Today's Apartment Pick: Calling All Families

Wowee! This three-bedroom, 1.5-bath apartment for (get this) $350k is the heart of historic Harlem -- 132nd and 5th Avenue. Lots of storage space and a washer/dryer. Note, though, that there are income restrictions at this co-op.

Link to Century 21

Landmarked: Modest Rowhouses, Grand Mansions, and Public Swimming Pools

Earning designations from NY's Landmarks Preservation Commission this week:

-- two Federal-style rowhouses (circa 1823), at 486 and 488 Greenwich Street in the West Village, which somehow survived despite a transforming neighborhood over nearly two centuries

-- two turn-of-the-century French Renaissance revival mansions with mansard roofs on "Bankers' Row" off Fifth Avenue -- the former Edey mansion at 10 W. 56th St., a six-story home designed by Warren and Wetmore (who also crafted Grand Central Terminal) -- and the former Seligman mansion at 30 W. 56th St., a wider structure designed by Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert

-- three Depression-era swimming pools and recreation centers in the Art Moderne style, including Brooklyn's McCarren and Sunset Play Centers and East Harlem's Thomas Jefferson Play Center.

All the News That Fits

We've been away! Here's a bit of what's been happening:

Village
The New York Sun: Washington Square Park Plans Get Cool Reception

Turtle Bay
Reuters: U.N. Signs Contract With Skanska for HQ Renovation

Upper West Side
The New York Sun: Fordham Plans UWS Expansion
The New York Times: Collapse of Wall Under Apartment House Exposes Neighbors' Anger

Harlem
The New York Sun: City Developers Agree: 'Harlem Has Arrived'
New York Daily News: Heart, soul of Harlem dining saying farewell

Profile: Former Mayor as Columbia Booster

A new article in City Hall News highlights former New York City Mayor David Dinkins's support of Columbia's expansion as a pragmatic turnaround from his days as a protestor of the university's development practices.

Community leaders don't seem surprised that Dinkins would support the university: he's a professor at their School of International and Public Affairs and and sits on the school's board of advisors. But haven't professors publicly disagreed with administrators in the past?

Dinkins himself appears to see Manhattanville being transformed one way or another, so "it's far better to be in concert with Columbia University than with some other developer." But would any other developer get the rights of eminent domain that Columbia is pursuing? (On second thought: paging Bruce Ratner.) I am surprised by the inevitability arguments -- particularly when the Community Board has completed its own separate plan that Dinkins could support if he chose to.

City Hall News: Lion's Share

Today's Apartment Pick: Best Price in Manhattan

A one-bedroom in a historic Harlem building (409 Edgecombe) for -- get this -- $185k. Ten-foot ceilings, eat-in kitchen, lots of windows, close to the subway, laundry in the building, low maintenance, 650 square feet.

Let us know if you have a look inside!

Link to Corcoran

Apartment Pick of the Day: Chelsea Co-op

Here's something you don't see every day: a two-bedroom co-op in Chelsea for under $500k. Apparently, this place has a fireplace, high ceilings, hardwood floors and a washer-dryer. Potential downsides: They do want 20% down, and the maintenance is over $800/month. But the location on W. 16th St. and the Hudson, just north of the West Village, is pretty dreamy.

Link to Ardor Real Estate

Storage King Tells Columbia to Tuck-It-Away

The New York Sun profiles Nicholas Sprayregen, owner of Tuck-It-Away self-storage and a feisty opponent of the proposed Columbia expansion into Manhattanville. The author plays up how relentless and formidable Sprayregen may prove: sending e-mails at 4:45 a.m., reviewing thousands of government documents, willing to spend half a million dollars in protest thus far. Such energies, the article goes on to say, stem from motives both community-minded and personal:

The owner of 18 storage, residential, and commercial buildings around the New York metropolitan area, Mr. Sprayregen is hardly without self-interest. If Columbia moves forward with a revised expansion plan that does not use eminent domain, as Mr. Sprayregen is urging, the value of his five properties in the footprint will undoubtedly skyrocket, allowing for uses far more lucrative than storage.

Meanwhile, Columbia apparently just closed on two more properties on 131st Street, continuing a "buying spree" that picked up two weeks ago, according to the New York Observer.

New York Sun: Storage Mogul Is an Obstacle to Columbia's Expansion
New York Observer: Columbia University Buying Up a Storm

Stacked Boxes in Harlem

The creators of Fifth Avenue's Trump Towers are about to unload some pretty big boxes at the corner of 125th and Park Avenue. In what would be Harlem's tallest building at 21 stories high, construction on "Harlem Park" may soon begin on an open lot adjacent to the Metro North rail station. Explaining the design of stacked glass cubes, SHCA's Roger Klein told Architectural Record: “Instead of trying to do what architects typically do with an office tower, which is to express the verticality of the buildings, we embraced the squat and masculine forms of the Harlem neighborhood." Not sure I see much of the neighborhood reflected in this building -- except for maybe that other 125th St. behemoth, the Adam Clayton Powell building. What do others think?

Architectural Record: Harlem Tower Will Be First in Decades

Downtown Restauranteurs to Launch Uptown Post

Come August, the owners of the highly-popular Clinton Street Baking Company (see picture) in the Lower East Side will open an eco-friendly restaurant and juice bar -- called Community Food and Juice -- on Broadway and 112th, where Nacho Mama's last held sway. This seems significant because downtowners tread carefully when choosing their next trendy locales; notable that they picked Morningside Heights over, say, a piece of Brooklyn.

Profile of a Preservationist

The New York Daily News honors Carolyn Kent, winner of the Hamilton Heights/West Harlem Community Preservation Organization's first Preservation Angel award.

Masters of Their Domain

In the same week that a committee of Community Board 9 voted unanimously on a zoning and development plan in sharp contrast with the Columbia's Manhattanville project, university officials issued a statement pledging not to ask the state to use eminent domain in order to evict residents currently in the 17-acre expansion area. Coincidence?

While some community officials celebrated this mini-victory in the New York Observer, the Columbia Spectator noted the university had already agreed not to use eminent domain against residents -- and was merely repeating itself.

Meanwhile, Renzo (Centre Pompidou) Piano told BusinessWeek that West Harlemites have got to change with the times. "You can't embalm a city," he said. Eric Washington, a historian of the area, appeared to choke when he heard that Piano will preserve less than a half-dozen turn-of-the-century brick buildings as part of his plan. "How can only three or four buildings preserve the character of a neighborhood,” Washington asked. “That’s a lot of responsibility for four buildings."

New York Observer: Columbia Renounces (Some) Eminent Domain
New York Times: Columbia Rules Out Evictions in Expansion Plan
Columbia Spectator: Committee Approves 197-A Plan
Columbia Spectator: CU Pledges No Eminent Domain For Residents--Again
Business Week (from 6/07): Controversy in West Harlem

Today's Apartment Pick: Bryant Park One-Bedroom

This one-bedroom overlooking Bryant Park in Midtown -- complete with high ceilings and hardwood floors -- looks like a deal at $459k. The building -- originally a club for railroad baron Andrew Carnegie and his cronies -- dates back to the turn of the century, and the redone lobby sounds gorgeous.

Link to Domain Properties

Hudson Heights Boomlet?

This 3BR listing in Hudson Heights at $695k is emblematic of a larger trend we are noticing: 1,000 square-foot apartments in pre-war Tudor-style buildings north of the George Washington Bridge moving successfully to contract. Hudson Heights is quite charming, given its proximity to the Met's Medieval satellite, the Cloisters, as well as Ft. Tryon Park and the Little Red Lighthouse of children's book fame. We also hear that amenities, businesses and cafes have increased, though a recent visit suggested that you still need to know where to look. For a nabe that's starting to get a buzz, prices are almost comparable to areas 80 blocks down. So what gives? Is it families who want space and security as opposed to location? One would think that, if the speculative bubble does burst, the extremities of Manhattan would be first affected. What do people see as the draw?

For an example, see this listing.

For Your Calendar: Public Hearing on 197-A Plan, 7/9

Community Board #9 will hold a public hearing to review their 197-A plan, which seeks to establish comprehensive development guidelines for the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights. The details of the plan include preserving historic landmarks and blocks and creating a special mixed-use district for Manhattanville, as well as securing industrial jobs, affordable housing and environmentally-friendly policies. If successful, this plan could create guidelines with which the Columbia University expansion must comply.

The meeting is this Monday, July 9th at 6:30 p.m. at the Manhattanville Community Center, 530 West 133rd Street (between Amsterdam and Broadway). (Columbia will be presenting its own 197-c Plan to the public on Wednesday, August 15.)

If you attend the meeting, be sure to share your observations and opinions here on the blog.

Link to the Community-Based Plan
New York Sun: Columbia Expansion Debate Plan Will Intensify

Harlem Restaurant Renaissance

For those sure that uptown fails to offer the amenities befitting a Manhattanite, those in West Harlem know that the tide is turning. In what some are calling a second Meatpacking District renewal, three veteran restaurant owners are setting up shop on the 12th Avenue strip underneath the dramatic Riverside Viaduct. Occupying a large triangular building on 135th St., a brick-oven pizzeria with a 1950's feel (from the owner of Max SoHa), a Mediterranean bar and grill (from the owner of Sabor), and a Thai-Latin fusion restaurant and lounge (from the owner of Mamajuana Café) will open just north of the popular and lip-smacking Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and newcomer Hudson River Café, adjacent to the Harlem Piers currently under construction. (The New York Times reported on the area last summer, when some of these details were first emerging. Apparently, some are trying to name the area ViVa, for Viaduct Valley.)

The Upper West Side traditionally gets a bad rap for restaurant options, but Amsterdam Avenue below 110th Street is also seeing its new crop of offerings. If you visit, post some reviews and tell us what you think!

The Real Deal: 135th Street's Restaurant Row

New York Times (from 6/06): Along a Viaduct, A Restaurant Row Emerges
New York Sun: New Restaurants Signal Changes in West 90's
Chow.Com: Two New Thai Contenders Uptown

Today's Apartment Pick: West Village Bargain

This is an incredible location on Charles Street -- you usually don't see this sort of listing for under 600k. So, at 499k, this 500-sq. ft. one-bedroom is quite possibly the best deal in the West Village. Besides the original wood floors with the marquetry borders, there isn't much detail to the interior. One modern update of note: a very large skylight in the living space. Worth walking up five flights. Does anyone have any inside information they can share with the readers of this blog?

Link to Bellmarc

Renewyork Applauds: New Day for Fifth Ave. Classic

The 1897 Merchant Bank of New York on Fifth Avenue (between 20th and 21st), being converted to luxury lofts, is seeing brisk sales. Glad to see folks appreciating this gorgeous Robert Maynicke landmark.

New York Sun: A Beaux-Arts Revival Takes Off at 141 Fifth Ave.

New York Post: Positively Fifth Ave.

A Banner Quarter for Manhattan Real Estate

Despite a sagging real-estate market nationally, foreign investors have fueled Manhattan's highest sale prices ever: the average apartment in the borough sells for more than $1.3 million, the New York Sun reports. The New York Times picks up on the nuance here: condos are faring better than co-ops, given the latter's preference for owner-occupation.

New York Sun: Weak Dollar Fuels City Real Estate
New York Times: Co-ops Slip, but Condos Lead Rise in Manhattan Apartment Prices

Today's Apartment Pick: Studio Off Riverside (106th St.)

This appears to be a beauty, inside and out. When Gilded Age guests entered the parlor floor of this townhouse between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, they found themselves in a charming Reception Hall. Since this co-op has converted this portion of the building into a studio, you will too: there's the original fireplace, the original paneling, parquet floors, high coffered ceilings. It is studio-size (a peek at the floorplan implies it's 300 sq-ft. for the living space), but the under 200k-tag means the price is right for a starter apartment -- and as an investment, since studios have shown tremendous appreciation in prime areas.

We'd love to know what people think if they have the chance to visit.

Link to Halstead

Penn Station Plans Mushroom

Vornado Realty and the Related Companies will unveil plans this month to build a skyscraper larger than the Empire State Building over the site of the current Pennsylania Station, according to the New York Times.

Adding to news reported in mid-June by the New York Sun, the Times indicates that developers are proposing the demolition of the Hotel Pennsylvania (a McKim, Mead and White creation from 1919) for a massive, new commercial structure.

These are just two of the surprising new elements of a now-$14 billion plan that would relocate the train station -- and aim to capture its original, august feel -- inside the James Farley Post Office across Eighth Avenue. A new 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden would move to the western side of the Farley building.

Two issues of focus in the Times article: who will pay for this mushrooming vision, and will the arena-- including ticket-booths for sports and entertainment events, proposed on the site of the current postal sales windows inside Farley -- dominate the space?

“We’re looking for a well-designed, separate and distinct train station,” said Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a private preservation group. “We do not want the Garden to swallow the station.”

Not to worry, state officials say. “This is, first and foremost, a transportation project,” [Co-Chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation Daniel] Foye said. “The goal is to create something that is consistent with Senator Moynihan’s vision of a public space that can accommodate 550,000 daily commuters and still have room for growth.”

We'll be interested to hear if folks agree that the plans -- once released -- fulfill that goal. And what do people think about losing the hotel Glenn Miller immortalized in "Pennsylvania 6-5000," and gaining a West Side version of the Empire State?

New York Times: New Grandeur for Penn Station in Latest Plan
New York Times op-ed: Senator Moynihan's Legacy
New York Post: Train 'Wreck,' Fury Over MSG Plans for Station
New York Sun: Developers To Detail $14B Plans Around Penn Station
New York Daily News Editorial: Tall Order for Tall Towers

Today's Apartment Pick: UWS Brownstone

To be on a subway-friendly side street (73rd St.) close to Central Park, in a brownstone, is a renewyork dream come true. This one BR boasts a marble fireplace, some exposed brick, and even a foyer to separate the living areas. For an asking price under 500k, it seems like a good starter -- it's substantially less than the equivalent in the West Village, despite the desirable nabe. Maintenance: $459.

Report back if you've seen the interior and can share why it's still on the market for more than two weeks.

Link to Corcoran

New York Papers: Columbia Coverage Bonanza

As Columbia's plans for expansion into Manhattanville continue to gain steam, the New York dailies file stories of agitated and suspicious neighborhood business owners.

New York Times: Neutrality in Expansion at Columbia Is Questioned
New York Post: Campus Auto 'Wreck'
NY Daily News: Rage Building in Harlem
Columbia Daily Spectator: Judge Orders Expansion Documents Released
StopColumbia.org, the Coalition to Preserve Community's website
Columbia's Official Site on the Expansion Plans

Today's Apartment Pick: Morningside Heights

We loved this two-bedroom, W. 121st St. co-op, with beautiful views of Morningside Park and quick proximity to the many choices of cute restaurants along Amsterdam. (We live in the area and often go to Max Soha for dinner or Kitchenette for brunch.) The interior looks pretty spacious based on the floor plan and has original details, oak-panelling and high ceilings. The maintenance is slightly high for the area -- but, of course, a good deal compared to downtown apartments. Both the 116th and 125th 1-trains are close-by and provide a quick commute to midtown, and being on Columbia's doorstep means that property values are secure.

We just saw a one-bedroom in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights in the 400k-range that needed total rehab and would take you twice the time to get to Times Square.

Has anyone been inside?

Link to Corcoran

Preservationists Unite!

It seems fitting to kick off renewyork by paying tribute to the McKim, Mead and White masterpiece whose destruction sparked the landmark preservation movement in Manhattan: Pennsylvania Station. Which neighborhoods deserve landmarking? Nominate your favorite!