By Matt Chaban 9/20/12 2:32pm

Gettin' High Line

Change on the tracks. (Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)

Bloomberg to High Line Haters: Cities Change, Get Over It

The High Line. Rejuvenator of neighborhoods, destroyer of neighborhoods.

Those are basically the two media narratives surrounding the elevated park on Manhattan’s West Side, which just held the groundbreaking for its third and final phase today. Most of the attention in the past has been on how great the design-y new park is, but as locals learn to live with the millions of visitors who flock to the park each year, some of them have started to complain, most notably in the Op-Ed pages of the Times, that the High Line has actually ruined, or at least Disneyfied, the neighborhoods surrounding it.

Asked about these changes today, Mayor Bloomberg did not necessarily disagree with the situation, just the sentiment. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/24/12 4:06pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Prime real estate. (Google Maps)

Meatpacking District Officially Dead as Last Independent Butcher Makes Way for More Luxury Retail

The Meatpacking District is now as dead as the cattle carcasses that once poured blood onto its cobblestone streets. The last independent meat supplier in a neighborhood that once has more than 200 has moved into a city-controlled co-op in the neighborhood, the last redoubt of steaks and chops in the area. Weischel Beef is being replaced with—yep—more high-end retail, according to The Real Deal. Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/16/12 3:54pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Uptown becomes more downmarket.

Madison Avenue Is the New Meatpacking District Is the New SoHo

Once upon a time, different kinds of shops existed in different neighborhoods, catering to the different people who lived in those neighborhoods. Quaint, right? But that was then and this is now. And now every corner of Manhattan has been pretty thoroughly colonized, and homogenized, by upscale chain stores.

The transformation doesn’t only happen to formerly-gritty, formerly-edgy neighborhoods, either. The New York Times reports that Madison Avenue is the latest location to undergo such delightful changes—changes that have helped the street shake off its post-recession malaise at the same time that retailers like Juicy Couture and J.Crew are not exactly brands that the most insular and upscale of all Manhattan shopping districts would have originally welcomed with open arms. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/06/12 10:57am

Dizzying Designs

345 Meatpacking. (DDG Partners)

Meet 345 Meatpacking, the New Condo Soon to Emerge from Yayoi Kusama’s Yellow Wrapper

Yayoi Kusama’s snake-like wrapper for a new Meatpacking District condo project tied up New Yorkers attention on Friday when it was first revealed—a collaboration between the Whitney and developers DDG Partners, the nifty netting has yet to be installed. But what is hidden behind one of the biggest pieces of public art to appear downtown in awhile? Some 37 luxury condo units, of course. Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/02/12 10:38am

High Line Living

Show yourself! (Aguinalda Rocca, flickr)

Exhibitionists, Show Offs Love Living In High Line Apartments

Modesty has never been New York’s strong suit, but some residents are so dismissive of the so-called virtue that they’ve purchased apartments in the new buildings along the High Line simply for the thrill of seeing and being seen.

While some of the residents of older buildings along the park were unhappy to find their daily routines become a spectacle, The New York Times reports that new buildings like HL23, Ten23 and 245 Tenth attract people who enjoy being on display. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 9/06/11 4:00pm

lease beat

Upscale Footwear Walks Into 807 Washington

Fashionable club-goers and maybe even a few hog butchers will be able to navigate the brick roads of the meatpacking district in style now that Nicholas Kirkwood, the upscale designer footwear brand has inked a 1,572-square-foot retail deal at 807 Washington Street.

Located between Gansevoort and Horatio streets, the ground-floor boutique is scheduled to open by winter of 2012, broker said. As with most space—office and retail alike—asking prices have risen in the area since the High Line park opened two years ago, although specific prices at 807 Washington Street were not immediately available. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/20/11 6:18pm

Dizzying Designs

Torque it real good. (MA Architects)

Twisted! High Line Gets Another Swank Neighbor

The architecture magnet that is the High Line is still attracting those big steel-and-glass gems. The Standard, the Whitney, Diane Von Furstenburg’s place, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Neil Denari and his crooked HL23—all are there, and so is Morris Adjmi. He already has the XXX-rated High Line Building, and he has been hard at work wooing the Landmarks Preservation Commission with his designs for 837 Washington Street. Yesterday, the commission approved the project 8-2. Read More