Bubble Wrap: March 2009

Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn is dead, says its architect Frank Gehry

Based on an interview with Frank Gehry in The Architects Newspaper, The Daily News pulls together several comments that may suggest the relationship between Gehry and the Atlantic Yards is over.

Mayor Bloomberg this week suggested the project may still get built – but on a smaller scale and without Gehry.

“It would be sad if Atlantic Yards gets built without the Gehry design, which would’ve been phenomenal for this city,” Bloomberg said. “I gather at this point it looks like that the only ways Ratner’s going to get that done is to do it at a lower cost and not to do everything at the same time.”

State may lift age-restrictions on some housing

The Times of Trenton reports on a bill, that if passed, would allow developers of 55 and older communities to remove age limits without municipal approval. Although the demand for these units have dropped considerably, and the bill would include provisions for affordable housing, many argue against such changes:

They say such age-restricted developments were often approved because of their relatively low impact on local schools and other taxpayer-funded government services. Remove the restrictions, they argue, and property owners will foot the bill.

Chop Shop

The Post examines some properties with huge price cuts, and by talking to their brokers, this seems to be the best way to generate interest as reality sets into place.

Yes, the economic crisis is a lot scarier than any freak with a hockey mask. And the knives have come out. Apartment prices are being cut down all over. No longer are brokers bragging about a super-high price-per-square-foot – the current boast is that a listing is much cheaper than it was a year ago.

Wait. Did we say a year ago? Try a month ago. Or even a week ago.

Manhattan on clearance: Comparing price cuts by neighborhood

The Real Deal with several industry experts break down current pricing levels in the Manhattan real estate market and discuss what level prices need to come to in order to see activity pick up.

The comparison found that in every neighborhood, current listing prices and recent actual sales differed widely, indicating a deep disconnect between sellers and buyers in the current downward market. Median listing prices would need to drop from 8 percent in Soho and Tribeca to a whopping 42 percent in the West Village and Greenwich Village just to equal the actual median sales price in those neighborhoods during the last quarter of 2008.