zecendorf towers at uinion square

Institutional. Some with good views. 1/2 with abysmal views of the other towers. Lower floors are loud street noise. Congested outside most of day. Not exactly a serene location or a very pretty one unless you face the park from a higher floor. Even then, it would depress the sh-t out of me to live in those things.

Anyone know what apartments are like? I've only seen one or two. Utterly unremarkable.

I had a friend who rented at the Towers while at NYU. She had a cool skyline view across the park, but that was about it. The apartment felt like a dorm--very nondescript, cookie-cutter, low-ceilings. The structure itself feels mallish. Very noisy, crowded area, especially in warmer months. Not my cuppa.

IMO Zeckendorf is fine for a student (close to all the hotspots, park right outside) but personally I'd never want to live there as an 'adult'.

it really needs to be redone. the hallways,common spaces, gym and pool are showing their age. in the one bedrooms, the bedrooms should be smaller and the living rooms bigger. I think that in general, the apts are way overpriced

I think their prices are boosted by low CCs & taxes.

Actually, sorry, on closer look that's not the case -- the charges are not low. Mea culpa.

no offense julia, but Zecendorf is way out of your price range.

Back when I was managing the Downtown Sales Dept at JI Sopher, there was a short lived rag called 7 Days Magazine. Since I've always been know to spew wise-ass comments, they used to quote me all the time in their Real Estate column. When they asked me about Zeckendorf (now remember, this was when they were selling the project), I got quoted as saying "The joke is 'It's a good thing I moved to Manhattan. Now I only have a half hour commute to the lobby'". I got a call not too long after that about Mr Z's call to my boss. But I couldn't help myself; it was funny (and true). You have to take an elevator to the ?7th? floor, then get off and go to the elevator bank of your tower, and then get on another elevator to your floor.

alpine, not if she's looking to switch to a studio rental. those babies are getting cheaper.

alpine...none taken..it is what it is..but those towers are ugly...location is great.

30yrs_RE_20_in_REO: "half hour commute to the lobby" -- that IS funny! I feel that way regarding where I garage my car, which adds half an hour to my trip on each side...the trip I'm taking by car mostly to save time. I'd go postal if I had to change elevators in my not-very-tall apartment building.

The best part of living in an outward facing tower is that you don't have to see the ghastly complex when you look out your window. Not so lucky are the thousands of people who aren't so lucky and have city views spoiled with these unthoughtful depressing 1980s relics that'll be with us indefinitely. Korvettes was a dump in the end, but better than the Z towers.

p.u. it stinks.

most of the studios in Zeckendorf are VERY small... sub 500 square feet. There are two 570 sf studios currently listed, but they do not appear on the website of the RE agency that lists them, so they are likely old listings or maybe even a bait and switch. So unless these 570 sf studios exist, then the rents there are obvivoulsy not coming down.

"I feel that way regarding where I garage my car"
I feel VERY lucky to have found an unmanned garage near my house. I have my assigned spot. No one touches the car but me and my wife. It doesn't get started and moved 20 times a day. I don't have to call in advance if I want to use it. I don't "find things" in it. My bumpers aren't scratched to hell........

30yrs is right. I used to live in a 1br in the University Tower. At that time I had a car parked in the garage in the basement of the building so I would need to take the elevator from the basement to the 7th floor and then walk to the other end of the building to take another elevator to the 17th floor. Moving day was hell, as you can imagine and I was happy to move out of there and to the Upper East Side to a building with just one elevator where it was more of a community up there and not just an apartment in the middle of a shopping district.

kylewest -- all true ... but S. Klein, not Korvettes (which was near Herald Square).

30yrs. -- my last garage was like that, and very near my apartment. Heaven. Then I moved, and still don't have to deal with parking attendants, but it's an unassigned spot in a block-long five-story nightmare of a garage, and not nearly as close to my apartment. I don't think I could deal with an attendant tile-puzzling my car under any circumstance, though. I'd get rid of my car.

University Towers...... I used to live 2 blocks away but parked all the way over on on Lafayette. i had a friend who had a Right hand drive Rolls Royce that they almost never used, but their grandpa lived in UT, so they parked it there. Are there still non-NYU tenants there? I wonder.

alan: not only does that sound terrible, but I'll bet there's times you can't find a spot because of "cheaters"?

There are 570 sq ft studios but they seem oddly shaped and don't have much more usable space than the 460 and 500 sq ft ones.

The building is suprisingly great. I lived on E. 10th when the building was going up in the 80's and used to stare at it with my girlfriend (now wife) while we'd both remark how we'd NEVER live in that monstrosity. 20 years later, we bought a 1br instead of a beach house (we live in the burbs). It's been great. While I'd agree that I wouldn't want a south facing apt on the ugly nyu dorms, our 1 br has postcard views of the empire state and met life buildings. The building staff is excellent and friendly, and the convenience factor (subway, union sq, etc) is tops. Full disclosure, we may be selling soon, as we'll need more space when we finally escape the suburbs.

What is the deal with this building? Seems like there is a huge glut of the miniscule studios at $2300.

what, no one has mentioned the pool?

ali r.
{downtown broker}

It's a very small pool, though pretty amazing to have a free one. Just not sure why there are so many vacancies.

refinder, notice the broker? one irving place realty? i'd guess that the sponsor still has a bunch of the units as rentals. can't sell them now, and must be getting more vacancies due to unemployment, leading to a bit of a glut.

I guess so. Probably hard to sell 460 sq. ft. studios for $600-700k these days.

and if the sponsor owns more than 10%, that kills the deal further, as financing options will be much better for other apartments.

I've looked at units to buy in the building. 1 irving place realty may represent the sponsor but they also handle many of the other owner rentals. not sure on the % sold in the building...

getting out, i was talking about small units only, and only since the mortgage terms changed for conforming loans.

Seems like the 460 sq.ft. studios have settled around 2200-2300/mo. Does that price range sound reasonable to you guys?