The Upper West Side is America’s Most Livable Neighborhood! According to AARP, the Upper West Side is America’s Most Livable Neighborhood! Read the AARP article at this link. Here’s a quick summary: AARP actually placed it second to a neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin that few people probably know about here on the East Coast, except for some of […]
Priced Out of Brooklyn? Try Manhattan. The NYTimes published an article this morning about a new trend taking shape in Brooklyn. People who once reluctantly made the trek across the East River to find an affordable home are now realizing their considerable gains and moving back to Manhattan because they have been priced out of […]
Last week, New York YIMBY published two articles concerning the Census Bureau’s estimates for 2014 and revised numbers for 2013. Some highlights of the articles as as follows: “If the latest Census estimate is indeed accurate, New York City is probably over 8.5 million people as of today. With the urban renaissance now in full […]
Crain’s reports today that Democrats in New Jersey’s State Senate have called upon the Port Authority to sell its real estate, including the iconic One World Trade Center. I couldn’t agree more, especially given that we are at a time in history where commercial real estate values have hit an unprecedented high and regional transportation infrastructure is […]
If You Build it, They Will Come…But How Will They Get To Red Hook? Red Hook, the sleepy enclave of large warehouses, industrial buildings and housing projects situated on the western side of the BQE, southwest of Brooklyn’s vibrant Carroll Gardens neighborhood, is back in the news this week as Estate Four, a Los Angeles-based […]
Prince Akeem, sole heir to the throne of Zamunda (in the 1988 Eddie Murphy masterpiece Coming to America), was ahead of his time. After exiting the airport following his flight to a very different 1980s New York to find his bride, he stepped in front of a moving taxi cab, held up his hand to […]
Stay Away from NYC Ground Lease Co-ops! Ground leases are relatively common in New York City commercial real estate. Some of New York’s most notable properties, like the Chrysler Building, are encumbered by one. In a ground lease, the owner of land leases it to a developer with the intent that the developer will build […]
Move Madison Square Garden to Hudson Yards! I recently read an article that discussed the future of Madison Square Garden. Here are my thoughts: For more than 60 years, the destruction of the original Penn Station – McKim, Meade and White’s 1910 Beaux Arts masterpiece – has relegated proud New Jersey Transit, Long Island Railroad […]
Developer Ashkenazy Acquisition is seeking special approval to install ground floor retail space to replace the good-intentioned, but ill-conceived, public space located in the ground floor retail component of the Bel Canto condominium, a residential tower adjacent to the Upper West Side’s Apple Store near Lincoln Center (and Grandma Bunny). In 1985, when the condominium […]
The Proposed “Pied-a-Terre” Tax in NYC It is no secret that New York City real estate has become an attractive vehicle for high net worth non-residents to invest their capital. It is widely perceived as one of the safest and most stable investments available in the increasingly unstable global markets. In fact, many new condo […]