The BroadsheetDAILY – 1/24/22 – Lower Manhattan Rentals Increase in Price, While Condo Sales Drift

The Broadsheet: Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Mixed Metrics

Lower Manhattan Rentals Increase in Price, While Condo Sales Drift

According the development data firm Marketproof, a single new residential condominium, One Wall Street (which opened as an office building in 1931, and was recently converted to residential use) accounts for nearly half of the 1,140 unsold, newly developers units in Lower Manhattan.

A new study from the online real estate database company, StreetEasy, shows that the cost for renting an apartment in three Lower Manhattan neighborhoods spiraled during the fourth quarter of 2021, while the fluctuation in purchase prices was more complicated.

For tenants, median asking rents jumped (relative to the same period one year earlier) by 38.7 percent in the Financial District (to $4,300), 20.8 percent in Tribeca (to $7,700) and 13.1 percent in Battery Park City (to $4,441) per month.

For those wishing to purchase a condominium or cooperative, the picture was more mixed. In Tribeca, the median asking price climbed by 12.5 percent (to $4.49 million), but the median closing prices rose by a more modest 6.6 percent ($3.3 million). In FiDi, the median ask rose by 7.2 percent (to $1.28 million), but median closing prices actually fell by 0.2 percent, to $1.27 million. And in Battery Park City, the median asking price dropped by 8.8 percent (to $1 million), while the median closing price dipped by 13.8 percent (to $844,500).

A separate analysis, from development data firm Marketproof, Inc., documents that Lower Manhattan has the largest inventory of newly built, but unsold, condominiums of any neighborhood in the five boroughs, with a backlog of 1,140 homes.

That noted, the Marketproof reports also indicates that 155 contracts in the first 11 months of 2021 represent a 61 percent increase from 2020, leading to a 10.2 percent decrease in inventory and a 14 percent increase in the average sales price per square foot.

Matthew Fenton

Letters

What’s the Point?

Re: Beside the Pointe (The BroadsheetDAILYJanuary 12)

To the editor:

This article has lots of nonsense. First of all the BPC authority allows the landlords on their land to get away with murder.

The Tribeca Pointe building has received a gross amount of tax abatements over the last 20+ years but was never affordable for middle class, unless you believe that $7000-$9000 a month for a 2 bedroom is affordable middle class housing.

They have collected well above market rate rents since opening and paid no tax!

Hello BPC Authority and elected officials, stop pretending you’re doing something for the masses when you are doing nothing.

BPC is patting themselves on the back for making an agreement with Rockrose to give them 100’s of millions more in tax abatements in order to keep what is less than 70 apartments for low income.

The reality is that a large number of the people in those apartments live elsewhere and make a mint putting those low rent apartments on Air B&B or using them as a pied-a-Terre. If BPC or the Elected officials cared about affordable housing there would be more of it and what Rockrose does at their Tribeca Pointe building should have been investigated before doling our more millions to the billionaire landlord who collects a mint in rents in that building already.

C. Lockhart

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To the editor:

Although additional routes to Governors Island are nice keep in mind they are not free. For those of limited means the cost for recreation is not inconsiderable if you must take mass transit to a ferry stop and pay additionally for the ferry and double that for a return.

Transport alone for a family unit of two would be $20 for the day and would easily be more depending on ages and numbers of the family unit. Add to that food costs.

Living in NYC we all know is not cheap but why cant a way be found to help out those who should be able to enjoy the rec opportunities of their more affluent neighbors. Our electeds and representatives should add money to their good wishes which if not financially supported are meaningless.

Louis Kleinman

Eyes to the Sky

January 24 – February 4, 2022

Halfway to spring, be mesmerized by winter stars, captivated by crescent moon, planets

The constellation Canis major, aka the Great Dog, and Orion trace an arc from east-southeast at about 6pm to west-southwest, where they set well after midnight.  Image credit: https://arabiannightsrum.com/stars/winter-constellations/canis-major/

Winter skies are the most inviting to naked eye stargazers, and for including children when the brightest stars in the heavens appear in early evening, before bedtime.

The mighty constellation, Orion the Hunter, floats above the southeast horizon as darkness gathers, by about 6pm. Fiercely twinkling Sirius the Dog Star rises around 5:30pm and appears above obstructed views by 6:30pm. Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s skies, throws off magnificent flashes of full-spectrum colors. The constellation Canis major, aka the Great Dog, and Orion trace an arc from east-southeast to west-southwest, where they set at about 1:30am. See the brightest stars arrive in the south by about 9pm and over the Hudson River during the nighttime hours.

In order of magnitude, most brilliant first, from the top 11 naked eye stars visible from Earth:

Sirius -1.47 magnitude bluish

Rigel 0.15m bluish-white

Procyon 0.35 yellowish-white

Betelgeuse 0.43m reddish

The all night, all bright stars deserved first billing: now, to turn back the clock to see the compelling, albeit fleeting, show that begins at dusk above the opposite skyline, in the southwest.

Evening stargazing truly begins at about 5:20pm when the southwestern sky at twilight is likely to be pastel pink. Planet Jupiter, -2.06 magnitude, appears as a star-like point of light 20 degrees above the horizon. It is challenging to spot; it is invisible until searched for, sure to intrigue children. The thrill comes when the planet’s light shines through the pink or blue atmosphere and makes contact with our eyes. By 6 o’clock, Jupiter is very bright. With an unobstructed view to the horizon, Jupiter sets by 7:30 tonight and at around 7pm as February begins – soon to vanish behind the Sun. The first crescent, waxing moon joins Jupiter on February 2 and 3.

Groundhog Day, February 2, marks the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.

Judy Isacoff

The Calendar

MONDAY JANUARY 24

6PM

Community Board 1 Environmental Protection Committee

Live Remote Meetings – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1. 250 Water Street Brownfield Cleanup Program – Report

2. Lower Manhattan Quarterly Resiliency Update (including Fidi/Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan and plans for proposed in-water resiliency infrastructure) Presentation by:

● Mayor’s Office of Resiliency

● NYC Economic Development Corporation

● NYC Department of Parks & Recreation

● Battery Park City Authority

3. 5 WTC Findings of No Significant Impact (FONSI)/Environmental Assessment – Resolution

TUESDAY JANUARY 25

6PM

Skyscraper Museum

In Architecture Unbound noted architecture critic JOSEPH GIOVANNINI traces our current architecture landscape to the disruptive scientific advances and transgressive and progressive art movements that roiled Europe before and after World War I, and then to the social unrest and cultural disruptions of the 1960s. Cumulative shifts across disciplines and social systems established fertile new ground for the rise of an inventive, antiauthoritarian architecture that, in the 1970s, challenged the status quo. Built manifestoes in the 1980s led to digital inventions of the 1990s, and after the turn of the millennium to climax structures that now populate world capitals competing for cultural stature on the international stage. Free

6PM

Community Board 1 Monthly Meeting

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26

12NOON

Museum of American Financial History,”Wednesday Webinar. Eight-part series on retirement planning. These programs are designed to introduce you to the many possible sources of retirement income and resources, including social security, medicare, pension options including 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts and annuities, as well as the complex issues faced when planning for loved ones with wills and/or trusts. Today: Understanding Your Social Security Benefits Vincent Scocozza reviews when you are eligible to receive retirement benefits, how early retirement affects your benefits, the requirements for spousal benefits, survivors benefits, and when you should file for Medicare. Free

THURSDAY JANUARY 27

10AM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Jewish writers turned to pen and paper to reckon with the enormity of their loss. The stories they wrote—both fiction and nonfiction—bring to life the darkest moments of human history at the same time as they remind us of the human capacity for renewal and regeneration. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, join the Museum for a reading of three such short stories: “The Road of No Return” by Rachel Häring Korn read by Jackie Hoffman, “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick read by Mili Avital, and “A Wedding in Brownsville” by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The program will premiere at 10 AM Eastern Time and be available all day.Free; suggested $10 donation,

12NOON

China Institute

“Long live Chairman Mao” was the first English language sentence the Lijia Zhang ever learned. “Foreign language is a tool of class struggle” was the second. On January 27, the author of Socialism is Great and Lotus, will take us back in time to the missile factory where she worked in the early 1980s, and discuss how learning English at night helped open her mind and break out into a career as an internationally acclaimed writer and journalist. She’ll share how English has helped millions of Chinese forge important bonds with the world, and how attitudes toward learning English are changing today.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Sending Love to Janet Lovell

Last summer, Janet Lovell—“Ms. Janet” to her many young charges—retired after 35 years at the Battery Park City Day Nursery. As she stood outside the nursery school on her last day, kids of all ages and their parents came by to reminisce and wish her well. As planned, Janet soon retired to her native Belize.

In October, her sister Denise visited Janet and her husband in Belize. On their way to a resort to celebrate, they were in a car accident. Denise was killed and Janet sustained a devastating spinal cord injury.

Ms. Janet is back in New York for medical attention. If you would like to send good wishes to this wonderful woman who has meant so much to many of our children, the nursery school will collect notes, cards, letters and artwork and forward them to her. Please mail (or drop off) your messages to Janet Lovell c/o the Battery Park City Day Nursery, 215 South End Ave, New York, NY 10280, and administrative director Judy Sklover will forward them to her. If you have any questions, please email the nursery at info@bpcdaynursery.com and address your messages to Judy Sklover.

A fundraiser to help Janet pay mounting expenses has been set up by parents of her former charges.

Curb, His Enthusiasm?

Plutocrat with Passion for Historic Properties Buys American Stock Exchange Building

A Lower Manhattan landmark that nobody seems to know what to do with has been purchased by a billionaire known for buying properties that nobody knows what to do with.

Ron Burkle, who made his first fortune buying and consolidating chains of supermarkets in California during the 1980s, paid $155 million in October for the American Stock Exchange Building at 86 Trinity Place, which has been closed since 2008.

Weir Waiting

City Hall Finalizes Seaport Resiliency Plan Days Before Administrations Change

In one of its last acts in office, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio released the finalized version of its Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan, which aims to protect the nearly mile-long stretch of East River waterfront between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

Projected to cost between $5 and $7 billion, and to take a minimum of 15 years to construct, the plan focuses on “passive” flood defense, which translates into refashioning the landscape and elevating the riverbank, thus creating a physical barrier that will stop flood waters. The documents released by City Hall in December envision building a network of decks, berms, and breakwaters that will extend into the East River between 90 and 200 feet. The outermost edge of this complex would rise to an elevation between three and five feet above the waterline, while its landward side would reach as high as 15 feet.

What Never Went Up in the First Place, Still Comes Down…

Lower Manhattan Site Purchased for $390 Million Being Shopped for Half-Off

In a story first reported by the Real Deal, the financial distress plaguing property investment firm China Oceanwide Holdings (itself part of the wider contagion surrounding Shenzhen-based real estate firm, Evergrande) has led to a fire-sale price for a trophy Lower Manhattan parcel.

The company purchased 80 South Street (located between John Street and Maiden Lane) from the Howard Hughes Corporation in 2016 for $390 million. This transaction included a companion site, at 163 Front Street, that shares a mid-block border with 80 South Street. The combined parcel, plus air rights from nearby lots purchased and assembled by Howard Hughes, gave China Oceanwide the right to build a tower with a height of more than 1,400 feet, enclosing more than one million square feet of interior space. To read more…

Beside the Pointe

At 41 River Terrace, Affordability Provisions Extended for Low-Income Residents But Not for Middle-Income Renters

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) announced Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to preserve 70 affordable rental apartments in the Tribeca Pointe building through the year 2069. The deal will require that the building owner, Rockrose, continue to offer deeply discounted rents to residents of 70 apartments within the 340-unit structure. These households are set aside for residents earning below either 40 or 50 percent of the “area median income” (AMI). This income bracket currently ranges from $33,440 to $41,800 (for a household consisting of one person), and goes as high as $47,720 to $59,650 (for a household of four).

When Tribeca Pointe opened in 1999, these requirements translated into $343 or $429 per month in a studio (for those earning up to 40 or 50 percent of AMI, respectively), $368 or $459 for a one-bedroom apartment, and $441 or $451 for a two-bedroom unit. Today, the same formulas (which cap rent at 30 percent of the two income thresholds) restrict rent on a studio apartment, inhabited by one person, to $836 (for a tenant earning below 40 percent of AMI) or $1045 (for a renter earning below 50 percent of AMI).

De Gustibus

Annual Food Fest Puts Lavish Meals within Reach of Thrifty Epicures

New York’s annual food celebration, Restaurant Week continues for five weeks, until Saturday (February 13).

For those disinclined to venture above Canal Street, the goods news is that of all the 481 establishments participating throughout the City this year, more than five percent are located in Lower Manhattan.

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green

Broadway & Whitehall St

Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round

Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.

The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.

Greenmarket at the Oculus

Oculus Plaza, Fulton St and Church St

CLOSED FOR THE SEASON

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.

212-349-1380 info@fultonstallmarket.org

Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.

Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.

SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.

TODAY IN HISTORY

January 24

Roman Emperor Caligula

AD 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula’s uncle Claudius as Emperor

1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento.

1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.

1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.

1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada’s Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.

1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

Births

AD 76 – Hadrian, Roman emperor (d. 138)

1712 – Frederick the Great, Prussian king (d. 1786)

1862 – Edith Wharton, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1937)

1915 – Robert Motherwell, American painter and academic (d. 1991)

1928 – Desmond Morris, English zoologist, ethologist, and painter

1943 – Sharon Tate, American model and actress (d. 1969)

1949 – John Belushi, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1982)

Deaths

AD 41 – Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12)

1920 – Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1884)

1965 – Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)

1975 – Larry Fine, American comedian (b. 1902)

1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)

1993 – Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General (b. 1908)

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