Thinking of buying a NYC apt for the schools?

If you are considering buying an apartment in New York City to be zoned for a particular school, there are a couple of things to be aware.

1- Due to crowding in some public schools, there is talk of rezoning, most recently in Manhattan’s upper west side. The school in question is the desirable PS 199 on West 70th street. According to LINK, this year, there was a waitlist of almost 100 zoned students for kindergarten. As a result, there is talk about rezoning and unsurprisingly tremendous pushback from the community. The pushback comes both from parents who are zoned for PS 199 and non-parents who do not want to see the real estate values affected by a rezoning.

2-It is wise to speak to the parent coordinator for the school to see if rezoning is planned. You can find their information on the school site. They may be able help you to know if there is a planned rezoning.

 

Google abandons idea of Soho retail store

After spending $6 million to renovate the Soho space at 131 Greene street, they put it on the sublease market asking $2.25 million per year. This was supposed to be the first of Google’s retail locations and to compete with Apple which has a well established network of stores. Just one week ago, Microsoft opened their first New York City store on Fifth avenue just 6 blocks from the Apple store.

Crain’s article