A study conducted by 3 researchers-two from NYU and one from Clark University, found that the Upper west side and Upper east side have the most organic food. Out of 1,256 stores in Manhattan, as of January 2011, 60 percent of the food stores in the borough had no organic food at all. The highest concentration of organic food was on the Upper west and upper east and also Morningside Heights.
Category Archives: Uppereastside
Affordable luxury condos coming to Upper East side
Developer Ben Shaoul is bringing to market a condo conversion of a rental building at 389 E. 89th street shortly. Prices are very attractive at $1.58 million for a 2 bedroom with 1098 sqft and the least expensive 3 bedroom with 1315 sqft starting will be just under $2 million. Other developers are finally getting the message that the luxury boom is more or less over and it is wise to bring to the market 1-3 bedroom apartments within more Manhattanites budgets. Prices will average about $1596 per sqft according to LINK in this conversion.
The same devloper will launch sales later this month at a conversion at 23rd street and 1st avenue called Luminaire. Prices will average a reasonable $1789 per square foot in this 103 unit condo.
Why is the 2nd ave subway line taking so long?
According to LINK, the 2nd avenue subway will finish late next year but the prognosis for the extension to 125th street is not good. Construction will not start until at least 2020 thanks to a $1 billion cut in the project’s budget. Local politicians are irate and trying to get the project back on track for an earlier date to extend through Harlem.
Yorkville condo boom-Is now the time to buy?
Yorkville, which runs from 72nd street to 96th street east of Third avenue, is seeing a luxury building boom right now according to NYPost. Property values for condos are less in Yorkville per square foot than west of 3rd avenue Upper east side. Buyers priced out of the Upper East side are now venturing east of 3rd avenue and the mix of offerings can be surprising. There are boutique condos to super luxury developments. One such luxury development is The Charles which made headlines with a sale of its top 6 floors for $59 million. The Charles is located at 1355 First avenue and has 27 units spread over 32 floors. Only 4 units remain available.
Several developers are planting stakes including Extell which recently purchased the site of Gristedes at 86th street and 1st avenue for $100million. That site is part of an assemblage that will allow them to build a large condo tower on the site.
225 East 86 street apt 301 Upper East enters market
This one bedroom/one bath condo has entered the market at the low asking price of $549,900. It is a foreclosure which in this case means it’s already owned by the bank. It features a nice sized kitchen, wood floors, solarium and a loft bedroom. The Buckingham East is a doorman building. Monthlies total about $1800 per month. We anticipate this will be sold to the best offer over the ask. Offers are due in by the end of this week at the latest. View the listing below.
What are the risks with a Land-Lease building?
According to NYT, there are about 100 building in Manhattan, that have land or ground leases. Due to the rental payments they need to make on the land, they tend to have high monthly charges. Also, sometimes as in the case of Trump Plaza at 167 East 61 street, increases in the land lease can lead to a sharp inrease in the monthlies. With this on the horizon, the co-op Board at Trump Plaza decided to buy the land from the owner. In order to do this, there was to be a large assessment of several hundred thousand dollars to a few million for each apartment. Without the purchase of the land,due to a deal that Donald Trump made when he constructed the building, the maintenance figures would have gone so high that the apartments would have been worthless.
So it pays to excercise caution when purchasing in a building with a land lease. Although, according to the NYT article, there are some very sophisticated buyers who are purchasing in Land lease buildings. All of Battery Park city is on a land lease and as a result, values in some buildings go up generally less than the market as whole due to the high carrying charges. In Battery Park City, each building makes a different deal with the City so it pays to excercise caution and find out when the land lease is due to expire and estimate what the carrying charges will be at that time. Many buildings pay a percentage of the fair market value for the rental of the land. As a result, of the current sky high price of land, the land lease prices will spike up as well.
$120M for Upper East side mansion
Three townhouses on Manhattan’s Upper East side near Central Park,located at 12-16 E 62 street are up for sale for a combined $120M. The properties can be combined according to NYDN, to make a 30,000 sqft mansion. These properties are owned by a firm that has been linked to the Brazilian banking family, Safra. The three buildings if combined will have 73 feet of frontage between Madison and Fifth avenue. An additional adjacent building can also be transferred for $35M. Read the full article below.
Upper East side Apple Store update
The Apple Store that is slated for 74street and Madison avenue continues to be built out amid NIMBYism from local residents who are worried about its impact on the neighborhood.
The locals have even ciruclated a petition with several hundred signatures to ask the Community Board to recommend Apple pursue other locations. Amid their worries are people camping out and long lines adding further congestion to narrow sidewalks as Apple launches new product offerings.
Read the Wall Street Journal coverage.
Upper East side New developments update
There are a number of interesting new developments either already in the market as well on the way to market on Manhattan’s upper east side. They range from the affordable luxury of Related’s Carnegie Park at 200 East 94 street to Zeckendorf’s opulent collaboration with Robert A.M. Stern at 520 Park avenue. The latter will have a triplex penthouse reportedly that will ask $130mm.
The trend as in most parts of Manhattan is for larger apartments and several condos have apartments that start at over 3000 sqft. What’s interesting though is that many projects have gone East of Lexington avenue which in the past they did not. Amongst those are 20 East end which has had brisk sales.
Frank Sinatra’s forer Upper east side home sold
Frank Sinatra’s former 3200 sqft apartment at 530 E 72 street aka The Edgewater co-op is now sold. The apartment featured a triplex layout, a terrace and a roofdeck overlooking the East River.
The seller had bought it from Old Blue Eyes and completed a renovation. The selling price according to the Wall Street Journal article was $4.93 million. Mr. Sinatra had bought it new and until four years ago it was hardly changd at all.
Read the WSJ article below and see CurbedNY’s take on it as well.