May 2006   >>  return to MAI in the news

Carrie Bradshaw's neighborhood still holds allure
By Emma Johnson

HIGLIGHTED MANAGER:
Jorden Tepper
managing director - sales
Vice President/Managing Director - Manhattan Lofts Inc.

An excerpt:

Tight inventory, high prices keep interest focused on West Village; downzoning hasn't stemmed new projects

...The charming, tree-lined cobblestone streets of the West Village are known for their low-rise properties and sky-high prices. Neither figures are changing any time soon.

While brokers report that sales prices for most West Village units have leveled out as prices have in the rest of the city, developers are fighting over remaining building sites following a downzoning of the area last year. The change in zoning laws allow for small-scale development, but builders and marketers will take anything they can get in the neighborhood.

While new condo development moves forward, West Village rentals are also hot, with prices moving up faster than sales and rising at least 30 percent in the last year, according to some accounts (see sidebar below).

Jorden Tepper, Managing Director of Manhattan Lofts, Inc., said that sales and rental clients take what they can get in the West Village's cut-up townhouses and prewar units.

"You see a lot of pricier small apartments," Tepper said. "People are still willing to sacrifice space for uniqueness and the quaint aspect of the neighborhood."

Even while the overall market is moderating, prices for luxury and notable properties -- especially those on high floors with protected views -- are still strong, brokers say.

Units in the waterfront Richard Meier-designed towers on Perry Street are commanding $3,000 per square foot. For less celebrity-driven properties, West Village sales prices range from $1,700 to $2,000 per square foot, brokers say. This compares to $1,200 to 1,400 per square foot in the central Village.

A rezoning of the West Village approved last year by the City Council bars high-rise residential towers in a 14-block area bounded by Horatio Street to the north, Washington Street to the east, Morton Street to the south, and West Street on the west. Two grandfathered-in exceptions remain -- at 150 Charles Street and at Bethune and West streets, where the Witkoff Group and the Related Companies are building residential high-rises, respectively.

Fierce community opposition -- spearheaded by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation -- makes even conversions difficult. An expected deal to convert a warehouse at 775 Washington Street and add a modest 80 feet on top was met with a battle cry from the society, according to New York magazine, with the society's executive director Andrew Berman pointing out, "We're willing to fight for this site. Warehouses are an essential part of what makes New York New York." If developers were to get approval from the Landmarks Commission, they could knock down the existing building and build from the ground up, though, the magazine reported.

Still, other major projects are going forward or are proposed (see chart and map).

Despite rezoning, West Village projects sprout

Of course, all this would have been unimaginable until recently, Capobianco said. Bleecker Street came into its own only a few years ago -- about the time Carrie Bradshaw extolled Magnolia Bakery's wonders on "Sex in the City." (On the show, the brownstone in which Bradshaw, played by actress Sarah Jessica Parker, lived was on Perry Street.)

It's not Tribeca pricey, but rents rising steadily in West Village

Jorden Tepper, Managing Director of Manhattan Lofts, Inc., said he is preparing for a strong rental market this summer, in the West Village and elsewhere. "Rentals are heating up now," he said. "We're preparing for a very, very hot summer."