Development Du Jour: Columbia House

Location: 238 West 108th Street
Size: Six floors with four full-floor units, two duplexes
Prices: "Not yet announced," but there's one active listing for $1.8 million
Architect: Mihai Radu Architects
Sales & Marketing: Sotheby's
Lowdown: Unfortunately, we think this development is named for its Manhattan Valley/Columbia University surroundings, and not for the discount CD wholesaler that was so integral to our youth. We're looking at a new construction here, meant to "mesh with the historic upper westside neighborhood." The modern spin on pre-war involves a brick facade and a rear glass wall overlooking a garden. A tipster claims that the first-floor duplex might already be sold, which wouldn't be a surprise becau—holy shit is someone getting raped in that rendering?!
· Columbia House [238w108.com]
· Listing: 238 West 108th Street [Sotheby's]

It Happened One Weekend: Window Shopping for River Views

1) Our favorite window shopper goes looking at two very different water views in two very different parts of town. Our first stop is at the Riverhouse in Battery Park City, where 90% of the units have water views, and 100% of the units have interiors by David Rockwell. Suze loved the lobby's 600 gallon fish task, fitness center and fully stocked media center, and even enjoyed the unit's layouts, which for her is huge. She then headed uptown to check out 170 East End Avenue, the place that all kids want to live in. Despite less units having water views, our window shopper seemed to fall in love with the amenities here, especially the separate entrance for food deliveries that will keep the lobby clear. Unfortunately, the Slesin still can't put together the finances to buy, so the window shopper will soldier on. [Window Shopping/Suzanne Slesin]

2) Brian Schnelle and Meghan McGarry spent years living in Manhattan apartments that neither really loved. After they tied the knot, the couple that was too lazy to find a perfect rental ($2700 and no dishwasher) decided it was time to buy, desiring a 1 bedroom in the West 70's for no more than $750,000. After a few months of searching, they scooped up a large one bedroom with a walk-in closet on West 78th for their target price. Luckily for them, the place needed zero work. [Joyce Cohen/The Hunt]

3) The market for large Manhattan apartments is white hot, with average prices for 3 bedroom units increasing 18% and 4 bedrooms over 36% in the past year. The increased demand has come from families who are no longer leaving the city to raise their kiddies in the suburbs. But when demand dwarfs supply, developers smell an opportunity. That's why the World-Wide Group dedicated 70% of their new building at 255 East 74th Street to large apartments. Now at least 50 families won't have to leave the city to raise Johnny Jr., Jamie, and Justin. Success! [In Search of the Elusive 3-Bedroom/Vivian S. Toy]

4) Manhattanville residents and businesses are preparing for the inevitable Columbia expansion, but wonder what will happen to them after the plan forces them out of their neighborhood. Local business owner Nicholas Sprayregen sums it up, "Most of us are not against the university expanding; I welcome that, but they have this all-or-nothing attitude. They are like the dumb horse in Central Park with the blinders on, self-imposed blinders. They can't do anything but move forward like a battering ram." [Bracing for the Lion/Trymaine Lee]

5) CB 2 in the West Village has voted to eliminate 10 parking spaces across from the PATH station on Christopher Street, hoping that keeping the street clear of cars will deter the drug dealing and prostitution that the cars help hide. An owner of the nearby Spy Shop explains, "It's unfair that we can't have parking across the street for our customers, but I'm willing to pay the price to keep these kids off the street." [West Village Report/Gregory Beyer]

Kushner Companies Race to Unload Uptown 500; Have a Look!

The Uptown 500 is more than just the name of Episode #16 of the bizarre 1970s Sid & Marty Krofft creation The Bugaloos. Yep, it's also the sweet nickname given to Observer owner Jaren Kushner's Upper Manhattan real estate portfolio, which the Post's Lois Weiss reported is for sale. The 500 is actually 495 residential units and two commercial units, spread across 24 walk-up buildings in Harlem, Inwood, Washington Heights and Hamilton Heights. Massey Knakal is handling the sale of the whole shebang, which is expected to fetch north of $70 million. That should be the end of the story, but lucky for us, a special Curbed tipster passed along a PDF copy of the marketing materials (which you can download right here). It doesn't get as detailed as the rent rolls of the buildings, but if you're the type of dork who gets off by knowing that the average rent at 521-523 West 156th Street is $698/unit, then grab it and have fun. Contribute any/all numbers-crunching revelations in the comments, please.
· The Uptown 500 Portfolio [Massey Knakal; warning: PDF]
· Between the Bricks [NYP]

Bloomberg to Hipsters: Sink or Swim

The Times digs deeper into what's in store for the Parks Department as part of Mayor Bloomberg's futuristic plan for a greener NYC by 2030, and the news is pretty darned dramatic. First up is the High Bridge, the pedestrian walkway that connects Manhattan and the Bronx, which has been closed since the '60s. Starting in 2008, the High Bridge will get a $65 million facelift in advance of a reopening. Very cool, but not as shocking as what's in store for McCarren Pool. Two years from this summer and $50 million later, McCarren Pool will be a pool again, albeit at one-third its current size. Holy shit! Is this already the end of the most controversial hipster music venue in Brooklyn? Will the work this summer affect the dodgeball court? Developing!
· In Park Plan, a New Life for Spaces Long Closed [NYT]
· McCarren Pool Will Have Hipsters This Summer! [Curbed]

On the Market: Floorplann Needs Some Werk

The listing description for this West 141st Street co-op says, "Needs TLC!!" We're not sure if the broker is talking about the apartment, or the actual listing.
· Listing: 552 West 141st Street [Elliman]

It Happened One Weekend: Improving Advertecture Hits New York

1) The crackdown on advertecture has forced developers to get creative, and this time its not so bad. Ad guru Itamar Cohen designed a scaffolding cover at 141 Fifth Avenue that is a full-size print of what the restored building will look like when the massive cleaning and restoration wraps up. Historic buildings in Paris, Rome, Florence have used this technique, which appealed to Cohen, who says, “We didn’t want to have that ugly black mesh here." [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]

2) The ritual of selling an apartment isn't easy. Sellers put up with weeks and sometimes months of staging their apartment to entice buyers to make an offer, attempting to make each open house resemble a Pottery Barn catalog by removing all personal touches like photos and traces of life. Handling the disappointment of multiple open houses, repeat visitors and the eventual price chop just make the process more painful. But when that offer finally comes in, the effort and 'light living' is so worth it. [The Home That You Can’t Call Your Own/Teri Karush Rogers]

3) When quadruple-threat Richard E. Waits found out his long time roommate decided to stop paying rent, he knew it was time to get a place of his own. He put off a long planned trip to Paris to pay the brokers fee and wound up with a $775 studio in Hamilton Heights. Despite the broken elevator, dirty hallways and urine odors, Richard is happy to have found a home of his own, saying “It is my place to lock out the world and regenerate, and each day it becomes a more beautiful apartment." [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]

4) The East Village Noise War rages on above Heathers, a more than just a bar on 13th Street, which hosts art exhibits and performances while serving up food and drinks. Despite installing 14 inches of fiberglass wool insulation, two fire-coated layers of plasterboard and two suspended layers of heavy-duty soundboard, the building's second floor residents still hear noise and constantly complain to 311. Heathers was able to get a license in the face of community Board 3 opposition, but with the number of complaints and the need to renew after just one year, the future prospects of staying open seem bleak. [NY Times City Section/Noah Marcel Sudarsky]

It Happened One Weekend: Apple Bank's New Core

1) Fresh details about the Upper West Side's Apple Bank building's ride on the conversion train. Next stop: Condoville. Lower floor units have 13' ceilings with 8.5' windows, while the upper level duplexes each have an interior courtyard. However, Apple Bank will still operate a branch on the ground floor, and Baseball Center NYC will maintain its batting cages in the basement. But what about extra basment storage space for the new tenants? Don't fret; there are extra closets spread throughout the units and hallways. [Posting/C.J. Hughes]

2) A market slowdown means it's time for sellers to bone up the art of wooing potential buyers. Tips on succeeding in this supposed buyers' market include: Be wary of evil lawyers and uppity brokers, be willing to negotiate, stay away from your own open houses, and don't try to hold on to every feature in the place. You can't take everything with you. Keep these tips in mind and you may just get your full asking price. [How Not to Scare Off Buyers/NYTime Real Estate Section]

3) Say you find a dingy apartment that needs a ton of work. You think you see the potential but aren't quite sure, so you decide to ask for help. That's what Roo and Bernie Rogers did when they found an third story walkup in the heart of NoLita. And the help? Mr. Roger's architect father Richard Rogers and his pal Renzo Piano. The starchitect duo dreamed up a private elevator, glass and an aerial addition. Since those plans eclipsed the couple's vision, they dropped the dynamic duo for Mr. Roger's brother and cousin, and they built themselves a happy red home. [Habitats/Celia Barbour]

4) The hottest new broker in the city doesn't work for a big agency. He doesn't have a flashy website. Hell, he doesn't even have an office. Pedro Reyes has turned his fruit stand on 137th ST into a booming referral business, sending wayward musicians, hipsters and artists to empty bedrooms in apartments throughout his uptown hood. The spaces is cheap and usually comes with a bed, fridge and strict rules on overnight guests. In a tight vacancy market, Pedro is your uptown man. Pedro himself explains his business model, saying "I have connections. From 125th Street to 160th Street, I know everybody." [Urban Tactics]

Parrots Grab Manhattan Real Estate

[103rd St. parrots photo courtesy of Palemaleirregulars]

Last week, we had hipsters moving back to Manhattan from Brooklyn. This week, we've got parrots checking out Manhattan real estate. The question is, are they East Coast parrots (Brooklyn) or West Coast parrots (New Jersey)? The Monk Parrot colony is on Amsterdam Avenue at 103rd Street. Urban Hawk writes:

The closest colony to Amsterdam Avenue, is in Edgewater, New Jersey. If a bird flew directly across the Hudson River it would arrive at around 138th and Riverside Drive going over the water for about a mile. (One of the unanswered question is do Monk Parakeets fly over large bodies of water?)

The birds have previously been seen in Central Park, at the 79th St. Boat Basin and on Riverside Drive this summer. The nearest Brooklyn colony is, apparently, in much-in-the-news Red Hook. Maybe they're trying to escape the Brooklyn parrot poachers or all the demolition and construction noise.
· East Vs. West, Where Did the Amsterdam Monks Come From? [Urban Hawks]
· Breaking News: Wild Parrots on Manhattan's UWS [Brooklyn Parrots]
· Brooklyn Mystery: Parrot Poaching in Midwood [Curbed]

CurbedWire: Faking It in Washington Heights?

Herewith CurbedWire in which we plumb our inbox for the need-to-know end-of-the-day buzz. Got something hot for the The Wire? Drop us a line.

1) Washington Heights: This ad seems to have all the trappings of a standard real estate promotion—3 bedrooms, 2 baths, renovations blah blah blah. But what's that in the corner? Our tipster writes, "Check out main photo. Are those real white people or photoshopped?" [CurbedWire Inbox]

2) Upper West Side: A reader wonders if business is really booming at the Rushmore. He writes, "The day the sales office opened they told people that all the one bedrooms were sold out and during yesterday’s Big Apple Circus promotion, they further said 20% of the units are sold. This is odd as the sales office is almost always empty. Perhaps they are doing their best to create the impression of a successful opening and/or prevent this project from competing with the still not sold out Avery." [CurbedWire Inbox]

3) Harlem: Are more changes in store for the troubled Harlem Park project? A tipster reports, "After years, the oversized billboards announcing the great coming of Harlem Park are finally down (right), no longer teasing Harlemites and Metro North commuters with false promises. Maybe this is a sign of new impetus into this much troubled project. Just maybe the politicians will stay away this time and let something rise out of this empty car park, I think not." [CurbedWire Inbox]

It Happened One Weekend: On the Joys of Rent Regulation

1) A battle rages over the few remaining tenants at 1200 Fifth Avenue, a classic prewar building designed by Emery Roth. The Chetrit Group have renovated the units to put them on the market, but the mainly elderly tenants who've chosen to stay suffered through months of pain including "sporadic water and power shutdowns, construction debris and broken elevators." With winter coming, they face a new issue: no heat. One tenant, Muriel Mendlowitz, was given "a single space heater 'the size of a toaster' to heat her huge seven-room apartment on the 15th floor, which has a view of Central Park." That unit is listed for $6 million, but she "is under no pressure to buy: the rent-regulated tenants left in the building are protected from eviction." [Josh Barbanel/The Big Deal]

2) We learn once again of the trials and tribulations of two recent college grads, Holles and Whitney, looking for their first apartment in New York. Even after spurring Brooklyn ("We didn’t see the point in moving to such an amazing city and being so far away from everything") revising their requirements, and dealing with shady brokers, the perfect apartment proved elusive. Finally, after being beaten down by the process, the girls settled on a 2BR on East 66th for $1,725 sight unseen. Now, they're starting to get the hang of rent stabilization, saying “We are already planning to have our grandchildren live here.” [Joyce Cohen/The Hunt]

3) Suzanne Slesin takes a tour of David Rockwell's One Carnegie Hill. Part rental, part condo and part coop, we learn of overwhelming amenities like the pet spa, fitness center and lap pool and find some units more appealing than others. The best: 40C, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms over 1,162 square feet. [Suzanne Slesin/Window Shopping]

4) The City Section gets the word on the street about Atlantic Yards, interviewing residents and local businesspeople about the pending project. As always, opinions are mixed, with some excited about jobs and others worried about traffic and lack of light. Most amazingly, they find a real Nets fan who lives in Brooklyn and is ready to cheer on his hometown team: "We could walk right to the Atlantic Yards from our house and watch a basketball game. That’s a beautiful thing." [Jennifer Bleyer/On the Block]

Columbia Expansion Conflict: Still Ripening on the Vine

The conflict over Coumbia University's mammoth 17-acre campus expansion north of 125th Street continues to ripen. There was a heavily attended meeting this weekend about the upcoming negotiations over the Community Benefits Agreement for the Manhattanville expansion. The Columbia Spectator reports that the meeting went on for six hours and that some in attendance urged that the Community Benefits Agreement not be "a payoff in exchange for which the University is allowed to proceed with its expansion however it wants." For the anti-expansion plan take check out stopcolumbia.org, which is an outgrowth of the Coalition to Preserve Community. Their site describes the expansion as a plan to "bulldoze 18 acres of West Harlem, displacing families and eliminating businesses and jobs, to expand and develop a hazardous biotech research center."
· Development Group Meets Community [Columbia Spectator]
· Stop Columbia Website [stopcolumbia.org]
· Movement in Manhattanville: CU Tweaks Campus Plans [Curbed]

Student Loan Woes: CCNY Dorm The Towers Too Pricey

The Columbia Spectator reports that less than half of residents at the CCNY dorm The Towers are actually CCNY students. Apparently, $775 to $1075 a month is too much to hack. (Now everyone take a deep breath and count to ten...)

Other residents are from different CUNY schools, such as Diane Teske, who was scared of having a "Laguna Beach roommate."

And to tickle Curbed readers' fancy, CCNY Director of Public Relations Ellis Simon has to throw in this little gem: "Now we can appeal to students ... who are looking for the residential experience at a public college and also be able to offer them that experience in a locale that's just minutes from midtown Manhattan." Sigh.
· CCNY Dorm Receives Mediocre Welcome [Columbia Spectator]
· Fist-Shaking at CCNY's Towers [Curbed]