LuxuryBlurb
Posts Tagged ‘Empire State building’
Saturday, February 25th, 2012
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on February 24th, 2012
Location, location, location, the first three most important rules for the best real estate and yes, this rule even applies in politics! Mitt Romney learned this painful lesson yesterday while delivering a speech in Detroit to a group of 1,000….in Ford Field, an arena that can hold 65,000 people. 64,000 empty seats never looks good for an event. Wrong location!
Yet again, the right location is everything. I hear this same message from other groups too:
RETAILERS: They always prefer being on the East side of a North-West flowing street….why? Shoppers tend to come out later in the day as the sun is overhead and heading west. That leaves the east side of the street sunny and cheerful….and more attractive to shoppers, especially for smaller retailers.
RESTAURANTS: Most restaurants rely surprisngly heavily on walk-in traffic: No walk in traffic, and the chances of paying sky-high rents and making a profit are tough.
ART GALLERIES: While there are a few that like to exist on their own, separated, the majority like to be clustered. This makes life for art buyers, critics and viewers more convenient, and it also maximizes exposure, especially if you are aq newer gallery with less of a following.
FOOD STORES: If you want to know where neighborhoods are gentrifying with almost certainty, look out for a Whole Foods. They spend big bucks analyzing trends, building permits, transportation, street traffic, pedestrian traffic, etc to locate their stores in the most prominent up-and-coming neighborhoods……anaylisis you don’t have to pay for! Remember Houston and the Bowery before Whole Foods came along? Or how south of Chambers Street in Tribeca was poo-pooed….till that Whole Foods opened at 101 Warren Street….and all of a sudden that location became prime! So will a Whole Foods go into the West Chelsea 28th Street and Eleventh Avenue site? It certainly makes sense with the Highline Park, Hudson Yards, The Americano Hotel, a new subway stop at 34th Street and 11th Avenue, not to mention the thousands of new homeowners and renters that have moved there recently…. I used to live at 225 Fifth Avenue and every morning and evening I would see hundreds of tourists at Madison Square Park wondering around staring at the Flatiron and Empire State buildings…..the owners of EATALY must have seen what I saw!
Super-cool boutique hotels and restaurants can have the same effect….think the ACE HOTEL. Around the corner a new Starbucks just opened….
Leonard Steinberg says: Good location has everything to do with simple, common sense and nature: Have you ever tried planting sun-loving flowers in a shady spot?
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on December 8th, 2011
Is 57th Street becoming the new PARK AVENUE? With ONE 57, the EXTELL developed tower located between 6th and 7th avenues on 57th street commanding prices upwards of $ 5,000/sf comes confirmation that Macklowe’s site (now CIM)of the former Drake Hotel on Park Avenue and 57th Street will become….THE DRAKE HOTEL, located at 432 Park Ave, and designed by Rafael Vinoly. The plans show that a 1,300 foot tall tower will occupy this site, making it one of the tallest structures in Manhattan, taller than the Empire State building that measures about 1,250sf….the Freedom Tower will be over 1,700sf tall, still shorter than the Burj Dubai at over 2,000sf (See it in the latest Mission Impossible). Supposedly it will feature 128 condominiums with 12 foot tall ceilings with a driveway to ensure access privacy. The total cost of this mega-building is approximately $1 billion. Completion is expected somewhere around 2015/2016.
So will 57th Street elevate in status to attract this price-point of buyer? There were many naysayers when Trump developed 1 Central Park West, followed by the TIME WARNER CENTER…..all said Columbus Circle was a dump and no-one would live there. They were wrong. many said no-one would want to live next to Bloomingdale’s, and the BLOOMBERG building, 1 Beacon Court proved them wrong. 57th Street does boast some very prestigious retail, from Chanel to Louis Vuitton, Phillip’s, Burberry, Dior, etc…..and it is home to the Four Season’s hotel, a favourite amongst the super-rich visiting Manhattan. The Drake does have the Park Avenue address to fall back on, so chances are it will succeed. The key will be quality and supply-and-demand: these are hefty price expectations, and only time will tell if the market is deep enough in the $ 5,000+/sf category. Inflation may help.
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on April17, 2011
New York City is a city large enough to showcase how smart business, common sense and critical mass can impact huge shifts in our daily lives: and now the focus turns to energy savings.
While the world waits for ‘government’ to come up with some new invention to save energy, New York City is showcasing many ways to reduce consumption of energy through its own initiatives combined with government initiatives: The Empire State building just completed a large retro-fit to make the building more energy efficient…..it has reduced its energy consumption by almost 40%. Building codes require low-flush toilets and faucets…..thereby reducing water consumption significantly. Hybrid cabs use on average 20% less fuel than the older cabs. Many buildings are converting from oil to gas to heat. Old buildings are replacing old, leaky windows with new, more energy efficient ones.
In an apartment, here are some ways to make an impact:
1) Make sure your windows are energy efficient: if not, rally the troops in your building and instigate a building-wide program to replace old, leaky windows.
2) Window unit AC units are hyper-inefficient: ducted, central air is about 25% more energy efficient.
3) Replace incandescent light bulbs with LED’s….yes, the bulbs are super-expensive, but they last about 7 years and the quality of light is so much better than fluorescent.
4) Get motion sensor lights for fire stairwells in your building that are hardly every used: leaving a light on 24/7 is extremely wasteful. 2 lights is not a big deal…..but go and count how many are in a 12 story building. Hundreds!
5) Install dimmer switches: dimmed lights look better, make you look better, and use less energy.
6) Don’t leave unused appliances on, and unplug them when not in use.
7) If you want to reduce electrical costs, run the laundry overnight….electricity is cheaper then.
8) Call your local authorities when you see park lights on when there is bright daylight…..have them turned off.
Individually the savings are not that great, but collectively the savings and reduction of energy consumption is HUGE. Join in…..its happening already, and there are some government incentives to encourage this shift in thinking.
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One of the best ways for apartment building and condominium owners to save money is to submeter tenants. Not only does it reduce costs for all parties, but it is also good for the environment.