Apartment rentals New York with The High Line

This past year, the real estate market built even more momentum with newly built rentals thriving throughout the Brooklyn and Manhattan boroughs.

2014 has been a pretty solid year for New York’s rental markets.  From neighborhood-boosting projects like the High Line to an increasingly impressive Billionaire's Row, the sector and overall industry have set some pretty high bars for 2015.

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.

How quickly we forget. 10 years ago, the High Line was a rusted artifact, a blight on West Chelsea, and a large part of the reason that West Chelsea remained underdeveloped and cheaper to rent in than Chelsea itself. West Chelsea has always been something of a separate neighborhood because of its industrial character, slightly out-of-the-way location, and cheap rents relative to the rest of Chelsea and other downtown neighborhoods. However, the High Line changed everything, and that’s not an exaggeration: Rents in West Chelsea now exceed rents in Chelsea, consequently pulling them upward and enhancing the neighborhood as a whole. In fact, rents for luxury apartments in West Chelsea have become similar to neighborhoods like SoHo and Tribeca, Manhattan's most expensive and coveted neighborhoods. Renters looking for great new luxury rentals should look to West Chelsea, because condo owners are cashing in on this sudden popularity by renting out their apartments, giving renters a unique opportunity to live in a neighborhood rich in culture and on the rise.

We've written before about both our crush on Chelsea's High Line and the hugely salutary effect the beloved, beautiful Chelsea park has had on the apartments for rent near The High Line. For condominiums for sale near the High Line, that proximity has led to a spike in both value and demand. For the select few Chelsea rental listings lucky enough to be High Line adjacent, the effect has been the same. The good news, though, both for those looking for rental apartments in Chelsea and those of us who simply enjoy walking on Manhattan's loveliest new park, is that The High Line keeps growing. Which means that the number of apartment listings near The High Line keeps growing as well. The sound you are hearing is landlords, developers and Chelsea renters high-fiving one another. With news -- and pictures -- of the ongoing High Line expansion reaching the New York Times yesterday, you may have to fight the urge to high-five yourself. It's not easy for us, either.