of them are nervous that they aren't keeping up with the rising standards for rental apartments in Manhattan. This is good news for residents looking to live in luxury apartments without having to buy, even if their rent rises with the quality level.

The Manhattan real estate market is a complicated thing, as any regular Luxury Rentals Manhattan visitor -- and anyone who has ever tried to find a rental apartment in Manhattan -- could tell you. But one of the most peculiar features of the ongoing turnaround in the Manhattan rental marketplace is just how much more quickly the market for high-end Manhattan luxury rentals has turned around than has, say, the market for $2500-per-month Manhattan rental apartments. Given that there are more people in New York capable of paying more modest monthly rents than there are those willing or able to cut five-figure checks on the first of each month, the turnaround would seem to be somewhat backwards. But this is Manhattan real estate, and the top-down turnaround has become both harder and harder to ignore and -- per a recent New York Times report -- even more pronounced in the early months of summer. The demand for five-figure NYC rental apartments has been higher than that for smaller, less expensive Manhattan apartments.  So, what exactly does this mean for Manhattan real estate?

Manhattan real estate is the land of acronyms and abbreviations, and from Soho apartment listings to FiDi rentals to apartments on the LES, it's one that New Yorkers speak every day without even noticing it. So, in a certain sense, MiMA -- a hybrid new luxury rental and condominium building from The Related Companies whose name is short for Middle of Manhattan -- fits right in. In just about every other way, though, MiMA stands out -- for its location on 42nd Street and 10th Avenue, at the heart of booming Clinton; for its stellar suite of amenities; for its luxurious (and not-at-all cheap) apartments for rent. MiMA is as ambitious and extravagantly amenitized a new construction luxury rental development as Manhattan has seen since... well, since Midtown West neighbor The Ashley, probably. But MiMA is also further proof that Manhattan's high-end rental market is returning to robust health -- Manhattan rental listings don't come much more luxurious than this.

When is a luxury rental apartment listing not a luxury rental apartment listing? Well, if you insist on getting technical about a rhetorical question, the answer is "never." But, for a new crop of Manhattan luxury rental listings, the answer is somewhat more complicated. Some of Manhattan's most impressive new luxury rental listings are either partnered with new construction luxury condos -- blockbuster midtown luxury rental The Ashley, for example, shares an amenity space, a developer, and a number of other commonalities with The Aldyn, a carbon-copy condo with which it was co-developed -- or, in such posh instances as Chelsea's promising Eventi rentals located on the upper floors of luxury hotels. For William Beaver House, a new luxury rental listing in the Financial District, the story is even more convoluted -- developed as a condominium, William Beaver House is still selling luxury condominiums. It just happens to offer some of the most luxurious rental listings in the Financial District, as well. And there is, of course, Frank Gehry's luxury rental at 8 Spruce Street in the Financial District, which ranks among the most luxurious luxury rentals in Manhattan real estate history. The phrase "condo-quality finishes" has never seemed more literally apt, and less like a real estate buzzword. While this new proliferation of condo-rental combos can make for some confusion when browsing Manhattan rental listings, one effect is clear -- it certainly has deepened Manhattan's already deep pool of high-end rental listings.