FOUND: Real Estate
FOUND: Real Estate
One High Line, Tribeca townhouses, UWS towers, Brooklyn brownstones, Jersey Shore houses, MORE
THE ASK • Real Estate Correspondents
FOUND is looking for writers and real estate obsessives to file dispatches from the frontlines of the area housing market — and NYC neighborhoods. If you have a bead on what’s going up, what's for sale, and who’s making it happen, we’d love to chat. Drop us a line at found@foundny.com.
ABOUT FOUND • Real Estate
A fresh take on the property market
Where to live is the fundamental question of life in the city (and suburbs). FOUND is on the ground in New York City and surrounding markets, tracking real estate listings and sales, new developments, and shifts in the built environment that shape the way we live.
Our aim is to provide actionable intelligence — about specific properties, yes, but also market movements, design trends, and architectural statements. In sum, FOUND’s real estate coverage captures (in bright colors) the reality of living well in the New York City area — not in nine figure penthouses with the oligarchs, but in new and/or noteworthy co-ops, condos and houses.
We are also obsessively tracking second-home getaway markets, particularly those within driving distance of the city, including the Hamptons, the North Fork, Hudson Valley, Litchfield County, and the Jersey Shore.
Welcome to FOUND real estate. Today’s open house tour begins now.
REAL ESTATE • FOUND Development
At One High Line, take the good, take the bad
One High Line (above, top), one of the final new developments to complete the landlocking of the High Line, is actually two twisting towers, dubbed East and West. Designed by Bjarke Ingels, it sits in a starchitects’ murders’ row alongside 100 11th Avenue (Jean Nouvel) and the IAC Building (Frank Gehry).
Inside, there are 236 apartments and the first NYC outpost of Miami’s Faena Hotel, opening late 2023. Asking prices on the apartments range from $2 million to over $30 million, a large spread. And because it’s designed by a starchitect, the various twists in the design mean that some floors and units end up with, mmm, unusual angles. NB: bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
“What you need to know about this building,” a source told FOUND, “is that there are great $7 million apartments with incredible views, and really bad $17 million apartments. You have to know what you’re looking at.” Should you find yourself in the market, make haste for the river-adjacent West tower. Closings are set to begin this summer.
One buyer this spring knew what they liked, inking a deal in the building for $28 million. (For that price, they got the above view.)
One High Line WEST-PH34A (Chelsea, above), 5BR/5.5BA, 5471 SF. In contract: 4/27/23. Closing price: $28M. Common charges $10,226. Listing broker: Corcoran.
One High Line EAST-21G (Chelsea), 1BR/1.5BA, 886 SF. In contract: 5/1/23. Closing price: $2.585M. Common charges $1482. Listing broker: Corcoran.
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
TriBeCa TownHouSes
They were, the NYT reported with uncharacteristic imprecision, “perhaps the first new single-family dwellings built in TriBeCa in more than a century.” The three townhouses — at 148, 150, and 152 Reade St., mid-block between Greenwich and Hudson — were the work of John Petarca, a noted Tribeca architect whose gift was to bring elements of old building design to new construction. As it happens, two of the three are currently for sale.
On the market since last July, 150 Reade is listed by Corcoran at $14.995 million. Next door, 152 Reade recently re-listed with Serhant after a long go of it with another broker. Asking price: $17.5 million. Both are massive, 25-foot-wide spaces. The disparity in listing price may stem from 152’s (very Tribeca) gut-renovation of a four-year-old building in 2005, which included the installation of a wine cellar in the basement (on a block famous for its catacombs), and a requisite hot tub on the roof. Or maybe it’s just Serhant going for it.
When properties sit on the market, the most common explanation is that they’re priced too high. But sister property 148 Reade last traded in this range — for $15.9 million in 2015. And, as the adage goes, you only need one buyer to make a deal. Game on.
→ 152 Reade St. (Tribeca, above), 5BR/5+BA townhouse, 8040 SF. Asking price: $17.5M. Monthly taxes: $8334. Days on market: 77 (after previous stints). Listing broker: Mallory Bogard, SERHANT.
→ 150 Reade St. (Tribeca), 6BR/6.5BA townhouse, 7500 SF. Asking price: $14.995M. Monthly taxes: $8555. Days on market: 417. Listing broker: Peter Zaitzeff, Corcoran.
REAL ESTATE • FOUND Development
A chiseled midsection on the Upper West Side
Currently rising between Lincoln Center and Central Park, Extell’s 50 West 66th Street will be the tallest building on the Upper West Side when it’s completed sometime in 2024 or 2025 — and not without controversy. Back in the go-go pre-pandemic days, the building’s construction got hung up when the city attempted to stop developers from building taller, by inserting huge mechanical floors (which don’t count against zoning rules). In the end, Extell won, and 50 West 66th will rise 69 stories and contain 127 condo units when completed.
The design is by starchitecture firm Snøhetta, with inspiration from the “chiseled stone of Manhattan’s geologic legacy.” In practice, the building splits as it rises, allowing for a gorgeous shared terrace on the 16th floor (above). Other amenities include an outdoor salt water pool and tennis/pickleball courts.
Extell has opted to market the development quietly via floorplans, with no flashy website. Deals are getting done: in March, #3D, a 5BR/5.5BA apartment with an 880 SF terrace, asking $12.025M; in January, #48S, a 4BR with Central Park views asking $22.75M; and, back in December 2022, combined units #47S-#47N for the total price of $45.5M, to name three contracts reported by Olshan. Rock on.
→ 50 West 66th Street (Upper West Side), Developer: Extell.
REAL ESTATE • Townhouse Sales
Brownstone Brooklyn can stand the heat
Along with much of the rest of NYC’s real estate market, the townhouse market in Brooklyn has cooled from last year, with 197 Brooklyn townhouses going to contract in the first half of 2023, versus 255 in the first half of 2022. But the market's far from dead. New townhouse listings in the borough are spending an average of 45 days on market in 2023, compared to 142 days for Manhattan townhouses (per StreetEasy). And despite persistently high mortgage rates, Brooklyn townhouse prices have held steady since last year at a median ask of $3 million. Here now, three townhouses that recently went to contract, all well above the $3M median, in Bed-Stuy, Park Slope, and Brooklyn Heights.
→ 367 Greene Ave. (Bed Stuy, above), 4BR/2.5BA townhouse, recent renovation with backyard and wood-burning fireplace. In contract: 6/26/23. Closing ask: $4.35M. Monthly taxes: $705. Days on market: 45. Listing broker: David Feldman, Brown Harris Stevens.
→ 608 3rd St. (Park Slope), 6BR/4BA multi-family townhouse with two units. In contract: 6/30/23. Closing ask: $4.9M. Monthly taxes: $1652. Days on market: 241. Listing brokers: Charlie Pigott & Jackie Torren, Corcoran.
→ 35 Remsen St. (Brooklyn Heights), 7BR/3.5BA townhouse, five stories of historic detail. In contract: 6/23/23. Original ask $8.995M, closing ask: $8.5M. Monthly taxes: $3280. Days on market: 53. Listing broker: Deborah Reiders, Corcoran.
GETAWAYS • Jersey Shore Real Estate Report
Build back bigger on Long Beach Island
Beach houses in New Jersey remain locked up like Friday afternoon traffic on the Parkway, with only 90 properties trading above $2 million in Monmouth and Ocean Counties in Q2 ’23, two fewer than the same period last year. It’s not for lack of demand. Inventory is down about 30% year-over-year across the region.
On Long Beach Island, the tight supply means even upmarket listings get the “build your dream home here” marketing treatment. Witness this “superior building site” in Harvey Cedars on the bay, listed at $3.0M. In a pinch, you could renovate the currently situated 2616 SF home. Oceanside, consider this $7.0M property in Loveladies “approved for a newly constructed home... with 3 stories 11,268 SF.” Bonus: an existing six-bedroom dwelling that was renovated in 2021.
How far up until the home itself makes the sale? Also in Loveladies, $8.895M takes the Mike Ryan House (down from the May listing price of $9.975M), with five en suite bedrooms and a guest house on two acres buttressing 125 feet of beachfront. “Built to withstand the test of time,” says the listing, “enjoy this modern sculpture for generations to come.” Or until the next guy tears it down.
→ 14 W 74th St., Harvey Cedars, NJ, 4BR, 3BA, 2616 SF, lot size accommodates new build of up to 4555 SF with room for a pool. Asking price: $2.998M. Days on market: 118. Broker: Benee Scola & Company.
→ 15-C Long Beach Blvd, Loveladies NJ, 6BR, 5.5BA, 328 SF, current home has 9 decks and 125’ oceanfront with approval to go very big. Asking price: $7.0M. Days on market: 109. Broker: Coastal Living Real Estate Group.
→ 19-B Long Beach Blvd, Loveladies NJ (above), 6BR, 6.5BA, 2616 SF, pool, guest house, 125’ oceanfront, “bullet proof dune.” Asking price: $8.895M. Days on market: 112. Broker: Joy Luedtke Real Estate.
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