September 11, 2014--The Poor Door
I am beginning to feel badly for New York City real estate developers. You know, the ones who build condo towers that they squeeze into the cityscape that rise 50, 75, 100 stories. Where third-floor apartments start at $10 million and top prices soar even higher than the triplex penthouses. It is not unheard of for some Russian oligarch or Persian Gulf gazillionaire to plop down $75, $90 million for a pad of their dreams that they inhabit at the most a few weeks a year.
The new mayor of New York City (who replaced Mike Bloomberg who is worth $33 billion), Bill de Blasio, a self-proclaimed man of the people, in now insisting that to get city approval to add a few more stories beyond the allowable limits, as part of the deal, builders have to agree to add some "affordable housing" units to the otherwise gilded towers.
As you might imagine, these real estate moguls are not happy about this. They fear that someone willing to shell out tens of millions for an apartment will not be eager to share an elevator with the unwashed. Much less the in-house gym, pool, game rooms, spa, or concierge services.
So what to do?
One project that hit the news a few weeks ago is at 62nd Street on Riverside Boulevard, a tony address facing the Hudson River where there will be 33 floors of condos with bargain basement prices beginning at about $5 million and ranging up to only $25 million
They figured out how to handle the problem--build separate entrances, elevators, and facilities for those lucky enough to win the affordable-housing lottery. (That's indeed how buyers earning less than $50,000 a year will be selected--their names will be drawn from a hat).
Liberals in the city--most of whom are themselves affluent and living in their own upper-middle-class enclaves--are outraged, calling this plan separate but unequal and have labeled the alternate entrance a "poor door."
Under pressure, the developer agreed to spiff up the entrance with marble veneer, tasteful furnishing and appointments, and chandeliers.
Others have figured out even cleverer ways to protect their high-end clients from, well, the rest of us.
Reported in the New York Times a few days ago are plans for a new loft building in one of the city's highest-rent downtown districts--Soho.
The ten lofts there will go for $8.7 to 25 million, averaging about $3,200 a square foot. But that's not the news. These days that's chump change.
The real news is about the ten underground parking spaces.
On a first-come-first-serve basis each will sell for a cool million. To be fair, they will be generously proportioned, about 200 square feet, so there is little danger of getting too many of those annoying dings in your doors.
But here's the real news--at a million each, depending on the actual size of the parking spaces, the square foot cost is much more than for the apartments--ranging from $5,000 to $6,666.
More news--you don't actually own the parking space. Rather, for your million, you'll get only a 99-year lease.
That shouldn't be a problem for most of us except, perhaps, for my 106 year-old mother. What would she do with her old Buick?
The new mayor of New York City (who replaced Mike Bloomberg who is worth $33 billion), Bill de Blasio, a self-proclaimed man of the people, in now insisting that to get city approval to add a few more stories beyond the allowable limits, as part of the deal, builders have to agree to add some "affordable housing" units to the otherwise gilded towers.
As you might imagine, these real estate moguls are not happy about this. They fear that someone willing to shell out tens of millions for an apartment will not be eager to share an elevator with the unwashed. Much less the in-house gym, pool, game rooms, spa, or concierge services.
So what to do?
One project that hit the news a few weeks ago is at 62nd Street on Riverside Boulevard, a tony address facing the Hudson River where there will be 33 floors of condos with bargain basement prices beginning at about $5 million and ranging up to only $25 million
They figured out how to handle the problem--build separate entrances, elevators, and facilities for those lucky enough to win the affordable-housing lottery. (That's indeed how buyers earning less than $50,000 a year will be selected--their names will be drawn from a hat).
Liberals in the city--most of whom are themselves affluent and living in their own upper-middle-class enclaves--are outraged, calling this plan separate but unequal and have labeled the alternate entrance a "poor door."
Under pressure, the developer agreed to spiff up the entrance with marble veneer, tasteful furnishing and appointments, and chandeliers.
Others have figured out even cleverer ways to protect their high-end clients from, well, the rest of us.
Reported in the New York Times a few days ago are plans for a new loft building in one of the city's highest-rent downtown districts--Soho.
The ten lofts there will go for $8.7 to 25 million, averaging about $3,200 a square foot. But that's not the news. These days that's chump change.
The real news is about the ten underground parking spaces.
On a first-come-first-serve basis each will sell for a cool million. To be fair, they will be generously proportioned, about 200 square feet, so there is little danger of getting too many of those annoying dings in your doors.
But here's the real news--at a million each, depending on the actual size of the parking spaces, the square foot cost is much more than for the apartments--ranging from $5,000 to $6,666.
More news--you don't actually own the parking space. Rather, for your million, you'll get only a 99-year lease.
That shouldn't be a problem for most of us except, perhaps, for my 106 year-old mother. What would she do with her old Buick?
Labels: Bill de Blasio, Condos, Mike Bloomberg, New York City, New York Times, Persian Gulf Billionaires, Real Estate, Russian Oligarchs, Soho
posted by Steven Zwerling at
4:44 AM
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