New York City Luxury Rental Blog Archives for October 2013

Astoria: New York City’s Hidden Gem for Luxury Apartments

NYC View from Astoria

To most, Astoria is not known for luxury living. The traditionally middle class neighborhood has remained somewhat low key, even during a period of time that has seen other traditionally working class neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, Williamsburg and Long Island City become popular locations for luxury rental apartments. While these neighborhoods continue to grow in popularity, as well as cost, there’s one lively, diverse neighborhood in New York City that has all the potential in the world, not to mention luxury apartments, that no one seems to be talking about—Astoria.

70 Pine Street Luxury Rentals Revealed

70 Pine Street Luxury Rentals

Though office-to-residential conversions have certainly been popular in recent years, it’s not every day that a landmarked skyscraper is turned into luxury apartments. Rumors of the vacant 70 Pine Street floated for years, but the details have finally been released.

New Developers Enticed by Booming Rental Market

New York City Real Estate

Residential real estate is booming in New York City, with new developments like Essex Crossing, 626 First Avenue, Gotham West, Gantry Park Landing & Chelsea Park seemingly rising on a daily basis. With a city-wide inventory shortage, there is no reason to expect this trend to slow down, and that makes residential development a highly attractive option for new developers to get in on the action.

Nationwide Condo Conversions Increase, but Brooklyn Sticks to Rentals

Williamsburg Bridge

What do developers do when their condominiums remain vacant? They turn them into luxury rentals, of course. At least, that’s what developers across the country decided to do during the recession. When the recession hit, foreclosure was one of the most feared words, leading to a hike in the number of people choosing to rent, which triggered higher monthly rents.

Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, landlords are moving in the other direction, converting their rentals into condos, indicating recovery in the sales market. Tenants are even going out of their way to ask landlords if they can buy their apartments.

New Apartment Buildings Coming to Brooklyn

New Brooklyn Apartments

The latest report told us what we expected: the median rent in Brooklyn continues to increase month-by-month. But rent isn’t the only thing rising in Brooklyn. Here are some new rental buildings coming to Brooklyn.

September Rental Report: Manhattan Slows; Brooklyn Grows

Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan at Sunset

The latest report is in, and according to Elliman, the median manhattan rental price finally decreased for the first time since June 2011. The median rent for an apartment in Manhattan slipped 3.1% from the same month last year, down to $3,095 per month in September. The numbers weren’t straight across the board, however. In year-over-year numbers, there was a slight price decline in studio and one-bedroom apartments, while there was an increase in price for two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Bill de Blasio's Plan for Mandatory Affordable Apartments

De Blasio and Bloomberg

Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio received a shoutout on Monday from the Bloomberg Administration’s chief of city planning, the Daily News reports. De Blasio supports a plan that would require all new development to have affordable units, which was a topic of converasation.

Copper-clad Luxury Apartment Building Bringing 800 Rentals to Midtown East

626 First Avenue Rendering by SHoP

Rendering by SHoP Architects 

On First Avenue between 35th and 36th Streets, sat 9.2 acres of undeveloped, muddy land for several years. The owner of the former ConEd site, developer Sheldon Solow, had planned on building two apartment towers. Last year, he sold the property for $172 million to JDS Development, who is following through with Solow’s plans. The Midtown East mud pit is in the process of transforming into two SHoP Architects-designed luxury rental towers, one at 40 stories and the other at 49 stories, housing a combined 800 luxury apartments for rent.