Vacant as the day it was born.

Nearly two decades after George and Antonia Pavia signed a lease on their Upper East Side townhouse with notoriously litigious tenant James Couri, sparking years of legal wrangling and copious quantities of press, the couple's time at 18 East 73rd Street is finally coming to a close: they've signed a contract to sell the neo-Georgian brick townhouse for $19.5 million to an undisclosed buyer, according to Douglas Elliman, who represented the sellers.

The dispute between the Pavias and James Couri began back in 2000, but was immortalized in a nearly 3,500-word New York Times piece six years later, in which Mr. Couri's formidable legal history (he was named as a party in almost 150 cases, they wrote) and bizarre letter-writing style ("Your father was a fascist sympathizer and you were a member of the Mussolini-Fascist youth corps during pre-World War II," he wrote in a 2002 letter to Mr. Pavia) was laid bare.

Mr. Couri accused Mr. Pavia of neglecting to fix a mold problem in his unit and hiding the building's rent stabilized status (and then became incensed when the other tenants in the building declined to join in his legal crusade against their landlord "because they thought their rents were reasonable").

He told the Times that "Pavia has as much a chance of evicting me on a nuisance charge as I do of waking up in the morning as Prince Charles," but while Mr. Couri has not—to our knowledge—transmogrified into the British monarch, he did lose his case after it reached the New York State Supreme Court (not, confusingly enough, the state's highest court—that honor belongs to the Court of Appeals).

"We delivered the house vacant," the Pavias' broker, Corinne Pulitzer, told The Observer. (The other tenants were on month-to-month leases, so a trip to Albany was not necessary.)

The lot, she continued, "is exceptionally deep—almost 107 feet," which allows for a "double backyard patio." The house is "practically 23-feet wide," she continued. "It has some interior features which I don't know if this buyer's going to keep, but it has some beautiful mantles and paneling."

"The façade of the house," Mr. Pulitzer said, "was done by William Lawrence Bottomley," who worked extensively in Virginia, and has to be maintained because the home sits in a landmarked district. "And of course it faces the Pulitzer Mansion" at No. 11, said Ms. Pulitzer, whose ex-husband is a member of the illustrious family.

Thanks to its location—just steps from Central Park—and a willingness to compromise on the part of the sellers—"we bit the bullet early and dropped the asking price from $24 million to $21.5 million," said Ms. Pulitzer—the house sold relatively quickly. "All the other houses that seem to be languishing a bit seem to be east of Madison"—earning them the dreaded "Yorkville" moniker—"but this is clearly a sale of 'location, location, location.' "

The new owners, however, won't risk repeating the Pavias' mistakes. "They're going to gut renovate the entire house and he's going to live there," said Ms. Pulitzer.

We're more than a little jealous of the views.

The Park Regis at 50 East 89th Street isn't what normally comes to mind when one thinks of $14 million penthouses. Built in 1974, it lacks the classical prewar touches of its Park and Fifth Avenue neighbors, and the standard unit sizes range from studios to two-bedrooms—not quite the palatial spreads that one expects from an eight-digit Upper East Side tower.

But what it lacks in outward beauty, the co-op makes up for with its interior and its views. Perched on the 32nd and 33rd floors, the unit has jaw-dropping views of Central Park, with just enough city in the frame to give it a Manhattan flavor ("Located in historic Carnegie Hill, The Park Regis offers the atmosphere of a small town," the building description claims—unconvincingly, if you ask us, the UES being one of America's densest neighborhoods), but not so much that you can't make out every feature in the park. The Central Park Reservoir is especially prominent. The grand prewar apartments on Fifth and Park may have stately exteriors, but they generally top out at around half the height of the Park Regis.

The interior views aren't half bad, either. The previous owner, Broadway legend Tommy Tune, combined a penthouse unit with the apartment downstairs. He then sold it for $6 million to its current owners and would-be sellers, Julia Kim and Stephen Rushmore, decamping to a magical tower apartment on the Far East Side.

The couple gave the apartment about as much attention as you could possibly ask for, with Ms. Kim quitting her banking job to spend all her time renovating the unit (terrace by Luciano Giubbilei, furniture by David Suterland, chandelier inspired by Dale Chihuly), according to a New York Times write-up back in 2007.

And the renovation appears to have paid off. The unit was featured in a coffee table book, which then caught the eye of Nieman Marcus, who sent a small army of people to do their fall shoot at the apartment a few weeks ago, according to broker Kianna Choi with Bond New York. We assume that Ms. Kim and Mr. Rushmore—who appear to be quite the clotheshounds from the look of their massive, customized closet—were thrilled.

We love you, No. 54, but you're bringing us down.

Last week, when we wrote up the contract signing on The Observer’s old Upper East Side home, the brokers we spoke with were skeptical that the house would fetch its ambitious $28 million ask.

"I have a feeling it’s going to be low," one veteran townhouse broker of 54 East 64th Street told us. Another concurred, throwing in a dig at Douglas Elliman super broker Dolly Lenz, whom the source claimed "tends to kind of dump her stuff."

While we were not privy to the price negotiations behind the sale of the salmon-tinted mansion, the gossip about the low price turned out to be quite prescient.

If anything, in fact, the brokers we spoke with weren't pessimistic enough. The property transfer deed hit city records around noon today, and it's worse than we expected: $18 million on the dot, or a full $2 million less than the previous owner purchased it for from Irish businessman Derek Quinlan in 2011. Not to mention that it's a breathtaking $10 million less than its ask. Selling at a deep discount after less than three months on the market, it sounds like the seller—a vaguely-named LLC, who, as we reported last week, may be Middle Eastern given that they took out a mortgage from a Lebanese bank—must have been highly motivated to cash in on the brick-faced home. Even if it meant taking a loss.

We aren't sure who the buyer is—they're listed only as an LLC with a care-of address at a fancy Park Avenue law firm—but the transfer deed listed the property as an office building, despite its location in an exclusively residential zone. Maybe another newspaper will be moving in?

Chelsea loft on offer from Halstead.

It’s Springtime in New York again—that short slice of heaven squeezed between the long cold winter and the long hot summer—and the real estate market appears to be sprouting green shoots in celebration.  For real this time. The kind of growth that the professionals seem to think can really last. That’s certainly the take that Diane Ramirez, president and co-founder of Halstead Property, shared in a recent interview. And she has some solid evidence to back that up, unmistakable trends she has spotted that indicate a kind of vigor in the market that is sustainable. The market, she posits, has become unfrozen, people are feeling less stuck, and rather than sitting tight with what they’ve got, they’re upsizing, downsizing, and just generally moving on with their lives. “That,” she insightfully says, “is what real estate is all about.”

And it is just that movement, that loosening up, that could point to a way out of the Manhattan market’s biggest quandary, the shortage of inventory. Sure, there are some developments in the pipeline, but people moving in and out create a more dynamic market. In the meantime, Halstead, the inventor of the storefront real estate office in Manhattan, continues to grow its own green shoots, with new offices sprouting up in Washington Heights and another planned for Southampton.

We chatted with Ms. Ramirez, a 35-year veteran of the business and grandmother of five who has herself dabbled in development, about the state of the market, and why she is feeling bullish this spring.

Diane Ramirez.

Q: What’s your take on Manhattan’s real estate market now? Everyone seems to feel that it is really heating up.

A: The market cannot get any hotter than it has been. The last six months, everyone you speak to is breathless, the agents, the managers. The market is very hot.

Q: Has it flipped from being a buyers’ market back to the sellers?

A: It is a sellers’ market, but you still must be properly priced. The sky is not the limit. We are starting to push the market for sellers more, but if you go out of the realm of reality, you lose your entrée into the market. And then people remember your property as being over-priced.

But if you are well-priced, at most price points, mostly two bedrooms and up, you are going to get multiple bids.

Q:  If buyers are getting priced out of Manhattan, where can they go? Brooklyn?

A:  Brooklyn is very hot. In some instances they are seeing Manhattan-like prices.

We just opened an office in Washington Heights. In Washington Heights and Hudson Heights, prices are very attractive, and it’s beautiful up there. Water views, pre-war buildings.

We picked up Stein-Perry, a very well-respected firm in Washington Heights. Gus Perry, who heads up that firm, knows the area very well. We love growing with someone who is well known in the community. We’re interested in the Upper West Side, all the way up to the Bronx. And we remain committed to Harlem as well.

Q: Do you have any other expansion plans?

A: We have also expanded in the Hamptons. We are in East Hampton and we will open in Southampton.  Our group is very strategic.

Q: What is your advice to buyers right now? 

A:  If you are looking to buy, get in there, and if you see something you like, don’t hesitate. The market is truly back. We are not seeing huge spikes, but it is starting to rise. Go for it aggressively. If you lose one, it will likely be more expensive next time around. The trend is that prices are steadily rising. I think that’s going to continue for a couple of years. Don’t try to time the market. Any area that touches Manhattan and is well served by transportation is bound to rise.

Q: What is your personal approach to real estate?  Where do you live, for instance?

A:  I live on the Upper East Side now. I’ve been back here for five years. I love change and love to try new neighborhoods. It’s nice to live in the 60s. My husband and I and the children are all settled nearby. We take in everything the city has to offer. Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall. Culturally, it can’t be beat. I find New York very healthy. It’s so diverse.

Before this, I was downtown. We tried FiDi. And before that I tried Tribeca. I hadn’t experienced living in a loft, so I wanted to try that. We bought the top floor and the air rights, and then my son and I did a joint venture where we built two apartments. Then we bought a garage on Greenwich and Hubert and put plans together for a seven-story building. We did not end up building it, but we sold the plans. They built it exactly to our specifications. My son bought  a fabulous townhouse in the 30s. And my daughter is not too far away in Connecticut. We’ve got five wonderful grandchildren altogether.

Q: Real estate professionals talk about how little inventory there is in the city. Is there anything in the pipeline that is going to change that?

A:  There is nothing that is going to open the floodgates, but new development is starting to come online.

But more significantly, people are really getting on with their lives, and that is where the break in the inventory is going to happen. People have been holding tight for a while, and staying put. Now they are moving on with their lives, and that is what real estate is all about. People going from having two to three bedrooms, having another child, or downsizing after the kids leave. Getting stuck is not healthy. It’s refreshing what’s going on now. We are seeing more movement in the resale market and we are returning to a much more normal ebb and flow.

We will still have tight inventory. Inventory is going to be a problem, but it’s going to get a little better. This is where I differ from some of my colleagues.

Q: Who is buying these days? 

A:  Everyone is thinking real estate again. First-time buyers, young people coming to the city. People whose children have left home are moving into the city, and families still want to be here. Foreigners still know that New York City is a great place to be.

It is unlike Connecticut and New Jersey, where we also have offices. There you tend to see one kind of buyer. Here it is much more diverse.

Another thing that we are seeing is that people are starting to look again for fixer-uppers, whereas before everyone wanted only finished apartments that needed no work. The fact that people are looking for fixer-uppers, where they can make their own dream home, is another sign of optimism and a healthy market.

jallon@observer.com

Modest façade yields modest returns.

John Thaler is best known for his tech-heavy hedge fund picks, but this morning he cashed out on a more old world investment: real estate. The JAT Capital manager just sold his condo combo at 450 East 83rd Street for $5.2 million, according to city records.

Mr. Thaler bought the two 17th-floor apartments at the Cielo in 2006 and 2009, for a combined total of almost $4.4 million. After an average of five years of ownership, his profit—exclusive of any taxes, fees or renovation costs—comes out to about $800,000, or an average return on his initial investment of about 3.4 percent per year.

While it beats inflation, this return pales in comparison to the gains—and losses—that Mr. Thaler has taken on his high-flying hedge fund. Down just 6 percent in 2008, a year that the major indices were pummeled with massive losses, Mr. Thaler made gains over the next three years—20 percent in 2009, 10 percent in 2010 and 17 percent in 2011.

But once the recession eased, Mr. Thaler's magic seemed to wear off. Once up 30 percent, Mr. Thaler's JAT Capital took a sharp nose dive in mid-2012, falling 20 percent at one point, torpedoed by a bad bet on Tempur-Pedic and misguided pessimism on Weight Watchers, Sears and the Chinese search engine Alibaba.com. While 3.4 percent may have been a paltry return compared to the torrential pace at which he accumulated value during the recession, this modest Upper East Side return was likely a welcome respite from the losses he's taken more recently.

The 3,500-square foot spread spans two corner units at this anodyne tower, built in 2006. At one point Mr. Thaler wanted significantly more for the unit: according to the New York Post, he was trying for $6.4 million at the beginning of 2012. His Brown Harris Stevens brokers, Drew Glick and Richard Ferrari, seem to have brought Mr. Thaler's ambitions back down to earth, though, relisting the unit for a more reasonable $5.45 million at the end of last year.

Gerald Walker (we're guessing not the 25-year-old Chicago-born rapper) and his wife, Laura, are the buyers. As for Mr. Thaler, we don't see any new purchases in city records. He may be renting, or he may have retreated back to his 11,000-square foot, seven-bedroom home in hedge fund heaven: Greenwich, Connecticut.

It's no Graceland, but 151 East 72nd Street will have to do for Mr. Sillerman.

After his $50 million golf venture on the Caribbean island of Anguilla went spectacularly awry, Robert F.X. Sillerman told the New York Post, "I think I have shown conclusively I’m not knowledgeable enough about the real estate business."

Poor judgment in the West Indies aside, we're betting that the music industry Renaissance man—Mr. Sillerman's business interests range from the concert promoting titan that became Live Nation to Elvis's old Graceland estate—will do a lot better with his latest purchase: a $12 million limestone townhouse on the Upper East Side.

The five-story, 18.5-foot-wide home was sold by HBO CEO Richard Plepler, who was not easily parted with the townhouse. After buying 151 East 72nd Street for almost $8.2 million in 2002, he got greedier than a Valyrian slave trader and tried to double his money by asking $18.5 million in 2008. While he may have had some takers a year earlier, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy not a week later, prompting his broker, Jaar-Mel Sloane of Sloane Square, to pull the listing a short time after.

Three and a half years later, Mr. Plepler and his broker tried again, listing the unit for $16.5 million. With no takers half a year later, they finally arrived at a more reasonable asking price: $13 million.

Two months later, a deal was struck—a deal that we now know was for $12 million, according to city records.

The house itself is a bit of an odd duck. Despite its five levels, it only has three bedrooms, though they're all labeled "master bedroom" on the floor plan. What appears to be the real master is two stories tall, with half of the second being open to the first. And while the house doesn't have a proper backyard, it does have an addition that provides for a sky-lit dining room and terrace above.

To enter the house, Mr. Sillerman will have to descend half a level below-grade—we'll call it a limestone take on the New York City club experience.

Mr. Sillerman's neighbors will be pleased to know, though, that despite his February acquisition of Beatport, the online electronic dance music megastore, there will be no grimy dubstep or booming bass emanating from 151 East 72nd Street: his own tastes lean towards Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, according to The New York Times.

No word on whether the Times globe comes with the apartment.

The newspaper industry may be in secular decline, but at least the Sulzbergers' bank accounts will be buoyed in the coming months: the late Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger, Sr.'s palatial pad just sold for a cool $12.5 million, according to city records.

The eighth-floor corner unit at 1010 Fifth Avenue, a 15-story limestone prewar, has three bedrooms, including the master, which overlook the Metropolitan Museum of Art, plus another overlooking East 82nd Street. And it also has no shortage of storage space: we count 18 closets, including a few walk-ins (the Times may need to find a new place to keep its archives).

Sheila Ellis at Sotheby's was tight-lipped about her listing when we called, which she shared with Patricia Wheatley, though the duo wasn't shy about touting its bold-faced bonafides in the listing, which described the co-op as "the home of one of the world's most prestigious and well known families."

Now it's the home of Alessandro Saracino and wife Maria de la Fe. Mr. Saracino works at is a partner at Pavia & Harcourt LLP, toiling in the firm's litigation and arbitration practice group, which specializes in intellectual property. And it must pay well, because 1010 Fifth only allows 40 percent of a unit's purchase price to be financed—the rest has to be paid in cold, hard cash.

That said, Mr. and Ms. Saracino did get a bit of a deal on the co-op: it was listed for $14 million at the beginning of December, and the Sulzberger heirs were apparently quite eager to sell, even at a discount, because the listing entered contract less than two weeks after it was put on the market.

Perhaps the younger Sulzbergers just wanted to put Manhattan behind them. Judith Sulzberger's sons sold their San Remo pad in 2011; Sam Dolnick, Punch's grand-nephew, bought a $1.9 million townhouse in Carroll Gardens in 2012, and Arthur G. Sulzberger III bought a more restrained $610,000 one-bedroom in Cobble Hill in the same year.

Sounds like somebody's been reading the Times' trend pieces.

Junior, though, has stayed true to his blue-blooded uptown heritage: the New York Times publisher owns a $3.9 million penthouse on the Upper West Side.

Violet the Frenchie rocks her tramp stamp (Photo: Jorge Bendersky)

Nowadays, doggies searching for an act of youthful rebellion have more options than just pooping on the carpet.

Pooches can embrace their inner punk by getting "inked"–yep, that’s right–with a new doggie tattooing service offered by Upper East Side Celebrity Dog Groomer, Jorge Bendersky.

According to an email from Dana Humphrey, Bendersky's P.R. rep, glitter tattoos are the latest trend in canine fashion.

“Bendersky has always been a fan of the ink and wears bold tattoos himself. Now, he extends his love for tattoos to his furry friends," the email reads. "Glitter Tattoos for dogs allow your pooch to express their inner artistic selves by prancing around and showing off their snazzy glitter design.”

Ms. Humphrey says that female pups tend to prefer a rose, butterfly or heart design, while males prefer a star, anchor or a skull and crossbones. Although, if you ask us, we bet what both would really prefer is walkies and some table scraps, and not having a glittery decal imprinted onto their hindquarters. Just speculating here.

Mr. Bendersky says that the tattoos are especially popular on short-haired dogs. "In the summer, they cut the dogs' hair short, so you've got to supplement the glamour," he told DNAinfo. "Having no hair is no excuse not to be glamorous."

According to DNAinfo, advocates of canine couture have warmly embraced the new trend.

Upper East Side resident Fallon O'Brien got a butterfly tattooed on Fletch, her 7 year-old chihuahua. "I go to a lot of events, and people dress up their dogs in expensive outfits, and it was something I could do to make my dog stand out that wasn't that expensive," the 33 year-old teacher was quoted as saying.

Jackie the Jack Russell gets tatted up (Photo: Jorge Bendersky)

"Sometimes, my dog and I dress in the same color if we're going to a red carpet event. During the summer, it's just too hot to have him wearing outfits like that," she continued. "The tattoo is a good option."

After Joanne Pelzer gave her 8 year-old chihuahua Hubbell a heart tattoo, she was shocked at the attention he received.

"When I'm in Central Park. tourists are constantly stopping to see him. He absolutely loves the attention," she said. "All he does is get his nails cut, and I comb him to get that extra hair off, so it is fun to have this little fun thing for him."

The process costs $100 and involves filling in a stencil with canine-safe glue and adding glitter and rhinestones. These are most often placed on the dogs’ hips or tailbone, making for the canine equivalent of a lower back tat.

That’s right, Upper East Siders. Come summer, you can trade in your doggie’s Chanel coat and booties for ... a tramp stamp.

Fashion is a fickle mistress.

It might not look like much, but 912 Fifth Avenue has park views and Lord Norman Foster's pied-à-terre on the eighth floor.

Zoe Cruz has had a tough couple of years. Once the highest paid woman in finance and on track to succeed Jack Mack as CEO of Morgan Stanley, Ms. Cruz was publicly ousted from the firm in 2007 after the mortgage unit she ran lost $3.7 billion. Just last year she had to liquidate her $200 million hedge fund, Voras Capital, when its value dropped 8 percent in a year, and now, according to rumors reported by the New York Post, she's splitting up with Ernesto Cruz, her husband of three decades.

Nothing a little real estate therapy can't solve. Ms. Cruz—but not Mr. Cruz—just closed on a $7.34 million, 15th-floor unit at 912 Fifth Avenue, a limestone pre-war building between East 72nd and 73rd Streets, according to city records.

The unit boasts 2,700 square feet of space, three bedrooms and bathrooms and two maid's rooms (it hasn't been on the market for 40 years), but likely isn't in great condition—"Bring your architect/designer," the listing description reads ominously. The building's bones were, however, solid enough that Lord Norman Foster bought up the whole eighth floor a few years ago.

Ms. Cruz bought the apartment from the estate of Leon Jolson, who passed away at home in 2009 at the ripe old age of 96. Mr. Jolson was born in Poland, and survived the Warsaw Ghetto and concentration camp before emigrating to New York after the war, where he made his millions selling sewing machines.

The sale—which closed a bit above the $7.2 million ask—was brokered by Susanna Lendrum of Corcoran, who told The Observer that the buyer and seller did not want any press (oops!).

It is also home to one of the city’s longest-running construction projects, the Second Avenue Subway, which has disrupted residents, merchants and traffic farther to the east for the last seven years. But the end is in sight. The project is slated for completion in 2016. And the removal of those barricades and final silence of the jackhammers will just be harbingers of the renaissance of a transportation corridor, and the neighborhood surrounding it. The advice of many a real estate professional: Buy soon if you can, rather than kick yourself later with 20-20 hindsight when the subway is done.

In recent years, the Upper East Side has, according to some experts, lost some of its luster as the magnet for the young, the hip and the cool arriving in New York to make their mark. But with its great schools, parks and amenities, it remains a draw for families, and others looking for a good value in a city that, even through a severe downturn, remains strong, vibrant and safe, and where owning even a tiny piece of the pie is an investment that seldom goes sour.

Robert Schulman, associate broker and executive managing director at Warburg Realty, says that now is a great time to buy on the Upper East Side, because the neighborhood is where you can get the best value. “In the past few years, it wasn’t appreciating as fast as other neighborhoods, so you get the most for your money,” he says. At the same time, he cautions that the opportunity to get great value won’t last long. “Prices on condos, co-ops and townhouses are steadily increasing.”

Even in this past winter, the season when the market typically slows, Jacky Teplitzky, managing director, Douglas Elliman, and leader of the Jacky Teplitzky team, says open houses have attracted steady traffic, and sales have been strong. She only expects those numbers to improve with spring.  “In relative terms, there is more to choose from in terms of housing as there is more inventory, unlike most of Manhattan,” she says, explaining why the Upper East Side will always be popular. “The options are diverse and there is a range of price points.”

Today’s buyer wants everything in mint condition. “They don’t want to do any remodeling,” Ms. Teplitzky says. “The ideal properties are move-in-ready. Buyers are specific in what they want regarding amenities as well, such as a doorman building, gym, storage and bike room. Buyers also want views and plenty of natural light.”

And they want condos. While 75 percent of the housing on the Upper East Side is co-op, luxury condo developments are what are really on the rise, so to speak, and large apartments in these brand new structures are selling out at the highest numbers. Among those buildings and developments are: The Skyline Development at 200 East 79th Street, The Lucida at 151 East 85th Street, The Brompton at 205 East 85th Street, the Georgica at 305 East 85th Street, 135 East 79th Street, and The Chatham, new luxury townhomes on East 65th Street, and The Helmsley Carlton House at 21 East 61st Street, formerly a hotel, now a condo building offering the luxury amenities of a hotel.

“In the case of The Lucida, The Brompton, Georgica, and 170 East End Avenue, we see that luxury condominium offerings are moving north and east,” say Adrienne Albert and Jacqueline Urgo of The Marketing Directors, a development advisory and master property marketing and sales force that works on behalf of owners and builders of new homes. “Expanded retail offerings and higher demand from a greater number of market segments means that the coming years will be good ones for residential real estate on the Upper East Side.”

Among the developments moving north and east, the Azure at 333 East 91st Street is a sort of hybrid co-op/condo (it’s legally a co-op but has condo rules). With its far east address, on First and 91st, the building might be seen as off the beaten track, but that is not what its co-developers, The DeMatteis Organizations and The Mattone Group, are finding. For one thing, several private schools in the area, Spence, Sacred Heart and Trevor Day, are all building athletic facilities nearby, which will further enhance the neighborhood. And the building is already 75 percent sold, with two-, three- and four-bedroom units on the 21st through 34th floors remaining. The developers built the building so that two two-bedroom apartments can be combined for larger family apartments, and the developer offers to do the combining itself, saving potential buyers many contracting headaches. The building also offers some 6,000 square feet of amenities, including a large dining room with catering facilities that residents can reserve and use for entertaining.

“The area is very popular among families because the neighborhood has the best public and private schools in the city,” says Douglas MacLaury of the Mattone Group, “and because it is near both Carl Schurz and Central Park.” The development even included the building of a public school, M.S. 114, a middle school with 530 seats, and a totally separate entrance, under a program which helps the city to get new and needed schools, and developers to get certain tax breaks.

The completion of the Second Avenue Subway will benefit those who buy into the Azure, and many others. “We predict that by the time the construction is complete, the face of Second Avenue retail will have changed completely, making way for high-end stores, markets and restaurants,” say Albert and Urgo of The Marketing Directors. “This will cause property values on Second Avenue and the nearby streets on the Upper East Side to rise. Plus, the new subway line will create easier access from the Upper East Side to other neighborhoods in the city, making it a great place to live.”