Chelsea is great stretch of Manhattan that lies on the west side just north of Union Square. The somewhat vague, and ever-changing borders basically lie (for now anyway) from the north side of 14th Street to about 28th Street… although developers with projects as high as 39th Street all claim their properties are technically in Chelsea as well. This are used to be a rough and tumble stomping ground for some of the city’s toughest characters, but this all changed with the spillover from the West Village’s gay community. The streets were cleaned up, great galleries seemed to pop up all over the area, and great night-life ensued. Although you can still see the traces of the old era (25 cent peep shows, and latex costume shops), the area has given way to a chic-celebrity set. Some of the city’s top nightspots are in Chelsea, like Marquee, Home, Pre:Post, Bungalow 8, and countless others. Cutesy restaurants like Cafeteria cater to the trendy, night-life loving crowd.
Bottino keeps the art world within Chelsea buzzing. Shopping is a bit like suburbia here though, stores like the Gap, Anthropologie, Old Navy, Filene’s Basement, and a few of the other big guys are what line the streets. Barney’s Co-op store does bring people in from all over though… Living in Chelsea can prove to be arduous, as the availability of great rentals is limited, and rather pricey. You can find some deals though! Luxury rentals have sprung up along Sixth Avenue. The Tate, the Westminster, and the Sierra, all recently built mid-rises, mix studios from $2,000 with two-bedrooms from $3,500. The Campiello Collection, a pair of condo towers at 224 West 18th and 151 West 17th, has one- to three-bedroom apartments from $1 million to $3 million. Prices drop the farther north you get from London Terrace (the famed prewar building that occupies a full block of 23rd Street at Ninth Avenue) and the Chelsea Market, especially up in the grittier Thirties.
Lately, home decorating has been going in every possible direction, and not always in a good way. With the past few year’s resurgence of vintage-chic, modern style engineering and crafting, and impossibly old and delicate antiques taking center stage, it’s become increasingly difficult to have an incredible, stylish home that has a good flow. The newest version of home chic is a simple and more refined version of the late 90’s shabby chic trend. The focus now, is on incredible quality furniture with great
details- like a giant chocolate color butter leather couch, with fine grommets and deep arm rests. Next to the couch could be your grandfather’s favorite chair, which sits on the edge of clean, light colored shaggy carpet. Walls are simple, and sparsely adorned with eye-pleasing prints or unframed canvas artwork.
Shelves can be simple, with clean lines, and preferably of a natural wood. Porcelain vases, dinnerware, and intricate tiling complete the look. Lighting should be kept intimate and focused on gorgeous, elegant floor or table lamps. When trying to re-create this look, think of how you would imagine the lobby of a great boutique hotel going for a rustic, upscale Hamptons theme. Some great places to find perfect pieces to create this look are Roche Bobois on the high end, Ethan Allen in the middle price range, or the Door Store on the lower end. Just be careful at the Door Store, they have countless other looks that can be distracting and won’t work with the overall theme. Go décor shopping with solid motives, and be sure to define specific pieces that you’re searching for.
SoHo is the name given to the neighborhood located directly south of Manhattan’s Houston Street. The area is noted for its winding cobblestone streets, incredible cast-iron buildings, and artsy residents. This once seedy area is now one of the hottest in the city, with some of the best shopping, restaurants, cafés, lounges, and interesting loft-style living spaces. When you spend a day in SoHo, be sure to check out the street vendors that are quite often up and coming designers and artists. You’ll find incredible artwork, leather goods, jewelry, and even vintage clothes at bargain prices. Some must-eat-at places in the area include Balthazar’s bakery, Country Café, Blue Ribbon, or Herban Kitchen. After fueling up at one of SoHo’s incredible restaurants, do some shopping (or window shopping) at Chanel, Apple, or one of the area’s incredible only-in-New-York boutiques.
The Calypso stores are a New York perennial favorite. If you find yourself lingering around SoHo till the wee hours, be sure to check out The Cub Room Bar for a martini or Naked Lunch for some mingling and dancing on Sullivan Street. If all this is enough to tempt you to pack your bags an move, you’re thinking like a lot of other super-trendy people. SoHo is a haven for the jet-set and trend-setting crowds. Renting a mediocre apartment here could possibly be the most expensive in the city, with free market rents easily topping $4,000 for a not-so-incredible one bedroom.
Sales of condos in the area (primarily loft style) typically generate about $1200 per square foot, and that’s usually for unfinished living space. If you’re young, trendy, love seeing and experiencing new things and people, SoHo might just be the place for you: wallet providing.
CityCribs has officially launched the impressive new all-in-one directory that suits every real estate-related need. Offering categories like agents & brokers, finance, management, blogs, insurance, and countless others, this comprehensive web directory is the one-stop shop for anyone that lives under a roof. When buying or selling a home, the stress of finding the right brokers, insurance, financing, and the right property/market information can be like a second full time job. And who has that kind of time? This directory can be the answer to all your questions, needs, and hypotheticals with great, up-to-date and reliable sources. The time and energy it can save in the process of moving can is priceless.
It has been built to assist consumers with real estate companies and services, as well as serving as an overall matchmaker for people looking for real estate related help. The best part of this directory is that it’s free to use, so you can feel confident that you can use it as much and as often as you need. You’ll have access to the best home listings, financing options, insurance information, foreclosures, FSBO listings, legal, and more. Listings will be localized based on the specific region that you search, and each state can be searched individually. Be sure to check in frequently as updates will be regular, and there’s always something new to see!
The Financial District of Manhattan is an absolutely superb place to spend a day, weekend, or maybe even years. The area is the financial center of our country, and a place that millions (if not billions) of people internationally have come to rely on. But the neighborhood has great rewards other than the dividends paid on stocks- it’s a cultural center, too. South Street Seaport, the Seaport Museum, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Trinity Church, and the National Museum of the Native American (as well as countless others) are all in this neighborhood. Each one could take a day to get through entirely! The area is also rich in history, telling stories of some of this island’s first settlers and the generations afterwards. There seemingly-ancient buildings (by American standards anyway) and institutions in every direction.
There are fine restaurants and steakhouses that cater to the Wall Street crowd, as well as down-to-Earth pubs and burger joints. You might even find yourself wandering to nearby Chinatown or TriBeCa for some incredible dining or nightlife. The financial district is also easily accessed by residents of Staten Island, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. There are ferry boats going in any given direction each day. That could be an amusement in itself! The most enticing part of this neighborhood is the incredible housing values, though. Where as most of “prime” Manhattan can be a bit intense when it comes to apartment prices, the Financial District is steal. We’ve recently seen newly constructed (or close to) rental buildings with gym, 24 hour doorman, and great views asking only $2,400 a month for a sizeable two bedroom unit. Nearby Battery Park City also boasts incredibly low rents, condo prices (most are well-below the $1,000 per foot mark), and co-op deals. Luxury condos in the area typically cost between $800-1050 per foot, which is like having an incredible coupon.
The neighborhood is accessible by several subway lines, bus routes, and ferries as well.
Everyone is always looking for a new and exciting way to enhance the beauty and value of their home. New cabinets, bathroom tile, furniture, linens… It’s all tired and been done before. The most fun way to get your home looking like it belongs in a magazine is with art. Art, although it seems to be for a very exclusive set of people, can be the easiest and most interesting way to add character to your plain walls and unadorned shelves and cocktail tables. Although it often costs a fortune, it doesn’t have to if you know what you’re looking for. Steve Wynn might have been able to elbow his $139 million Picasso and stomach it, but you can invest under $1,000 and have an incredible room. The first key is to forget about the big names. It’s unlikely that you’ll be hanging a Matisse or Dali on your wall if it’s authentic. And forget about art that isn’t authentic. That’s just tacky. Focus on lesser known artists, especially local ones. Prints are an excellent way to start collecting.
Often, a so-so known artist will have exceptional quality prints selling in the $400-700 range. Add a bold, unique frame for another $150 or so and suddenly you have a centerpiece for a room. Or, if your room already has some bold elements, try investing in sketches. Artist sketches are often found at bargain prices compared to paintings or sculptures, but you might be able to have a weighty name hanging on your wall. Put a black and white sketch into a metallic frame (think antiqued silver, gold, bronze) and place in almost any room. These colors work well with any décor because they’re antiqued and make the artwork look like a family heirloom. Try not to focus too much on the “What kind of investment am I making?” question that will keep popping into your head. The reality is you probably will never sell it, and if you do, that time is most likely years away. Think of it like a piece of furniture, would you buy a $700 couch if that’s what it took to make your room look incredible? Naturally. Think of art as the ultimate, wear-proof accessory. Provided you aren’t Steve Wynn.
The Sunnyside, Queens rail yard has been a deteriorating wasteland of sorts for several decades. Things might be changing though. The possibility of the area changing drastically is finally a reality. A branch of Chase bank is set to open on the outskirts, near 47th Street in a recently completed commercial building. But the most notable factor in the change is the possibility of residential units, which would make this dingy rail yard into a real neighborhood at last. Sunnyside has long been Queens’ major rail center, but a recent discovery thanks to a city consultant revealed that covering the chasm from Thomson Ave. to 43rd Street would help spur 35,000 new housing units. That’s big. For ANY neighborhood. If this change were to actually occur, it would take place along the northern perimeters of the neighborhood which already has a hipster set in tact.
Will the local character and flavor of Sunnyside be forever changed? It is unlikely that it will happen anytime soon. If it does, it’s likely to be gradual and progress over a series of at least 5 years. There is still an obvious love affair with Irish pubs in the neighborhood, and a few cutesy eateries that are just as unlikely to be moving any time in the near future. What this does offer is some much needed hope to this drab area. Residents have been finding bargain housing here for well over a decade. Maybe now they will start to feel that their investment has been worth it. After all, Sunnyside just might turn out to be the next “it” neighborhood.
By now, everyone in New York City is familiar with the revitalization of the Lower East Side. Cutesy shops, awesome events, and incredible restaurants are lining once-yucky streets like Allen, Orchard, and Rivington. Autumn is the best time to enjoy the area. On any given weekend, you can stroll through Orchard Street and find the pushcarts that have spanned 3 Centuries. There is an abundance of old-world style food, like the Eastern European Jewish specialties at Katz’s and bialys at Kossar’s. You’ll find incredibly authentic Chinese fare at Congee on Allen Street, and all the hosiery you could ever dream about throughout the entire neighborhood. You can play a game of pick-up basketball down by Seward Park, or stop in TeaNY for an incredible herbal iced tea. Men come from miles around to shop in the menswear stores that line Orchard Street and carry top European labels like Brioni, Zegna, Cavalli, and countless others at up to 90% off retail prices. If you stay later at night you can hop from Mercury Lounge to The Delancey for live music, drinks, and dancing.
If all this sounds pretty tempting, you might look into residential availability in the neighborhood. New condos are going up around the area ranging from $900-1600 per square foot depending on the exact location, building amenities, and more. Co-op village offers relative bargains at about $600,000 for an eleven hundred square foot, 2 bedroom. Or, if buying isn’t in your immediate future, you can do what most New Yorkers do: rent. Rentals range from old, dingy, tenements (which at free market start at about $1300 for a studio) to upwards of $10,000 per month for some great loft space in a hip location. No matter how you slice it though, the Lower East Side is certainly worth checking out.
Decorating a home can take more time, patience, energy, and overall emotional devotion than most New Yorkers are willing to commit. The trouble is most New Yorkers also demand the highest quality and better-than-average home décor. So how do we balance our lack of effort with our unquenchable thirst for the best pad in the neighborhood? Interior designers. After all, all those Parsons and F.I.T. grads should be put to work at some point, right? The process of determining which interior designer to use can be just as difficult as picking the right shade of mauve or where to put the 19th century sofa that you so heavily invested in. The key, before ever even interviewing ANY interior designer, is to know in your heart what general direction you would like to take. Are you a country bumpkin in a classic 5, or are you a luxury lover in an unfinished loft? Picking a general, if vague, direction is the biggest move you can make. Some designers are incredible when it comes to western motifs, and others specialize in homes designed to look like they fit into the French Colonial era. Still not sure which mold you fit into? That’s ok, because there are still some great designers out there that can work with little or no direction. You might just like the color teal, and they can take it from there. As far as Manhattan goes, some of the best designers can be found on a virtual switchboard of interiors.
Check out: Design Directory
All of the designers on the site are reputable and offer references upon request, as well as images and examples of completed past work. You can usually get an idea of who would be a good fit for your home by looking through their book… If a room they did jumps out at you, that’s the designer for you. Hiring an interior design firm is not a cheap adventure, but it’s often well worth it. Designers usually get some discounts on the furnishings, and put rooms together in a way that most of us plebs wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. If you’re short on time and energy and don’t mind spending the dough, a designer is definitely the way to go!
If you live in the city you’re probably all-too-aware of the sometimes awkward drift that can occur between neighbors in close living spaces (not that our suburban brethren don’t have their own over-the-fence dramas). Sometimes new neighbors don’t see eye to eye, or old neighbors find a small battle to pick at forever. But more often than not, it’s our solid belief within ourselves that we can do no wrong, and that whatever the issue is must be the other guy’s fault. Sometimes easily resolved issues over noise, garbage, children running amuck, or parking can cause two normally nice people to fight in the biggest of ways. And it usually doesn’t stop there. If fights between neighbors don’t die down, they often end up at city hall, small claims court, or in the hands of the police. New York has got to be the worst example of this. With so many people living so close, on top of, beneath, and next to, it’s virtually impossible to like everyone in every given direction. The newest wave of hateful neighbors has come from the recent, if not rampant, condo conversions that swept the city. In large and small buildings throughout the city, people are struggling with the barriers between existing rent-stabilized tenants and new condominium owners. Often the renters have much different expectations from the building, and perhaps rightfully so.
Their apartments are usually less renovated, cared for, and sometimes in altogether bad condition. But a rent-stabilized tenant sees their residence as hardly optional. The low prices that they pay for prized real estate can hardly be matched anywhere else in the area (even Jersey!). Condo owners, on the other hand, are typically more careful with their property. They realize that they are responsible for the value of their property, and most people like to have their equity appreciate. The problem truly lies in the law around renters and owners though; the reality is that renting is a privilege by law, while ownership is a right. A rent-stabilized tenant must be careful to obey the building’s rules and regulations, and maintain a non-disruptive living manner within the building. In this day and age (the age of condo conversions to be exact), it’s not unheard of to have formal complaints filed against a publicly drunk, mean, drug abusing, or illegal rent-stabilized tenant. This can be wonderful for the condo owners, as it promotes the feeling of choosing one’s own neighbors. But for the renting community as a whole, it can be altogether frightening.
Listen to this podcast
.
Bookmark -
