Manhattan Residential Development

[londonlawyer]

It will be great if that dump is redeveloped. It detracts from this beautiful area.

However, isn't a very nice building in this area scheduled for demolition? I remember reading something about that and being really pissed off.

[lofter1]

A school it will be ...

Chelsea middle school gets new $39 million Union Square home

THE REAL DEAL
By Sarabeth Sanders
July 12, 2010 06:30PM

A selective Chelsea middle school that's been squeezed out of its current space is officially moving to Union Square come 2015.

The New York City School Construction Authority closed on a deal July 1 to acquire the two-story building at 10 East 15th Street for $39 million from the Teamsters Local 810 union, according to property records made public today. The agency plans to demolish and replace the existing structure with a new, permanent facility that will house the Clinton School for Writers and Artists and a 550-seat high school, an SCA spokesperson said.

While the spokesperson said it is too early in the design process to estimate the project's costs, the city has tapped PKSB Architects for the job, which is slated for completion by September 2015.

The 270-student public Clinton School is currently housed within P.S. 11, an overcrowded elementary school at 320 West 21st Street. With P.S. 11 expecting even more students this year, the Clinton School recently embarked on a controversial year-long hunt for alternative spaces.

Proposed temporary homes for the school included P.S. 33 Chelsea Prep at 281 Ninth Avenue and the American Sign Language and English Secondary School at 225 East 23rd Street. A move to the latter location was expected to pass at a meeting of the city's Panel for Education Policy in May, but the plan was withdrawn at the last minute after drawing criticism from parents, teachers and local politicians.

Earlier this week, Chelsea Now reported that the Clinton School would instead be taking over 425 West 33rd Street in the fall from the St. Michael Academy, a recently-shuttered all-girls' school. The city will lease that space from the Archdiocese of New York for roughly $1.6 million per year, the SCA spokesperson told The Real Deal, and the Clinton School will remain there until renovations are completed at 10 East 15th Street.

The temporary relocation costs are estimated at $27,000, plus additional capital "not exceeding $10 million" for renovations because the St. Michael space currently has only one toilet fixture per floor, the spokesperson said.

"I'm very disappointed we're leaving Chelsea," said Susan Kramer, a parent and a spokesperson for the relocation committee at the Clinton School. "It's a really lovely, friendly neighborhood and we're moving into a more business-like area [with the temporary St. Michael space]… but we'll be glad to be in Union Square when that building is done."

The Clinton School's high school neighbor at 10 East 15th Street hasn't been determined yet, but Kramer, who also lives around the corner from the new site, said the school is angling to ultimately take over the whole building. "We're hoping that maybe the Clinton School could grow into a high school over the next few years," she said.

© 2011 The Real Deal

[Merry]

Manhattan Luxury Sales Climb Back, Slowly

By JOSH BARBANEL


The townhouse at 1009 Fifth Ave. bought by Carlos Slim for $44 million.

During the housing downturn, sales of homes and apartments in Manhattan selling for $5 million or more were so scarce that Stribling Private Brokerage suspended its annual luxury residential report.

But now the report is back and celebrating a "partial recovery" in the market. The report for 2010 shows that sales and prices in the luxury sector bounced back last year from 2009, although they still were significantly below the peak in 2008.

The rebound is continuing into 2011, but Kirk Henckels, director of Stribling Private Brokerage, who prepared the report, said he was worried that sales could deteriorate—because the inventory of luxury apartments has been falling, even though listings usually surge during the spring.


A condo that sold for $40 million at 15 Central Park West.

Mr. Henckels said sales of co-ops costing $20 million or more began to rebound in the last half of 2010 and in the beginning of this year, long after the lower end of the market had come back to life. The report found that the most expensive trophy properties, which had soared during the boom years, were hardest hit during the downturn. Once the recovery began, they were last to see sales revive, the report said.

The Stribling report said it suspended publication of the luxury data in 2009 and 2010 "because of the potential damage these figures might have done to a market that was desperately trying to recover."

"I felt I couldn't do the industry such a disservice," Mr. Henckels said.

Now he said he wanted to tell the story of "how bad things got" and "to what degree it actually recovered."


A co-op that sold for $29 million at 927 Fifth Ave.

The report shows that the money spent on expensive co-ops dried up during 2009, because while many people still had great wealth, "it became unfashionable to flaunt it," the report said.

As a result the total spending on expensive co-ops fell to $686 million in 2009 from $1.7 billion in 2008. Now, with the social stigma against excessive spending fading, total spending on luxury co-ops rebounded to $1.1 billion last year. The number of sales fell by 50% in 2009, and are now 23.5% below the peak in 2008.

The most expensive co-op sold last year was the $29 million sale of an 11th-floor apartment at 927 Fifth Ave. that was owned by the late Bruce Wasserstein, the investor. It was purchased by William Lie Zeckendorf, who developed 15 Central Park West with his brother, Arthur. That was far below the record co-op sale of $48.8 million in 2008.

Townhouse sales also recovered last year. The total sales fell nearly in half from a peak of $1.2 billion in 2008 to $614 million in 2009. Last year they rose to $847 million. The median price of a Manhattan townhouse in the $5 million and up market rose to $8.5 million.

The highest price townhouse deal of the year was the $44 million sale of a 27-foot-wide mansion at 1009 Fifth Ave. at East 82nd Street. The buyer was Carlos Slim, the Mexican tycoon said to be the world's richest man. The seller was Tamir Sapir, a real-estate investor and developer.

Luxury condominium sales also rebounded a bit, but still remained below 2008 levels last year, with the most expensive apartments showing the biggest dip in sales. Sales above $5 million were off 24% last year compared with 2008, while sales above $10 million were off 32% and sales above $20 million were off 67% from the peak.

The most expensive condo sale was the $40 million paid for a 41st-floor unit owned by William Lie Zeckendorf at 15 Central Park West. The buyer was Min Kao, chairman and chief executive of Garmin Ltd., a maker of global-positioning devices.

The report noted a shift in the luxury market away from co-ops in need of renovation. It said all 10 co-ops that sold for more than $20 million since January 2010 have been listed in "excellent" or "mint" condition.

"It is as if purchasers felt they had enough stress in today's tumultuous world without having to deal with the aggravation of construction," the report said.

Mr. Henckels said that apartments with prices over the market have suffered, sometimes chasing the market down.

Listing records show that a triplex penthouse at 812 Park Ave. that was priced at $36.5 million in 2007, suffered through a series of price cuts. In January when it went into contract, it was listed at $15.9 million.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000..._MIDDLE_LSMini

[londonlawyer]

A school it will be ...

Chelsea middle school gets new $39 million Union Square home

Any structure would be better than the eyesore that currently infests the site. Therefore, this is good news.

[mariab]

Condos far surpassing townhomes. So people are still pinching pennies but I think the condos are a stepping stone to when they can buy a townhome or a co-op again. They were not only downsizing, but since it's such a buyer's market, others are also upgrading & are able to buy homes they wanted but were unable to afford. Article is encouraging.

[mariab]

Speaking of downsizing, extra large or tall people need not apply.

Simple life in Manhattan: A 90-square-foot home

By Kirsten Dirksen
More from ecomii Healthy Living blog


(Photo: Faircompanies.com)



The average size of the American home is shrinking -- it dropped in both 2008 and 2009 after 15 straight years of growth -- but most of us are still living larger than people in the Big Apple. Home size in Manhattan is about half the national average.
One New Yorker has taken her love of frugal living to the extreme. Felice Cohen’s apartment measures just 90 square feet, but she doesn’t see it as a sacrifice. With such a small space, she pays just $700 to live in a part of town where rents average $3,600 per month.
Her kitchen consists of a toaster oven, hot pot, and mini fridge, but she claims her backyard is larger than average: “I look out my window, and it’s New York City. I mean, that’s my backyard. Central Park is a block away. I can go into the park. I have Lincoln Center. I have libraries. I have gyms all over the place. Sometimes, I feel like you’re in college, and it’s a huge campus, and you can take advantage of everything you want to take advantage of.” Learn how Felice organizes her 90-square-foot home.

Granted, Cohen had a bit of a panic attack the first night in her apartment when she woke up in the loft bed with the ceiling 23 inches from her face, but she’s grown accustomed to the small space. Now when she goes back to her childhood home, she misses her apartment’s coziness:
“I think a lot of people have a lot of space that they’re not using. I grew up in a place where my bedroom was 17 feet by 17 feet with two walk-in closets that combined were almost the size of this apartment ... when I go home now, I go in the closet just to feel like I’m back in New York.”
For more about small spaces, take a look at these tiny alternatives from cob houses to wee homes.

Video of sleeping quarters at this link:

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/green/s...-home-2472666/

[NoyokA]

Demo permits have been filed for the walk-ups at 18-22 west 56th. Weird that 24 is not part of the assemblage. All the buildings west of 24 are beautiful. I'm hoping Goldman bought a lot of their air rights. This could end up being a fairly tall tower if they want to capture some Central Park views (though 9 West 57th would block much of it).

Directly behind at 25 west 55th and also owned by Goldman, is this interesting parking garage. No permits have been filed to demolish it yet. I actually prefer it to stay.

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...ssdocnumber=01

Goldman is the largest private landlord in NYC, they don't develop buildings though.

[OhTheHumanity]

Alchemy's W 15th St plan application was disapproved on 3/23/11. Anyone have any idea why? 299 feet seems way too high for that block. The area cries out for height restrictions.

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...ssdocnumber=01

[ASchwarz]

^
The last thing Manhattan needs is even more height restrictions and regulatory layers. And, no, that hardly sounds "too tall" for core Manhatttan, next to the subway and major avenues.

I mean, if you can't build relatively tall and/or dense in the middle of Manhattan, then where exactly can one build?

As for why the permits are disapproved, major DOB permits are disapproved routinely, and often many times before final approval. It's actuallty much harder to find permits that weren't initially disapproved.

The typical reason(s) involve technicalities in the building code, which is about the most byzantine document in existence.

[lofter1]

It was the First Plan Examination, so as ASchwartz says it's not at all out of line for it to be Disapproved.

[infoshare]

Anyone have any idea why? 299 feet seems way too high for that block. The area cries out for height restrictions.

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Jo...ssdocnumber=01

Taller buildings are actually needed IMHO. NYC land values creates the obvious need for developers to maximize the usable square footage; so we will end up building either 'tall & thin buildings' or 'low & bulky buildings'. The choice seems obvious to me: one brings more light/air to the street level, the other turns the side streets into dark narrow canyons.

[Sid]

Has this been posted here? The "Gotham West" development is to occupy almost the entire block bound by 44th, 11th, 45th, and 10th. It is to have 1240 residences and 17,000 square feet retail. The tallest building is to be 31 floors:

http://www.gothamorganization.com/portfolio

[lofter1]

Address is 600 Eleventh Avenue (aka 516 W 45th)

It's noted HERE and HERE and elsewhere in Clinton / Hell's Kitchen Development Thread. Also HERE in the Movie Studio Projects thread.

A NEW BUILDING Application was filed 4.04.2011. 14 stories / 297 units. Seems that is just the "affordable housing" part of the bigger plan.

From Gotham West:

The development will include a 31-story tower located on 11th Avenue with approximately 700 units as well as neighborhood retail and below-grade parking. Adjacent to the tower, another mid-rise building will house 297 affordable housing units available to low, moderate and middle income families. Further east towards 10th Avenue, two 14-story buildings will be situated atop a platform over Amtrak train tracks and will include an additional 243 units of affordable housing.

Now that DEMO has begun on the huge site, it could be time for "Gotham West" to get it's own individual thread.

[econ_tim]

Gotham West renderings





Could be OK depending on materials.

[Sid]

17,000 square feet of retail is kind of disappointing though for a near-entire block site. Assuming 1.5 residents per unit, that's less than 10 square feet per person.