The eyesore sculpture says it all. Developers have no taste except for money. And they build for those with the same lack of taste and lack of culture. This is the reason why art galleries and museums show trashy art. It's heartbreaking NYC has lost the character and personality that made it unique and exciting compared to other cities. The developers have turned NYC into a soulless area where walking through quaint neighborhoods used to be a pleasure. I have walked through this area whenever I go to NYC wishing to move back and I can say Hudson Yards does not even look like the United States. It's so sad all the interesting creative and intellectual and working class people that made NYC great are gone. Now I understand why New Yorkers are moving to Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC. These two cities are totally charming!
6
Any low income, middle income housing built in this development. Another huge modern development that got tax breaks for the benefit of millionaires and billionaires. Poor political representatives allowed it to occur. On the other side huge number of construction jobs, but Ross fought against labor unions.a shopping mall will exist, but in the long rum shoppers will base consumption on the pricing of Amazon, Target , and Walmart. Not the developers fault for getting a tax break , not hiring union workers, but the politicians that allowed this greed.
4
The city's first 'Needless Markups' department store? Why now?? As retailers are in a free-fall, closing 100s of stores across the country. Seems like a decision made by out-of-touch, old rich guys with 1980's sensibilities.
3
@JMP
You are on target. this development shows how they control NYC politicians.
2
To commemorate the opening, there should be dedicated a twice life size statue of Michael Bloomberg, without whom this obscene giveaway would not have been possible. It could double as a fire hydrant. This will never be a neighborhood in the conventional sense, never, but I doubt the future denizens will care because we have reached the point where going to work and going home are the same exact experience, even down to the furniture.
18
"The High End
An Upscale Condo for Hudson Yards
More than a decade after the train yards were first leased to Related Companies for development, $5 million luxury apartments come on the market."
Okay - and --
How many people are willing to bet that sometime in the very near future - there will be an article in the New York Times Real Estate Section featuring this development --
You know - the ones which have a photograph of a young, hip couple - with one of those cutesy headlines like -- "They were hoping for a river view - now they can see the world" --
Who knows -- if I can get one million people to take
me up on the wager at $5 a bet - I might actually be able to afford one of those condos myself - assuming I win -
But I'm confident it's a sure bet...
6
@Howard G
And, as always, the article will feature the one who makes quilts for a living, while mentioning in passing the other is an investment banker.
16
It's interesting that the Times (and others) are, on the one hand, obsessed with a housing crisis (really a stagnant wage crisis, in my opinion) and on the other hand go into raptures about huge luxury apartments. You want to squeeze as many humans as possible into stable pleasant neighborhoods, essentially ruining them, while the rich roam around in 3,000, 4,000, 24,000 square foot sky-mansions. Something is wrong with this picture. A lot, actually.
20
@Trilby
You are on target. another mall to walk through with few customers for them. They only need one billionaire to walk in and furnish their thirty million to three hundred million dollar apartments. Imagine you to can walk by another Louis Vuitton store , or a coach store. Lol! seventy five thousand homeless in NYC.
2
You’d need a lot more than slick marketing and high-priced PR to drag me to that armpit of a location. For $3,300 per square foot, you can buy a Park Avenue penthouse with a front-facing set-back terrace. Plus, you’d be in the middle of the still rarefied Upper East Side, steps from Central Park, the world’s best museums, vast culinary offerings and the last civilized place to live in Manhattan. As Lisa Douglas pleaded, “Dahling I love you but give me Park Avenuuue!!”
14
Sounds like a enclave full of modern-day robber barons. How else do you get so rich? These days, squeeze your employees, throw dividends to your stockholders and pile up the wealth. Ah, life is good, for some.
10
I don't think these people's lives are good. Not at all. Being so greedy and miserable doesn't seem like the good life to me.
4
Another slew of glass warehouses for the wealthy. The complete lack of imagination of these architects and designers here is infuriating but I'm sure their lame excuse is they are just doing the developer's bidding. Maximize square footage is the mantra, and thus you inevitably get a box. The amenities, always so breathless touted, are also an embarrassment. No craftsmanship, no thought, just unadorned slabs of expensive materials polished to a high luster. Even with the available software and new fabrication techniques that offer limitless possibilities, apparently no one in the business today is mentally equipped to deal with anything other than planar surfaces; it's just too hard! There wasn't an architect or craftsman 100 years ago who couldn't dance circles around these poseurs.
8
I want and need knobs on my cabinet doors. I will live elsewhere, thank you very much.
16
The fact that 35 Hudson yards is marketing so hard is a tell tale sign of how desperately they are trying to sell u a lifestyle.... Common....$4000+/sqft. While neighboring building is a $3100/sqft. NYC is going to be flooded with high end units for the next 2-3 years. Think of a lowball bid.... And then bid LOWER..... You just might get hit by the developer
9
Hudson Yards seems to be more government welfare for the wealthiest.
11
This construction is on leased land, you say. Seems pricey for land-lease units . . .
4
The owners of 15 Hudson Yards should make the acquaintance of some Russian oligarchs. I understand that Donald Trump has had great success at selling luxury condos to them at above market prices.
One caveat: you apparently have to able to deal with large amounts cash.
8
From the looks of it, we would have better off with the football stadium that was originally proposed for this area.
5
@Evan neither. The stadium area could never accommodate the car traffic, it would have been a nightmare for all.
2
My brother lives in Chelsea and has rental property in Washington Heights. If he sold both properties he might be able to afford something newer and shinier.
Who wouldn't want to pay 10 mil to live in a pretend downtown core with a super awesome endless stair contraption! I bet the street vibe will be rad down there.
4
High-end development ultimately more than pays for any tax incentives with long-term tax revenue to the city. I doubt that this development is going to put much of a burden on the rest of the city - it’s fairly remote, and all the Ubers etc. can fight traffic with the NJ drivers heading for the Lincoln Tunnel (after all, spending $10-$20 grand a month on maintenance doesn’t leave much for a monthly Metrocard).
4
I have been to Hudson Yards a couple of times since 2016 for business. Other than the view of waterway nothing spectacular about it. Lots of marble and smart elevators and the like make the building extremely unaffordable for the common Jane/Joe. The whole area was in construction mode though!
2
Does New York really need yet another set of luxury condo buildings? It would seem to need low-income and middle-income housing. It is my understanding that the homeless population is at least 56,000.
10
They forgot to build a hospital replete with cancer centers, cardiac catheterization labs, and diabetes treatment. This is necessary to treat all the disease resulting from eating at these high end restaurants and doing the useless new age spa treatments. No need for ambulances and then the residents never need interact with the hoi polloi.
8
@Jose Pieste "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Haven't seen this one debunked yet.
2
How much is too much? Consider the Jersey City waterfront....for 3400$ monthly, I can live on 166k$ a year. Although the Manhattan view units are on the other side of the building, it’s still spectacular. I have 2 bedrooms. 2.5 baths. Ample storage. Plus parking for a 6 year old mini inside the building. And 1376 square feet is ideal. And! I’m closer to lower Manhattan than anyone north of 9th street. Come be my neighbor.
4
It’s insane. I just just drove back from West Los Angeles where every freeway underpass looks like a homeless shelter of tents and cardboard boxes, through downtown LA which in now just a solid glass wall of high end luxury condos either going up or for sale, and I see where the world is going. The trip was to see my investment advisor about retirement accounts. The sights along the way make me feel glad I’m old.
26
I live just outside of Paris and can see the Eiffel Tower from my bed. I pay 800$ for my rent controlled apartment. I can’t even fathom these prices.
22
Just a thought experiment. I live in the most densely populated part of Wisconsin in a suburb of Milwaukee called Shorewood. The population density of Manhattan is approx 8 times as that of Shorewood. The Walkscore here is 86. Manhattan is 99. This basically means you can, in both cities, theoretically walk to do everything required for daily living. I have a 2-car garage and a smallish yard. I live in a 2000 sq ft duplex with my wife where we occupy both units. Our three children were raised here and walked to public schools from K-12. Some of the most highly regarded schools in the state. Half of my neighbors are university profs. I paid off my mortgage over 10 years ago and only pay taxes, heat and utilities now. I retired at 60 and my wife and I live on about $40K in SS payouts and savings. We're doing just fine.
If things get too intense for you in the Big Apple, maybe consider living in flyover country somewhere. If you can get through the winters here, it just ain't that bad.
18
@Economy Biscuits
I live in the Bay Area. I rent a 1200 sq ft 3 bridge view house for $5000. Our schools are awful so I spent $60k a year on mid priced private schools for my two boys. I bike to the freshest produce, meat, and fish. We see first run plays, listen to world leaders at the Commonwealth Club, jazz at Yoshi's, and root for 4 major sport teams that we split season tickets for. We park our 10 year old car on the street. We make about $200k, live check to check, and we plan to retire at 89.
The visitors from the midwest are a pain, but if you can get through the summer tourist season here, it just ain't that bad. Before you die shoveling snow, you may consider moving here.
11
@mr isaac
Different strokes for different folks. Color me NOT envious. Unlike SFO, I never step over street people on my way to the store. Snowblowers are common here and I have one that will throw 6" of snow across the street. I can't remember the last time we had an earthquake.
11
@Economy Biscuits, my mom and dad were both born and raised back there on farms and hopefully gave me the cold winter gene. If only my wife from Brooklyn has one, is the question.
1
Is it a LEED certificate building? No? Why don't you say? If the NYT cares about the environment, then every article reviewing bldgs or new cars must mention the environmental impact of the car or bldg.
11
there goes the neighborhood
11
I haven't been to Hudson Yards yet but the next time I feel the need to vomit I'll hop on the Number 7 train and rush right over.
15
This is gross. Appearing alongside the article on the tax breaks, it’s plain insulting. New York needs to wake up.
23
Thank goodness these folks got a tax break!!!
21
Who needs Trump?
6
Oh, the Humanity.
NOT.
6
And the gangster money just keeps rolling in.
18
".....a climbable 15-story sculpture opening in March, is to the right..."..... Surprised by the use of "climbable" in this esteemed paper of record. When climbers now scale it, they will use this article as justification!
4
Collusion between NYC politicians and NYC real estate developers has been going on for decades. Yes, collusion; perhaps something even more criminal.
The Vessel ...is that ugly or what?...make it a skate board park and let the city have some vibe.
13
Is this NYC's and de Blasio's concept of affordable housing...
15
Welcome to the Corporate State where the 1% rule and we are all $15 an hour slaves.
30
So, the planet is going to hell in a handbasket but we're supposed to care about the luxury housing market?
Time to wake up!
18
Looks like the multi-millionaires are being well taken care of. What about the rest of us who do not meet the financial profile of Mr Ross’s targeted buyer. Where do mere mortals settle in the new New York?
15
Well.....the commenters are almost unanimous. They clearly believe that the building is wrong, the price is crazy, no one in their right mind would think of living there, the area is awful...ok got it.. but if it were $1500 a month what then? Really the main complaint is that some people- not me - can afford it. Actually hundreds (thousands?) have the dough and will move in. That’s the world today, split between high end earners and the scrum at the other far end of the distribution. But really, it’s the reality that some can actually afford this home that really is upsetting most. While so many others struggle. A republican dreamworld wrought real.
26
@BCY123 but this is in a city with majority Democrat voters and run as well by Democrats.
2
@BCY123 wrong. it's that that "new" New York will not have the spirit, mix, granularity of the rest of the City. It's sterile, boring -- it could be Shanghai, Singapore, Dallas. I've been there. It is cold, ugly and forbidding. The only good part is the subway extension and the park. PUBLIC investment. And a lot of that real estate will be paid for with laundered money, or money that rich foreigners want to park. It's what is happening in all of the outlandish towers that Michael Bloomberg conjured up.
6
I know many very wealthy people, and I cannot imagine any of the ones I know who would not consider this development as nothing but déclassé. I would bet a bag of polo pony feed that this project will be a financial fiasco. If that happens, who gets bailed out, and who pays?
18
"In the kitchens, for instance, cabinets lack knobs. Instead, the edges of their doors have a “knife’s edge” bevel, so fingers can easily grab them,"
No handles! How can one resist such visionary design? I've dream of the day when I can afford no handles in my kitchen!
26
@steve ~
"No handles! How can one resist such visionary design? I've dream of the day when I can afford no handles in my kitchen!"
Your comment made me giggle.
The so called visionary design (no handles) was used in my Beacon Hill studio condo kitchen circa 1983. It was not a high end price back then. Sigh.
11
@steve
I love the beveled edge cabinet doors bit, as it brought back memories from almost 50 years ago from when I was a helper in a kitchen cabinet shop. Those were the doors and drawer fronts we made for cabinets destined to be used in "the projects"--probably to some HUD spec.
So do these kitchens also have stainless steel countertops, like I remember those same kitchens had?
7
Truly! The detail that made the bile rise in my throat was that the developer likes “lacquer”. In a word, this describes the slick, lifeless, anodyne “lifestyle” promoted by this developer.
3
Prices north of $3000 per square foot?
My 1800 sq ft apartment here would go for $5.4 Million (or more) in NY?
The two family I own would be worth over $10 Million?
Gimme a break.
4
With prices that high it is unlikely to attract the criminal element.
3
@D. C. Miller On the contrary, the criminal element are likely among the few that can afford them.
Of course, they will be white collar criminals, which as we have recently learned, are not really criminals at all, just mischievous.
5
@D. C. Miller. Put his name on the side of the building, and the criminal who currently lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in DC will jump for it.
5
@D. C. Miller
The criminal element is most likely the only ones to afford it, whether it be the Russian mob or the Saudi government.
5
Yes, very nice. But you have to realize this is just a place for rich foreigners from unstable countries who use the real estate in the US to park their money for protection against the collapse of their home governments. None of these places are for Americans.
37
@Tom
<>
Same can be said of South Florida. For years I vacationed on the ocean in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in Broward County. The condos on the ocean only came alive on weekends. Then people from Venezuela, Colombia et al. would be partying poolside and you only heard Spanish. They owned US property against the day that a modern Castro took over their country.
2
So nice of city taxpayers to subsidize through tax breaks and increased future spending on city services, police, fire, benefits, etc., the wealthy foreigners who will snatch up these places in order to park their money away from their own countries. And who, in the process, won't care one whit about the rest of the populace of the city.
Yea, what a deal!
21
@George S
RE taxed even abated taxes will bring in much more than the owners will use in public services.
2
from abroad, it really seems there is no problem in the shiny USA. All is turning to gold. Outstanding
4
With every boom sooner or later comes a bust! Wait and see.
7
Great, new fancy condos for super rich people! Just what the world needs.
Hey developers - how about donating 1% or your profits to an artists’ colony that can maintain New York’s soul?
10
You want privately constructed affordable rental housing?... permanently get rid of rent controls on new construction. Until then, forget it.
4
Classic hypocrisy: NYC runs Amazon out of town for half the amount of subsidies that they gave to Hudson Yards. All because a minority of loudmouth activists drowned out any reasonable arguments. This is what our Nee York has become. Policy is decided not by the majority but by the loudest minority. The irony is most of us who are busy running our businesses, employing people, and contributing to the economy don’t have time to be activists. So some unemployed guy or college student who has the time to be an activist takes out their anger for their miserable situation on the rest of us. Or worse, politicians like AOC who have yet to accomplish anything other than getting elected ruin it for the rest of us. It’s sad and pathetic: it’s New York. Which is why there is a decades long exodus from the State.
13
Haters gonna hate. Looks like an awesome and unique area, can't wait to check it out.
8
Let me put it another way in reply to Renee and questions about the critical need for affordable housing in NYC and elsewhere while all we see is new luxury housing.
The people that have the need buyers and renters have the opposite needs and goals of the sellers and financiers and since politicians decide what happens the latter two group alway wins .
1
I of course could not afford to live there, but what caught my eye was The Shed performance space. If that turns out to be a cultural competitor to BAM, that would be great. It's much easier to access the West Side than to slog over to Brooklyn.
4
@Joel Sanders
" it's much easier to access the West Side than to slog over to Brooklyn ". Well Joel that depends on the starting point and perhaps method of travel .
Depending on where people live in NJ Brooklyn may be a lot closer and easier to drive to and find parking for example and for a lot of people who live in LI , and Queens its easier to just take the subway to Downtown Brooklyn and BAM .
Perhaps you are new to the area .
1
That the Shed will "add to the city's cultural landscape the way Lincoln Center did in the 1960s" is pure hyperbole. While it may be an interesting new space with programming possibilities, it isn't remotely Lincoln Center. It doesn't seem to be trying to be Lincoln Center, either.
By itself Lincoln Center is 16 acres, containing not only multiple premier performance spaces but also institutions like Julliard, the New York Public Library, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
It isn't necessary to exaggerate the Shed.
10
@Marc I think they’re referring to cross-programming, which is less widespread, not acreage. We can use a Manhattan scrappy avant performance space along the lines of BAM and St. Anne’s.
1
@DEG Unfortunately, the author clearly compared Lincoln Center's transformation of the city to the Shed.
If the author didn't mean such a comparison then he shouldn't have made such a comparison.
More programming opportunities are fine, but Lincoln Center and the Shed are not even close to the same thing, not just in acreage but also (especially) in the breadth and depth of offerings or programming.
4
@Marc the author did write of cross-programming, acreage was not the point, but I agree comparative neighborhood “transformation” on the LC scale not only sounds like the preposterous marketers’ PR it is, it’s impossible when already surrounded by nothing but towers of 1% residences: the opposite of the LC neighborhood when built.
Why doesn't the City of NY say, "if you want the tax breaks for this deal/development, then you have to set aside X sf of affordable housing defined by Y then adjusted every 5 years for inflation/market conditions."
11
@Renee
It is obviously not as simple as that for the City has been using that strategy since Koch if not before . The answer lies in the loopholes , or changes in the requirements since then and the economic needs of the developers themselves .
Everyone , has known of the critical need for affordable housing in NYC for 30 years or more and the fact that that need has grown despite efforts , so the solutions are not as simple as " why doesn't the City of NY say ......".
@Renee
It is obviously not as simple as that for the City has been using that strategy since Koch if not before . The answer lies in the loopholes , or changes in the requirements since then and the economic needs of the developers themselves .
Everyone , has known of the critical need for affordable housing in NYC for 30 years or more and the fact that that need has grown despite efforts , so the solutions are not as simple as " why doesn't the City of NY say ......".
I don't know why the simple " if you want to develop property in NYC you must also set aside some units that are affordable, ( by the way this is done in housing that has some kind of mixed use mandate , but that type of development is miniscule compared to luxury stuff ) but I am sure it has to do with the competing interests of all parties ( developers , the Government , and taxpayers and the political power of each ) . If we look at the subset of small individual homeowners ( perhaps the largest share of development ) their goal is the get the most money the fastest way which is to hang a shingle outside that says " luxury " and charge the highest cost possible .
It's reasonable to expect large developers who have more clout feel the same way.
@Renee
It is obviously not as simple as that for the City has been using that strategy since Koch if not before . The answer lies in the loopholes , or changes in the requirements since then and the economic needs of the developers themselves .
Everyone , has known of the critical need for affordable housing in NYC for 30 years or more and the fact that that need has grown despite efforts , so the solutions are not as simple as " why doesn't the City of NY say ......".
I don't know why the simple " if you want to develop property in NYC you must also set aside some units that are affordable, ( by the way this is done in housing that has some kind of mixed use mandate , but that type of development is miniscule compared to luxury stuff ) has not solved the problem but I am sure it has to do with the competing interests of all parties ( developers , the Government , and taxpayers and the political power of each ) . If we look at the subset of small individual homeowners ( perhaps the largest share of development ) their goal is the get the most money the fastest way which is to hang a shingle outside that says " luxury " and charge the highest cost possible .
It's reasonable to expect large developers who have more clout feel the same way.
How sad that in one of the greatest cities in the world real estate marketers are heralding this project as "a lifestyle." YAWN. "Everything you want is right here." What's the point of living in New York City if you don't want to experience New York City?
45
Does everyone in NYC make a million dollars a year? Why is everything a "luxury highrise?" When will something be built that other than public housing that ordinary working people can afford? People making $50,000 to $100,000 a year (in most places in America considered to be decent salary) cannot afford to live in the City. This is a real horror story ordinary people trying to raise a family.
48
@Floyd Lewis
I remember when Bloomberg was promoting 350 square foot and even smaller apartments for the average New Yorker.*
https://www.oregonlive.com/hg/2012/07/from_the_home_front_nyc_mayor.html
2
Why should everyone be able to live in New York City? Just because you WANT to does not mean you have a RIGHT to. And certainly the government should not subsidize people to live in the best city in the world on the government dime.
When my husband and I started a family, we had to leave NYC to accommodate our growing needs based on our income level. Living in NYC is a privilege, and we have worked hard to be able to move back 20 years later.
We will not be shedding any tears for families who make $100,000 per year but feel entitled to live in NYC.
Finally! Someone is taking the needs of the super wealthy seriously. There is a paucity of high end "lifestyle developments" that cater to their exquisitely refined tastes and delicate health. These developers are doing important work. Every incentive they are offered is paid back in spades when these job creators are functioning in an optimal state.
45
@kat
I sincerely hope that this was irony.
6
@kat, HA, you should write for SNL. You made me laugh out-loud. Your comment was meant as sarcasm, right?
1
@mrfreeze6
I didn't think it was too subtle. Scary thought if any of these recs missed the sarcasm.
I read this with a hard knot forming in my stomach. Who wants to live in a building you never want to leave with neighbors just like you. Is this some kind of prison for the mentally challenged or those who suffer from unnamed night terrors? Still, i would love to spend a few moths living there to see what it's really like.
I suspect i would want to go home to my $300,000.00, top price, 3 bedroom home, covered with hand split cedar shakes, that sits on a 160 acre lake, 10 minutes from downtown. I have 150 year old oak trees, several mature walnut trees, one maple and several small dogwood and red bud trees that sort of volunteered to live here. Wild raspberry bushes are among them. In addition to the usual ducks, i have a family of herons who arrive every spring, swans drop in now and then, an owl that hoots outside my bedroom window and every kind of small birds add to the mixture. The school system is excellent.
I think I'll stay here and visit NYC every now and then.
23
@Nightwood ~
Your description of where you live is lovely. I understand why you love living in the midst of such natural beauty.
My guess is the people who sometimes live in these high rise, high priced buildings, also can escape to natural beauty any time they want. Aren't these mega rich the ones who often own 3 or more homes?
5
@Nightwood
Different strokes for different folks.
America. Love it or leave it.
1
@Mary Ann Donahue As i don't know any mega rich people i can't answer your question.
My neighbors, and they are close, range from teachers, factory workers, to engineers, and small business owners.
None of us own 3 homes but then again we can run to Lake Michigan and walk the piers or ride the surf. Takes us 40 minutes when traffic is heavy. Or we can rent a cottage if we want to be near the big water for any length of time.
What is really hard to bear is the neighbor across the street is a, gasp, trump voter. She has cats as i do and sometimes we actually have to talk to each other about our feline's unruly behavior. Of course the birds that live in our yards are Mensa birds and so they thrive.
2
These shiny, ultimately sterile developments continue to proliferate, going back to Battery Park City and up through a succession of mostly waterfront luxury projects that are exciting at first, then fade to "meh." There is a lot of money out there, concentrated in the hands of a few, that needs to be parked somewhere. These have demonstrably done nothing for the City. Nothing to broaden the tax base, still disproportionately burdened upon middle class homeowners out in the boroughs.
15
@Edwin: New York City tax-abates much new residential construction.
@Edwin
If there are tax abatement the taxes paid are significant and these kind of people use few public services
1
@Steve Bolger we know. The issue is the public subsidizing the wealthy.
2
The land owners have much leverage in this market. Even though only a minority of people are wealthy enough to afford extravagant rentals the landlords will strive to benefit. As they do in many markets the costs to offer rental properties rise as well and soon renters are having to pay premium rents for unexceptional properties.
5
Government subsidizing businesses which are well established and far wealthier than the government and who are highly likely to build in the government’s jurisdiction anyway reflects bizarre reasoning on the part of public officials or old fashioned corruption. Business promoters have insisted that free markets and low taxes and little government regulation are essential for robust economic growth and then they insist that they be subsidized by tax payers. Intelligent young people either cannot go to college or take on crushingly big debts because government supported higher education has been largely defunded due to conservative Republicans successful efforts to reduce government services over three decades yet giving business what amounts to welfare is good for society.
20
With prices starting to soften, I don’t understand why the smart Ultra-wealthy are not renting? $5 million gives you a lot of rental credits....
4
@Robert because they have to park their CASH somewhere, and RE is among the best and safest rates of return. NYC is a RE market for the whole planet, a large majority of the most expensive condos are never occupied, they're just sat on as investments and sell for double in just 5-10 years. I read recently that a locality (don't remember where) passed a law that you have to actually LIVE IN the residence you buy. Brilliant, this should be global. (Where are my World Police when I need them? ;)
13
@DEG: Co-ops typically require residency, exclude pied a terres, and supervise guest's access to apartments. They sell for less than condos.
5
Your presumption is that circumstances are persistent and inevitable. With ownership comes equity and assets that belong to the owner. No matter how much and how long property is rented the renter retains no equity and can be required to abandon the property. In the end, ownership is the better choice.
One has to wonder how many multi-million-dollar apartments NYC can absorb before the housing stock overtakes the prices and the real estate market takes a crash. There aren’t enough rich people seeking tax shelters and the dubious laundering money to account for it all, is there?
In the meantime, there’s homeless on the streets, elders struggling, the working class getting pushed out, the middle class getting squeezed. It doesn’t make much economic sense to me, and in the long run, NYC will be a victim of its own success. Short-sighted salivating politicians should not be determining the future of my city.
62
I read descriptions of multi-million dollar condos in NY City and cringe. I suppose super wealthy folks like living in a box on the 30 th floor of a building which is jammed into an airless space in the “city because of the theater, shopping and restaurants there,or perhaps because business contacts are located there. But, really, I once lived in Westchester County and even then(50 years ago)the city was dirty, crowded and noisy. Confining myself to a condo located above the noise and pollution seems no different to me than being confined to a mental facility, or luxury jail. Of course it takes all kinds of people to make a world, but I’ll take my small home, five miles from the beach, and only a few more from the snow topped mountain in warm, sunny California any day.
32
I'm originally from New York, but I left years ago. I live in a small town in Massachusetts now and can't imagine ever going back there. I'll take fresh air and open space, forests and abundant wildlife, and farm fields and rushing streams and rivers any day over NYC.
31
@Carole yes well to each their own of course, but it's easy for anyone to list negative aspects of any city, including San Diego (and I like CA) Your negatives are generic and cliched anti-urban stereotypes, and "dirty" is decades out of date. I too live 5 miles from the beach ;) But the real problem now is overdevelopment. We aren't anti-development, it's the SCALE and density of cramming all these towers in, without genuine public input or consideration, and especially without increasing and improving all critical public services.
18
@Carole: They probably won't want to leave their apartments for want of subway access to the rest of the city.
2
Manhattan is the kind of real estate that should require zero financing from taxpayers. Especially when the real benefits are for the wealthiest - the developers and those who can afford to
live there. The rest of us can only walk around and admire the views at best; the architecture is questionnable, as unattractive skyscrapers now block what used to be more open views.
Whatever other benefits could have been created at a lower cost to taxpayers. The subway line extension was not really necessary - the money would have been better spent on repairs anyway.
Once again, the rich benefit from public, middle class financing. But how often does this have to recur before things change ? The Amazon cancellation seemed to have only created a backlash, instead of being celebrated for what it is : a rare win against the richest.
The American people rail against the ‘elite’, (by which they really mean the educated) but in truth they love the rich, envisioning that they too could someday live in the same splendor. As a result we readily give away our collective wealth.
No wonder AOC, who is only one representative, seems so threatening.
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Ooh, only $5 million for the starter-level condos? And how much are the monthlies on those apartments?
This appears to be an attempt to build a walled city of Oz that is technically *in* Manhattan, but which looks down on the rest of Manhattan with disdain. Why else would you market a development with the concept that "you never have to leave"? That's not a lure, it's more like signing yourself into a high-end prison (or nursing home) - or perhaps more pointedly, equivalent to checking into the Hotel California.
I hope the real estate market in NYC goes crashing through the sub-basement very soon, so the perpetrators of this nonsense are brought up very, very short on their utterly out-of-context and ugly project. They deserve to lose their shirts.
86
@L Hudson Yards resembles Bunker Hill, fancy residences atop a hill above downtown L.A. Like Hudson Yards, Bunker Hill was/is nice enough, with waterfalls and green space etc., but to get to downtown you had to walk downhill through a (boring) grassy area, or take a touristy finicular, which sometimes broke. Not all that surprisingly, Bunker Hill became a suburb apart from the city. Hudson Yrds seems more of the same, but pricier. Why are our tax dollars subsidizing this?
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@L
A crash from the stratosphere lands on those grounded in reality. I envision a selective haircut for a few codgers rather than a collapse. As for the balded pate Mr Bezos of Amazon stockpile, I envision a wealth transportation fee. He can sit on his money, but giving it to anyone else no matter the relation or ex relation involves a fleecing Genghis Khan would respect.
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@L The system is set up that they won't possibly lose their shirts. Only the people who they sell to might.
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Whatever people's thoughts are on this building and Hudson Yards. The City is objectively better off with this development than the open rail yards that preceded it.
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@Jeff: Why? Are we somehow too "good" to have rail yards?
This place adds thousands of people into an area with poor public transit, and they will need police, fire, and sewage-disposal services just the same as any other buildings do. And they'll be getting their Amazon deliveries, etc. as well.
Manhattan is now over-developed, as evidenced by so many new buildings (rental and condo) that have been created with no thought given to the requisite infrastructure to support it.
Do you think the people living here will somehow have no carbon footprint and zero impact in terms of garbage, recycling, etc.? And of course they will contribute to congestion - or maybe not, since the claim is that people living there won't need to leave the premises...
Hudson Yards is a great example of how a developer who's already rich can get filthy rich by over-developing NYC, without ever having to be inconvenienced by the mess that they've created for the rest of us.
I'd rather have rail yards, frankly.
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L
Yes NYC is too good to have an open rail yard. They’re an eye sore and this is a great repurposing of land. I wish however the housing development included high end and mixed income housing.
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As a former New Yorker, I agree with L. The rail yards are a reminder of when Manhattan was a city of working people. Uncomfortable reminder for many. They don’t bother me but If they have to go why not replace them with housing real New Yorkers can afford (and requisite infrastructure) and green space instead of tax write offs for foreign millionaires.
Why am I a former New Yorker? I got a job elsewhere. Turns out I can actually live on a normal salary.....
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Seems very nice!
One can only dream...
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Beyond the glaring bubble - looking at the stretch of the west side above from 14th St. all the way up to Hudson Yards, where one just can't fathom where this conveyer belt of multi-millionaires is coming from to fill these thousands of units being built in cookie-cutter aesthetic conformity - it's just so awful. That area of Manhattan right at Hudson Yards is just so nasty. You got the Lincoln Tunnel. The Javits Center nastiness, and the ugly 34th St approach. It's amazingly unappealing. If I were a mega-whatever it would be the very last place on Earth I'd want to be, even more so with the creepy 'you never have to leave' premise. Yuck.
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@Matthew
One value of money is the ability to show it off, no matter what you get for it. It's actually more impressive in some circles to throw it away than spend it wisely.
You have care in your heart and love in your eye.
Not everyone does.
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@Matthew most buyers have no intention of living there, they are only investments for the 1%.
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@Matthew They sure aren't overpaying on taxes.
1
Very excited for the "health-building elixirs" with "special qualities," so I can live and work to the age of 120, which I'll likely need to do afford a night at an Equinox hotel. Has the FDA approved the elixirs, or is this just puffery from real estate execs?
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@Andy Deckman
I'm assuming that Equinox has done its homework to understand what kind of hotel rates their kind people will pay. If Equinox members drop $220 - $300 a month on a gym membership, my guess is they can spend a lot on a hotel.
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@Jeff those base membership prices are lower. just saying. facts matter - even if they are extreme to begin with.
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