New York City Luxury Rental Blog Archives for August 2011

North of 96th Street: The Upper-Upper East Side

Manhattan Luxury Rentals - Upper East SideIt’s not a boundary you’ll find on any map, but any Manhattanite will tell you that the stretch of 96th Street east of Central Park is one of the brightest and longest-standing borders in Manhattan real estate. With the ultra-prosperous Upper East Side on the downtown side and East Harlem on the north, 96th Street marked a long-standing class boundary as much as a dividing line between two neighborhoods. But, thanks in large part to a host of new luxury rentals on the upper reaches of the Upper East Side, the bright line along 96th Street is looking notably less distinct these days -- and two culturally rich neighborhoods have started to look more alike. Call it the upper Upper East Side if you like, but the changes along the northern part of the Upper East Side are unmistakable and undeniable. The Upper East Side, in other words, is moving uptown.

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The Far West Side: An Up and Coming Manhattan Neighborhood

NYC Luxury Apartments - Chelsea Listings Most Manhattan neighborhoods have developed into neighborhoods with their own sets of rules, their own feel, unique reputation, and style. Typically, New Yorkers can travel from one area of the big city to another and have a completely different experience that is fantastic in its own way, but the Far West Side of New York City has been lagging when it comes to having its own unique personality and lively residential neighborhood.

The space between Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen never really had a name or a purpose other than housing storage buildings that took up an entire block of space, gas stations, and parking lots. If you did live there, you’d have to walk south into Chelsea or north into Hell’s kitchen just to get to a place that was actually a successful neighborhood with things to do and places to eat and run errands explains the NY Post.

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White Roofs Grace The Lower East Side

Manhattan Luxury Real Estate - Lower East Side ListingsAcross Manhattan new ideas to make the city greener are taking off, and the city’s most recent environmental project has sprouted on the Lower East Side. The LES will be getting a little greener when a block of 20 buildings' roofs are painted bright white. This single block from East Fourth Street to East Third Street, and from Second Avenue to the Bowery will finally see what it is like to have some green touches in their living quarters. The idea of white roof painting helps impact the environment in a better way, but it also makes an impact economically. In the future, these white roofs may dot more of the Manhattan skyline.

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Battery Park City Development Coming To A Close

NYC Luxury Condos - Battery Park CityBattery Park City may be one of Manhattan’s most modern neighborhoods. Created using fill from the World Trade Center site, Battery Park City’s development is finally coming to a close with its last two rental buildings nearly completed and ready to go. Sister buildings, Liberty Luxe and Liberty Green add luxury rental apartments to Battery Park City’s final open space, bringing to a close over 40 years of work on Manhattan’s man-made land.

Milstein Properties is responsible for finishing these sister buildings, but the company is no stranger to Battery Park City; they have built four other buildings in the neighborhood as well. The first of the sister buildings, the Liberty Green, began taking tenants in May and one month ago was already half-full. Liberty Green is a 22-story red brick rental tower, offering 191 studio to three-bedroom apartments for rent. Its sister building, the Liberty Luxe will take residents in the fall for its 280 units spread out over 32 stories.

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Proposed East Village Historic District Could Raise Rents…Again

Manhattan Luxury Apartments - East Village Historic DistrictOnce a part of a larger, broader Lower East Side, the East Village is one of New York City’s trendiest neighborhoods. Adhering to Manhattan’s street grid unlike its former namesake, the East Village has a vibrant student, immigrant, and artist population, and demand in the area has skyrocketed as a result of being the place to be in Downtown Manhattan. Now, to the chagrin of basically everybody but landlords, rents might increase yet again, but for a completely different reason: the Landmarks Preservation Commission has its sights on the East Village.

In its conspiracy project to landmark all of Lower and Downtown Manhattan attempt to preserve historic architecture from the fate that belied much of the southeastern Lower East Side, the LPC has proposed a district centered on Second Avenue between East Second and Seventh Streets, comprising a wealth of 19th- and early 20th-century brownstones, walk ups, and federal architecture. The aim of this proposal is overwhelmingly positive, protecting a cherished neighborhood from even the smallest possibility of losing character. But what does it mean for rentals, specifically luxury rentals?

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Finding Vacant Manhattan Apartments Becoming More Of A Challenge?

Manhattan Luxury Condos - Vacant Manhattan ApartmentsLooking for a rental apartment in New York City is definitely a challenge in the market today. In all of New York City only 2.8% of the city’s apartments are vacant and in need of tenants reported the Wall Street Journal. This can make it difficult for renters to find the variety that they would like when it comes to the housing market, but with a little help from a broker some finagling can be done to find the perfect vacant apartment for each renter, making landlords even happier than they already are for having few—if any—vacant apartments in their buildings.

Along with a decrease in vacant apartments, average rent in the city has increased in the second quarter of 2011, almost reaching a previous high from 2008. Apartments for rent are expected to pass this high throughout the rest of the year. Throughout this economic crisis, landlords have been offering incentives to attract renters: a free month’s rent, paying broker fees. Now that there are fewer vacant apartments available for rent, you’d think this has changed and it has slightly, but these deals are still around. Potential renters can take advantages of these incentives, making the process of finding a vacant apartment for rent in Manhattan more rewarding in the end, however Crain’s New York reported that only 7% of rental deals include a free month’s rent or payment of the broker’s fee compared to 25% of rental deals at the same time a year earlier.

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Movin' On Up: Tips to Master the Tricky Manhattan Move-in

 Manhattan Luxury Apartments - Manhattan Move-inWhen it comes to the ordeal of moving to a new apartment, most if not all of Manhattan’s residents utter a collective, frustrated sigh as they ponder the various inconveniences that go hand-in-hand with this undertaking. This could of course be due to the fact that in New York City a host of extra complications arise, whether one is moving into a new luxury rental or a condominium, including but not limited to: street-cleaning restrictions, regulations concerning the use of the apartment building’s elevator, and of course, the oft encountered, always dreaded narrow doorways, most often associated with pre-war buildings. As Susan Stellin explains in her NY Times article, moving has, if anything, become even more complicated, transforming what had previously been an annoyance into an almost full-fledged problem.

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An Inside Look at New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street

Manhattan Real Estate - 8 Spruce StreetNew York by Gehry, also known as 8 Spruce Street is one of the newest luxury rental buildings in Manhattan. It also has the distinction of being the tallest residential building in the United States. There has become a competition in New York and 8 Spruce may see its title as the tallest residential building in Manhattan challenged.

8 Spruce Street immediately stands out because of the building’s unique façade. Possibly even more impressive than the exterior of 8 Spruce Street is the interior of the building.

Because of the exterior of 8 Spruce Street, many of the rental apartments inside of it have floor plans that are unique. Just as the 8 Spruce Street twists and curves like a flame into the sky, residents can expect to find little nooks and crannies within the apartment that match with the building's exterior.

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NYC Enacts New Green Laws

NYC Luxury Condos - New Green LawsThe people have spoken, and their cries for New York City to “go green” have convinced lawmakers to finally measure the amount of energy consumption in commercial and city-owned buildings. Eventually, residential buildings will also be subject to this law, allowing prospective tenants an easier -- and more objective and valuable -- time in searching green apartment listings. All of which means that it’s nearly time for landlords to choose between going green… or simply going. According to Crain’s New York, which scathingly calls over-users “energy hogs,” New York City’s new program, aimed to measure the amount of energy consumed in nearly 25,000 commercial buildings, requires landlords to report their energy usage numbers. More specifically, it is targeting buildings larger than 50,000 square feet, mandating the submission of their most recent numbers focusing on the consumption of electricity, gas, oil and water. City-owned buildings are placed under even more stringent requirements, having to turn in reports for those that are 10,000 square feet or more.

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Competition to Build Manhattan's Tallest Residential Building Sprouts

Manhattan Luxury Condos - Tallest Building NYCBragging rights for building the tallest building in the world have been passed back and forth several times. The most recent country to own these bragging rights is Dubai with the Burj Khalifa rising 2,700-feet into the sky and it is likely they’ll have these rights for a long time; they’ve been passed over from New York to Chicago to Malaysia and then Taiwan. Everyone has their eye on the prize of being able to say that they had a hand in creating the world’s tallest building.

In Manhattan, it may be a while until we can take back the title of the city that owns the world’s tallest building, but builders in New York City have developed a friendly competition amongst each other, a competition to build Manhattan’s tallest residential building. Frank Gehry’s 8 Spruce Street, a luxury rental condominium currently holds the title of tallest residential building in Manhattan, soaring 870-feet into the Manhattan skyline. This year, 8 Spruce Street outgrew Donald Trump’s Trump World Tower as Manhattan’s tallest residential building, but it may not be holding the title for much longer.

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