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Keeping Up Appearances
Got Gehry?
West Village

West side cool

DryDock Country?

NoMad

A-list Buildings
Dumbo condos, Wallentas

SoHo
NoHo
NoLita
Chelsea...
Baby booom Martha
TriBeCa
Harlem

Where's Next?

Lower East Side
Harlem

Williamsburg
Queens
Long Is City
Sunnyside

The Rise and Un-New Yorkization of Brooklyn
Downshifting. Grit is it.

The Bronx. Thonx?

Take Me to the River
Jersey City
Newark
Harrison

I am on the streets there so much Some I know thought I lived there.

The major clue that I do NOT was the only time of day you would NOT see me there in the morning! [Sure, like many] I feel at home in the West Village south of -14th St. BUT the area is changed so drastically that I am not around there much at all anymore. Nearly every place I patronised, restaurant to bar, let alone friends from years past are all gone. And I do mean the late 1970s on...I felt at home, and a as much a part of the community as possible for a 'bridge and tunnel' guy.

There was a steady turnover of the old shops banished by demands for ever higher "market" rents; empty storefronts for year[s] no matter with 3x rent increases commonly demanded even into the 2009 bust. Sometimes only fast food, porno and chains can only pay up until an "appropriate' designer or chef is found. This is exactly the kind of success has just about killed Christopher street where LiLac Choc. moved up to Hudson at Jane 1-2005; was one of only several only remaining better local shops on Christopher. Nearby along the N-W end of Bleecker St rents in 2005 surpassed those of SoHo! There are multiple Marc Jacobs shops and Ralph Lauen/Polo shops. There weree lines for the small restaurant "August" though Kim's video at w10st was an atypical years long acancy on that hot stretch of Bleecker where almost all the ol neighbourhood shops includiding the lil antiques shops had to go. The Village still offers a small scale and urbane-trendy [bohemian? -nah it cannot even pretend anymore] community. The $3mil+ townhouses are now in "brownstone" Brooklyn; prime Village rowhouses rose up to $8mil to $10mil+ by 2007, even with work needed to covert from multi-unit back to single dwellings, as the Village draws an international elite of artists, really or sort of, actors/media people and such, MORE than those starry-eyed newcomers just looking for a "little place" down there. Some of them buy in the new high rises on the Hudson [over the edge of the official historic district] lofts and new condos also at the western formerly fringe area towards the meat market may shade some neighbors.

It's over. Done. The upper east side come down there in hipster drag. The past true edginess of the ol meat market area combined with its small scale and great light from the openness of the Hudson River and smell of some of raw meat [really] that faded away. Dive-y HOG PIT bbq place and even FLORENT closed! The meat market is truly that- -for young-ish, moneyed, hip, straight and on the make especially with the addition of clubs Cielo, PM and One [but no dancing]. A new mid-rise bldg went up [mid 2005] on the square [triangle] on site of ol RIO MAR [across from Hotel Gansevoort and Pastis]. Joining the SITC generation of clubs and restaurants of the last several years are 14st-Washington Diane von Furstenberg emporium, the high-end high rise STANDARD hotel, an APPLE store and now 2008 some high end office new office construction. I think except for a core area around 13-14st-Washington st, the general ol meat packing are will evolve further settled down and "square" in a few years as more condos and families fill in. [Sternbergh-] NY Mag "May 7 2007" wrote High Line that 10 condo towers etc are in rising "now" 15 more are planned - with more to come in the prime parts of the High line area from W Village thru W Chelsea gallery area. Other highlights will be a neighboring Whitney Museum 'satellite' [site was considered by DIA to "replace" their closed original w22 site which they did sell in 2008] and the Standard Hotel. I wish the ritz-y stayed uptown!-[ I wished that I could have had a little ol walk-up in an old bldg in the area but I was a few years to late for it to come on my city job salary..the older baby boomers took it all.]-

On Sept 9 2003 officially, the effort to create a new Gansevoort Market historic district at the meat market area there succeeded [naturally], very few 'neighborhood' stores managed to stick around for much longer. The overheated "market" spurred more and larger new luxe condo buildings at the edges of the adjacent landmarked meat market and Greenwich Vil Historic Distrcit whihc was further extended west to include the blocks along the riverfront from Christopher to Perry St plus a "Weehawken St Historic District" May 2 2006. Most new construction is condos. And these new condos at both ends of the Village sell for [tops were $1200 to $1600+ sq ft] Today, the meat-market-far W Chelsea became safe and desirable for the OLSEN twin millionairesses [oops -Spring 2005are selling and renting nearby] as NYU students bought a multimillion dollar condo at Morton Sq. a couple of blocks south of Christopher, before moving on to a rowhouse. The piers and elevated section of the West Side Highway is long gone from the riverfront and the nearly picture perfect rowhouse vignettes don't seem to have possibly existed among the past nearby street life.

Pastis Plaza ..oops Gansevoort Plaza, little "park" opened MAY 23 2008 in the open triangular street area outside of the Gansevoort Hotel and Pastis, an omen of coming upper middle boring-respectability opps here come nannies and momie stroller-nazi time. The meat market's 'arrival' was heralded to the masses by "Sex in the City." [and damn their SITC tours and the lines outside Magnolia for so-so cupcakes..] But Jeffrey was earlier [-Kalinsky of Atlanta] opened on far west [449 w]14 in 1999. But FLORENT was there even earlier in the mid 1980s, so it was under the radar comparatively. By 2002 hipsters everywhere were aware of the new wave of designer fashion shops on Gansevoort, Washington and 14th st, chic restaurants such as PASTIS and clubs as LOTUS on 14th and then the exclusive London club+hotel-gym-spa Soho House, which opened APRIL 2003 in the same building above new Jean-Georges SPICE MARKET in a former warehouse 29 9th Ave. at w13.

Stephen Hanson's VENTO with its Level V basement lounge opened April 2004 in the infamous Triangle Bldg at w13 and Hudson; sex clubs "Hellfire" then the "Vault" and "J's", then the "ManHole" were downstairs there until OCT 2002 - there is also a basement thru-space there with a large room UNDER 9Ave.- Is that occupied - maybe the kitchen? *that's* being used now? Then high-rise Hotel Gansevoort [const Oct 2002-Apr 2004] opened on what was a long-time parking lot across the streets from PASTIS, and the Triangle bldg. was finished and diminished the openness and light that made this one of the most special spots in the city [along with the old low rise 2-3 fl commercial bldgs]. On June 9 2009 1st part of HIGH LINE park opened- as with rest of the meat market, a place for poseurs. You are not allowed to walk on remnants of tracks, when it is nar 1600 pers. capacity you must enter on south end and walk north ONLY, do not touch the "wild plants", do not take your pet up. Closed 10pm. Ideas were bounced around for years to do something to save the High Line, and it took this utter emerging fabuness of far W Chelsea and the meat market to draw 'creatives' to the new organisation, Friends of the High Line [FOH] started as a fabu two buds grass-roots organisation in 1999-2000 hooking in 'movers and shakers' celeb and pols. It became a multi million$ non-profit with high priced lawyers, consultants after as it got a few hundred thousand$ from Council funds. [Daily News special 4-29-2008] "FOH" gave over $110,000 to Council Speaker Quinn and last speaker, Miller. Mr. Hammond [1 of two original founders J. David/ R. Hammond] took a salary approved by the board he created, as F.O.H. Exec. Dir. & President of $250k + a $30k bonus 2008 [see NYTimes and Metro 8-26-2009] PLUS his parallel consulting buinesss [of same vintage as the new FOH, to make sure he would make some income!], since dissolved, took $200k payments in 2005 and 2006 from Friends of High Line! They + another of 'FOH' board member endorsed Mayor Bloomberg for 3rd term, and now are definately 'out' after appearing in Gay&Lesb. NYers for Bloomberg [-no wonder they played so well with QUINN!] NYC is funding less than 1/4 of the annual operating budget [$4mil-ish] and FOH is pleading shortage, considereing asking for power to form a local BID to levy an annual fee to businesses and co-op/condo onwers. FOH further benefitted in turn by a Mayoral concessions-board [he controls 4 of 6 votes ] directed the Parks Dept. to give FOH power to award no-bid concessions contract.

The most fab of the bldgs. on the Hudson are the sleek trio of mid-rise towers by Richard Meier flanking [173/176] Perry St at the river - lots of celebs were used in the PR for these bldgs. But in late 2003-4 some buyers in the original 2 towers were really pissed as they found out 3rd southernmost tower was to be added to the orig two [priced $2,000+ pers sq ft.] blocks some of their multimillion dollar views. NYPost Page Six 12-31-03 quoted Vincent Gallo, who would not move in saying "Meier has completely destroyed the concept of these buildings and the atmosphere of the neighbourhood. It's going to look like Co-op City." [well, hardly.] 28 full-floor condos started at $1.9 million, 70% sold, early public ad was 11-19-00 in NYTimes. The APR 2006 newly extended Greenwich Vil Historic District surrounding the 3 towers ensures their views back towards the rest of Manhattan will remain unobstructed. NEXT stop BROOKLYN; a Meier condo glass box was announced for 2007 completion 199 units at 17 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Hts.[-Daily New Borough Edition 4-12-2005] to be in the midst of 19th cent rowhouses and preWar apartments. In 2009 there are still many unsold, maybe the condo paln was just barely effective.

After clubbing, something for dessert[?] - 14 St has high-end exotic lingerie shops with La Perla on w14 [opened 2003?] joined later 2004 nearby by Catriona MacKechnie 400w14 [Damaris and other lines] in what was Petite Abielle Cafe [-NYPost "Between the Bricks" 8-4-04]. Lars Bolander on Gansevoort boutique 9-17-03 joined now neighborhood fixtures Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney which both opened on W14th Sept. 2002-both [-same conglomerate parent PPR -Pinault-Printemps-Redoute]. NICKEL men's by Phillipe Dumont of Paris opened Oct. 2001, 14st-8Av in an old bank 'temple' which has condos upstairs. Zitoune nouvelle-Morroccan opened fall 2001 on the little Gansevoort St. restaurant row. The new VILLAGE / Gansevoort HOTEL started construction Oct 200 w13st at Hudson/Greenwich St. topped out May 2003. Its 15fl pool opened 4-29-04 and overlooks the [in]famous rooftop SoHo House pool capitalizing and towering over the adjacent Gansevoort restaurant strip. MAR 2008 there are 27 projects "mostly luxury condos and hotels" being planned or built along the High-line [-NY Observer APR 2 2007] meat market area north to Chelsea. Balazs was supposed to open late 2008 or so a very high-end boutique hotel and private club [with direct access to High Line] in expanded warehouse at 14-10av, near his 1st "Standard" Hotel. I believe this the site of a 15-fl [450w14] High line Bldg office-retail re-using the gutted warehouse on bottom in late 2009. The STANDARD ["soft opened" late 2008] is built on trusses OVER the High line [his property is under it]. The city had a zoning loophole- blind spot for building around or over the rail line at the time of plans approval-no air rights payment needed for Balazs! Instead of a particular contested condo tower near this spot announced fall 2003 to be 32 floors, the Standard towers over *everything* else in the meat-packing area. Unbelievable all this is across the street from bldg. that was until just a few years ago since the MINESHAFT was closed in 1985.

The NEW St. Vincents Hospital plan derailed MAY 2008 was approved OCT 2008 as a hardship case after Landmarks Commission first 'ruled' they cannot tear down the O'Toole bldg. In early JUNE 2008 after revision of plans showed OCT 2007, including shortening the height of the new hospital and condo tower, and keeping a few of the existing mid block [6-7Av 11-12st] set of buildings, the Hospital said it still must tear down O'Toole to build the rest of the scheme or face closure coming out of 2005 bankruptcy filing [-Crain's NY APR 2007 said the bankruptcy costs may go over $60million, over $25mil was for lawyers and consultants!] and reorganisation spurred by NYState Commission on Health Care Facilities hosp. closure plans further forced St. Vincent's hands to rebuild and sell off its ol property. RUDIN Organization will buy them out to help pay the cost of the NEW St. Vincent's and build high rise condos, 19 side street townhouses, and retail and medical offices at the old site if final City Planning and Landmarks Commission is given [earliest can be 2009]. The market is increasing number of families with kids populating the West Village. Fab new residents on the side streets are trying to keep their property values up on have their eyes like never before on outsiders who don't seem to belong. Just a few blocks down, residents organised against young blacks and hispanics who flee their own neighborhoods and cluster on Christopher St. at night at a few 'trouble spots' leading to the Hudson River Park replaced remnants of the old piers. I read that some want the Christopher St. PATH closed overnight! One lady quoted in a Mar. 2002 NY Times article said ALL outsiders in the neighborhood are troublemakers. You just can't do that [you name it...] anymore on the streets of the Village.

There is no place to gather or stop that does not involve spending for food and drink [as much of Manhattan is becoming with semi-privatizing of small NY 'public squares' [park spaces] by BIDs resulting in them being gated early in the evening] and hanging out is not what is used to be for even 'regular' gay white boys, even middle class 'bears' et al. Yes, back in 'the day' there were several times more bars, the far West Village was more industrial than residential and a more liberal attitude prevailed [all over NY too]. There were transvestites or transex. hookers in the meat district and on Washington St. [adjacent to and under the high-line railroad.] It could be ugly and trouble, but and a good time was had by most and you could pass through the area in the daytime be oblivious to it.

Next, the less glam [few row houses] but more "real" [tenements and commericial bldgs] "South Village" in between the Soho district and The Greenwich Village District, after 3 years of fuss or so was designated an Historic Distrct 6-23-2009. A most curious W Village - Chelsea real estate story of the late 20th century is Wm. Gottlieb's ownership and acquisition since 1960s of about 168[!] Chelsea and Village properties now worth a $billion or more. His benign neglect of them ["defacto preservationist"] also let small businesses [even gay bars] and tenants stay cheaply was a huge factor character of the area. Gottlieb died in 1999, an auspicious time as the post 9-11 changes [who knew!] were coming up and the estate is in dispute, in appellate court still fall 2009. The "Northern Dispensary" at Waverly/Waverly and "Kellers" at the end of Christopher St. are among the most conspicious of the estate's still vacant $billion+ portfolio of holdings.

The ummm, other hotte$t -but not "coolest"- area is at the southern end of the West Village! - called Hudson Square by some, I would call it north Tribeca. "North Tribeca" is not in an historic district so the architects had freer reign than in the meat market area. Two cool epicenters that follow just behind the W Village in price are the far W Side 'Clinton-Hell's Kitchen and the East Village.

Alphabet City Condos

Change in the East Village is marked by a slew of new luxe loft-condo from the singular top-end condo tower- which actually sold very slowly and is built on land 99-yr lease from Cooper Union, to many more or less umm remarkable projects concentrated along and just off Bowery. It is very different in attitude than even 10 years ago, which should not be surprising with all the new more income-endowed residents. The history of counter-culture still seasons the place and leftist activism left a legacy of political obligations, complications and real estate turf disputes [because of so many abandoned properties the city also got its hands tied up in] still burden the area. Area change is further propelled by the huge and growing local student population from expanded NYU housing. These new NYU buildings swallowed at least 2 full square blocks+ equivalent plots spread thru the East Village and beyond. Amongst new upcoming construction is off Washington Sq, with planned destruction of the current incarnation of the venerable "Provincetown Playhouse" for reconstruction of the building housing it. This alone has shown the NYU "dialogue" with the community to pacify it with "promises" of contextual or infill development in its long-term, but steady big expansion. NYU "strategic planning" calls for 6 million sq ft more and 5,500 more students within 25 years - threatens to destroy most "others" around its central campus area. NYU also just swallowed back up BK Polytechnic [itself descended from NYU past Engineering School] seen as a move to gain that now- very valuable BK real estate for expansion. Oh, BTW, tuition will be raised over the next few years to match that of NYU!

Official NYC EDC figure was 488,155 in 2007 for-credit full and part time college students in NYC. There were over 50,000 foreign college students in NYC in 2006. NYU and Cooper Union resident student population tripled over 10 years in the late 1990s to 12,000. Their latest new residence project was e12st "megadorm", a developer-NYU partnership hirise at 120e12, quite a nasty affair because it was built on a demolished locally beloved church [the steeple left as an ornament], built higher using air rights from the adjacent POST OFFICE, yet the POST OFFICE is not really obligated to honor the NYC air rights. NYU bought a new condo high rise at 3Av-23st to turn into undergraduate and faculty apartments. E Village area student housing also now includes first dorm for NY Law at 81e2, which is remote from its Lower Manhattan campus. Also coming [in 2007] 3Av-10st and fall 2008 at Delancey-Ludlow for [SVA] School of Visual Arts. Brooklyn Law opened a dorm near it in Bklyn Heights, and in downtown BK is a new [9/2007] apartment bldg for NYU grad students. Uptown but really not so far away FIT converted 406w31 into student apts and Fordham U at Lincoln Ctr is adding new student housing into its campus expansion aiming to grow from 2,500 to 10,500 [plus regular apartments]. mid2008 COLUMBIA U got a deal on a whole new RIVERDALE [BX] condo tower helped take pressure off umm 'the market' glut of just finished new condos in the area, and there are numerous other student apartment build or lease projects even spreading to first-time housing for various City University campuses. NOTE fall 2008-Columbia and NYU tuition + room and board are now just over $50k.

E Vil-LES Commercial rents soaring too on top of greatly increased taxes and insurance, making for increasing turnover of regular neighborhood shops to restaurants and clubs [best East Village shops went up to $10,000 month; under $3,000 was a bargain] 2009? shold be a bit less... The first new condo building reached AVE D [2004?] *at first* priced a bit lower than those further west because they are across the street from the projects and so far east of subways, LES / E Village proposed massive rezoning will bring more. Price gap was closed in 2007 at the "Flowerbox" among a few other new bldgs that reached upper east or west side prices off Ave D at 259 e7 with top condo price for the penthouse for $10mil - its developer says buyers for his bldg aren't worried about the subway, they probably have corporate car services to take them home. But a very eager[? to hype the bldg and share in profits] pre-construction buyer helped FINANCE the bldg with the $10mil penthouse purchase! IN "HELLS KITCHEN" the march of condos west continues past 10Av towards the river. Adjacent to the high priced high-rises, some tenement walk-up 1-bedrooms went to the $2,000 month level and up. MAY 2009 1,042 unit Silver[stein] Towers [6o fl] rentals 11Av-42nd open from studios $2,300 to high fl $3,800. He includes bonus [got some tax / financing break in return] for 200+ limited-income "affordable" units. Silverstein owns 1 River Pl rentals on the block, price in 1984 1 full sq block: $20mil, it took until 1992 to clear challenges to NYC/Koch admin OK for a zoning to the indust. 1 fl zoning. Another neighborhood/price barrier fell [Jun 19 2006- NYTimes noted] Corcoran was agent for condos above $19.5mil 10st-5Av [highest price at 96st was $7.5mil] as some better ol bldgs there go above $10Mil price barrier above 96 st as the march toward a fashionable Central Park North is in sight.

Keeping Up Appearances

Back uptown. Who needs hip when you have old money? Or foreign money [-Crain's NY FEB 18-24 2008- about 30% of all residential sales in Manhattan in 2007 "involved foreign buyers."] Not so old money pushed up top prices summer 2007 to records $33mil for [just a] "25-ft wide townhouse" [record price,2006, for any townhouse was over $50mil], and for an apartment in the new Plaza Hotel condos for $50mil. A few of the *to-die-for* (A-list buildings) in the 'Upper-East' were profiled in the Times -820, 834, 960 Fifth Ave 740 Park and a few others. Got $15 mil. for an apt. and $100mil in assets? The old, old guard fabu actually reached their zenith with construction and demolition of the old grand mansions for the top co op bldgs in the 1920s or 30s. In a few cases, the owners sold out their big houses for grand full floor duplex or even triplex Penthouses at the top of then new buildings. The finest enclave of low-rise upper East side townhouses are on 68-69-70 between LEX and park, and also scattered through Carnegie Hill. But all of Manhattan from Harlem [-In 2006 only in NYC could anyone say newly rehabbed condos in brownstone $500,000 to about $1,000,000 are middle income affordable] down, gleams in developers eyes. And nearby, [NYTimes, The City, "Yorkville Keeps On Growing Taller (Sigh"), William McDonald 8-24-03-] "A study by Civitas of more than 300 block fronts in the area ...[Yorkville, Upper East Side]..fewer than 80 had not "experienced new" development of tall buildings." Next big projects in the heart of Yorkville are new condo towers at Lex86th and 3Av-86st. NON-historic district ordinary East and west sides areas that had few highrises are getting them now. From a low-rise pocket of 2Av in the 50s, to a parade of new towers filling in most of on west 42 st that join ol 1970s Manhattan Plaza unbsubsidised-for-artist/actors towers and filling in 8Av in the 40s into the 50s with new office and condo towers.

The prolonged, real action because of residential development of what was widely low-rise industrial areas was concentrated along BOTH sides of the Hudson River, especially in Manhattan from Battery Park City to W. Village, then the West Sides incl W. 42 St. river to 9th Ave., then Trump River Place and the partially built adjacent Riverside South, and the west riverbank of NJ from Newport Center [in Jersey City] area north to Edgewater. -The Lefraks, major builders of Newport announced May 31 2006 a new hotel and 4 more apt towers. -And like their dense Manhattan counterparts, high demand and high land prices in Jersey City [2 Trump condo bldgs coming in Jersey City] and Hoboken [W Hotel opened 2009] on the river inflated prices higher that beautiful areas N or S of them like Edgewater or even Port Liberte. Conversions / some new construction in secondary/undesirable but commutable areas in Jersey City are less than half the price of Brooklyn, $200k even and under for a 1-br, enough to draw Brooklyn wanna bes and even some Brooklynites in SPR 2009, may give the aree a boost after 20+ years stagnation/decline!

Pockets of new construction or rehabs continue further north thru Nyack and the Yonkers riverfront, for example. Rental prices rose in mid 2006-07 to their highest levels ever since most new blgs are condos. Demand was high so there were no more up to 3-month free rental on first leases that were offered in 2001-2003, but 1 month in some new bldgs were be found and in the 2009 bust are common. Battery Park City condo prices even peaked and dropped. This is the worst since post 9/11 as Battery Park City and Wall St. area condo and rental conversions were hit hard for little over a year -and then there was months with limited access, damaged or dirty buildings, bad memories - some residents wanted out of their leases. Around $300 million in government aid in subsidies went to these affluent residents being approved to those signing new leases. It was really a payoff to cut property owners losses and big developers are good campaign contributors. By 2008 or early 2009, 7,400 more apts are due to be completed which is more than 5,700 completed in those prior 5 years such as 2 new residential high-rises [2003] near Chase Plaza and numerous condo conversions. 3,000+ hotel rooms were coming up in the area, too. The immediate South St Seaport area, post move-out of Fulton Fish Market is booming with residential use and a few stores with attitude for the first time and unfortunately some condo high rises are going to added to the little historic low rises, worst of all with a probably demolition of Pier 17 South St Seaport and the Fulton Fish Market bldg, with NYC blessing for a condo tower wth more tourist space below plus some open space.

Prices and rents are in lower Manhattan are among the highest in the city and the vacancy rate in Lower Manhattan is among the lowest in NYC. The residential population increased by 10,000 from 2001-2006. Even NYTimes made it "official" 5-10-2006 calling it a land rush. The market for TriBeCa conversions priced into the multimillion range was said to be down at least 10% only!? [post 9-11] at the very high end then skyrockted thru 2007, raw loft spaces in luxe-positioned bldgs. got to about $3,000 s.f. ICE HOUSE and ATALANTA warehouses were the largest of the conversions. The Tribeca Grand Hotel opened as the area reached the public consciousness as being super-chic a few years ago. Even though in 2009 a cluster of new conversions-const. stalled at various stages, the loft core of Tribecas condo values is nearly $1.9mil. and sales of $1,200 to $1,500 s.f. get buyers.

SOHO one of the most expensive downtown areas 2006-07 had a row of new condos in VERY expensive conversions and new construction at 21, 22, 40, 44, and 72 Mercer and nearby 92 Greene St. There are few developable empty lots [parking lot at Grand-Bway is NOW a new "designer" condo hirise] so most of the biggest projects were conversions. Demand was strong enough to already use build on the lastavailable odd lots squeezed long Houston St. [due to 1930s subway construction and street widening] for a couple of new condo bldgs completed on them 2004-05. Adjacent areas have really become "gentrified" during the 90s thru today. One of the "IT" building of downtown/SOHO celeb laden conversion Crosby at Spring with a MoMA store below and Balthazar / Balthazar bakery across the street. Another notable luxe conversion a few blocks away is the distinguished ol Police HQ bldg on Grand/Lafayette. West Broadway SoHo now is notable for the Soho Grand and some initials - DKNY, D&G, FCUK, CK, RL, etc. because the street-level galleries relocated to west Chelsea. Rizzoli books Soho was also pushed out [June 2001] by rising prices. Bloomingdale's small boutique-y B'way store [was Canal Jeans] in SoHo opened April 24 2004. Channel, Emporio Armani, Louis Vuitton,etc. are on the cobbled SoHo side streets just W of Broadway. High end funky fashion and home design are strung along Greene St. Top-drawer jewelers were coming in - Bulgari was looking for a space nearby.(Real Estate Weekly 8-26-98), but since they and H. Stern backed out of the area. Mass marketers were on Broadway thoug there is Bloomie's and PRADA, too. Rentals in the few old walk-ups off to the east and south edges of the district attract "young people" wanna-be Soho-ites.

Very Little Italy is less than 10% Italian. A sub-committee of local community board MAR 2006 voted NO [but has no final veto] though late April the full Board voted OK to 'noisy, crowded' 11-day San Gennaro Festival. The MAYOR backs it as some businesses make some money and the city gets a big chunk of it in fees [and he says the Fest. is sooo NY ] but there have been no beers and no gambling at the vendor booths since Giuiliani. NoLita -north Little Italy- also Italian at all anymore..I think it is *East Soho*, actually a more happening place than SoHo as designers ["accessories district"] just starting to be big have their one and only shops here. A real Sex-in-the-City happy hunting ground for young Women's clothes, shoes and places to get a bite to eat in many rehabbed tenements and small commercial building. NoLita is one of the hottest shops and most changed areas downtown, though in a decline fpor now as boutiques closed from the economic situation n 2009. It's just south of Houston St. [and also chic "NoHo"] at the northern ends of Mulberry, Mott and Elizabeth Sts. The best way to walk in is east across Prince St. from SoHo, past Lafayette and the Churchyard of Old St. Patrick's. Just north of this area is NoHo, where you can see the Puck Building, [K. Haring] Pop Shop -[closed 2005] and high-priced mid cent. modern furn. galleries and fashion and more among the large old warehouses and commercial bldgs. also include many converted for large residential lofts to rival any in the city.

Downtown B? list or is it south midtown, East Chelsea or Danny Meyer land? well they call it the Flatiron District and its occupants and fortunes have changed drastically, no matter the identity problem. From the gentility of its first built-up times to commericial peak, then post War decline, 1980s dance clubs in and out, now photography, graphics and fashion studios are joined by higher end commericial and restaurant tenants and condo lofts conversions now on especially on or near lower MadAv. including 225 5Av at 26st [Gift Bldg], 50 Mad at 26st, 1 Mad [Met life Tower] and the Toy Bldg. The predominately late 19th and early 20th cent commercial architecture is relatively unchanged but the few small bldgs scattered in are threatened now that new zoning mixes residential into the commercial blocks between 5 and 6 Av "doubled" real estate values. Two condo towers are going up now [late 2005]. Just west of and a little north, 1995 rezoning of 6Av 24 to 31 st has led to 2005-6 now nearly all most of the low bldgs torn down and few open lofs [6Av flea market leased] gone for ordinary new high rise apartment bldgs - real estate pundits call it revitalisation, but the quality of life has gone down. Quiet weekends there are a faded memory with the profusion of shops on Broadway, lower 5Av, and 6 Ave Ladies Mile Historic District that started in the late 1980s are among the most convenient of all Manhattan areas and new residents attracted into new Flower district 6Av high-rises [a lot of younger people] and with lofts and higher priced Flatiron lofts for fabu artists and families. Loft /condo prices can be 50 percent higher than midtown are still an easier market to enter than Tribeca or Soho. [-see "Development Gives Flatiron New Identity" H Clark, NYSun 11-17-05]. In particular west 28st between 6-7av is among most changed blocks in E Chelsea, largely ruined from 2004-on by demolition of rowhouses and small commercial buildings that housed plant wholesalers that gave the block its character - some residential, but mostly for hi-rise mid-priced hotel space crowned at 127w28 by an INDIGO [more "inclusive than a W"] Hotel by Intercontinental Hotels by 2009 [which replaced a 2 fl bldg]. All new residents will have is "location" and probably NOT know of how the block *WAS*.

Back to my favorite area besides the Village, Chelsea. It is so very changed in less than 20 years. Until the late 1980s the original BARNEYS 7Av17st was the most prestigious large shop. The genteel, landmarked [in the 1970s?] rowhouses of Chelsea Square and nearby were truly islands in a storm. Eighth Ave was a strip serving local hispanic residents. There was NO shopping strip on in the ol turn-of-the-century dept stores 6th Ave. or dull lower 5th Ave between 14-23 or Broadway further east. Both became parts of Ladies' Mile Historic District, as there is now. There were no Chelsea piers or gallery scene near the river, just wild and wooly discos and leather bars, backrooms and all.

The fabu/adventurous back then were really 'slumming' at these places and really saw a LOT of potential; it was HOT in more than one way. The start of the Chelsea residential renaissance sorta started closer to the center of Chelsea, near existing residential areas in the 1980 all the vacant lots along w23st were filled in with new apt bldgs. and over half a square-block of run down and vacant brownstones on w22-23 st were renovated in the block just south of London Terrace-since gone co-op], were rehabbed. The abandoned West Side Highway was torn down. AIDs umm, struck and backrooms mostly closed, but the hot bar and club scene continued and evolved, preceding gallery moves from Soho they say started in 1994 with Matthew Marks Gallery, leading to presence today of 318 and still increasing number of galleries! Chelsea is well located to subway at its EAST area and for car-trucks on its WEST. The core historic brownstone area at Chelsea Sq at the Seminary is a block W of the big stretch of the [then] lower-valued warehouse section along the HUDSON. The local growing creative community drawn to all this lead to rising residential property values amongst the fabu locals drew investors to do up the large CHELSEA PIERS complex and make up the Chelsea Market shops and offices in formerly VERY fringe areas [upstairs at Chelsea Market is noted for media companies such as FoodTV, NY 1, MLB.com [Major League Baseball] and others]. And the DIA Center on w22 was the most notable art pioneer. By 2005 almost all possible locations for new condo-lux rental bldgs are taken up. For any more, something has to be demolished. someplace has to be rezoned. [July 2003] the ol Pottery Barn, Portico Home bldg. on 10av across from London Terrace was demolished for mid-rise condos bldg [occupied in 2006]. "..[W]hat took 20 years to develop in Soho has taken five years in Chelsea." [-Sundaram Tagore moved from Soho, moved within Chlsea, NYSun "Art, Supersized' Oct 2 2006 re existing Chelsea galleries that have enlarged]. The Village Voice Positively 24 Street by Jerry Salz, Apr. 9 2002 THEN said that on W. 24 the 7 galleries [M. Boone, L. Gagosian, L. Augustine, Metro Pictures, B. Gladstone, umm I'd have to look up the other names..] have a such a huge amount of floor space "[M]ore space than probable existed in all New York galleries between the years 1900 and 1960.." The restaurant and lounge scene extended next to the galleries and lofts with 'scenes' notable among others, starting with PARK 10 Ave., to a new strip at the 10Av backside of Chelsea market with Il POSTO, Cookshop, Morimoto and the John Dory.

A little north at London Terrace are KANVAS- 9th Ave. and Bette[-closed spr 2008] w23 near 10Av. A selection high-end boutiques are nestled among the galleries, clubs and lofts bldg. More gallery space is being built or in conversion and some news condos still open, but the "action" now [2006-07 on-] is just a bit further uptown in just lower priced properties in the blocks just up from the "gallery blocks". Yet these are along the upper part of the High Line and south of the Hudson Yards project[s] are being bought up at escalating prices by bigger and bigger real estate interests. All the troubles, notorieties, and POLICE street blockades, ID checks and raids on SCORES and Crobar amongst the clubs on these blocks caused the smaller more umm exclusive clubs to leave for NOLITA-Chinatown area or close. w27 and w28 west of 10 Av are going to be condo-land soon enough and most remaining clubs will then be be gone, along with many of shrinking number of industrial type businesses. These blocks are among the extremely limited NYC area designated for new adult zoning by GIULIANi - so that is why *SCORES* West topless opened MAR 2004 W. 28th next to the new club CROBAR and across the street from QUO [hey guys just what we need -FEH- that is all just down the block from the Eagle], with no problem from the city. Jay-Z's 40/40 club sports themed? + hip hop club opening 6-18-2003 at 6 w25 not far from that. And in the fall of 2002, the new Museum of Sex opened at 5th Ave-27 St.!

Following the far west Chelsea crop of clubs, galleries and boutiques are more restaurants..not always noted in the rush of publicity for new places from Spice Market, and restaurants in new Maritime [10Av-17st near Chelsea Mkt] and Gansevoort Hotels [13th-Greenwich St across from Pastis] is that these are LARGE places drawing hundreds of people - many Upper East Siders coming down this way for the first time to the meat market- NOW Gansevoort Hist District. Matsuri and La Bottega at the Maritime alone have seating for 600.[-NYTimes Dining Out 3-3-04 -these restaurants eclipse luxe but small new restaurants getting all the buzz Feb-Mar 2004 at TimeWarner Ctr]. This bldg was orig almost-famous portholed former Nat. 1966-Maritime Union Annex-1987 Convent House 1996 Chinese Study Fellows Bldg, W. 23 now bet 10-11 Av is epicenter of a number of high-rise condos bldgs, two new high-rise apt. bldgs. completed in 2003 and others will join them. These are the among newest apt. bldgs. in Chelsea, though other recent new bldgs. are further east. Latest 2004 Douglass Elliman figure for median price in Chelsea is $1.8 mil increase of 57 percent since 2000. CitiHabitats figure for avg. 1-br rental was $2477. Chelsea Loft conversions are well-distributed through this hottest area clustered around the W. 22 and 24 gallery meccas. The former McBurney Y was developed into 2 facilities- condos, -for up to $5 mil at top flr.- with a new David Barton Gym downstairs in the 23St. bldg. The 24 st bldg went to non-profit group 'Common Ground' for homeless, low-income, and teenage runaways residences. The next block up from Chelsea Whole Foods in the ground fl of the Chelsea Mercantile, a large buybuyBaby" store opened late 2002 at 26 St in the bottom of the new Chelsea Centro high rise apt. bldg.

ALSO coming up was supposed to be advanced and wild-striking bldg. and a 'new media technology' center for EYEBEAM announced in Mar. 2002, W21 bet. 10-11 Ave. designed by 'avant-garde' architects Diller and Scofidio, who won an international competition [not built]. It would have been the most talked about new bldg; a lesser version of this type may be the "New Museum" on the Bowery. The Chelsea Piers are actually just west across from the former location of two 'legendary' gay leather bars - the EAGLE closed March 2001 [11th Ave.- 21] [REOPENed new space 28 St. near 11 Ave. in Oct. 2001], and the Spike [11 Av. 20 St.] closed late Aug. 2000 and on Jan. 16 2002 the Spike Gallery-performance space opened [and closed, for rent spring 2007]. Both bars been there years before their gay incarnations as longshoreman's et al. bars and had irreplaceable characteristics.

West Chelsea is saturated with 300 or so galleries, many relocated from SoHo from the 1990s on. Rentals on the side streets bet 10-11av have gotten high enough to send a group of galleries opening JAN 2006 west of 11Av to in the TERMINAL [warehouse bldg where the TUNNEL was] 11Av-27st. -2008- FASHION services "Showroom Seven" firm relocating there, too, on several floors + a street boutique which is a first, very foo foo for this corner of far W Chelsea! It was already hot enough for a high-rise gallery bldg -the 20-floor Chelsea Arts Tower -BUSINESS COND0- opening AUG 2006 nearby on w25 E of 11 Av. Besides the two hip hotels and scores of new galleries and restaurants [and new parks facilities-see further down] there are many very important offices esp telecom and internet companies, data centres, and fashion companies in mega-sized [2.9mil sq. ft.] 111 8 Ave [MCI, Sprint, Qwest, WebMd, DoubleClik, and 2006 Google NYC took a huge block of space], Chelsea Market bldgs [FoodNetwork, Oxygen, NY1, MLB com, with EMI moving in in 2007 and others], and in huge Starrett-Lehigh Bldg. Keeping NY well-tied into the net, the 1980s fibre optic TELEPORT links made these bldgs invaluable with its links from to them on lower West side area-WTC-60 Hudson, the edge of CHELSEA at 111 8Av, the Jersey City waterfront and down to satellite dishes on S.I dishes. More recently Tommy Hilfiger and Cliquote, Inc. "We don't need a Fifth Ave. address anymore" relocated to Starrett, joining Martha Stewart's Omnimedia, Club Monaco, Carolina Herrera and surprisingly, NYC offices for Dept of Homeland Security and some of the FBI [did they move out of Fed Plaza? Whatever-[it was printed in NYPost Commercial Real Estate 8-17-04 so don't come looking for ME]. So let me also tell you also a few blocks away in a 10Av warehouse is the DEA, now finding itself in almost ritzy area. Public amenities followed - fix up that poor old rich neighborhood!

The new [took from 1973 to May 2004 to finally open!] Chelsea Rec Center at $over $22mil on W25 st truly serves rec needs at no cost to children and $75 year for adults. Its so nice that even those who can afford the Chelsea Piers complex might want to check the rec center out. The w59st [Manh] Rec Ctr outdoor pool is still closed since 1989, three others are also abandoned. And hey, there are two NYC Housing Projects in W Chelsea whose residents say they are in "islands" being priced out of most neighborhood shops and restaurants. The projects are the Fulton Houses on 9Av [across from Maritime Hotel and down the street from several brownstone Chelsea blocks], and the __ Houses on 10av just across from the new [still changing] crop of clubs, galleries and bars. So they also have access to the new Hudson River Park - those privileged [that is, affluent enough] to live in far west meat market area and W Chelsea are also looking forward a park opening "HIGH LINE" freight line from Gansevoort St. in the meat market area thru the far W Chelsea gallery area up to 30st. This pet project escalated in cost from $50 to $65mil to around $130mil. SO far after additional fed funding of $18 mil announced 8-4-05 brought total funding to $68mil. The 5th annual Friends of The High Line benefit July 13 2005 brought in $1Mil for the project. NYC added major funding of $27.5mil OCT 6 2004 to it first commitments, making a total of approx $51Mil city $$ toward the cost. Then $15+Mil was added from the Fed Transit Bill. Roadblocks besides funding - the line from 30-to 24 st. are on MTA property and Westside rezoning and development could mean as they are demolished. Title to the property was finally transferred by CSX to NYC 11-16-2005 so the city is not leasing it, so construction may start in 2006 and 6-13-2005 the project got federal "certificate of interim trail use" for this railroad land. The five [5] final designs for the $65MIL Highline park were displayed at the AIA gallery late July 2004, I do not know what the final design is. The project looks more and more to be commercialized and semi-privatized with physical links to new adjacent developments which could put many cafes etc. right on it, maybe entrances off new luxe condo bldgs too. The project was spared a JAN 2004 court ruling it be DEMOLISHED. Since it may just start construction fall 2005, original completion date 2006 was pushed forward to 2008. Some heavyweight celebrities and designers mounted a slick PR effort showing whimsical and avant garde linear park designs in 2002-03, to help get all of us to *pay* for this. The rest of us know the disrepair of park facilities citywide, other than showcase parks next to the fab hot areas. Though the official line is that in any community where the public [esp thru "Parks Conservancies"] are active to fundraise etc their parks are well cared for - NYC increasingly abdicates its mandated functions. Just as BIDs tied to the NYC control raise money to pay for services that used to be well provided by the city. An older waterfront park promenade with great views too along a roadway at Bay Ridge. It is has been awaiting funding to correct hazardous conditions to the bike path and repair a seawall for 10 years. Fed funds of $16mil were being sought.

Actually, luxe and not so luxe but uniformly high or mega priced space is making it all sorta a branch of the upper East side, its peaked as smug idealized gay central..Lots of the guys who really gave it its buzz are gone or aren't stereotypical guppie$. I've even seen it coming. Michael Musto in the Voice "Queer Issue" 6-25 says he may be the last to say so. Late 1006 Even Ted Allen [Queer Eye food guy] and his partner moved from a new Chelsea loft to a brownstone Brooklyn for a yard and a more homey place- so some of Brooklyn gotta be gay-friendly enough!

*Oh, Martha! *Not a good thing*-oh mountain mama in for 5-month at Alderson W. Va Fed Prison Camp [to report by] Oct 8 2004. But 20 years before Martha they did IT in the dark streets back there, back then when the abandoned West Side Highway loomed above... More galleries, restaurants, photo studios, e-biz, shops than is room to list *Gear Mag* *Milk Studios* *Comme des Garcons* *Fressen* *DoubleClick* *Sunset Studios* *Deutsch agency* *Chelsea Piers*

Apartment Bldg. Links

Commercial Space Links

Business Links

Neighborhood Links

TriBeCa is noted as the most expensive residential prices in NY. It is now the richest zip code in NYC and 12th richest in US, has 4 sq blocks left along its west edge that are still industrial-zoned that are going to be cleared of most of its old bldgs as zoning is changed to residential [fall 2006 or so], whether it is permitted to be mid rise or hi rise. This entire strip was previously all wholesalers, industrial and office use. Very few 'regular' apartments, most of which where built in the mid-late 1970s in the high rise Independence Plaza along Greenwich St. north of Chambers St. There was a slow start of conversion of lost buildings to co ops in the early 1980s. Larger conversions and renovations thru the 90s, and of some of the larger warehouse [Atalanta bldg for example] structures made multimillion dollar lofts the common neighborhood abode. There are a handful of new buildings too. Several bldgs. the NY City Agency I worked [HRA - the 'Welfare' Dept.] for had leased into the late 80s early 90s are condos now. of the best and most expensive restaurants, fashion and design establishments in NYC are located down on the lower West Side there. Mainly having lots of $$$ is the price of admission because there aren't co op boards as in old line 5Av-Park Av bldgs of the Upper East Side. But luxe private services are increasing to serve well-heeled in lower Manhattan. Amongst the most cherished institutions of upper middle class Manhattan are private schools and academies. The few local public schools in Lower Manhattan are excellent but crowded with newcomers, but coming Sept 2005 on Broad St a block S of the NYSE will be Claremont Prep [K-8], $25,000+ yr.

Boom, bust and some price reductions notwithstanding, there is NO NYC modestly priced area left! Owners were not or could afford to let ANY rental [NON-co-oped or condo bldg] just 'sit' - but finally late 2008-> on vacancies are slightly increased. The buying an selling of apt. building "portfolios" to speculative investors has to slow; soon of the 2005-on deals now turning into foreclosure situations. Will new "bail outs" mean continued decimation of the regulated rentals? Will the tougher early 2009 State rent regulation hurt the owners enough to hurt rent stabilised tenants back?

Whether renovated, or cleared out for demolition, sales of single bldgs and real estate portfolios including some fine properties escalated at record prices into early 2008. Waaay uptown Harlem had been hot since the late 1990s at least. Note JAN 2009 the CORCORAN Harlem storefront office closed - but a few downtown Manhattan white-glove realty store-front outposts also closed. Until 2002 most new apts and rowhouses in Harlem were a result of government intervention and subsidy programs. The first market rate condos in Central Harlem started *then* at $500+ s.f. [Harlem Horizon, The Lenox, Strivers Garden, Bradhurst Court, Senneca Terrace and The Kalahari] which were more modest than the most select new condos in W Harlem as their prices reached over 1,000+ sq ft in 2006! E Harlem is getting its first significant commercial development since the Victorian era-pre-War[WII] commericial strip of 3Av [some of those old buildings are being torn down NOW. It's a sin.] The E Harlem condos opening 2007 - fall 2008 were priced at $600+ Sq ft. minimum, similar to some of the Jersey City 'downtown' condos prices. Hoping to push or induce more condos filled with new upscale residents, brokers gave a cute-sy name "SoHa" to South Harlem. Displacement of established local businesses also increased so much, we may on verge of the first demonstrations against "outsider" [white and such] businesses since perhaps the 1950s or 60s - note "WHITE OUT: Gentrification assault on black businesses -D. Douglas, The Amsterdam News July 19-25 2007.

Brownstone fixer uppers in central Harlem are priced like landmarked houses used to be. Spillover is going to the northern limits of Harlem, the 145st "corridor" and Bradhurst north of there up to Washington Hts. New condos and rentals beyond the small existing historic districts [Mount Morris Pk W, Striver's Row, Hamilton Hts] added a lot of new housing in addition of the larger no of govt funded housing rehabs and new basic housing mostly along West Harlem streets. The new b+w Harlem of black artists finding roots and entrepreneurs moving uptown includes a small row of upscale boutiques on 7th [Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd] Av bet. 136-137 st.

BOYCOTTs were advocated at the "town hall" meeting "Saving the Soul of Black Businesses in Harlem: Ending the Economic Siege of Our Community" early JULY 2007. In particular, the closings of Harlem Record Shack, and Copeland's restaurant received a lot of press. Still, many residents patronise and welcomed the first presence of national chains on 125st! and going another step up a small CITARELLA opened July 2005 [Amsterdam at 125] . There are upscale boutiques are in a few small local clusters such as Frederick Douglass Blvd N of Central Park North/110st. The focus of anti- development and anti- block busting efforts are the far west Columbia U and its massive north [-of 125 St.] campus expansion, and east Harlem and a few large commericial-retail developments.

Post 9-11 Harlem gentrification includes black middle-upper class plus first significant white population since pre-war, gone from 1% to over 5% [does that include the other various ethnic groups mixed race there too?], plus also a small Jewish return. In developer's desire to fill 'unmet needs' and make $$$, 2008 Mayor got upzone/ rezone of 125st and adjacent central Harlem. This will be at the price of losing many independent local businesses and [officially "only"] 500 lower income residents will be displaced. Much of the community says NO to the plan; it is too dense-too high at 27fl or so limit, but Big developers say the upped height limit is still NOT enough for them to build and attact umm big tenants [47-50 fl building desired! This is coming no matter what SOMETIME and will be the beginning of the 3rd Manhattan central business district [after lower Manhattan and midtown] perhaps by the [20]20s or 30s, which would be a hundred years past a bit of this kind of development which certainly halted by the eve of the depression. Some major institutions, retail, etc would have made the leap from lower midtown past Central Park BACK THEN to this next cross-Manhattan main thoroughfare -IF NYC was bigger, denser and grown even faster back then. A congestion fee WILL accelerate demand for this development. The new plans will also create a bit of uptown dense TIMES SQ with soul due to several theatre/cultural components involved.

Neighborhoods to watch...Where's NEXT?

Gonna be BIG..but still under the radar? OK you read it here first or nearly first. Not out of sight of developers, but of most people because there are many tenements and less great big ol commercial bldgs than at Tribeca and lower W side and not really any rowhouses and no presence of the E River, so this is the last downtown area to "catch'! A counter-part to Tribeca is also below CANAL but EAST, hugging the Manhattan Bridge approach [could be called the anti-DUMBO]. It is at the 'colorful' south ends of Forsyth, Eldridge, Ludlow, Essex and centered on Allen St. A bit rough, one part Chinatown one part ol Jewish lower E Side is in midst of start of years of "gentrification". There ARE some smaller, new condo bldgs and one notable big condo conversion with the FORWARD Bldg. of the 1990s and soon at newly sold big ol umm___bank nearby at Canal-Orchard will make the change of [east-Tribeca]! The overt hip LES scene actually further up around Rivington-Ludlow etc. is hardly present yet. What about in BK or QNs? How about the OTHER Long Island City. There is the whole north of the bridge area of LIC->Ravenswood. Daily News 2-29-2008 noted that a new local "Queensbridge Theatre" opening mid 2008, a new rental bldg and other potential development may give a big boost soon to pieces of the area and here we have an announced __ 2008 Gotham Center at QUEENSBORO [Br] Plaza being greased by NYC [See MORE->] for developers. FYI : Morning releases of Rikers Island inmates at Queensboro Plz. Through the 1950s NYC built much of the space required for its own staff needed long - term. Today it pays landlords for the space - forever. Perhaps a few million sq ft worth! In this wider area, much of its early 20th cent frame houses gone for [2] NYCHA projects, a power plant and industry, but it still has residences, schools, and services just on the verge of a long slow path to redevelopment all the way N up the river to Hallets Cove Astoria. Since it is bus/ car ride or long walk to subway, and gritty/less of a view than more famous south LIC may the best bargain now of -any- BK-QNS waterfront section.

The stream of "real estate porn" trotted out in all media about the Lower East Side, "billyburg goes on even in this bust. NY real estate titalation stories abounded as these areas newly hold attraction for Upper East Siders who trail the hipsters and fashionistas and may even be looking for a place to inve$t in. Those Eastsiders are goin down[town] more and more centered on the High Line/meat packing area and more afar to benefits at Capitale and such especially since fall 2003 new Schiller's Liquor Bar [Essex St] packed them in so much it drove its neighbors crazy. New restaurants and boutiques opened especially from 1998-99 on along Ave. B. According to a NY Times article "Hip-ification Reaches the Street Where Peddlers Once Pushed Carts". New low rises and condo rehabs among the old tenements sell at prices once reserved for the West Village. Apartments sell for prices rowhouses used to sell for in their same areas not too long ago. Top price new East Village/ LES rentals late 2007-early 2008 are new Avalon Chrystie/ Bowery Pl and The Ludlow, where STUDIOS are approx $2900 and the 1-br are about $3,900+! Yet a kosher deli opened fall 2002 at Grand St-Clinton St. On other side of the East River, in 2005 Brooklyn was soo hot, gossipy Village Voice, NY Mag, etc push their rags with stories that hip but rootless not necessarily poor hipsters might move on to QUEENS "the next Brooklyn[?]" (..there have been other NYTimes etc. articles that showed it was - PHILADELPHIA!) How about LIC? There were "35' development projects including two hotels[!] according to NYSun 9-28-2006-early 2007 it is 50+. Late 2006 there, rentals in new bldgs were over $1700 for 1-bedroom and smallest, cheapest new condos started way over $500k.

Sales in LIC, Williamsburg dropped in early 2008; some of these new bldgs will be rentals instead of condos - at firtst, NO price breaks for them. "Why Long Island City Hasn't Happened" [then] Nov. 17 1999 in "The City" Section also focused on that south of the 59st bridge area mistakenly called part of Long Island City. The developer of Queens West is putting in 15 residential bldgs and 2 million sq ft of commericial space on 74 acres that call "critical mass." New schools, parks and retail are still needed to complete a community. Nearby is the small old-fashioned *stable* community at its core, and the article said is not becoming too hip for its own good just a little longer until more of waterfront development is completed. As more new higher-end apt towers are completed on the water, some higher-end commercial space is being created with some more prestigious tenants moving from Manhattan. They have PS 1 for art, had the temp relocation space for the Museum of Modern Art Jun2002-fall2004], a large private gallery and office bldg. factory conversion planned 2 blocks [NY Times Real Estate 6-10-2001] from PS 1, at 44-69 11 St.]. If NYC got 2012 Olympics, the Olympic Village would have been just south of the Queens West site. Just north of "Queens West" but south of the bridge announced 2-21-06 are 3 more towers -residential high rises and office, plus "film" studios and shops on the E River at a new SILVERCUP West [is 7 blocks west of existing Silvercup Studios]...it is still held up mid 2008 by need to remove[!] NYState Power Auth generators on-site. Its developer compared western Queens with Jersey City, which is spot-on. But those new Silvercup towers are directly adjacent to the south face of the 59st bridge. FEH-the new Queens skyline! A new 15-fl Court Sq TWO tower [Citicorp+retail] plus a 17-fl office bldg at 24-01 44rd are also being built [United Nations Fed Credit Union moved from Manhattan].

Other QUEENS area in midst of makeovers are parts of Rockaway, Flushing, Willets Pt. and Jamaica. FLUSHING is bustling with a commercial heart has gone Asian. New Flushing Commons includes hotel, housing, retail, rec ctr, parking replacing existing NYC parking lot] late 2007 is behind schedule, a residential tower on the [still to be restored] lobby base at the remains of the old RKO KEITHS movies [project may be approved late 2005, oops being sold AGAIN in 2008, SkyView Parc [Arbor/Wachovia/Eurohypo AG REIT financing mess NOV 2008] may make MUSS put a brake on 1st phase of 3.3 mil sq ft complex early 2009, and "Flushing Town Center" on the other side of the Whitestone Expressway.

Jamaica re build up is supposed to be furthered by rezoning[up] to increase density and commericial use, passed 9-10-2007. The MAYOR and D Doctoroff saw to finalisation of 4-years of "discussions" of rezoning of 368 blocks. Two local Councilmembers and one other in NYC voted AGAINST it for being literally too much stuff..This is a formula for increasing property values but encourages speculation with displacement of smaller businesses and some residents. The surrounding area in midst of foreclosure crisis - 2007-18 of 20 census tracts in NYC highest foreclosure rates in US are there...stable ol home owners are being raped, picked clean and literally forced to be vacant. Upcoming sales and redevelopment will follow but over quite a long while under new zoning. It paves the way for bigger commericial bldgs in the existing commercial area and in the manufacturing area now are only low-mid rise one, taller apartment bldgs with street retail on Hillside Av and limit heights in surrounding home-ownership areas. The GOVT spent hundreds of million$ starting on Jamaica are from 1970s urban renewal with new GOVT offices, Courthouses, a community college thru the 1980s on, then the 1990s AirTrain station. Last related project announced was Airtrain Center - is this what is now called Airport Village? The full complex expected to be finished by several developers in 2010-2011 start off early 2009 with Sutphin underpass upgrading for retail. Just south of that a site was cleared in 2008 but nothing done since at the site of "JFK Corporate Sq" [Courtyard -Marriott hotel plus retail and some housing] are all on the [south] wrong side of the wide stretch of tracks and walls there.

A Queens outpost emptied out for decades, Arverne-by-the Sea and Arverne East of ROCKAWAYS are being filled with thousands of new units of low-rise and semi-detached housing. -IN 2008, the Arverne developments are half built and with them, Rockaway grew by 23,307 people since 2002 [-A. Farr, "Emergency rooms fill as population rises in Rockaways" DailyNews 8-5-2008]. Arverne area lacks schools, retail, medical and other community facilities even though it next to the subway [EL] line, a family would need a car. The 1st ever "fancy" commercial development of Willets [See MORE->] Pt IRON TRIANGLE is still only in planning and dispute. It will have to be high-end development - with the cost of adding sewers, sidewalks, paving the street[!] and normal infrastructure that does not exist in this isolated pocket. But adjacent new Mets stadium / Citifield is pushing property values up and NYC to force the issue.

Elsewhere in S. Queens, upscale professionals have made move to the semi-isolated Jamaica Bay enclave of Broad Channel! Then Sunnyside or Jackson Hts might become cool. Potentially, near the far west tip of the peninsula, Breezy Point buzz that it is in TRUMPs sight. NOT hip or emerging, but not next to Manhattan, BASYSIDE is still solid; [CRAINs NOC 3-9 2008] says condos are selling well to "empty nesters' coming into NYC from Nassau Co. save about half on property taxes.

The Rise and Un-New York-ization of Brooklyn

Brooklyn was last place that was real NYC left. Explain it? HA. Then your are either young or from elsewhere. BIG changes shepherded by the City govt by changing zoning, issuing bonds, enabling eminent domain removing small businesses and residents for private, large scale development. Any added building/people adds to the load on downtown Brooklyn's clogged and few thru-streets and transit lines that are already at capacity and by passes are restricted since streets adjacent to the courthouses, Emergency Command Ctr and [in Metrotech] NYC FDNY HQ are closed in the same concentrated area. Many of planned commercial towers are govt-enabled, partially taxpayer financed no-bid schemes by developers strongly backed by Bloomberg. Half of that area was vacant but many landmarked townhouse properties are scattered in or near it. The lack of affordable housing and overcrowded streets, hiways, and uncoordinated transit facilities, [these people on the MTA, various Authority boards largely hardly SEE public transit] esp. "downtown Brooklyn" are like trying to sorta squeeze ten pounds in a five-pound bag. The main transit improvement under way in the whole area is a tunnel between JAY ST A-C-F 1 block to the N-R-W at Willoughby S. The LIRR Flatbush Av subway nexus-is -almost- a Brooklyn transit hub, but that LIRR station is a terminal/dead end. There is no suburban connection from it to Manhattan except to transfer to subway lines. Also, it is not 'intermodal - go upstairs thru the streets maze to get regular city busses [Greyhound or such? Forget it; yeah, in the "fourth largest city" in America!

Downtown Brooklyn is a still mostly a dead zone after-hours [-and hardly has a good lunch spot daytime!] I do not think the new condos opening on its east fringe will change that. NYC paved way for condos and hotel overbuilding as a mjor result of "Downtown Brooklyn Plan" 2004 rezoning for planned massive 6.7 mil sq ft of offices and commercial space and 1,000 units of luxe housing along and off Flatbush Ave and along the corridor of vacant properties and low-rises. It entails re-doing the equivalent of 4 square blocks between Atlantic Av-Bond and Court St to Bond St.. the rezoned Flatbush Av-BAM district also has a condos boom with 7 new high-end condo developments opening into early 2008 instead of offices towers as envisioned under the rezoning plans. But these are a relative flood of luxe units and many are unsold with prices cuts unlike in the other "better" nabes. Jobs were supposed to coming in the proposed office developments there instead.

Dense apt development planned in BK waterfront industrial areas [thru rezoning, sand 'incentives'] in deference to politically active /donor developers; estimated to bring 10,800 apartments and put pressure on businesses in small remaining industrial area[s] to leave thru seizure of their property some still designated in blighted zone[s]; some of these businesses sued the city [MAY 2006] for rezoning to enable THEM to expand THEIR facilities! This may slow but is has not stopped yet in the "this is not a recession" bust of 2008. LESS would be more since NO added transit and little INFRASTRUCTURE for residences built by NYC to match! Less primely located [smaller, "inland"] areas are being 'allowed' to remain semi-industrial with new [IBZ] Industrial Business Zones supposedly would stop rezoning these properties for residential use. And not every developer wanted to build in these "frontier communities! The city makes some short-term money in various fees and taxes on the new bldgs, but long-term costs are HIGH.

Days after the Brooklyn plan was announced mid-Jan 2004, Bruce Ratner [Forest City Ratner] on behalf of a group of high-powered investors, unveiled a Gehry-designed arena as part of his winning bid of around $300Mil package for NJ Nets. The State declared the area "blighted" to enabe his highly-contested attempt to use eminent domain of non-govt owned portions of the site. State oversight thru development of MTA yard means the State-sponsored dev Agency[s] involved can ignore NYC zoning and land-use review rules, sorta like the WTC-oops. It is already unsafe to cross the Flatbush-Atlantic-3 Av triangle. We DO NOT NEED a "SUPERBLOCK" created here! See [MORE->]

Ratners adjacent Atlantic [shopping] Center design-wise is neighborhood hostile [oh well, TARGET there is very popular]. Even his much-heralded METROTECH just a block up from FULTON is just an aloof, limited access high-rise precinct in the heart of downtown Brooklyn. The many back office jobs in Metrotech are a counterpart of low paying retail jobs along Fulton. All these people HAVE to leave the area when the places close. Most local housing is new condos and luxe rentals; there is no affordable local housing for lower paid workers, none large enough for blue collar driving workers or large- and affordable enough for most families. There is no park/plaza/ public gathering place [you get to the subway and bus way before you can get to any]...and there is no street parking or driving on the damn FULTON MALL either. Decades of plans by elite planners and policy wonks seem hardly worth it to say the least, their major accomplishment is delivering for developers and pols [w-client community groups], SO WE all lose.

The Fulton Mall is a 1970s discredited design type that has been undone in many other places but finally come to Brooklyn in early 1980s. Why does the closed street model Fulton Mall still enjoy a great deal of support? Why are they going to refurbish it in 2009? I only shopped there on several weekends in the 16+ years that I lived 2 subway stops away. It is nearly deserted at night and after-hours because of a 24hr car ban except for crossing at a few intersections. 2 lanes of traffic of it are given over to buses - making for pollution caravans. But the FULTON Mall is Macy*s [ol A+S] prob just hangs on, Gage+Tollner closed [was a Friday's-2007 closed too]. Though it is very busy and popular, yet without true variety because in its only several blocks length there are actual duplicates of nearly a dozen of the shops such as Duane Reade, the rest is fast food and discount jeans and sneakers places from mass market sneaker/ sportswear Modell's, Foot Locker to hip /hip hop sneaker/jeans palaces as Jimmy Jazz and such..[feh, this is not quite the STARBUCKS model the article Brooklyn Paper 5-31-2008 says].

A major Fed courthouse in downtown BK at the BK Bridge 'Blvd' approach opened JAN 2006 2 years late and $115mil over budget- was dedicated June 12 2006 replaced a vintage 1960s box, though in face of rising budget and community opposition to such a high tower near them as security risk it was cut down in size by 4 floors and has room for growth. A new NY Supreme-Family courthouse tower down the street at 330 Jay St was dedicated NOV 21 2005, first courtroom opened JULY 2005. Across from that, two new Polytechnic bldgs. [classroom and dorm] were completed within 2 blocks of each other while these public bldgs were under construction. And nearby Brooklyn Law School [Jul 2002] received zoning [height] variance OK for 26 fl. high dorm [over community protest] at the edge of Bklyn Hts. and new office bldg. for Metrotech is also being added. These bldgs. are all adjacent to at or at approaches to the Manhattan and BK Bridge so adding to downtown Brooklyn traffic bottleneck. New to Brooklyn are Federal BATF, Secret Service, NYC Emergency Mgmt Office, all relocated due to 9-11 loss of their Manhattan facilities. A cultural district around BAM is taking shape, though -black, to be honest- community groups want say over gov't $ spending and want subsidized housing, charter school and other programs and facilities added on to the project, or they *will* hold it up. This area near Ft. Green and downtown Bklyn is becoming the most important performing arts center in NYC outside of Manhattan.

MAY 25 2003-Four fire houses closed in Brooklyn during that particular "budget crisis. One was in Cobble Hill and another was in Williamsburg. NEVER to be reopened. Instead of going to developers, they are to be for "community uses' maybe transferred to Dept of Education for pre-K use. LIKE booming Brooklyn, down 9 of them since the 1950s, needs so many firehouses anyway, right Mr. Mayor? [-see Steve Dunleavy "Pols all wet on fire sale" NYPost 5-16-2007]

Downshifting. Grit is the word.

"Billyburg" has gotta be taken down a notch. Density is outrunning amenities of shopping, services [needing a bank or laundry instead of another bar] and transit. You can not get there from here- the L subway lifeline Bedford Ave L stop is "dangerously crowded" during rush-hour, the L line has skipped BEDFORD Av stop during rush hour [6th busiest stop in Brooklyn]! Ongoing L Subway disruptions by the 3-year+ automation project hurt business and the community. [NY Times Metro-July 3, 2001 "Underground and Now Cool: The L Train "The hip ride here, on the cars nearest the Bedford Ave. Stairs" Randy Kennedy-Tunnel Vision]; like young parents taking kid to East Village day care! From 2003 to 2007, 911 emergency complaints about area construction increased by 300% [- and in downtown Brooklyn, the construction emergency calls DOUBLED!] The Bellweather gallery was widely noted in its move May 2004 move to Chelsea. Add in latest others in early 2006 to make it about 10% of the total galleries moved back to Manhattan in 3 years! ["All's not cool in Williamsburg", AM New York 5-14-2007-] Prices the rose high enough in W Chelsea to make some consider moving BACK - to Soho! ArtGotham to reopen in Soho MAR 2008 [-Crain's Feb25-Mar2 2008] and others may follow, getting better space or more traffic for little more money. While top top BK properties are still selling at a premium/ all time high even as foreclosures eat at the bottom , CELEB move OUTs are being noted just a few years after the mini-wave of them coming into brownstone Brooklyn widely noted. CELEB flip-move out of Park Slope noted: Prospect Pk W $3.7mil mansion in 2003 listed APR 2008 with SOTHEBYs for $8.5by Jen. Connelly/ Paul Bettany going to one of the Tribeca warehouse penthouse. [-NYSun 5-8-2008]

Tenements and condos side by side. Boutiques and bodegas. In housing, like ALL things we find the elimination of the middle. It's not all lattes and roses in Williamsburg. So "47.1 percent of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint population is on public assistance." even as spreading "gentrification" is pushing more of them out who are not in protected housing such as the "Projects." And among many early 20-somethings, the aura of BILLYBURG is a turn-off. The -I'm leaving Manhattan for a better deal in a soon-to-be-HOT nabe further down the subway line- continues down the L and J/M subway.. "For beourgeois hipsters, the identification with a dangerous neighborhood restores edge to a bagueter and espresso life" [Reagan and Foxley, "The Great Downshift Shtick- NY Observer 3-26-2007] - yeah, that's about it. New people are coming at an accelerating rate. There are lots of good high-paying jobs that enable affluent "pioneers" to slowly filter into new condos in these previously "untouchable" areas, yet there is also a corresponding increase in lower paid jobs filled by less educated and legal or illegals.

There is real estate speculation even in still riot-[July 1977] scarred Bushwick. A good description was J Vitullo-Martin, NY Sun 4-19-2007 "Bushwick Buzzing, but Not Quite Ready for Prime Time"] as sales slowed and prices peaked. A half-mil won't buy much in Bed_Stuy[!] with its large stock of venerable rowhouses in varied conditions, and the new condos of Bushwick prices in 2008 approached $500 sq ft. Aptsandlofts.com sold 50+ units rehab and new[?] "in seven condo developments with prices ranging from $325 to $400 per square foot depending on the distance from the L train." [-METRO 4-23-2008]. Fixed up rentals are moving faster and industrial lofts are being increasingly illegally residentially occupied all over Brooklyn. Lust for, and need of actual artists, for loft living and limited supply keeps newcomers searching, so lofts are selling from mid- six figures anyway in less fashionable inner Brooklyn areas bordering Ft. Greene - Bushwick [i.e. Opera House Lofts, Arion Pl, Bushwick op. Sept 2003] now into million[s].

Hip-ification after 2001 reached Southside and even East Williamsburg despite being hard-by the Projects and industrial sections. Rents are rising for poorer and long-term residents in the many small bldgs etc not covered the rent regulations. In the new high-rises, in return for government intervention and subsidies, a small percent of units will be made available for low-income people because the heavily taxed, regulated and corrupted MARKET would not otherwise. The burnt-out lots of almost 40 years ago are disappearing. On many of these blocks church-sponsored housing filled in and new condos [mid 20007] no more than 2 years old are visible from the elevated J/M line. But it is still VERY "gritty". More established types priced out of the Slope, even Prospect Hts are buying into Crown Hts, where NYSun 9-911-2008 notes Franklin Ave being slowly upscaled and some new modern luxe rentals will exist for first time since ever [well maybe since 'pre war'].

Red Hook growth and hype may slow and re-start. The rentals in their houses and new-renovated construction rents and sells at premium prices. Fairway draws from the area and Ikea opened 6-18-2008, the Queen Mary docks a few blocks up. But a few fabu and lots of hype pushed "prime" Van Brunt-Imlay blocks prices skyrocketing. Too bad a big portion of the waterfront went directly from shipping/industrial to mall/retail. In exchange for relative remoteness, it was open big-sky [for NYC!] and quiet. That is fading, just as it already did in downtown Jersey City along the waterfront, where once the noise from [Colgate etc] plants stopped it was quiet and private feeling. Jersey City waterfront development surged because it has superior connections compared to Red Hook. I certainly could not live in Red Hook or downtown JersCity now no matter how much I wanted to, there are few if any regulated apartment bldgs in either. But I did live briefly right there in downtown Jersey City in the 1980s. No condos for me, too bad. The rest of Red Hook besides the massive "Projects" in its centre, features various small houses, amidst the active and newly converted industrial structures. Some old timers are still present. But mid 2007 the "main street" Van Brunt" Red Hook is probably as sleepy as whatever main street of Red Hook *upstate* NY. There are only a handful of new restaurants and shops that are making it; quiet and the big sky there just as much the local amenities. NOT far up along the waterfront, Columbia street is still awaiting its prime-time gentrification as street repairs, no little thing may begin in 2008 or 2009...they got some condos, a few new shops [some gone already]..the next "Smith St." has got to wait in line behind Red Hook.[-see T. Lee, "Two Years Later, a Street Still Waits For Its Promised Gentrification" NYTimes 8-28-2007] But 5 Ave BK is the 'next' Smith actually blossoming at the same time as Smith.

Lower Park Slope is gentrifying at a pace equivalent to some of the other 'hot' nabes I mentioned above, but with small development infilling amongst modest row and frame houses, so it gets a bit less notice. Prices in established better Brooklyn areas rose so high to just 20 percent less or so than Manhattan that the NY Sun back in 8-2-04 had stories of people who have even boom in the 90s cashed out at big profits and bought back in Manhattan. The high end of Brooklyn just about meets the lower end of the best of Manhattan, but mid 2008 sales slow could hurt those seeking to escape back to Manhattan or to greener pastures and even bigger spaces of Montclair or such. Previously marginal areas got the biggest percentage boosts - in eight years the value of a rowhouse on prime Crown Hts blocks more than tripled.

Builders are trying to squeeze big as possible bldgs among their small neighbors quickly before locals can preserve their places while furthering rise in their property values by downzoning or historic district status. The new frontier for upzoning-downzoning combos and new historic districts since the late 1990s are borough neighborhoods. Crown Hts North Historic District was designated spring 2007. Amongst latest is 206 blocks of Bed Stuy City down-zoned and a new Sunnyside Gdns [QNs] Historic District both approved by the City Council 10-29-2007. In the heart of BK, another of the amazing Flatbush section with very big ol [think of the look in Meet Me In St. Louis movie!] house sections, Midwood Park-Fiske Terrace was designated NYC 91st historic district Mar 18 2008- there is already similar Prospect Park S and Ditmas Park Historic Districts. I don't think there is any nearby UPzoning associated with it. But BedStuy downzoning includes to UPzoning allowing denser development on the "Avenues" [Nostrand, Atlantic, Fulton St] in the section, maximising profit and letting the developers get tax exempt bond financing in exchange for those 20% "affordable units' in new 10-fl blgs [such as just gone up on 4th Ave] while limiting height a giving a boost in property values on the protected adjacent side streets. Insurance and mortgage fraud has been in the upswing in Brooklyn around Prospect Hts, fueled by speculation and turn over of old previously low-valued and houses untouched since original construction. The NYTimes [8-4-05] says even the first new homes in a generation are being built in East New York, Bklyn. Established brownstone Brooklyn is walkable or a short transit ride from all this, from Prospect Hts. to Park Slope to Ft. Greene - Clinton to Cobble Hill-Boerum Hill-Carroll Gdns., and the artsy commercial-industrial waterfront area from Williamsburg to DUMBO. So hot for example, neighborhood activists protested a planned [summer 2005] BLIMPIE [like a Subway or Quiznos sandwich] to open on Lafayette Av. in Ft. Greene [-Daily News 6-29-05].

Smith St. from Boerum thru Cobble Hill is seeing the last few older stores left going to new chefs restaurants or boutique-y shops. At the northern Cobble Hill part of Smith St. a new May 2002 'That Bar' 116 Smith opened [since closed, now a restaurant] specifically appealing to Gays -a few blocks further south you can still fell hostility towards more affluent newcomers from the 'hispanics' in the neighborhood then scrutiny from Italians in Carroll Garden -guys, don't hold each others' hands there - there are many New Yorks, [Brokeback Mountain was not even shown in The Bronx!] I found newcomers as much as or worse than ol locals relatively cold and unfriendly after more than 16 years there. HEY even NYTimes in [5-11-2006] about how hot RIVERDALE is getting, mentioned a couple moving from Carroll Gdns to Riverdale condo said there is a "sense of neighborhoodiness" of places that have been established for years, umm obviously he does not get on Smith St. BUT the crop of new condo bldgs -they are going to live in one of them- especially clustered off Riverdale Ave will change what just they have come for anyway. Oh 1-br apts started at between $300,000-$400,000. Back at the edge of Brooklyn HTs, the City of NY finally closed with D Wallentas Two Trees Mgmt 6-20-05 and renovations started at former Board of Ed HQ 110 Livingston downtown Brooklyn for condos - two years after deal was announced, costing NYC money to maintain it a while extra. The Verizon [NYTel] 1930s bldg on Willoughby went condo, as is Franklin Trust on Montague-Clinton in 2006-07 and the big ol Williamsburg Bank Tower making for the most prestigious group of condo projects in Downtown Brooklyn - which would have been an OXYMORON just several years ago.

Local opposition in DUMBO forced cancellation [Oct 2004] of building a 16 fl condo at 38 Water St [now is Arts at St. Ann's] which is adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge while just a few blocks further are several new towers. Though sales slowed down late 2007-08, property values are sure to further escalate for those who bought in early, and developers are going to get a bonus from first 2007 landmarking of the core area [limit heights and new construction] then re[UP]zoning probably coming up in 2008 of adjacent properties! Wallentas early pioneering proj. in "DUMBO" was approx 1998 Two Tree's conversion of large building at One Main at Fulton Landing (between the bridges) to loft apts. from 1,200 sq. ft. approx. started originally approx $250,000 [tripled or more in resale value] with spectacular views of the Brooklyn/Manhattan bridges towards Manhattan. Mid 2005 he was finishing up condo conversion of large indust bldg 70 Washington to condos. Prices escalated so much that a new studio with a window-less interior office was priced at $1-million. The building is mostly without the riverfront views that many units in nearby Sweeney and One Main have. What did $135 to $200k get there? Only a 540-550 sq. ft. roof "cabana" deck [w/water, electric hook ups] oh condo purchase required, extra charge. The 2003 conversion of 30 Main [Sweeney Bldg.] prices started at just under a million$ for much more, better planned units in a nice residentially-scaled but solid former industrial bldg. Wallentas has two more apt-retail office bldgs in being finished in downtown Bklyn which will be occupied late 2004 or early 2005. Attracting those looking for more space for less, or being priced out of the downtown loft market totally because the prices were half or less than what comparable space cost in Manhattan. There are going to be about 1300 apts created by Wallentas and other developers there, where there were legally only a couple of dozen at most. It is more and more a small Tribeca-ish enclave.

Brooklyn has other hot spots. One of the least accessible is isolated by Expressway Housing Project and the harbor is Red Hook...old working class area by the docks has are some industrial bldgs., and rowhouses and now artists of course, it was noted 2-13-02 in "Off the Menu" that a french restaurant on Van Brunt St. by Arnaud Erhart [a former mgr. of Balthazar] was going to open March 2002. This heralded the start of a mini-restaurant row capped by a new FAIRWAY market May 2006. Also there are well regarded little 'restaurant row' on Smith St. in Boerum Hill-Cobble Hill and on 5th Ave. in Park Slope. Now with growing pains as there are more NEW restaurants and boutiques that old one left, eventually there will be some turn over as these new establishments face their first rent increases inevitably. Halycon on Smith St. "cafe/club/restaurant furniture and record store"[-Village Voice, FlyLife 4/28-5-4/04] packed up 4-16-04 for a move to DUMBO where it is supposed to have a space where its noise won't be so much of a problem to neighbours.

No Thonx

Lastly for NYC and maybe least [sorry about that] is the Bronx. The Bronx sorta is sort of uptown Manhattan. Much except for the Port Morris S Bx area stayed village-like until after civil war, when 1870s New York City annexed W BX as the elevated lines reached it and growth accelerated, then the area east of BX river from Westchester, 1898 NYC consolidation came but the Bx was still not a separate county until 192_ after the subways and the masses reached much of it. The subways [more 'els' than underground] all point to Manhattan, with not even the kind-of crosstown link like the "G". Unlike Brooklyn and Queens, no part of the Bx is adjacent to the central area of Manhattan; the physical connection is to Harlem, Washington Hts and Inwood. The highest percentage of displaced Manhattanites relocating within NYC were going to the BRONX..about 3x as many as Brooklyn, this shows new Brooklynites are mostly new NY'ers! there are a few larger office -retail development coming up [2009?] near the existing Grand Concourse centre.

There is not really any civic-downtown-center Bronx; just are several smaller centres up and down the Grand Concourse, separated by a mile+ or so between each, from the "Hub" to the Courts-Yankee Stadium corridor [161st] and the Fordham Rd shopping areas. Every other shopping or business area in the BX mostly small scale neighbourhood street strips and a few suburban strip or mall style centres. This cannot support the scale of past commercial developments of thoee same areas or match what is happening in BK or even QNs! A large 'Plaza at the HUB' mixed use development, for example, is on hold. NYC continues to try to grease the way for developers of this key S. Bronx centre 2008-09 or so with street improvements..new commercial space there only includes so far one office bldg with street retail. -There are only 2 Starbucks in the whole Bx [a good or bad thing?] But surely more to come, as NY Observer said, based on IRS figure of 2001-2006,[-Acitelli, 4-21-2008] in light of the success of "big box" stores in BX since the 1990s -post 2001 such as Target near Marble Hill along the Harlem River, BJS wholesale is coming in Ferry Point and JC Penney, Linens and Things opened in the outdoor Bay Plaza Mall next to Co-op City. Gateway Mall near Yankee Stadium and an office park off the Hutchinson River Pkway. These few Bx class B+? A-? office bldgs are comparatively junior-sized, though.

Some of the finest areas of private homes in NYC are in the far west Bx in Fieldston and the waterfront areas of Riverdale-on-Hudson areas and the Country Club - Spencer Estate section on LI Sound in the far east Bx. The Bx waterfront is mostly not accessible to the public, neither at Riverdale and "Country Club" areas or the "worst" parts at E River industrial areas of Hunts Point [food - fish markets, rail yards and a sewage plant] and furthest south small industrial area of Mott Haven to Port Morris [across Harlem by Triboro Bridge] though a small part of that a new antiques row which attracted "artists" into a couple of newly converted bldgs. : "A lot of young people have moved here, but you still have a lot of old timers coming in for parties or what not.." owner Alex Abeles, owner of Bruckner Bar and Grill, whose patrons complained about Emily Stedman's paintings hung in Bruckner Gallery he ALSO owns.[-am-ny 6-18-2008] Some embracing nudes in the show "Erotyic Watercolors" included just women were too hot for the locals, they made the work come down. Said the artist "..it seemed like Mott Haven was going to be the next place. I don't know if that still is going to happen." Biggest mistake- name of the show; this is NOT Williamsburg North!

There is no untouched land to build on; Ferry Pt golf course when it is done is on garbage/fill. Malls and housing are on site of decayed or demolished former housing or commercial buildings. New Yankee Stadium displaced parks. That new stadium is costing taxpayers quite a bit more than is paid to us in taxes and fees. ONE BIG thing they did NOT do was build a new stadium on site of the old one, using Shea or someplace else temp! [See MORE->]. Parks areas slowly being improved such as Baretto Point Park [5.5 acre] amidst the old industrial area and at reclaimed banks of the Bronx River. For much of the Bronx it is unacceptably long commute to lower Manhattan and a long trip to Midtown from the N Bronx in such areas as Co op City that are beyond the end of subway lines. A positive note, new housing filled in most vacant and burnt out lots remaining in the "South Bronx" In planning, community forums and I'm sure being shopped to developers, the Mayor announced JUN 17 2008 the "South Bx Initiative" for housing, retail/commericial. and civic improvements that are about to go past planning stages, and will of course involve rezoning. This is naturally raising displacement/gentrification fears.

Take me to the river

Outside of NYC, other waterfront development continues in NJ all along down the developable riverfront from south of the protected area of Palisades Interstate Park S of the George Washington Bridge to NY Harbor *PLUS* large new comfortable middle class outposts with favorable large developable areas of relatively low property values like "Pier Village" and Landings at Harborside in Perth Amboy, also the slow rebirth of ol faded places like Asbury Park [led by growing gay community]. Nearest to Manhattan based on transit are HOBOKEN and Jersey City. Light rail connects the Jersey City and Hoboken waterfront to the W. Side of JersCity and Bayonne to the south and coming up to N Bergen as the line is completed 2005. The *hot new* Jersey City with exceptions noted is all about the waterfront. It was only a few years ago that the first STARBUCKS opened in Jersey City and that the HYATT Regency opened in 1992 on a pier at Harborside Ctr. Change came in late 1970s in with local government offering tax and mortgage breaks to gentrifying "pioneers" in then-decrepit brownstone sections of Jersey City and Hoboken, which also were mostly the older sections that were accessible to PATH transit to NYC [-with the first stops either WTC or Greenwich Village!] House tours and new historic districts followed. Newport [came in late 1980s] and Colgate Ctr [or the 1990s] on vacated railyard and industrial land grew to fill most of the available development sites. With downtown Jersey City on the Hudson mostly gentrified and nearby Liberty State Park in place, the way was paved for other private land down the harbor to become Port Liberte, Jersey City's most isolated and exclusive gated community. The harborside area is being crowned by two TRUMP branded high rise apartment towers in 2007. Away from the water, most of Jersey City except the poorest, black areas changed radically. Street life on the BLVD. is third-worldish now, frankly with large arab, Indian, hispanic and other recent immigrant populations. Uptown" near Journal Sq One of 3 existing ol movie palaces was torn down [The State] at Kennedy Blvd and now 2003-4 is to be a new apt bldg, and a 5 minute drive south of Journal Sq. the deco Medical center complex is announced to become an apt [condo?] conversion; the hospital is in a new smaller building closer to "downtown" J.C., typifies the slow reversal of the long decline of the Journal Sq centre of Jersey City. It greatly accelerated when Newport Mall ALL the old neighborhood stores are GONE on Kennedy Blvd. though are some national chains as with any busy area anywhere now.

SO the desirable, accessible places in Jersey City and Hoboken became so expensive that downtown NEWARK, now in 2007 Harrison are undergoing change. In the mid1990s a small amount of condos were built and the [NJPAC] Performing Arts Ctr. opened adjacent to the Newark riverfront near Gateway Ctr. Offices and Penn Station. Newark growth outside of the business-civic ctr core without continued heavy govt involvement is stunted by continued high crime rate [such as huge murder rate equivalent to 5x that of NYC]. A hi-rise housing project near downtown was demolished and replaced with 'homes'. Condo conversions took place in 'Ironbound section', a minor league ballpark built on riverfront, and new Prudential [NJ Devils HOCKEY] arena [Feb 2004 proposed opened NOV 2007] Further Newark [and Elizabeth] development expected includes roadwork, maybe more light rail, more shopping and hotels around and in Newark Airport; airport monorail to railroad link was completed in 2001, beating out NY's rail shuttle link to Kennedy by over 2 years. So what's next..upgrades to Asbury Park- as a growing gay community that can't or won't pay Fire Island or East End prices makes its mark there .