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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Springtime in Tribeca sees +17% appreciation
I was researching the downtown market this week and looked at the spreadsheet data that the first quarter Corcoran Report, which I posted last week, was based on. It had some greater detail that I'd like to share with you regarding my own neighborhood of Tribeca. Homes solidly increased here by a 17% average sale price per square foot. The median price (the price most people pay for an apartment) is up 9%; and price per square foot is up 12%. Tribeca value has played well when compared to the flat average downtown sale, which was up by a mere 3%.
Notable new developments in the pipeline like 200 Chambers Street, had been rapidly closing within this period. This may have the effect of skewing the numbers a bit higher for the period. However, many more, like the stunning, limestone clad, new development at 101 Warren Street designed by SOM (great flash interface), are in pre-sale, will be closing in the near future, and are selling strongly. So its a trend which I believe is indicative of the real quality and interest in the area. Other prime area's like Fifth Avenue (-6% average sale) and Park Avenue (-19% average sale) did not fare as well.
Tribeca has changed a lot over the eleven years in which I've lived there. The conversion from industrial to residential buildings have created a neighborhood of larger homes, generally over 2000+ square feet. These are of course more expensive, which combined with it's proximity to Wall Street, has made it attractive to people who work in the financial district, but want a bit of distance between work and home; Or people who have a more global trajectory, and want to come back to a place that feels like home, at the center of the world. 
It has evolved into a boutique neighborhood with no shortage of world class restaurants. More recently becoming a destination for couture fashion and designer furniture too. The Tribeca Film Festival, conceived in the aftermath of 9/11, has brought global notoriety to the area. Throughout it all, it has managed to retain its charm and low rise architectural beauty.
My daughter attends an excellent public school at PS234; and we get to play in green spaces including the Washington Market and the Hudson River Parks. These are there largely due to the advocacy of the area's long time residents at Independence Plaza North, and an entrenched local creative community. A considerable number of deals that I've done downtown are scenarios where long-time loft owners sell their homes, and move to the prime downtown Brooklyn Brownstone neighborhoods of Park Slope, Fort Green and Brooklyn Heights. Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights are also on their radar more frequently now, as the prices for townhouses can be quite attractive. I have roots in Brooklyn too, so I'm particularly well positioned to advise on this kind of move.
The things I've loved about Tribeca continue to be ratified by an ever increasing population buying-in. The near future will bring Tribeca's first superstores as Whole Foods and Barnes and Nobel open at 101 Warren Street. These are neighborhood destinations that will re-shape the Greenwich and Chambers Street commercial corridors; and fundamentally change how south Tribeca feels. My impression walking over that way is that it also begins to psychologically connect us to Northern Battery Park City to the west, and eventually the redeveloped World Trade Center site to the South.
