I have been in the real estate industry first as a licensed agent and as a broker since 1999. I have sold in every Manhattan neighborhood though do work a lot on the Upper west side where I live and upper Manhattan. I speak French,Portuguese, and Spanish.
The rezoning of several schools within Manhattan’s Upper West side district 3 has been approved. The contentious debate lasted over 1 year. Proponents of the plan say that it will integrate the school system and alleviate over crowding. PS 452 will move 16 blocks south to a large facility and PS 191 will get a new building as part of the Riverside Center complex. It will be in the base of the luxury rental building at 61st street and west end avenue known as 21 West end avenue. The school will also start a gift and talented program for 3rd grade and up.
Some of the buildings including part of the Lincoln Towers complex will no longer be zoned for the coveted, yet crowded PS 199 but will now be zoned for PS 191 in it’s shiny new digs.
Opponents of the plan feel that the effect of the rezone was not studied enough and believe it will not alleviate over crowding and integrate the schools.
The rezoning will take effect in September 2017. Children that are already in the schools will not be moved and their siblings will be grandfathered in.
A high floor, 1 bedroom/1bath condo in 400 Central Park west has been sold. The asking price was $1,375,000 for the south facing apartment with the 18′ terrace and views of the park.
The building features a 24 hour concierge, live-in-super, on-site management, gym, laundry, children’s playroom, storage and parking(wait list).
Les Petits Sourires will be opening a location on Manhattan’s upper west side at 120 W 97th street. The school will serve only 20 students with 5 teachers. The programming will be from 7:30am to 6pm with half of the day being in French. Pricing is $2,399 per month for the full day program. There will be options for half days etc…
Information sessions will be held on Thursdays 5 to 7pm in December according to DNAInfo.
Three of the biggest starchitects will be designing the three remaining buildings coming to the Riverside Center development. Richard Meier and Partners Architects, Rafael Viñoly Architects, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates will all be designing buildings that will have the name 1,2 and 3 Waterline Square. The three condos will have condos on top and rentals on the bottom and will have a 20 year tax abatement. The development is between 59th and 61st street, the Hudson River and Freedom Place. They will connect via a park to 1 West end avenue, the amenities rich Silverstein and Elad collaboration that is selling very well. 21 West end avenue is right next door and is a rental building with 616 units and will be the new home of PS 191 if the Upper west side school rezone goes through later this month.
It will be interesting to see the pricing of the new condos since the sales have gone well at 1 WEA and One Riverside Park sold out very quickly as well. If I was guessing, I would say around $2500 per sqft and up given the market conditions and location. Completion is set for 2018.
One Manhattan Square, Extell’s new ground construction at 252 South street began selling last year in Asia first and according to the developer 80 units are already in contract. There will be 815 units with approximately 700 of them being either 1 bedroom or 2 bedrooms. The 823 foot tall tower will be full of amenities including a full size indoor basketball court. Gary Barnett, of Extell, grew up in the neighborhood and acknowledges the neighborhood has come a long way. This building is aimed squarely at the affordable luxury market. Prices start at around $1600 per square foot.
There are 7 seven listings on streeteasy and 2 of those are in contract. These days developers are keeping information on sales very guarded.
140,160 and 180 Riverside boulevard are going to be dropping the Trump name as a result of a 600 person petition that was signed. Equity Residential is the owner for these 3 buildings which will soon just be known by their street addresses.
With more families than ever looking to stay in Manhattan instead of relocating to the suburbs, family size apartments are in demand. Despite the luxury market being glutted, prices have not substantially come down in Manhattan’s real estate market as a whole. Assuming you do not want to subject your entire financial history to the scrutiny of a co-op board, your first choice is probably going to be a condo. A quick search on streeteasy finds only nine 3 bedroom and 3 bathroom condos on the upper west under $4 mm. Between $4-5mm, you have another 11 listings to look at including a couple in newly constructed buildings.
Compare that with co-ops, there are 18 co-ops for sale under $4 million with at least 3 bdrm/3baths and another 7 offered between $4 million and $5 million.
So altogether on the Upper west side under $ 5 million you would 45 apartments to choose from which is not many.
On Manhattan’s upper west side, the oasis well known to the tennis fanatic as the Central Park tennis center, is set to close November 20th. But wait…There is talk of an extension. Stay tuned or just check in with the tennis center to see if in fact you only have 11 more days to play outside on one of the 26 Har tru tennis courts mid park at 94th street.
Last week there were 10 contracts signed at $10 million or above according to the Olshan Report. This is the highest total of the year. So is now the time to jump in the market considering many luxury Manhattan apartments have seen their original asking price chopped?
Manhattan market downturns do not last long at least of late. So where is the bottom? Well that is like trying to pick or guess what the Stock market will do next. What we do know is that the amount of permits pulled and amount of luxury properties that are in the pipeline has diminished tremendously and will continue to do so over the next couple years. This will give the current glut of luxury properties a chance to be absorbed into the market. Developers who can sit on their sites will do so and those who can not, will sell or lose them to the next guy. Financing is very difficult now for new construction developments and EB-5 visas is not the panacea that it once was due to pending reform.
Now can be the right time to negotiate a prime Manhattan luxury property but you need to do an analysis of the price per square foot as well as what the neighborhood has to offer. Sellers’ expectations are coming down to reality so if you can find a luxury property and negotiate a fair market price, now may very well be the best time to purchase.
Perhaps you should take a look at “Doctor’s Row” which is a section of townhouses on Manhattan avenue between roughly 104th to 106th street. Ideally situated only one block to Central Park, and subway access, this historic district might slip under your radar unless you were looking for it.
According to public records, three townhouses have sold this year alone which is a mini flurry of activity for this section of Manhattan’s upper west side.
128 and 134 Manhattan avenue had similar dimensions(16 by 58 building and 16 by 86 lot size) and sold for $4.445 million and 5.35 million respectively. 111 manhattan avenue sold for $3.1 million due to an interior size of 18 by 40 and a lot of 18 by 50. Currently, there aren’t any houses for sale.
Manhattan avenue townhouse
Doctor’s Row on Manhattan’s upper west side
News about the NYC real estate residential and commercial markets provided and interpreted by an industry veteran licensed since 1999. Brian Silvestry of BSRG Inc. Licensed real estate broker
