The BroadsheetDAILY – 2/16/22 – Downtown Alliance Real Estate Analysis Tracks Indicators for Rentals, Condos, and Retail in Lower Manhattan

The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

The Curves Are Up

Alliance Real Estate Analysis Tracks Indicators for Rentals, Condos, and Retail

The Downtown Alliance has published its annual report, “Lower Manhattan Real Estate Year in Review,” which contains multiple, significant data points about the state of the community.

According to the Alliance’s analysis, Lower Manhattan currently hosts 33,650 households in 342 residential buildings.

For those wishing to lease an apartment, the news is as daunting as it is encouraging for landlords: Median rents reached an all-time high in the second half of 2021, topping out at $4,200, which surpasses a high last seen in 2019, when median rents hovered around $4,000. It also marks a rapid and steep recovery from the bottom of the rental market, during the first quarter of 2021, when local median rents were $3,000.

For those seeking to buy or sell an apartment, median prices of condominiums and cooperative units reached $1.6 million at the close of 2021, which is 30 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2019 (before the onset of the pandemic). But this is still well shy of records set in the second quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2020, when media prices topped $2.0 million

The average price per square foot for Lower Manhattan condo and co-op residences was $1,725 at the close of 2021, which was roughly nine percent below the same figure for the third quarter, but still 36 percent higher than the same period in 2019.

The volume of sales recovered to 520 total units, which is almost double the same figure for 2019 and more than triple the total for 2020, but still far trailing the high-water mark set in 2017, when 746 apartments were sold.

Some 84 Lower Manhattan retailers shut their doors in 2021, including a dozen at Westfield World Trade Center and six at Brookfield Place.

More telling may be the indications for future inventory of both rental and owner-occupied units. The Alliance report notes that more than 2,413 new rental apartments are currently under construction or planned, while there are 1,564 owner-occupied apartments in the development pipeline. This equates to a total of 3,977 new households coming soon, in 14 local buildings.

A separate analysis, from development data firm Marketproof Inc., documents that Lower Manhattan currently has the largest inventory of newly built, but unsold, condominiums of any neighborhood in the five boroughs, with an existing backlog of 1,140 homes. Adding to this glut the upcoming inventory of 1,564 units yields a total of 2,704 new homes seeking buyers, in a local market that already appears seriously overbuilt.

Elsewhere, the Alliance notes, the rate of retail closures slowed significantly from 2020 levels. Some 84 Lower Manhattan retailers shut their doors in 2021, including a dozen at Westfield World Trade Center and six at Brookfield Place. But such closures are down 50 percent from the record 163 retailers that ceased operations in 2020.

In what may be a hopeful sign, fewer local retailers closed in 2021 than did in the last calendar year before the pandemic (when 108 stores shut, in 2019). In what may be a further encouraging portent, the 84 businesses that closed in 2021 were more than offset by 100 retailers that opened during the same period, another metric that marks a return to pre-pandemic levels.

Matthew Fenton

Paws to Reflect

Local Leaders Push City Hall to Consider the Cat’s Meow

Community Board 1 (CB1) is urging the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to protect a colony of feral cats that have come together in the South Street Seaport, at the site of the recently demolished New Market Building.

Feral cats, estimated to number as many as half a million in the five boroughs of New York City, face few threats during spring, summer and fall. Ample trash and New York’s prodigious rodent population provide plentiful sources of food. But in winter, they need shelter to take refuge from the cold, and water supplies often freeze. To read more…

Letter

Meow

To the editor:

Thank you for your article about the community cats at the seaport.

A lot has happened since the December CB1 meeting. Following the resolution, the EDC swiftly installed four winter shelters on the site. We are now committed to identifying a safe relocation option for the spring and have since launched a fundraising effort to support this: https://gofund.me/31d86024.

It is important to note that these are feral, and unadoptable strays. They were initially trapped and returned last spring, thus preventing many more unwanted litters from being born.

While we’ve had support and guidance from organizations, we are a community group of volunteers who are individually contributing our time and personal resources to feed and care for the cats daily regardless of the weather conditions. While we do not need assistance in feeding the cats, it can cost $1000 or more per cat to relocate them so we do need help with the fundraising for relocation.

We appreciate the interest in our effort and the incredible community support we’ve had thus far.

Thank you.

Esther Regelson

Kristin Eileen Bradfield

Lights, Cameras, Violation

CB1 Pushes for Expansion in Use of Monitoring Devices

Community Board 1 (CB1) is pushing for the expanded use of traffic enforcement cameras, the automated monitoring devices that can detect violations of the speed limit and other rules (such as stopping at red lights) on public roads.

The use of such equipment began in New York nearly a decade ago, when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo allowed New York City to launch a pilot program to deter speeding in 20 school zones. The success of that initial deployment in 2013 has expanded to 950 cameras in 750 school zones, where the devices logged more than four million violations in 2020, an increase of almost 100 percent from 2019.

Data from the City’s Department of Transportation document the difference that speed cameras make, with a 71.5 percent reduction in speeding and a 16.9 percent drop in injuries at times when and in locations where they are in use. To read more…

‘You Are Killing Our People’

Shortly After Residents Protest Planned New Homeless Shelter in Chinatown, an Asian Resident Is Murdered Nearby

Mounting frustration in Chinatown over anti-Asian violence and the simultaneous proliferation of homeless persons on local streets reached the boiling point over the weekend. On Friday, the City’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) hosted a meeting at M.S. 131 on Hester Street, to hear community concerns about a new homeless shelter planned for 91 East Broadway, within a bankrupt hotel.

The session erupted into a series of barbed exchanges, at which City officials made clear they intend to move ahead with the plan regardless of community opposition, and insisted that they had already consulted Chinatown leaders. When asked with whom they had discussed the plans, DHS officials remained silent, until a spontaneous chorus of “say their names” thundered through the auditorium. Finally, Erin Drinkwater, deputy commissioner of the City’s Department of Social Services, answered, “former City Council member Margaret Chin.”

Edward Cuccia, a resident of Chinatown who also practices immigration law in the community, said, “we have more shelters than anybody.” This was a reference to the fact that Chinatown is already home to five homeless shelters, while the City plans to create three more there in the near future.

Today’s Calendar

Wednesday February 16

11AM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Join the Museum and Our Travel Circle for a virtual walking tour of Istanbul, which is home to the vast majority of Turkey’s 26,000 Jewish citizens. Istanbul’s Jewish community today is a fraction of its size during Ottoman rule in the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was one of the world’s most important Jewish centers. Unlike Jews in much of Europe, Istanbul’s 500,000 Jews were permitted to work in all professions and could enter the Ottoman court. They excelled in commerce and were particularly important leaders in medicine. Remains from that time can still be seen in the Balat area, along the Golden Horn, and in the Galata district in Beyoğlu—the centers of Istanbul’s Jewish life. Our tour guide, Safak, will take us on a journey through time and into the modern day life of Jews in Istanbul. $36.

6PM

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

AGENDA

1- DDC Street Reconstruction Project Updates

Dangerous Cobblestone Conditions on Harrison Street and Around the District – Discussion & possible resolution

2- 9/11 Victim’s Trust Fund Established from the Treasury of the Former Government of Afghanistan – Discussion

Thursday February 17

9AM

LMHQ

Spotlight on practices, skills and products you can use to build out an accessible, sustainable routine to take care of yourself mentally and physically, from energy healing to CBD to movement. Free.

1PM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to over 100,000 Japanese Americans being forcibly removed from their homes to incarceration camps all over the Western United States. The executive order was influenced by prevalent anti-Asian prejudice. Since that time, Asian Americans have faced ongoing prejudice and hatred.

Join the Museum for a program commemorating the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 and discussing the continuing violence and bigotry against Asian Americans. The program will consist of a conversation between Sam Mihara, who was a child prisoner at Heart Mountain Wyoming camp; John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC; and Eric L. Muller, Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor of Law in Jurisprudence and Ethics at the University of North Carolina School of Law. They will be interviewed by distinguished journalist Ann Curry. Free, suggested $10 donation.

6PM

Fulton Street

Today: Iron Buddha. Reservations are released at 10AM every Monday the week before class. Free.

6PM

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

AGENDA

1. Community District 1 Demographics Update – Presentation by James Wilson-Schutter, Fund for the City of New York Community Planning Fellow

2. Bylaw Changes to Reflect New Public Hearing Guidance – Discussion & resolution

3. CB 1 Election Preparations – Presentation by Lucy Acevedo, Community Coordinator, Manhattan Community Board 1

4. Committee Highlights

6:30PM

Fraunces Tavern Museum

For more than forty years, George Washington was dedicated to an innovative and experimental course of farming at Mount Vernon, where he sought to demonstrate the public benefits of recent advances in British agriculture. In this lecture, Ragsdale will discuss these methods of British agricultural improvement and how they also shaped Washington’s management of enslaved labor. This lecture will take place via Zoom. Free.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Albany to Lower Manhattan: Drop Dead

Redistricting Grafts Downtown Assembly District Onto Staten Island

In a move that has stupefied and outraged local leaders, the legislature in Albany has proposed to redraw lines for the State Assembly that will divide Lower Manhattan, and transfer its representation to a district on Staten Island.

The current boundaries are slated for change because the 2020 Census has the legal effect of automatically triggering a recalibration of all election district boundaries within the State. This task has fallen to the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR), which has operated largely in secret for several weeks. To read more…

‘Our Representative Won’t Give A Damn About Us’

CB1 Discusses Harm to Lower Manhattan from Gerrymandered Assembly District Lines

Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 became the forum for a vehement discussion of the proposed legislative redistricting that will uproot Battery Park City and the western Financial District from Lower Manhattan, and instead relegate representation of these communities in the State Assembly to Staten Island.

Get Rich or Get Out

Analysis By Housing Group Cites Declining Affordability in Lower Manhattan

A leading housing advocacy organization has completed an exhaustive look at threats to affordability in every community in the five boroughs, and has found that Lower Manhattan ranks among the ten most at-risk neighborhoods by one key metric, while also placing in the 20 most-endangered by another.

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

February 16

Edward S. Curtis, American ethnologist and photographer (1868 – 1952)

116 – Emperor Trajan sends laureatae to the Roman Senate at Rome on account of his victories and being conqueror of Parthia.

1699 – First Leopoldine Diploma is issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, recognizing the Greek Catholic clergy enjoyed the same privileges as Roman Catholic priests in the Principality of Transylvania.

1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.

1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.

1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.

1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Births

1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)

1843 – Henry M. Leland, American engineer and businessman, founded Cadillac and Lincoln (d. 1932)

1868 – Edward S. Curtis, American ethnologist and photographer (d. 1952)

1941 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean commander and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea (d. 2011)

1959 – John McEnroe, German-American tennis player and sportscaster

Deaths

1990 – Keith Haring, American painter and activist (b. 1958)

2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat, 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)

Credit: Wikipedia and other internet and non-internet sources

The Broadsheet Inc. eBroadsheet.com editor @ ebroadsheet.com ©2022 All Rights Reserved All photos © Robert Simko 2022 unless otherwise credited

No part of this document may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher © 2022