Viewing the Dream of Manhattan

Clients come to me with long wish lists of ideal qualities they hope to find in their future Manhattan home. In our market, as in many, buyers want authenticity. They want to own a piece of the Big Apple. Particularly out-of-town buyers have a fantasy of what a New York apartment looks like. The apartment from Friends, charming, quirky, large, in the middle of Greenwich Village ? Or the townhouses pictured on drunken walks home late at night in Sex in the City, also in Greenwich Village ? Maybe your vision is a timber-beamed loft in Tribeca with lots of exposed brick and Hudson River Views ? Or perhaps a Classic-7: built around 1910, rambling hallways, high ceilings, private cook's kitchen and formal dining room, on the Upper West Side is more your ideal. 

These properties do exist but they are scarce and generally, come at a premium. What I find almost all our buyers can agree on in terms of what makes a great New York apartment, is VIEW. A gorgeous, open, interesting, charming or spectacular view screams "NEW YORK." One of my favorite downtown views are multiple layers of rooftops with old wooden watertanks.

I once enjoyed views of the East River which connected me daily to the maritime nature of my urban existence. To watch the working tugs and barges lumber up and down our waterways is a special and unique treat. Its even possible to find a humble studio apartment that has breathtaking open views over downtown Manhattan or even opening up toward the majestic skyline of midtown. A few even rise above Central Park which from the sky looks like a lush magic carpet amid all the elegant buildings that surround it. Tribeca is not a neighborhood known for views.
It was a tightly packed warehouse and industrial district until a few intrepid artists started occupying raw spaces they could buy cheaply in the 70s and 80s. Now the artists are selling their enormous spaces and other formerly commercial buildings have been converted into comfortable modern loft homes. However, the building density is still quite high. So expansive open views are rare. But even in low-floor dark apartments, I've seen fascinating views of vestiges of the old Tribeca, rusty old metal shutters, a large steel valve wheel in a courtyard, a steel rail on which to tie your horse, cobblestoned streets, a fading painted old sign on brick on a building outside the window.

In New York, where prices are high and our inventory can often not live up to the dream, reaching for an authentic view can make all the difference.