Warburg Blog

FUN THINGS TO DO IN NEW YORK CITY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON 2011

Having spent so many wonderful holiday seasons in New York City, we felt we’d share some of our favorite traditions and activities. We hope the attached serves as a useful guide to help you and your family navigate your way through some of New York’s great sights and attractions this season.

Christine Miller Martin & Hunter Hulshizer,

Warburg Realty Partnership

Christmas Holiday Shows and Events in New York City

Radio City Christmas Spectacular Presents its NEW 2011 Show

The Rockettes – Magical Journey.” (Radio City Music Hall, 1260 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10020; Now – January 2, 2012; $45 – $250)www.radiocitychristmas.com 866-858-0007.

12th Annual Winter’s Eve at Lincoln Square

Sidewalks come alive with street performances by musicians, jugglers, stilt walkers and more. The celebration begins with a neighborhood tree lighting ceremony at Dante Park – Broadway and 63^rd Street. Festivities continue along Broadway from Time Warner Center to 68^th Street. November 29, 2011 at 5:30pm. www.winterseve.org 212-581-3774

The Nutcracker

Angels, soldiers, and sugarplum fairies prance across the Lincoln Center stage in a show that delights children and adults alike.
(New York State Theater, Columbus Avenue & 63rd Street, Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023; November 25 – December 21, 2011. For tickets: www.nycballet.com/nutcracker/nutcracker.html

Handel’s Messiah

Trinity Church Wall Street – The perennial favorite that always sells out, this incredibly rich oratorio features an elaborate mix of chorus, soloists, and orchestra that must be heard live … and what better place than Trinity Church where it received its New World premiere in 1770. Conductor: Julian Wachner. With the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Robert Mealy, concertmaster. Tickets can be purchased online or at the Trinity Gift Shop, inside Trinity Church. Sunday, December 11, 2011 from 3pm to 6pm. 74 Trinity Place. 212-602-0800. http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/calendar/2011/12/11/messiah-george-frideric-handel/

Grand Central Terminal’s Kaleidoscope Light Show

See Grand Central in a whole new light! An all new Kaleidoscope show will grace the walls of New York's most famous historic landmark again this year. Come see what is becoming one of the most popular holiday shows in the city. Grand Central Terminal, 15 Vanderbilt Ave at 42nd St., New York, NY 10017; December 1, 2011 – January 1, 2012 . Shows run every half hour from 11am to 9pm daily. Free to the public. www.grandcentralterminal.com.

Holiday Shops and Activities in NYC

The Holiday Shops at Bryant Park –
Now – January 8, 2012. Open daily, the over 100 boutique-style shops and specialty food stores from around the world offer exquisite and distinctive apparel, jewelry, decorative goods, imported and local food, and much more. For a complete list of vendors, an insider’s guide to The Holiday Shops and more, please visit www.theholidayshopsatbryantpark.com or call 212-661-6640.

Holiday Shopping in Union Square - One of Manhattan’s most popular Holiday Markets, The Holiday Market in Union Square offers shoppers a wide variety of items which include handcrafted jewelry, fine art, clothes, handmade ornaments and toys. The market will be open from November 18, 2011 to December 24, 2011 from 11am to 8pm daily. Please note that it will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. www.urbanspacenyc.com/union-square.

Grand Central Holiday Fair- (Now-December 24th, 2011; Grand Central Terminal; 87 E. 42nd St. at Park Ave.) Stop by Grand Central Terminal for a warm and festive holiday shopping spree. The annually held Holiday Fair offers fun and original gift ideas and a merry atmosphere. Hours are 10am-8pm daily. Closed Thanksgiving Day.

Holiday Market at Columbus Circle- Open December 1 to December 24, 2011, 59^th Street and 8^th Avenue. 10am to 8pm daily.
www.urbanspacenyc.com/columbus-circle-holiday-market/

The Holiday Gift Shops at St. Bartholomew’s – 2011 marks the 7^th year for the Holiday Gift Shops at St. Bart’s. Open November 15 – December 24, 2011 from 8am to 8pm daily. On Park Avenue at 50^th street.

Holiday Window Displays

Lord & Taylor Holiday Window Displays (424 Fifth Avenue at 38th Street)
Bergdorf Goodman Holiday Window Displays (Fifth Avenue and 57th Street)
Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Window Displays (611 Fifth Avenue between 49^th and 50^th Street)
Barneys New York Christmas Window Displays (660 Madison Avenue at 61st St.)
Bloomingdale's Christmas Window Displays (Lexington Avenue between 59th Street and 60th Street)
Macy’s Christmas Window Displays (Herald Square, between 34th and 35th on Broadway)

Most department stores run their holiday displays from mid-November to mid-January.

Not Just For Kids

The Museum of the City of New York 2011 Children’s Holiday Party- Arts, crafts, magic shows, a buffet supper and meeting with Santa Claus is enough to get any child in the holiday spirit. (Museum of the City of New York 1220 Fifth Avenue; Monday, December 12, from 3-6pm; visit http://www.mcny.org/public-programs/all/CHP2010.html 212-534-1672

Tenth Annual Grand Central Holiday Train Show November 22, 2011-January 16, 2012; New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex; Grand Central Terminal, 42nd St. between Vanderbilt & Lexington Avenues.
The New York Transit Museum Gallery at Grand Central Terminal is returning with its 9th annual Holiday Train Show which features a full train track with a fully functioning train and miniature New York City background. The vintage trains made by Lionel, American Flyer and Louis Marx & Company, which date as far back as the 1920s, will also be on display. www.mta.info/mta/museum/whatsnew.htm

New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show

November 19, 2011 - January 16, 2012 - The New York Botanical Garden- Bronx River Parkway at Fordham Road. The New York Botanical Garden's Holiday Train Show is a beautiful scene of The Big Apple built entirely out of plants and natural material like seeds, bark and leaves. A few of the included landmarks are the Brooklyn Bridge and The Statue of Liberty constructed by Paul Busse. The miniature trains are also incredibly impressive works of art to view and run the familiar New York City Landscape. www.nybg.org/hts

New York Zoos

Winter Fest at The Central Park Zoo – Enjoy the beauty of the Zoo at the best time of year – the winter holidays. On Fridays and Saturdays in December, hours will be extended to 6:30 pm so you can stop by in the afternoon or after work for a stroll under the lights. Visit cold weather creatures, enjoy family activities and Wildlife Theatre in the Zoo gallery, and watch the animals get gifted during holiday enrichment sessions. The snow monkeys will forage from trees strung with tasty fruits, red pandas will unpack gift boxes brimming with treats, and polar bears will receive frozen fish-cicles. www.centralparkzoo.com/plan-your-trip/events-calendar/presents-to-the-animals.aspx

Also enjoy holiday shopping at the Zootique, take a family holiday photo, and treat yourself to cookies and cocoa in the café. Activities take place from 2pm-6:30pm. December 2-3, 2011; December 9-10, 2011; and December 16-17, 2011.

Hess Clydesdale Carriage Rides at The Bronx Zoo-

Weekends November 6 through December 19 & December 26-31, 2011. Beloved Clydesdale horses Ranger, Jesse, and Monty will take guests on festive wagon rides around the zoo. Other features will include a petting zoo, ice carvings and puppets. Saturdays and Sundays throughout the holiday season. Special winter activities continue in December. $5 per person for ages 3 and up. http://www.bronxzoo.com/plan-your-trip/events-calendar/horse-drawn-carriage-rides.aspx

Hotels, Museums, Trees and Lights

Stop by to enjoy Madeline Tea at The Carlyle’s famous Bemelmans Bar. Madeline Tea is a delightfully playful afternoon for children and parents alike. Guests can listen and sing along to tunes from the Madeline Song Book with Tina de Varon while dining on Madeline’s Children’s Buffet, afternoon tea, or an a la carte menu for adults. Every Saturday with seatings at 10am and 12:30pm. Don’t forget to check out the gingerbread house on display in The Gallery. It’s an endless source of temptation for both young and the young at heart. Located at 35 East 76^th Street. www.thecarlyle.com 212-744-1600

Victorian Holiday Lighting (At the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center – Inside the Park on 110^th St between 5^th and Lenox Aves) - Sunday, December 4, 2011 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm. Celebrate the season in Manhattan’s Victorian winter wonderland at the Central Park Conservancy’s 15^th Annual Holiday Lighting. Enjoy hot cocoa, live carolers, cookie decorating, crafts and an opportunity to take photographs with Father Christmas. FREE. No advance registration. All ages welcome. For more information, call 212-860-1370. http://support.centralparknyc.org/site/Calendar/1253496182?view=Detail&id=112081

Origami Christmas Tree at the American Museum of Natural History – For over thirty years the museum has celebrated the holiday season with its origami tree. This year will be no exception as it will be decorated with the theme of discovery, from dinosaur digs to space exploration. Also, don’t miss the two 19-foot Holiday Barosaurs lit up for viewing as well. Tree viewing begins on November 21, 2011 and will remain up until January 2, 2012. Central Park West at 79^th Street. 212-875-5456 www.amnh.org

Christmas Tree at The Metropolitan Museum of Art- November 23, 2011-January 6, 2012. The Museum will display its Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Creche. The twenty foot spruce will be adorned with 18^th century Neapolitan angels and Cherubs flanking the nativity scene in the Museum’s Medieval Sculpture Hall. Lighting ceremonies are held Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 3:30pm and 4:30pm, and Fridays and Saturdays at 4:30pm, 5:30pm, and 6:30pm. 1000 5^th Ave at 82^nd Street. www.metmuseum.org 212-535-7710.

Park Avenue Tree Lighting Ceremony– Sunday, December 4, 2011 6:30pm. The Brick Presbyterian Church located at 91^st Street and Park Ave. Every year since 1945 the firs that line Park Avenue have been lit to remember and honor those who have lost their lives in our nation’s wars.

Tree Lighting Celebration at Citi Pond inside Bryant Park- Thursday, December 2, 2011 at 6pm. www.bryantpark.org

Lighting of the World’s Largest Hanukkah Menorah- This 32 foot tall, two ton candelabra will be lit at the Grand Army Plaza at Fifth Avenue and 59^th Street. The nightly lighting ceremonies will be accompanied by folk dancing and holiday jelly donuts. The festivities take place on December 1 – December 9, 2011 at 5:30 pm and 3:30pm on Fridays.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting- Tuesday, November 29, 2011. 7pm-9pm. The Norway Spruce will be illuminated by 30,000 environmentally friendly LED lights on five miles of wire! www.rockefellercenter.com

Chorus Tree at South Street Seaport - Don’t miss the tree lighting on Friday, November 25, 2011 at the South Street Seaport’s Historic Cobblestone Area – South Street and Fulton. 6pm. Soon enough, the bright lights of New York City are going to be drowned out by the beautiful lights of the holiday. The South Street Seaport is kicking it off with a traditional tree lighting ceremony where a 55 foot Norway Spruce will be lit up the day after Thanksgiving. Santa will be available for complimentary photos from 6:30pm-8pm. Carolers perform Fridays at 6pm and 7pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm and 4 pm through Christmas. It provides a festive break from the holiday madness. www.southstreetseaport.com

Santa

Macy’s Santaland and Puppet Theatre- Visit the real Santa Claus at Macy’s Santaland located on the 8^th floor of Macy’s Herald Square. Open daily from 9am to 9pm, from Friday, November 25 through Saturday, December 24, 2011. Admission is free.

Ice Skating in New York

The Ice Rink at Rockefeller Center – www.therinkatrockcenter.com 212-332-7654

Citi Pond at Bryant Park - Citi Pond is the centerpiece of Bryant Park’s winter season. The 170’ x 100’ rink features free admission skating in addition to high quality rentals. Open October 29^th, 2011 until February 27^th, 2012. Sunday through Thursday, 8am – 10pm and Friday and Saturdays from 8am –midnight. www.citipondatbryantpark.com

Trump Wollman Rink – Located in Central Park, the rink is near the east side of the Park, just steps from the Central Park Zoo and The Plaza Hotel. It offers ice hockey, a skating school and party facilities. For more information including rink hours call 212-439-6900 or visit www.wollmanskatingrink.com.

Best Places for Hot Chocolate

Dylan’s Candy Bar – Visit the upper level of this Willy Wonka like candy store for a mug of hot chocolate topped with either cookies, birthday cake or, of course, candy. One size $7.00 www.dylanscandystore.com 1011 Third Ave.

Sant Ambroeus – 1000 Madison Avenue (between 77^th and 78^th St.) 212-570-2211 www.santambroeus.com . Their hot chocolate is beyond!

Lexington Candy Shop – Sit at the counter and have an old New York experience as you and your children will enjoy the classic Nestle’s cocoa. One size: $1.50 or $2.95 made with milk. 1226 Lexington Avenue at 83^rd Street. www.lexingtoncandyshop.com.

Holiday Lights Bus Tour

Year after year New York is the top destination for Holiday travels. Come get a taste of why Christmas in New York makes the season bright for so many. See the lights, the music, everything that makes New York spectacular during the holidays! On this guided bus tour through New York you will see the city’s famous holiday lights! Come see Rockefeller Center’s Holiday splendor. Rockefeller Center’s lighted Christmas tree and its outdoor skating rink are just some of the many sites you’ll enjoy on this unforgettable tour of New York City and its Holiday lights. The tour runs approximately 3 hours daily at 7pm, 7:30pm, or 8pm, November 23, 2011 – January 1, 2012. Tickets range from Free for children under the age of 5, $33.95 for children between the ages of 5-11 and 48.95 for Adults. There is a $5 savings for tours booked online. Reserve online or call toll free at 888-880-9108.

http://www.nytours.us/?event=offer.detail&offerId=5170

Christine Miller Martin, Managing Director - 212-439-5194 / cmartin@warburgrealty.com

Hunter Hulshizer, Licensed Salesperson - 212-439-4564 / hhulshizer@warburgrealty.com

As I have mentioned before in these blogs, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Last week 30 of our closest family and friends gathered at the house in Connecticut to eat, drink, commune, and play with the tiny members of the fourth generation. As we do every year, we went around the table offering each guest the opportunity to express what they are thankful for.

Here is my professional gratitude list:

* I am thankful that the United States, for all their differences, are still fundamentally united. I am grateful that my tax dollars can be used to support education programs in New Mexico, or provide food to children in Missouri. Would the European Union be in its current critical state if France and Germany felt that way about the poor in Greece?

* I am thankful that New York City remains enough of an international center to retain a vibrant residential real estate market. International buyers and wealthy non-Wall Streeters buoyed Warburg’s success this year, as did a record number of $15-million-plus home sales.

* I am thankful that every day of my life here, there is a fascinating museum exhibit to see, a beautiful concert to hear, a transformative reading to attend, a wonderful friend to meet. It is a privilege to sell the city and the unique lifestyle it offers.

* I am thankful that the transparency ushered in by the Internet has redefined the way residential brokers do business. With information so readily available, we have had to create a new value proposition which depends on expertise, and in the process make ourselves more conscious of what services we provide to consumers.

* I am thankful for the high level of professionalism in most of the colleagues with whom I interact. That said, I would be even MORE thankful if New York State raised the bar on its requirements for real estate licensees. It is just too easy for anyone to get a license in this state. Ours is a complex and profoundly important job and the barriers for entry here are just too low.

* I am thankful for the transformative power of social media, which allows me and the company to reach so many with this blog, through Facebook and Linked In, or on Warburg’s Twitter account. I love the way the notion of advertising which was prevalent when I came into the market 30 years ago has been incorporated into the far larger and more embracing concept of viral marketing.

Above all, I am thankful for change. The way we sell, the way we disseminate information, the way we interact with each other – all of it has evolved SO much in the last ten years; can we even imagine a business world without e-mail today? Although I often resist it, and resent it, the rapidly altering landscape of the post-technological world has kept me on my toes, both frustrated and exhilarated as I strive to integrate apps and links and SEO into Warburg’s overall strategy, while maintaining our fundamental values of integrity and strong interpersonal interaction which make our organization flourish. After twenty years, running a business is still a voyage of discovery. And I still love the view from the prow of the ship.

Meet Jay Gurewitsch, owner of Chelsea’s elegant-yet- affordable gift shop, Arcadia. Gurewitsch has traveled far and wide to find souvenirs that embody his motto, “simple is beautiful.” He is known, among both New York locals and far-from-home tourists, for his whimsical and exclusive international products.

Arcadia

228 8^th Avenue

New York, NY 10011

Tell me a bit about the history of Arcadia.

When I decided to go into this business I said, “Do we really need another gift store in Manhattan?” If you want all the brand names you can go to Bloomingdales and if you go to gift stores in Manhattan you’ll see 99% of the same product. At Arcadia we do have some mainstream products because they’re requested by our customers, but 90% of what we specialize in are rare pieces from around the world.

What are some of your favorite items that you sell?

It’s hard to say because we consider all of our pieces to be unique and special. But we just got in the book “Go the F**k to Sleep,” by Adam Mansbach. The book is very accurate — especially for anyone with children under the age of 12.

Another great item is the Zipper Bowl by Lilach Lotan. It’s literally a white, porcelain bowl with a zipper on it. And Roger Wood is another great artist who makes one-of-a-kind clocks from old watch and clock parts.

Do you live in the area? How has Chelsea transformed in the past 11 years?

I’ve lived in Chelsea for 15 years now and it’s very different now than when I first moved here. At that time, there were parts of Chelsea that didn’t feel safe at night. Today, it’s not like that at all – I am always explaining to tourists that Chelsea streets are safe at any hour…day or night.

What’s your favorite thing about Chelsea?

The park at the General Theological Seminary is great and very few people know about it.

What’s your favorite place for lunch in the neighborhood?

I’m a big fan of Nisos – it’s a nice Greek restaurant right down the street.

How did you come up with your slogan, “simple is beautiful?”

The story behind the slogan comes from the last phase of my Bar Mitzvah Torah portion. The text was about how God doesn’t want your sacrifices and money — he just wants you to live a simple and ethical life. This phrase left an enormous impression on me. I applied it to my store because I don’t like to sell items that are complicated with instruction manuals. I want life to be simple because simple really is beautiful.

For more information on Carriage House or to set up a site visit, please feel free to contact me at JTurken@warburgrealty.com, call 212.24 House (4-6873) or visit the website at www.Carriagehouse24.com

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Square footage is a critical consideration in determining and comparing property values. Yet there are no uniform standards for measuring space in New York’s residential housing stock of co-ops, condo’s and townhouses.

When I first started in the business, we sold apartments by the number of rooms, making distinctions for post war and prewar products and for location. That was before loft conversions in the late 80’s and the condo explosion of the 90’s and 00’s.  “Price-per-square-foot” has become the common denominator and currency of our marketplace, but until consistent guidelines are developed to measure spaces, it’s an unreliable metric for determining the value of a property. 

It’s time to develop approved and accepted industry wide methods to calculate square footage in residential spaces.  If we are to help our data driven buyers and sellers to evaluate a property’s value and also to compare it to other like properties, then we need to be able to measure qualitatively and quantitatively and match up apples to apples. 

Since the late 90’s when the buyers of a Park Avenue co-op backed out of their purchase contract, suing both seller and broker in a claim that the apartment fell 15% short of what was advertised, brokers have been reluctant to cite square footage for co-ops.  Though I know of this one lawsuit only which was settled ultimately out of court, numerous complaints have been filed against brokers and developers for inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and many deals have gone south because of discrepancies and disputes. 

In condominium offerings, the practice is to rely on the number published in the Offering Plan in which the developer is required not only to specify square footage but also to disclose how it was computed.  However unless we read the book length prospectus to understand what went into the gross calculations, comparisons between buildings are often very challenging.  Variations abound because developers include a prorated share for a variety of common elements such as elevators, corridors, stairwells, mechanical columns and pipes.  Their inclusion in gross area distorts actual apartment square footage.  With condos selling an average $1,130 per square foot (and over $10,000/sf in a recent sale at 15 CPW), anything greater than a 2% measurement tolerance in floor area translates into significant sums of money.

By definition, residential square footage comprises the floor space within a home’s perimeter walls, including closets and hallways.  One would think that multiplying length times width to determine the area would be straightforward arithmetic.  However, if you were to ask a tax assessor, appraiser, architect, developer, broker and homeowner to measure the same apartment, you are unlikely to get identical area results and more likely to get six very different responses.  Similarly, if you were to ask a carpet installer to compare a 2000 square foot condo in one building to another in a different development, you’re likely to come away with two very different carpet estimates. 

Although REBNY provides guidelines for commercial brokers to measure floor space in office buildings and stores, no industry standards exist for the residential market.  Effective since January 1987, REBNY has been offering commercial agents precise recommendations “to facilitate a comparison of the cost of space among buildings,” acknowledging “loss factors” and dissimilarities between structures in order to determine usable and rentable area.

I asked REBNY’s President Steven Spinola whether something similar could be provided for residential agents.  “We looked at this in the past,” he notes in an email. “A good number of legal concerns were raised over a broker articulating square footage and then being sued over the number that was given.  On condo units no one should use anything other than what is listed in the Offering Plan.  I am willing to explore this for co-op units but the lawyers will argue against.”

I checked with three attorneys; two were dubious, and a third encouraging.  Neil B. Garfinkel of Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson, LLP, said, “From the perspective of representing real estate brokers, I would not be in favor of it.  I think that even if you were to come up with a standardized method, I would not want it to fall to the real estate broker to participate in the calculation of square footage—there is way too much risk!” Craig L. Price of Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman LLP agrees:  “You need to weigh the potential liability versus the value of the data to the market. I am not sure the ‘need’ for data outweighs the inherent risk associated.”  Luigi Rosabianca of Rosabianca & Associates, PLLC disagrees however:  “This is a matter of great dispute within our industry, but we need uniformity, and I am definitely in favor of exploring industry standards.”

In 7 states—namely Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, Colorado, Alaska, Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, and West Virginia—square footage has been defined by law since 1994.  In New York, where the stakes are incredibly high, square footage is too important not to be addressed by brokers.  Floor area is a huge component in the valuation of residential assets and influences negotiations.  It’s time we as an industry took voluntary responsibility (before the state mandates it) to devise clear, logical, and easy to compute objective methods to calculate floor space.  Guidelines would not only assist the broker in measuring square footage to achieve measurement consistency and comparability between properties, but it would also offer consumer protection. 

It is customary in this week of Turkey with all the fixings, Macy’s Day Parade Floats and Balloons and Black Friday shopping to take an ever brief moment to say thanks and to be grateful.

So while I am incredibly thankful for my family and friends (you know who you are!)  I want to say thank you to my home for the last 14 years, New York City!

Now now, I know it is cool to be jaded and not love New York, after all, no true New Yorker ever says it aloud or even worse (gasp!), actually wears an I Love NY t-shirt in public. But hear me loud and clear world, make no mistake, I really do LOVE New York.

Recently I enrolled in a continuing education class at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation or GVSHP. As a licensed Associate Broker in NYC, it is compulsory to take 22.5 hours of continuing education every two years. Mostly these classes are a joke—and involves me sitting in a room watching a clock very slowly tick off each excruciating minute so I can obtain a certificate to hand over to my office manager who in turn will mail it to the state so I can continue selling real estate. These 22.5 hours have been nothing like that.

The GVSHP is dedicated “to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo.” I have read about the GVSHP in local papers and blogs in passing, and certainly understood their connection to my profession (sometimes working together, sometimes in opposition), but hadn’t been involved in any of their programming for the public.

The 22.5 hour course is focused on fair housing, landmark law and zoning, which seemingly sounds so dry but all the lectures and walking tours were artfully imbued in New York City’s rich history by some serious scholars.

Sometimes the only way to figure out the present (and the future) is to look to the past—understand all the layers of paint beneath the most current one.

It can be easy to live in NYC and love it for the architecture, the restaurants, the art, the music, the energy, etc—but it is so much more powerful to know how there were others before our time who loved NYC for the architecture, the restaurants, the art, the music, the energy.

Here are some tidbits from the lectures and the walking tours that I thought I would share:

·         Stuyvesant Street in the East Village is the one of the only true east-west streets in NYC and one of the city’s oldest. If you have never seen it, it diagonally cuts across  from Third Avenue through 9^th and 10^th Streets.  While this may not seem like a huge deal at first blush, what is cool about it, is that it is also from the original city planning grid by who else but the Stuyvesant family themselves. When the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811 called for strict use of a grid in Manhattan, Stuyvesant Street was the exception and thank goodness. I love walking down that short street, gazing at all the townhouses—some of the oldest original houses in the city are right there.  One of note is 21 Stuyvesant (AKA the Hamilton Fish House). The home is a  landmarked Federal style townhouse originally inhabited by the great granddaughter of Peter Stuyvesant,  Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish and her hubby Nicolas Fish. They went on to have a son who was none other than Hamilton Fish, a governor and senator of New York.  Also interesting tidbit—Cooper Union owns the home now and the university’s president lives there.

·         The East Village was full of…Germans! Oh you could fill a book with what I don’t know about NYC, but that one was a big surprise to me. I always think Irish and Italians when I think NYC immigrants, particularly downtown but in fact  1 in 5 New Yorkers were German in the mid-to-late 1800s. Many were arriving because of the Franco-Prussian War—and interesting enough, the Germans that were settling in NYC were artisans, iron-workers, masons, bakers, builders, etc and as a result were able to set up a better immigrant life for themselves. Tompkins Square Park was an important public space that the Germans called the Weisse Garten. There were beer gardens, sport clubs, libraries, choirs, shooting clubs, German theatres, German schools, German churches, and German synagogues all over the East Village.  The theatre that  La Mama on East 4^th Street off of the Bowery, is housed in what was originally a German music hall—the Germans loved their music!

·         The history of tenements downtown is fascinating. They probably most exemplified the increasing stratification between the wealthy class and the poor immigrants. The Tenement Houst Act of 1867 dictated that there was 1 water tap per building and 1 toilet for every 20 occupants.  Meanwhile the population of NYC was swelling—and doubled from 1.8 to 3.4 million people—and 70 percent of them were living in tenements. The population density south of Chambers street was greater than Bombay or Calcutta’s population density has EVER been.

So here it is. I give thanks for NYC and its incredibly rich history. Happy Thanksgiving!

Last week The Real Deal held its annual forum at Avery Fisher Hall. I found myself in the surprising position of debating Lockhart Steele, the founder of curbed.com, on the topic of whether social media is good or bad for real estate. In theory, I was debating on the “bad” side, which, considering that I am both a blogger (quod erat demonstrandum) and a big Facebook fan, seems ironic. Nonetheless, there are a number of things about the media in 2011 which frustrate me, and I made those the focus of my debating points.

Here, in somewhat random order, they are:

1. I really hate the anonymous comments. Lockhart argues that the comments are an integral part of blog sites, and that they both expand and enrich the discussion. I get that, but why do they have to be anonymous? In my experience, not needing to identify yourself leads to egregious breaches of even the most basic politeness or relevance. A business story turns into a trashfest; respectworthy individuals have irrelevant and off color sexual innuendo thrown at them, all because the writer doesn’t need to sign his/her name. My feeling is, have the courage to identify yourself or don’t participate!

2. The Internet has enlarged, facilitated, and diminished reporting, all at the same time.

* Enlarged, in that the vast database resources of the world are available at a keystroke, so creating connectivity between regions, ideas, and people is easier than ever.

* Facilitated because the sort of shoe leather reporting which was still the norm early in my career has mostly become obsolete. It’s easy to get the information you need.

* Diminished, for exactly the same reason: it is TOO easy to get the information you need.  During the early years of my career, the reporters who covered real estate knew the business cold. They had done lots of research, cultivated sources, done analysis in order to draw conclusions based on facts. I see less and less of that today. With few exceptions, reporters DON’T tend to know the business cold any more, and they somehow mistake data representation for reporting.

* I was struck recently by the similarity between a good reporter’s work and that of a skilled agent. The Internet provides both (and both their audiences as well) with access to information. What separates excellence from mediocrity is the ability to make distinctions, draw conclusions, bring the data to life in a way which illuminates and contextualizes that information for the benefit of the user. Analysis, a balanced perspective giving both sides of the equation: these old fashioned virtues are increasingly hard to come by.

3. I spoke at the forum about the “Kardashianization” of residential real estate reporting. Residential real estate is the biggest asset many Americans own. Why then is it increasingly covered like “soft” news? Why is it more about bold faced names, decorating, and amenities  than about the significant business trends on which the markets rise and fall? I suppose I am as interested as the next person in where Snooki’s hideaway is (on second thought, maybe not) or the distress caused by bedbugs, but can anyone imagine commercial real estate being covered this way!?

I don’t ask for much. I want blog commenters to have the courage to identify themselves. I want to deal with reporters who know my industry and actually analyze data to arrive at conclusions. And I want to read more about the complex trends which drive our market and less about Gaga’s new loft. OK?

Meet Joey Gonzales, owner of Barry’s Bootcamp. With a new location right here in Chelsea, Barry’s Bootcamp brings its famous “Best Workout in the World” to New York City.

Barry’s Bootcamp

135 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011

Who is Barry?

He was our first trainer at the West Hollywood location.

How did Barry’s Boot Camp make its way to Chelsea?

New Yorkers who visited the original studio in West Hollywood have been begging us to open a Barry’s Bootcamp in New York City for years now. We decided that it was time to share our success with the East Coast!

What kind of workout do you offer?

Our classes are one hour. They consist of 30 minutes of cardiovascular on the treadmill and 30 minutes of strength training using weights. And we’re the only treadmill/weight class in New York! It’s a very well rounded class of exercise techniques.

How can people manage to devote time to staying fit despite busy schedules?

I don’t think that work should be an excuse. Barry’s Bootcamp was originally built for actors in the industry who work crazy long hours and still managed to take 5:30 a.m. classes. The truth is that everyone really has time.

How many sessions before you see results (be honest!)?

For people who really want change, you should attend 4-5 classes a week in the beginning.

Any age restrictions?

My father takes the class. He’s 75!

For more information on Carriage House or to set up a site visit, please feel free to contact me at JTurken@warburgrealty.com, call 212.24 House (4-6873) or visit the website at www.Carriagehouse24.com

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Over the week-end the New York Times revealed  a profoundly interesting trend: last year, for the first time in decades, more people moved INTO the city than out of it.

What I found amusing about the article was the disjunction between those interviewed about why they stayed in (or returned to) New York and the statements from the talking heads who were asked to opine about the trend overall. While the actual people said their decision to remain or come back to New York was all about the quality of life, the demographer from the Brookings Institute seemed to think it was all about the inability of people to sell their homes. Speaking for myself, I don’t buy that line of reasoning.

Don’t get me wrong; we as real estate agents understand as well as anyone how hard it can be for some consumers to sell their properties in the current environment. But is that really the factor most profoundly impeding an exodus from the city? I don’t think so. The fact is, in most of the city as a whole there is a marketplace. Properties will sell. They may not sell at the numbers sellers hope to achieve, but if these same sellers are planning  a move to other parts of the country, where the markets are often far more depressed than they are here, they will still get plenty of bang for their buck. I truly believe that the reduction in people leaving New York, especially to move to the suburbs, is less about home value than about satisfaction and convenience. As I have noted in this blog before, the notion of suburban/commuter life was built around two realities of ‘50’s and ‘60’s life: the 9 to 5 workday and the one-working-parent family. In today’s world in which both members of the couple work ten hours a day, who wants to add two train rides to those already long hours? And for those with kids, when do you see them?

What about the people moving INTO the city? As the article notes, many who leave are drawn back. They find they miss the energy, the vitality, and the it’s-11 PM-the-night-is-young-what-shall-we-do-now sense of endless possibility. Young people are drawn here in huge numbers simply because the city is so exciting and (relatively speaking in this very challenging economic environment) replete with opportunity. It seems that, more than ever, people are drawn to New York not only from all over the world but also from all over the country. Of course, some of this is to be expected. We all know that globally populations are tending increasingly to gravitate away from rural and towards urban environments . And with 7 BILLION people now in the world, it also seems inevitable that there will simply be more people in all of the world’s cities as time goes by.

That said, so many converts to our city arrive like the dazzled Dorothy Gale to Oz, murmuring “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” No Dorothy, you’re not, and probably, based on the data, you won’t be going back there any time soon.

Read the New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/nyregion/in-shift-more-people-move-in-to-new-york-than-out.html?_r=1 

The Chinese love to buy art, jade, jewelry, real estate. They prefer, to a much greater degree than Westerners, to put a substantial portion of their wealth in THINGS. Increasingly, as I watch the wild fluctuations of our national stock markets and those around the globe, and I listen to my colleagues, my customers, and my clients talk about the vertiginous swings in their securities portfolios, I sympathize with the Chinese. There is much that is appealing about owning stuff, real stuff, which you can touch and hold and feel.

Everyone has an opinion about the economy, and these opinions run the gamut (and there seems to be an economist endorsing every position from one end of the spectrum to the other). But a few things seem clear, at least to me: our economy cannot really recover without a concurrent recovery or re-balancing of the European economy, and the European economy has a long way to go before it can really begin to recover. The critical financial issues in Greece and Spain, not to mention those looming for Italy and Ireland, took years to create and may well take years to sort out. In the meantime, markets the world over behave like roller coasters. And I suspect that this is the new normal, that for at least another year these daily vacillations of hundreds of points embody the global uncertainties which cannot be wished away. It’s fear, it’s here, get used to it (to paraphrase Act Up!)

In this environment, the appeal of the real has never seemed greater. Real estate is so…concrete. As Mark Twain famously said about land, they are not making it any more. Real estate is satisfying to own, it cannot be wiped out by market forces like your shares in Lehman or MF Global, and Bernie Madoff cannot fool you about whether or not you actually possess it. There it is. The same is true of an Andy Warhol painting, or a vintage piece of Van Cleef invisibly set ruby jewelry, or a jade cup.  They have the ability to give their owner great pleasure, and in the meantime they aren’t going anywhere.

It has been an interesting fact of our year at Warburg that most of our really big deals have been done with buyers who are NOT in the finance industry. The majority of our buyers for major properties this year have been in real estate. They have steady cash flow, which is appealing to Boards, and unlike their stocks their properties are not being re-valued every day. Americans of the 20th and 21st centuries have been so attached to liquidity that money has become an end in itself. But money is just a metaphor, an abstraction, a stand in for a service or value provided which can then be bartered for something else. And then most of us are invested in the stock market, a further abstraction, where money is transformed into a bet on the future of this company or that company. But these days the smartest clients also feel the lure of the real, and they are buying tangibles as a hedge against their stock positions (which in the current interest rate environment return almost nothing anyway.) So in this regard I agree with the Chinese.  Buy land, or condos, or art, or antiques. Don’t underestimate the investment potential, pride of ownership, and talismanic power of real stuff.

Mainstay of American Fare Is Transformed in the Wake of 9/11

Rector Street Food Enterprises, a.k.a. George’s, has served downtown residents and restaurant-goers for more than 60 years. Located at the corner of Greenwich and Rector, this three-story eatery with an exposed brick exterior seems somehow at home in the shadow of its towering glass and steel counterparts. Marked by a continuous stream of customers, this FiDi classic is a true family affair. Five years ago, after more than two decades at the helm, former owner George Koulmentas finally passed the baton to his son Bill.

“People think my name is George all the time and I never correct them,” quipped Bill, 40, one of the first residents of 20 Pine The Collection. “I’ve been here since I was a kid. What’s funny is that now people associate me with the restaurant so it’s easier for them to call me George.” Starting at the age of 10, Bill would spend summers and school breaks working as a dishwasher, bus boy, counterman and, ultimately, chef.

“If you don’t know how to do it yourself, how can you tell someone else to do it?” asked Bill. “If you don’t know how to do it yourself, how do you know if it’s being done right? That’s how George’s food and experience is quality-controlled.”

Over the years, Bill has witnessed a true transformation of the Financial District, with the emergence of upscale retail stores like Hermes and Tiffany’s and the arrival of luxury residential properties in buildings that were once corporate headquarters.

“The demographics in this area changed very fast,” said Bill. “This neighborhood was a Monday to Friday operation, but now weekends are our busiest days. New schools are being built, and residents and tourists have become our typical customers.”

What accelerated this transformation, he believes, was 9/11. The events of that day left structural damage to the building that had housed George’s for more than 50 years. Forced to demolish their “baby,” both father and son determined to infuse the new George’s with a fresh energy and attitude. Three years later, when George’s returned amid unanimous support, the neighborhood that greeted the Koulmentas clan was dramatically different.

“We wouldn’t exist without the community so we focus on providing the best quality food, experience and service,” said Bill. “What gets me excited is seeing people smile and return with their friends. Our aim is to ensure that guests feel as if they’re in a home away from home.”

George’s now features a warm color palette, cheerful imagery and outdoor seating. Bill has replaced staples like the meatloaf and Beef Stroganoff with café-like options, including a cappuccino muffin, French toast croissant and Santa Fe burger, to cater to the new clientele.

“A customer gave me a photograph of a beaten-up fire truck in front of St. Paul’s Chapel, which has an angel in the window from the reflection of a candle,” said Bill, of his restaurant’s sole nod to 9/11. “I’ve hung that in the middle of the space so that it overlooks everyone. We can never forget, but we all have to move forward.”

George’s

89 Greenwich Street

New York, NY 10006