New York City Luxury Rental Blog Archives for December 2012

When compared to the cost of buying an apartment in Manhattan, rental prices in the borough aren’t actually that bad. A study released on Friday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says that apartment prices in New York City have risen considerably faster than rents have in recent years. This split has raised some serious questions about the outlook for housing prices in the city as well as the sustainability of current prices. “Manhattan price-rent ratios, although off their 2008 highs, are still up dramatically over the past two decades, suggesting less financial ‘value’ today in an apartment purchase there,” said New York Fed economist Jason Bram, writing in the bank’s Current Issues in Economics and Finance.

Murray Hill’s unique location in Midtown Manhattan has made it one of the more desirable neighborhoods to live in New York City. After all, residents here are near the city’s famous hotspots, be it the bright frenzy of Times Square or the refined elegance of Gramercy Park. But Murray Hill itself has its own particular charm, made apparent with the variety of retail and dining options available in the area. As a result, the neighborhood has been attracting Manhattan home hunters by the dozen, a fact that has not been missed by New York’s real estate developers. This could therefore be one of the reasons why Manhattan-based real estate investment firm Atlas Capital Group has bought the Eastgate Tower Hotel at 224 East 39th Street, with the intention of converting the 147,000-square-foot property into a 190-unit luxury rental building.

First conceived of in 2009, the Pier 57 makeover, located across from the Westside Highway at 15th Street, is finally underway. The first stage of the development, headed by developer YoungWoo and Associates, will take the form of a mall made of shipping containers. YoungWoo and Associates will set up shipping containers as stores for approximately 60 retailers with an expected completion date of this April. The Hudson River Park Board and community advocates chose Lot-Ek and YoungWoo as the designers for the new Pier 57 over competing designs from the Related Companies and the Durst Organization. What they liked about Lot-Ek and YoungWoo’s design was the provisions for green space, reductions in vehicular trips, and the respect for the pier’s industrial history. One of the only questions is whether or not rents will go up in West Chelsea again once the project is completed.