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Kim Velsey

By Kim Velsey 6/18 6:18pm

New Developments

A rendering of the building with its roof-top addition, where the penthouse "tower residences" will be located.

10 Madison Square West: A Study In Classy Neutrals

A decade (or two) ago it might have been adventurous for an upper-middle-class brood to move downtown, but now going south is about as edgy as a pair of Tori Burch flats. Gone are the days when artistic sorts divvied up Tribeca lofts or crammed themselves into Chelsea walk-ups —now well-to-do clans simply plunk down a few million for a three or four-bedroom condo in a new development, put in an application at Avenues and call it a day. “Downtown” is no longer a lifestyle descriptor, but a geographic one.

Reflective of this shift, many of the new downtown developments now coming to market are far from daring in their design choices. While every so often a condo like Blue comes along and pushes the envelope, more often than not, new construction and conversions display the  “classic,” very vanilla stylings that, not incidentally, tend to sell very well. Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/18 9:55am

Elsewhere

On the Market: NYU Helps Finance Academics’ Summer Homes; Nobody Likes SeaPort City; BAM South to Move Forward

NYU gives its academic stars loans for summer homes. [NYT]
Some Stuy-Town tenants may get a reprieve from mid-lease rent hikes. [Curbed]
Chelsea Clinton’s husband lists condo, prepares for Whitman relocation. [TRD]
New York’s narrowest house finally finds a buyer. [Curbed]
Bloomberg’s SeaPort City plan hits with a thud. [WSJ]
Iggy Pop’s video tour of the East Village. [Gothamist]
Developers can’t agree on a name for the far East Village, but sales are brisk. [NYT]
Brooklyn paper reporter tries out for the Brooklynettes. [Bk Paper]
BAM South plan wins city council approval, but with a few concessions. [Crain's]
Michael Kimmelman on MoMA’s Le Corbusier exhibition. [NYT]
What we can take away from the Phoenix housing market’s resurgence. [WSJ]
Hundreds of residents are pissed about J. Crew pushing out Cobble Hill grocery. [Bk Eagle]

By Kim Velsey 6/14 12:59pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Once it gets a DSW and a Pink Berry, Coney Island will really come into its own.

Coney Island To Become Cool and “Glitzy” With Chains Like Applebee’s, Johnny Rockets and Red Mango

Coney Island is okay and all—it has the Mermaid Parade and the Cyclone, the boardwalk and the beach—but some “hip” national chains like Applebee’s are poised to take the seaside destination to another level, according to the New York Daily News.

Because not only is the suburban staple “hip,” it is also glitzy—two words that though not often used in the same sentence, no doubt spring to the lips of New Yorkers when they think of strip malls, highway exit ramps and establishments that serve chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks and oversized, sugary cocktails.  Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/14 9:12am

Elsewhere

On the Market: Related To Ban Smoking In All Rentals; Reality Star Broker Investigated For Doctoring Photos; America’s Mansion Supply Is Dwindling

E gads! A woman sustained minor injuries on a Citibike. [DNAinfo]
How Superstorm Sandy will reshape the building code. [Crain's]
A changed neighborhood houses two architectural retail gems. [NYT]
Housing group presses New York’s next mayor to make affordable housing gains. [WSJ]
Ben & Jerry’s to create city-inspired ice cream flavors. [Atlantic Cities]
Manhattan broker investigated for photoshopping townhouse photos. [Post]
Related to ban smoking in all apartments nationwide. [NYT]
Williamsburg community board to fight boozy barbershop. [Gothamist]
Neither cars nor bikes flock to Barclays, arena-goers favor public transport. [NYT]
Thor Equities is also going on a buying spree in Chicago. [Bloomberg]
Midtown South office leasing tightens, but Downtown lags. [TRD]
Mansion supply dwindles in America’s wealthiest towns. [CNBC]
Meditation is becoming more mainstream in New York. [DNAinfo]
Now renters are unable to find a $2,800 a month two-bedroom in Greenpoint? [Brownstoner]
Storage companies focus on increasingly lucrative Manhattan market. [TRD]
Neo-traditional affordable housing rises in Bed-Stuy. [Brownstoner]
Daily News claims that Coney Island is attracting “hip” chains. Like Applebees. [Daily News]
MTA awards $208 million contract to complete the first phase of Second Ave. subway. [Crain's]
Fed paper revives debate about taking over underwater mortgages via eminent domain. [Bloomberg]

By Kim Velsey 6/13 3:45pm

Selling New York

Coming to New York.

Coldwell Banker Partners With Bellmarc To Make Incursion Into New York Real Estate Market

Coldwell Banker—it’s a name that most Americans know from front yard for-sale signs across the country. Most Americans, that is, except for New Yorkers. But now Coldwell Banker is making inroads into in what may well be the most lucrative—and most competitive—real estate market in the country.

The mega-brokerage (the company claims to be the largest real estate franchise in North America) has announced that it will be entering the New York market via a franchise agreement with residential brokerage the Bellmarc Group (which acquired rental-focused rival AC Lawrence last November). The two companies will now be known as Coldwell Banker Bellmarc and Coldwell Banker AC Lawrence—a relationship that will give the real estate giant a toehold in the clubby world of New York real estate while offering Bellmarc a connection to Coldwell’s national and international network of clients. Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/13 9:13am

Elsewhere

On the Market: Not Excatly a Business Boom Around Barclays; NYCHA Plans Layoffs; Dolly Lenz Departs Douglas Elliman

Some people are using Citibike for spinning (why not just bike?). [NYT]
Barclays brings a few new customers to nearby businesses. [WSJ]
New Bay Ridge massage parlors stoke fears of prostitution. [Bk Paper]
Dolly Lenz is leaving Douglas Elliman—but where is she going? [TRD]
A happy ending: Story House condo sells out. [Curbed]
The carriage houses of Brooklyn Heights. [Brownstoner]
Hasidic women complain that there’s no guarantee of a female lifeguard. [DNAinfo]
New York City beaches get sharp new signs after Sandy. [Atlantic Cities]
Florida billionaire Jeff Greene is planning two Manhattan condo projects. [TRD]
McCarren Park tennis courts to get heated bubbles in the winter. [DNAinfo]
We all scream for ice cream: the frozen yogurt invasion of Astoria. [Daily News]
Firefighters rescue trapped firefigthers dangling outside of Hearst Tower. [Post]
NYCHA plans layoffs and senior, community center closures in response to sequester. [WSJ]

By Kim Velsey 6/12 11:10am

LIFE'S A BEACH

Jacob Riis Park: one of the top contenders for hipster domination.

What Beach Will Hipsters Grace With Their Presence This Summer?

Now that they can no longer frolic topless at Fort Tilden, where will the hipsters sunbathe and swim this summer? What beach is cool, but not trying too hard to seem cool? Populated with just enough locals to add authenticity, but not so many that hipsters can’t dominate the scene? Gentrified enough to sell gourmet street food? Or remote enough to have an unenforced BYOB policy? Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/12 9:01am

Elsewhere

On the Market: A Huge Property Tax Break for Goldman Sachs; Coney Island Pleads for Its Own Ferry; Councilmember Threatens to Stymie BAM Condo Plans

The Super Bowl will bring a toboggan to Times Square in 2014?! [Gothamist]
Marketing professionals rejoice at finding $2,500 one-bedroom in Boerum Hill. [NYT]
Coney Island businesses want city to subsidize ferry from Manhattan. [Bk Paper]
Soho Louis Vuitton adds in-store atelier. [Racked]
Rents rise in Manhattan; the median rent in Soho/Tribeca is now $5,300. [Crain's]
Bike share is popular, but plagued by uncommon glitches. [NYT]
Subtle forms of discrimination still persist in the housing market. [Atlantic Cities]
The 1910 “high class” apartments of New York. [Curbed]
Goldman Sachs to get huge property tax break on headquarters. [TRD]
Cobble Hill produce store space to become bar. [DNAinfo]
But you know who isn’t complaining about Citibike glitches? Queens. [Brownstoner]
Dumbo mom takes storage ottoman to the next level with storage beanbag. [DNAinfo]
At $30k a month, triplex loft in the Village is too rich for even successful artists. [WSJ]
Letitia James threatens to withhold support for condo and cultural center. [Crain's]
A lot of people are still against the NYCHA land-lease luxury housing plan. [WSJ]

By Kim Velsey 6/11 9:11am

Elsewhere

On the Market: Corcoran Courts Brownstone Owners in Bed-Stuy; Queensway Plan Moves to RFP Phase; Are Institutional Investors Pushing Up Housing Prices?

Veterans find V.A. mortgage loans hard to swing in New York City. [NYT]
A tour inside Greenwood Cemetery’s catacombs. [Gothamist]
Is Related delaying the on-sale date of One Madison Park again? [Curbed]
Park Slope’s Tracy Mansion gets second price chop, is now just $15 M. [TRD]
Corcoran courts potential brownstone sellers in Bed-Stuy. [Browntoner]
New York’s population is growing, but where will we put them? [WSJ]
Harvard to women in 1961: graduate urban planning study not worth it. [Atlantic Cities]
Moving forward: RFP goes out for Queensway park design. [DNAinfo]
New York City’ newest immigrant enclaves. [NYT]
Are corporate home buyers inflating housing costs across the country? [WSJ]
Project Runway’s Christian Siriano has a kick-ass loft. [Village Voice]
Your Bushwick apartment may be rent stabilized. [Brokelyn]
Foreclosure threatens to shutter a counter-cultural soapbox. [NYT]
Owner wants hardship exemption to tear down landmarked UES apartments. [Crain's]
Parents at UWS’s P.S. 199 break from PTA to openly fight redevelopment plan. [DNAinfo]
Super generic blurb about Greenwich Village residents opposing a new development. [Post]

By Kim Velsey 6/10 6:35pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Cuts to housing subsidies hit New York. (Bonile Bam/Getty Images)

Section 8 Cuts Threaten to Diminish Access to Affordable Housing

New York is a city beset by an affordable housing crisis—market forces are eliminating affordable units faster than the city can add them, even rents in the least-expensive neighborhoods are beyond the reach of low-income workers—and now, major cuts to Section 8 program threaten to further reduce low-income New Yorker’s access to affordable housing.

Federal sequestration will cut $120 million from the rental subsidy program, according to Crain’s. To deal with the cuts, government agencies that administer the housing vouchers may reduce the number issued this year by as many as 6,000; other cuts will come in the form of reduced subsidies, forcing tenants and Section 8 housing providers to pick up the slack. Read More