Bubble Wrap: August 2006

The cost of one-bedroom apartment rentals in Manhattan’s doorman buildings is surging, with starting prices for these apartments hovering around $3,000 a month — about $500 more than they were just three years ago, city brokers say.

A bevy of condominium conversions has shrunk the number of available rental units, thereby driving up rents, a researcher at the Real Estate Board of New York, John Cole, said. “There’s been so many conversions, with a good number of them having gone from rentals to condos,” he said. “With less supply, the prices have gone up, and the vacancy rate has become infinitesimally small.”

Since our April 10 Groundbreaking ceremony, the City’s team of contractors has made major advances on the High Line. The first phase of construction, removal of debris and nonstructural concrete, has been completed for Section 1, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. This phase included removal and storage of all the original rail tracks, which were tagged and mapped so that some can be integrated into the design of the new High Line landscape.

The contract for the next phase of construction has been awarded, through a public bidding process, and work is set to begin in September… This phase of construction is expected to continue into summer 2007, after which the next phase, construction of access points and the public landscape atop the structure, will begin. The first section of the High Line is scheduled to open in 2008.

Mayor Bloomberg broke ground on Thursday for a residential development in East New York that will eventually house up to 7,000 people. The 2,200 affordable homes will be a part of the Nehemiah Spring Creek Houses at Gateway Estates, a mixed-use project unfolding over 227 acres in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Sales prices for the new single-family homes are expected to start at $158,300, and the first homes are expected to be finished by the end of 2007.