Apartment rentals New York with Upper West Side Rentals

Newly Renovated Luxury Buildings Bring Renters to the Upper West Side

Renovated pre-war rental apartments are hot commodities on the Upper West SidePromising renovations on the Upper West Side have hedge fund managers and Manhattan fashionistas alike suggesting that this prosperous area is now the cool new place for luxury apartment renters to call home. The Upper West Side, which used to hold more unrenovated than renovated pre-war buildings, has seen a refreshing change of pace as high-quality renovations have drawn the attention of renters looking for pre-war places. Thanks to those changes, many renters now consider the area trendy, making real estate brokers and management companies even more eager to rent out those apartments.

Two New Rental Buildings Scheduled to Open in 2012

396 Broadway on 92nd St.We’ve written that rental inventory will continue to be scarce in 2012, but we can report that there are two new buildings full of luxury apartments for rent currently scheduled to open this year. The first is the Windermere, located in the Upper West Side at 666 West End Avenue. It’s scheduled to open sometime this month. The other is 396 Broadway, a pre-war in Tribeca that should be finished by the fall. We took a look at these two buildings, to see how the Manhattan luxury rentals will look to the inhabitants who will eventually live in them.

The Windermere is a 23-story pre-war building on 92nd Street, originally constructed in 1927. It boasts 374 luxury units, and a limestone and brick façade. The building was purchased by Stellar Management near the end of 2010 for $68 million, and the company has spent an additional $10 million renovating the space and adding amenities to it. The Windermere now includes wireless internet, a gym, a lounge, and a roof deck.

Unhappy Trending? For NYC Rentals, January Was Another Month Of Lower Vacancies and Higher Rents

We'd start this post with a "stop us if you've heard this one before," but for two reasons -- the first being that you have certainly heard this news before, and the second being that you've heard it often enough that we've probably already rolled out the "stop us if you've heard this one before." And because we don't want to stop, and because you've certainly heard this news before, we'll just go ahead and say it -- January was another month of (incrementally) increased rents and (notably) tightened vacancies in a NYC rental marketplace that has been defined by those trendlines for months now. This is the thing with trends, of course -- they tend to be linear, and they tend to be difficult to blog about without repeating oneself. The problem, here, being that -- when it comes to Manhattan rental listings over hte past few months -- the trend has proven to be especially persistent. How much so?

Kids Stuff: Was The New York Times Fair To Murray Hill?

By the admittedly pricey (some would even argue too-damn-high) standards for Manhattan rental listings, Murray Hill rental listings are among the best value per square foot in NYC real estate. Which, come to think of it, probably has something to do with why they're among the most popular rental listings on Luxury Rentals Manhattan. But while there's plenty to recommend about Murray Hill, it's also a neighborhood with some image issues. Yes, it's home to a host of appealing luxury rental buildings, from the venerable Windsor Court to new construction blockbusters like the Costas Kondylis-designed Anthem. But Murray Hill's reputation as a party-happy 'hood favored by younger twentysomethings has led it to be labeled something of an urban suburb. Which is fair only insofar as any suburb anywhere can boast the knockout Indian food on offer in Curry Hill, or a bar scene half as lively as that spanning Third Avenue in Murray Hill. A new essay in the New York Times on the post-grad scene in Murray Hill won't help that reputation much, which is no doubt fine with the twentysomethings (and thirty-, forty- and so-on-somethings) who call the neighborhood home. But is it fair?

Something Old At Someplace New: New Construction Luxury Rentals Prove Last Holdout For Rent Concessions In Manhattan Real Estate

It's a pretty common refrain here at the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog that the return of the Manhattan rental market to something like its old gangbusters status is a good thing. That's because, in a macro sense, it is. But it's also because we're working on talking ourselves into it. The renter's market of the great Manhattan rental market slump was tough on landlords and developers, but it was great news for those browsing NYC rental apartments, who suddenly found themselves faced with a wealth of no-fee rental listings and landlords seemingly eager to give away months of free rent and other other concessions. Now that the Manhattan rental market is healthier, the renter's market is generally a thing of the past -- a fondly remembered silver lining surrounding an ever-shrinking cloud, if you're a metaphor type, and a casualty of economic trends if you're more literally inclined. But, as we try to remind readers (and ourselves), there are still great deals to be found on Manhattan rental apartments. There are still plenty of no-fee rental listings out there, for instance, and there are also plenty of Manhattan luxury rentals offering concessions on leases. The surprising part, though, is the identity of those concession-granting Manhattan luxury rentals. From The Ohm -- a new construction luxury rental in Chelsea pictured near these words -- to a host of other new construction rental listings in various Manhattan neighborhoods, some of Manhattan's most concession-friendly rental listings happen to be at some of Manhattan's hottest new construction apartment buildings. No, really. More after the jump.

Concrete Benefits: Thanks To New Shake Shack, Upper East Side Apartments Just Got A Bit More Appealing

Manhattan real estate is not necessarily logical, and hardly a precise science. But for the most part, basic logic does apply, here. That is, it's easy to see why apartment listings in a certain Manhattan neighborhood are appealing to people looking for Manhattan rental apartments. A subway ride and a brief pub crawl is enough to explain why, say, people want to live in rental apartments in the East Village; a stroll through Central Park and a shopping jaunt at Fairway or Zabar's is enough to figure out what NYC dwellers see in Upper West Side rental listings. But while the appeal of Upper East Side rental listings is plain enough -- Central Park, museums, shopping, you already know all this -- it's about to get a little bit clearer. We're not saying that anyone would move to the Upper East Side because the UES just got its first branch of Danny Meyer's beloved burger joint Shake Shack. We wouldn't say that. But... have you ever been to Shake Shack? It's not impossible, and it's surely not unreasonable.

Upper West Side Table-Turn: New York Times "Hunt" Author Becomes Hunted, Reveals Upper West Side Rental Apartment

Manhattan real estate heads already know that Joyce Cohen's "The Hunt" column in the New York Times is one of the more enjoyable Manhattan real estate reads out there. But as entertaining as it is to read Cohen's interviews with people seeking (and finding) rental apartments in Manhattan, there's always the matter of authorial distance. That is -- and we're not going to get too lit-crit on you, both because it's been a long time since college and because this is the blog on a website about luxury rental apartments in Manhattan -- the question of where and how Cohen herself lives. Does it color her perspective? Bias her discussion of neighborhoods? Are her ceilings higher than yours?