Are abridged vanities permitted, such as the 'Eleven Fifty' example below?
I live on Park Ave between 57 and 58 th street
A new building being built on 57th street proper, closer to the middle of 57th st than Park Ave, has the address 432 Park Ave.
You must laugh at the "creative" marketing of the developers - especially considering the asking price of a penthouse unit is 95 million.
A new building being built on 57th street proper, closer to the middle of 57th st than Park Ave, has the address 432 Park Ave.
You must laugh at the "creative" marketing of the developers - especially considering the asking price of a penthouse unit is 95 million.
1
When I was in the Navy 1971- 1975 everyone had Alabama license plates on their cars overseas. It had the lowest priced and easiest registration. Your address was PO Box 1
RFD 1
Mobile AL
Registering a car in Puerto Rico meat paying the insular tax which was 25% of the sale price. OK if you were going to run it as a Publico but not as a private car.
RFD 1
Mobile AL
Registering a car in Puerto Rico meat paying the insular tax which was 25% of the sale price. OK if you were going to run it as a Publico but not as a private car.
Same nonsense happens in LA from where I hail. Has anyone heard of BHPO or BH adjacent. All about Beverly Hills---more people live in the city of Los Angeles but share a famous zip code and the real estate industry milks this anomaly---ie, marketing what are essentially dilapidated cabins from the 1920 in what were once narrow canyon lanes as "Beverly Hills" because of their zip codes!
30 years ago I took advantage of a scheme run by an Alabama pol, who would sell square inches of land for a fee, along with your very own license plate. This meant no inspections (big savings for truck trailers), no insurance, no bothersome red tape. It may still be going on. Seems like things are the same all over; if there's a buck to be made, someone will find it.
Won't these buyers seem a little foolish when their visitors arrive and can't locate them because they are NOT ON PARK AVENUE!?
Fools and their money are easily separated.
Fools and their money are easily separated.
2
I doubt is as they seem to be marketing to the style over substance crowd, with fresh money to burn.
I'm on Park Ave., between 57th and 58th st.
A new development is being built that I can see diagonally across from me, located in the MIDDLE of 57th st., - but it has the address of 432 Park Ave.
One of it's units its 1,300 square feet units is listed at 95 million. So little space, so many foolish buyers.
I'm on Park Ave., between 57th and 58th st.
A new development is being built that I can see diagonally across from me, located in the MIDDLE of 57th st., - but it has the address of 432 Park Ave.
One of it's units its 1,300 square feet units is listed at 95 million. So little space, so many foolish buyers.
2
In other parts of the universe, the local fire department will not allow the street address and main entrance to be in different places for obvious reasons.
7
I lived at 1 Union Square S for 1 year and it was the most frustrating and confusing address I've ever had... Especially after having moved directly across the street from 145 4th avenue!! It should have been oh, 144 4th avenue probably.
3
Ah yes, those First World problems. Love that silly, cheesy little awning on Eleven Fifty there. I wonder what will happen when someone, hearing a fracas, calls 911 and tells them it's going down at 1150 East 96th Street? I do hope those police cruisers can swim.
5
What about firefighters, ambulance drivers, police? Is some poor fool going to die in his zillion dollar condo while an ambulance driver sits scratching his head half a block away?
23
My thought precisely. A gentleman became ill at my office recently on a University campus. I called 911 and gave the building and room number, but the operator read my location as an address on a street, presumably the address that would have belonged to the structure at that location decades ago when homes and shops occupied the area. We got it all straightened out with the 911 folks but it would have been scary if the man was not breathing and they had to figure out where to send the paramedics.
2
Whoever wrote this seems never to have crossed the dividing line between East Side and West Side. I lived for many years on Riverside Drive - well, the building was on RSD, but the entrance is on a side street, but the address is XXX RSD. As are a great many RSD addresses. With RSD, the buildings seem to be on the avenue, but because it's so unbelievably windy and cold, the entrances are not on the avenue, as merely opening a door in what is often a wind tunnel presents challenges. The Park Ave. and Fifth Avenue address obsession is just NYC money and snobbery at its most primitive.
9
Maybe all of NYC could be addressed 5th Ave or Park Ave? Just to make things easier?
10
You mean like the Monty Python skit about the philosophers in which everyone is named Bruce except one guy, and they ask, "Mind if we call you Bruce just to avoid confusion?"
7
I live on W 139th in Harlem but the address on my letterhead stationery is 500 Park Avenue........Lah-de-dah !!!
2
A guy approached our coop board offering to do a ton of work peddling our 372 Fifth Avenue air rights in exchange for a share of the money we would get if the air rights sell. A couple weeks ago he suddenly said he could no longer do the work on a contingency basis. It could be that we now understand what killed this deal: The new Manhattan Borough President is putting a stop to this practice...? Just in time for our building NOT to receive $30.383 million?
1
Such ridiculousness. So when anyone visits a resident of 520 Park Avenue (be it another egocentric insecure rich person or UPS) and cannot find the building, walking to & fro on Park Avenue, they will eventually be told "The building is on East 60th Street off of Park," so who are they fooling except themselves? It's like a knockoff Birkin bag.
14
There is an Economic Model called "Monopolistic Competition" where we choose basically homogeneous products (i.e. apartments ,rectangular spaces we inhabit) based on differentiating factors . Style , size and proximity to work or play would clearly be a deciding factor in a Park Avenue address.Desiring the address itself borders on a pathology . It speaks to a need to be accepted. Parts of this article belongs in the "Psychology" ,or at the least, Behavioral Economics category.
3
So despite the money the developers pay for processing fees (not to mention the millions for airspace rights), agencies are not reasonably notified about the changes in address for buildings. Instead, residents have to "be proactive" and inform the relevant firehouses to ensure coverage from the fire department. Makes sense.
1
Im petitioning the city planning office here in portland for a Park avenue designation and a NY zip code. Ive been really down lately and this should help as I prepare to sell. The fire department isnt really happy about it— they seem concerned about knowing where to go when things start getting smoky.
6
But do you live in Portland, MAINE or Portland, OREGON?
(If it's the latter, why don't you use a Beverly Hills, CA address?)
(If it's the latter, why don't you use a Beverly Hills, CA address?)
7
This address relocation is not unique to NYC. When I lived in Northern New Rochelle, Westchester County, my address was a Scarsdale P.O., which I thought ridiculous. My neighbors did not--when the people in the house across the street sought to sell, the homeowner tried to pass off the house as being in tony Scarsdale rather than New Rochelle. It was only when her husband pointed out that the sale would fall through once the potential buyers viewed the deed did she most reluctantly desist in her deception.
Her view was not unique--when my mother in Brooklyn sent me mail addressed to my address, but with New Rochelle as the locality, the mail carrier would not deliver it.
Her view was not unique--when my mother in Brooklyn sent me mail addressed to my address, but with New Rochelle as the locality, the mail carrier would not deliver it.
6
During the big Williamsburg boom some years back, I used to have fun telling people I lived off Bedford Ave, just to see their looks of excitement turn to confusion when I mentioned my cross street was Atllatic. Apparently most new transplants didn't seem to understand that the road didn't just stop existing once you passed to the other side of the bridge.
2
A friend used to tell people he'd grown up on Park Avenue. What he didn;t say is that it was the part in the South Bronx.
3
When snobbery determines the value of real estate. Good piece that finally answered the question side streets get avenue address.
1
Hey, churches will do anything for money.
1
May be they need it to stay open and help the poor ?
1
The motives of the parties should not be confused; vanity & service to others aren't the same. Raising the annual church budget is tough work; talking of mission, stewardship & obligation challenges everyone involved. Perhaps changing one digit in the address will enable the church to do more toward its purposes. No greed in that.
2
Anyone who wants to pay me for my address in a prestigious neighborhood is welcome. Reply below.
Oy vey! All that studied pretense and they choose such cheesy fonts for the awnings.
25
It seems like flat out fraud on the part of the developers. And it says something about the lack of intelligence on the part of the buyers if they are willing to pay extra for a fake address.
30
Hilarious. As for me, I own a non-descript address in a bedroom community, which is better known for people who care about things that matter.
11
“Most of the great buildings on Park Avenue end in multiples of 10, like 480 Park Avenue, 510 Park and 740 Park Avenue, and the developers are following that tradition,” said a spokesman for those developers, William and Arthur Zeckendorf.
Thank god there are no great buildings on the east side of Park Avenue!
Thank god there are no great buildings on the east side of Park Avenue!
17
Those go in "5"s.
There has always been a right and wrong side of Park Avenue, although the difference is now almost gone. The west side of Park was oriented toward the business street of Madison Avenue and the east side of Park has been oriented toward the business street of Lexington Avenue, considered a less desirable commercial area than Madison.
It has been years since one has been able to buy a roll of toilet paper on Madison Avenue, it having been taken over by all kinds of high-end shops, and art galleries, but it is still possible to do so on limited parts of Lexington Avenue. Friends who live on 5th Avenue in the 70's have to go to Third Avenue (4 long blocks) to find a supermarket.
There are many beautiful buildings on the East side of Park Avenue, and I can't imagine any buyer rejecting an apartment on the wrong side of Park these days. Think of 635 Park, 655 Park, 765-775 Park, 791 Park, 885 Park, 895 Park, 911 Park, 941 Park, 1185 Park--stacked palazzos all.
They'd have to be the dinosaurs who used to ask if a passport was needed to travel north of 86th Street, and who derided the Sutton Place area, where I used to live, as the "lower east side," long before the real LES became a desirable area in which to live.
Developers do seem to be going out of their way to give their buildings perceived prestigious addresses--1049 Fifth was the first such a joke of an address I remember, and they seem to have proliferated to take in the gullible and the "brand conscious."
It has been years since one has been able to buy a roll of toilet paper on Madison Avenue, it having been taken over by all kinds of high-end shops, and art galleries, but it is still possible to do so on limited parts of Lexington Avenue. Friends who live on 5th Avenue in the 70's have to go to Third Avenue (4 long blocks) to find a supermarket.
There are many beautiful buildings on the East side of Park Avenue, and I can't imagine any buyer rejecting an apartment on the wrong side of Park these days. Think of 635 Park, 655 Park, 765-775 Park, 791 Park, 885 Park, 895 Park, 911 Park, 941 Park, 1185 Park--stacked palazzos all.
They'd have to be the dinosaurs who used to ask if a passport was needed to travel north of 86th Street, and who derided the Sutton Place area, where I used to live, as the "lower east side," long before the real LES became a desirable area in which to live.
Developers do seem to be going out of their way to give their buildings perceived prestigious addresses--1049 Fifth was the first such a joke of an address I remember, and they seem to have proliferated to take in the gullible and the "brand conscious."
4
Interesting question, when 30 million dollars buys the space above the church, seems like a fair amount of that space borders Fifth Avenue airspace?
1
The question of course, is who gives the Church the right to broker God's air?
1
Vanity knows no bounds or legitimacy.
14
The address of the Time Warner Center condo tower which starred in a 5 part article on foreign money in NY real estate in the NYT is 25 Columbus Circle, the entrance however is on W. 58th street between 8th and 9th while the number 25 does appear over the glass doors up the steps under the canopy the canopy says One Central Park. Then in that neighborhood there is an office building which occupies a city block, bounded on the north by West 58th street, W 57th on the south, Broadway on the east and 8th Avenue on the west; the address is 3 Columbus Circle, the entrance and lobby are on Broadway. Nearby, a small nondescript hotel on W. 58th across the street from the TW Center condo tower that calls itself 6 Columbus and lists its address as 6 Columbus Circle. However my personal absolute favorite in that neighborhood is an apartment building on the north side of W. 57th street a couple of doors west of 8th Avenue -its canopy indicates its address to be 301 Central Park Place -Hello?
6
This so funny! I love it as a displaced New Yorker. It is now clearer than ever why I can never go back.
Regarding the 520 Park address permit by Borough President Stringer (now NYC comptroller), check this: http://www.nyccfb.info/searchabledb/AdvancedContributionSearchResult.asp...
Search for Zeckendorf, three times the maximum donation given. And this is only the current donation cycle.....
"Money makes the world go round, the world go round...."
Search for Zeckendorf, three times the maximum donation given. And this is only the current donation cycle.....
"Money makes the world go round, the world go round...."
10
NY is not unique that way. I can't begin to tell you how many companies and houses have a Princeton address but are not even close to Princeton.
18
I'm guessing they are serviced by a Princeton post office or have a Princeton PO Box.
Vacciniumovatum: No, they're in nearby towns like Plainsboro or West Windsor. The post office knows from the street address where to deliver them. (Few people realize just how good USPS is.)
1
High on the Hit Parade of bogus addresses would have to be "One Riverside Park".
It's actually @ 62nd Street, 10 blocks from the southern terminus of Riverside Park at 72nd Street.
Fine views, from the higher floors, of the West Side Highway, with a little peak of green off in the distance that is the treetops of Riverside Park.
The only buildings properly deserving of a One Riverside Park address are the Landmarked Chatsworth and Annex, which encompass the entire frontage of the southernmost border of Riverside Park.
But, what's in a name, when there's beaucoup $$$$ to be made?
It's actually @ 62nd Street, 10 blocks from the southern terminus of Riverside Park at 72nd Street.
Fine views, from the higher floors, of the West Side Highway, with a little peak of green off in the distance that is the treetops of Riverside Park.
The only buildings properly deserving of a One Riverside Park address are the Landmarked Chatsworth and Annex, which encompass the entire frontage of the southernmost border of Riverside Park.
But, what's in a name, when there's beaucoup $$$$ to be made?
10
Too bad Gale A. Brewer can't turn the clock back on this deceptive practice and make it retroactive...that would cause a ruckus. But phony cache generates real dollars, and marketing money trumps the truth again.
8
3087 Queens Boulevard will kick any address ending in a multiple of ten on Park or Fifth in a fistfight. What else really matters?
6
On another note, related to this story, would be buildings that employ two separate addresses (740 Park Avenue for the avenue entrance, 71 East 71st for the side street); buildings like 4 East 66th that eschew an avenue address they could otherwise use (845 Fifth Avenue); and buildings like 2 East 70th whose maisonettes have their own avenue address (in this case, the very numerologically auspicious 888 Fifth Avenue).
2
“All things being equal, an apartment on Park Avenue or Fifth Avenue can have a premium of 5 to 10 percent, compared to the immediately adjacent crosstown streets,” said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
Silly people. Cross streets are quieter and less congested.
Silly people. Cross streets are quieter and less congested.
21
Until someone keels over from a surfeit of palfreys and croaks because the EMS types are sitting out on Park Ave. looking around and scratching their heads and wondering if the call was a prank.
10
Farce. Shouldn't be allowed.
6
Such high class problem, wow my sympathy. What about the homeless that sleep in the cardboard box on those street; can they claim Park Avenue address as well?
33
Hurray for Ms. Brewer, a voice of reason against the best addresses money can buy.
9
Really a pathetic commentary on the idiocy of which we humans are capable.
17
And then there are locations--like "Central Park Place" & "1 57"--that don't even exist, so not really being there is really an existential condition. Of course we live in a world where "cheese products" have no cheese, "social media" is anti-social, and "Fox news" has no news. Why use language to communicate when you can use it to sell something?
26
Fake addresses. Fake floor numbers in high-rises. And all this week in the NYT, fake owners making up more than 50% of many large buildings. I lived in Manhattan for 20 years at the end of the last century, and I find this pretty amazing, but also not. New York was always full of itself, but now it seems to be becoming its own caricature. Or, with its shiny, artificial beauty, like Disneyland - very fun, very attractive, very safe, very crowded, very expensive, and completely artificial.
Soon, in the great tradition of real-estate pushers, New Jersey will change its name to New York-Adjacent.
Soon, in the great tradition of real-estate pushers, New Jersey will change its name to New York-Adjacent.
35
There is already "East New York, New Jersey. ." :)
That's WEST New York, New Jersey.
That town's name actually makes sense.
EAST New York is a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
That town's name actually makes sense.
EAST New York is a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
2
Quack quack quack. The building is on East 60th St. and no amount of verbiage will change that. Addresses are meant to make it easier for people to find the building. But of course the people who buy a an apt. on East 60th St. while paying for one on Park Ave. are not the brightest lights on the planet. What's the old saying? "A sucker is born every minute."
13
What, indeed, is in a name? I'd suggest beaucoup $$$$$$$.
What's with "One RIverside Park"?
Actually, the building bannering this name is 10 blocks south of the terminus of Riverside Park. Its frontage is the West Side Highway, the speck of green off in the distance
The only potential contender for the address of One Riverside Park is the glorious Beaux Arts Chatsworth and Annex, fronting the Park's southern boundary at the intersection of what is now Riverside Drive and Riverside Boulevard.
What's with "One RIverside Park"?
Actually, the building bannering this name is 10 blocks south of the terminus of Riverside Park. Its frontage is the West Side Highway, the speck of green off in the distance
The only potential contender for the address of One Riverside Park is the glorious Beaux Arts Chatsworth and Annex, fronting the Park's southern boundary at the intersection of what is now Riverside Drive and Riverside Boulevard.
2
Brand identity is for the socially insecure. Today they are Russian and Chinese buyers of midtown condos. Eighty years ago they were the Jewish residents of the CPW buildings: the Beresford, the Eldorado, and the San Remo. Buildings named for a Park or Fifth Avenue street address are better. But the truly upper-crust buildings do away with their Park and Fifth addresses altogether: 1 E. 66th St., 2 E. 67th St., and 2 E. 70th st.
7
Years ago, a friend who was a RE broker on the upper east side told me one of her customers who wanted to buy a very nice apartment, but it could not have a Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue address because her son was in politics.
The buildings you mentioned appeal to many similarly-minded individuals who do not want their address as a "billboard." For those in the know, there are many superb buildings with side street addresses, and has one commenter has already related, 740 Park Avenue, home of the Koch Brothers and their ilk, is AKA 71 East 71st Street.
The buildings you mentioned appeal to many similarly-minded individuals who do not want their address as a "billboard." For those in the know, there are many superb buildings with side street addresses, and has one commenter has already related, 740 Park Avenue, home of the Koch Brothers and their ilk, is AKA 71 East 71st Street.
1
740 Park Avenue as been the home for many of the wealthy since it was built during the Depression and not all the tenants were of the "Koch's ilk" There is a book written about the building that lists all the tenants over the years called 740 Park Avenue.
I lived for over a decade on the Upper East Side and was often confused by buildings that claimed to be on Park Avenue while clearly not.
Thanks, NYT!
Thanks, NYT!
5
I read this with bemusement. Depending on which mapping or GPS service you use, subway stop you exit, which cab or livery car service you take, which direction you are walking from, which pizza delivery service we use, even which police precinct or fire engine company is called, with more than 50 feet of frontage on three sides of a traffic circle we could have had 4 addresses at my building: 1 Plaza Street East, 1 Eastern Parkway (our given but not taken address), even 1 St. John's Place could have been an option. The one our Sponsor chose and actually 'took away' from the Grand Army Plaza branch of the NY Public library: 1 Grand Army Plaza- But please, NY, don't be fooled and think we live at the Plaza Hotel, this one's in Brooklyn!
I feel lucky to live here but not for the snob factor address. We chose it for the expansive, vibrant views from our living room, the beauty of Prospect Park the calm of Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, the culture of the Brooklyn Museum and BAM, the epicurean year-round farmer's market, the solidity of Prospect Heights, the literary continuity of the Brooklyn Public Library and the extraordinary feel of walking down the tree lined and stately Eastern Parkway all within a short distance... So I personally don't care which address is used, or what my lifelong Borough's newly polished reputation means to foreigners, to me it's location, location, location. And it doesn't hurt that my favorite pizza delivery place knows where to find the building.
I feel lucky to live here but not for the snob factor address. We chose it for the expansive, vibrant views from our living room, the beauty of Prospect Park the calm of Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, the culture of the Brooklyn Museum and BAM, the epicurean year-round farmer's market, the solidity of Prospect Heights, the literary continuity of the Brooklyn Public Library and the extraordinary feel of walking down the tree lined and stately Eastern Parkway all within a short distance... So I personally don't care which address is used, or what my lifelong Borough's newly polished reputation means to foreigners, to me it's location, location, location. And it doesn't hurt that my favorite pizza delivery place knows where to find the building.
3
As a boy I lived in Bushwick. The selling points for the was shopping two blocks away on Knickerbocker Avenue, The LL train station a few blocks away on either Dekalb Avenue or Stanhope Street, The M train a few more blocks away by walking or taking the LL one stop. And shopping a few blocks away on Myrtle Avenue. Wyckoff Heights Hospital was two blocks from our apartment. Eight movie theaters too. And lots of places to eat from little holes in the wall to Schwaben Hall and the Rathskellar to Bob's Diner and an uncountable number of great places to get a slice of pizza. I'll wager our apartment at 255 Stanhope which rented for $50.45 a mnth is now $1200-$1400 now. That to me is what makes a desirable neighborhood not a stupid address.
With great wealth goes great hubris. Imagine the disgrace having your party invitations showing an East 56th Street address instead of Park Avenue - how terribly humiliating. How would the occupants ever live down the shame!
47
This is ridiculous. That high-rise is not even touching Park Ave and is clearly on East 60th Street. Looks like if you are half-way between Lex and Park, and have the money and connections, you could rechristen your building with a Park Ave address.
How about we rechristen 60th street "Park Avenue terrace' as they do in London: The side street forking off Craven Road is Craven Terrace. So, the taxi drivers will not have a problem finding the building and residents can be happy to be on Park Ave something.
Ridiculous. Only in New York.
How about we rechristen 60th street "Park Avenue terrace' as they do in London: The side street forking off Craven Road is Craven Terrace. So, the taxi drivers will not have a problem finding the building and residents can be happy to be on Park Ave something.
Ridiculous. Only in New York.
24
New York, everything has a gig, even the address.
3
The epitome of a first-world problem.
It doesn't help that "520 Park" looks like a hideous building.
It doesn't help that "520 Park" looks like a hideous building.
17
I didn't notice this article mention another important issue: when you say "5th Avenue" or "Park," you could be up in East Harlem, which isn't quite as prestigious. Sure, someone who knows the numbering system might be able to tell that you are on the UES, but most people wouldn't know that. If you say "East 60th St.," then every New Yorker knows that you are in the city's most expensive neighborhood.
6
When I worked for New York Telephone 40 years ago lots of people demanded a telephone number starting with 68 so people would know they live in Murray Hill. One lady refused her installation because she'd been assigned a number starting with 83. "I specifically requested a Murray Hill number". I spent half a day getting it changed back in the day when the telephone company bent over backwards to make the customer happy.
Unfortunately, this is just another case of the rich deciding that the rules don't apply to them, even if the results cause confusion. The Borough President's office should not be in the business of helping to create geographic fictions for real estate developers and insecure wealthy people.
28
Once again dollars trump all else - the common good, safety, convenience, the sense/atmosphere of honesty. What does this say about the politicos? This just adds to the atmosphere that nourishes societal corruption.
9
If the building has some frontage with the block its named it's probably okay. Otherwise it's just marketing fraud. It's the real estate equivalent of a fake Rolex.
13
Oh, so many job interviews I've been late for because the people working there forgot to mention that the building address had nothing to do with the entance's actual location. I've walked around and around more neighborhoods trying to find phantom addresses. An annoyance for me, but pretty dangerous for people who need an ambulance or firefighters.
38
I guess everything is fake in condominium marketing these days. Even the property location!
So tacky.
So tacky.
28
I love, love, love NY. However, I cannot help but feel sorry for the fools who not only fall for this marketing but actually back it up by paying a premium for an address on Fifth or Park. I guess as long as there are fools buying into this why should the developers not capitalize on their insecurity and aspirations?
8
To me Park Avenue will always be 4th Avenue with Vanderbilt's noxious trains spewing soot, cinders and steam. An address I'd certainly now want. But I guess I'm old fashioned.
7
Supercilious nonsense. Only NYC developers, and their overly vain clientele, would care. But hey, get that real estate premium if you can. It won't be from me, that's for sure.
4
I find that a real estate agent or broker will bend the truth at every opportunity rather than tell the plan simple understandable truth. Most successful agents are pathological in this. They will overstate or understate everything. This is just a logical continuance on the theme. Buyer and delivery person beware.
14
I heard a saying once that "real estate agents are people who were kicked out of the used car business for unethical dealings). I've enough experience with them to agree.
1
I think they should rescind every one of these vanity addresses. Absolutely ridiculous.
63
This is the modern day version of the emperor with no clothes - the emperor (and any admirers stupid enough to be impressed) pretending that if he says it long enough, it'll become true.
For anyone who's wondered where the financial wizards who crafted the derivatives that nearly killed the economy landed, now we know that some of them found full-time work in real estate, pushing imaginary addresses instead of illusory financial products.
For anyone who's wondered where the financial wizards who crafted the derivatives that nearly killed the economy landed, now we know that some of them found full-time work in real estate, pushing imaginary addresses instead of illusory financial products.
23
Though a Queens resident, I spend a great deal of time in (the real) city, particularly in the museum zone. I have for some time now been fascinated by how, at night, few apartment lights are on in luxury buildings. This might make sense when New York is either too cold or too hot for those with the wherewithal to leave during inclement weather, but, of late, the phenomenon is year long. One also rarely sees residents of apartment buildings either entering or exiting, and there are few pedestrians, particularly on Park Avenue. The overall effect is that of a ghost town. Are they leaving in their limousines via underground garages, perhaps? The phenomenon of side street entrances in luxury buildings (that nevertheless opt to use their prestigious addresses) only serves to arouse more curiosity. Are the residents and their architects reading a lot of Thorstein Veblen of late?
7
So glad to know that the wealthy can even change/buy the name of the street they live on. And we all know that this is what really matters in life!
8
I really don't know why I find this so chafing. Maybe because it's yet another example of the manipulating and re-wrtiting of the rules that wealthy people get to indulge in.
70
The city is confusing - the building numbers going North and South have no relationship to the side streets, i, e., 285 Madison Ave. is at the corner of 43rd and Madison and 521 Fifth Avenue is at the corner of 43rd and and Fifth. Logically, they would both be 431
5
There used to be a little booklet you could buy that had a formula for figuring out the cross streets in Manhattan so you could pick the closest subway stop to an address. It worked for the buses too. Is it still available?
1
I was recently reading an article about a new low income housing building in Brooklyn which was on a corner lot and had taken the street address of the frontage other than where the entry was and the residents were not getting their mail delivery. I wonder if that is an issue on Park Avenue.
4
I grew up at 740 Park during the 1960s. My mother thought advertising our Park Avenue location to be so "non-u" that she insisted upon using the building's 71 East 71st Street address for all purposes.
35
I like your mother. She sounds like mine.
3
In the ancient past, when the LA Times and the SF Chronicle still had society pages, residents of Bel-Air were identified as living in West Los Angeles, and residents of Hillsborough were identified as living in Burlingame.
6
The book on 740 Park mentioned that 71 East 71st was the more discreet address and that "740" had a tinge of vulgarity to it if such a thing could even be imagined for a building of that quality.
4
When I was a small child, we lived in a house with a numbered street address (25th st, for instance). The house didn't sell for a year when we had to move. My dad went to the city and asked to change the address since we were on a corner--they agreed to allow us a Cliff Road address instead, and the house sold within a week. Coincidence? Possibly. But what a fun story.
9
The NYC version of "Beverly Hills mailing address" for the parts of Los Angeles served by the Beverly Hills post office and zip code. Those properties sell/rent for a nice bump over virtually identical properties without that feature.
Follow the money. Every time.
Follow the money. Every time.
2
Years ago, real estate developers of gated communities on the north side of Mulholland, classified as San Fernando Valley, and adjacent not to the real Beverly Hills, but the fictional Beverly Hills described in the post above, somehow managed to get assigned not simply a Beverly Hills zip, but a 310 telephone area code as well, rather than the socially ignominious 818.
4
Please let USPS determine the address of all buildings based on where the actual entrance is located. The purpose of an address is to find a building, not to increase the value of the square footage inside.
And while we're at it, let's require commercial buildings to post their address near the door. One can walk a block or two in midtown without seeing a single number.
And while we're at it, let's require commercial buildings to post their address near the door. One can walk a block or two in midtown without seeing a single number.
81
I think you do not understand the purpose of an address.
One could just as easily make the statement,
"The purpose of an address is to maximize the market value of a property",
and few people in the ral estate industry would disagree.
One could just as easily make the statement,
"The purpose of an address is to maximize the market value of a property",
and few people in the ral estate industry would disagree.
It's not widely known, but most corner residential lots in Los Angeles have already been assigned two addresses, and an owner can choose to use whichever he or she wants. A friend of mine bought a corner property listed on a little-known street of no social consequence, largely made up of modest houses, as was his. The alternate address was on a street known to be the home of some of the most renowned and rich luminaries in the city. He adopted the latter address and immediately added another 75% to the value of his house.
5
It seems to work that way anywhere but Manhattan. Here the Post Office has to approve the address.
When we converted 35 East 85th Street, a lovely small pre-war building, into a coop in 1970, we thought briefly about perhaps changing to a Madison Avenue address. But we had no clue how that might be done. And the entrance on 85th Street was just perfect, and the frontage on the Avenue had the venerable flower shop and the soon to be first Baskin Robbins in Manhattan. So, why mess with any of that? Residential on the street side and commercial on the Avenue was just meant to be.
21
Real estate interests have been stretching the boundaries of desirable neighborhoods for years, so the usurping of street location is not surprising. While it is before my time in the city, there is a post war apartment building on a side street that apparently demolished a Fifth Avenue townhouse so a passage could be constructed to give the building the prestigious address. The more pressing issue is whether the "Upper East Side" can be extended into Queens. As it is, when I meet people at the Met, I like to tell them I live east of the museum.
3
Oh for a Park or Fifth address!
It really does yokels impress,
Though it may not be there
It does have an air,
So it will be used nonetheless.
It really does yokels impress,
Though it may not be there
It does have an air,
So it will be used nonetheless.
97
It just goes to show everyone is bourgeoisie despite their bank accounts.
I don't think it's yokels that they're trying to impress, Larry!
3
I once lived in the Heights named Washington,
When it's reputation had sunk to a bad one.
Then the realtors cried "Oy Vey"
"We need to revive the area's cachet"
And the name of the Heights became Hudson.
When it's reputation had sunk to a bad one.
Then the realtors cried "Oy Vey"
"We need to revive the area's cachet"
And the name of the Heights became Hudson.
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