Category Archives: apartments

Yankee baseball player makes Harlem his home, Ichiro Suzuki catches 111 Central Park North

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Several news outlets are reporting that Ichiro Suzuki, an outfielder for the Yankees, hit a home run in the rental market by renting an apartment at 111 Central Park North in Harlem. According to SportsGrid.com, Suzuki “is on the cutting edge [by moving to Harlem]. Everyone in New York knows that Harlem is the new Williamsburg.”

8571977Curbed.com, The Real Deal and Business Insider all say that Suzuki is paying $23,500 a month for his new swanky pad that overlooks Central Park, not to mention he cut time off his commuting. Harlem is much closer to Yankee Stadium. The Yankee baseball player was living on the Upper Eastside prior to moving to Harlem.

The best part of this story is that the Japanese-born professional baseball player reportedly beat out Derek Jeter and A-Rod, who were considering buying the same place for a cool $9 million. Ahh, ya gotta love competition on and off the field!

Harlem’s Marcus Samuelsson upgrades, buys Harlem townhouse on West 120th Street

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According to Curbed.com, Celebrity Chef and Harlemite Marcus Samuelsson and Maya, his gorgeous wife, have some new digs in Harlem. They’re moving on up as 3494879-6the saying goes from West 118th Street to West 120th Street. The socialite couple have purchased a townhouse at 30 West 120th Street for the asking price of $2.895 million. Curbed reports that the deed hit public record yesterday, Feb. 8 and the sale closed in late January. The 4,650-square-foot Harlem townhouse includes five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a garden, and a second entrance that allows the garden level to be a separate apartment.

Curbed takes a jab at the kitchen shown in the listing pics saying “it looks little smaller than we’d expect for a professional chef.” Have any of these folks been in his prior home? Some of us have when the Samuelsson’s hosted the Horn of Africa fundraiser. The kitchen in the new Harlem townhouse is twice is big as what they had in the old Harlem apartment on 118th Street. Not sure what Curbed is basing their comments on, but the new kitchen in the townhouse is perfect for a celebrity chef.

Anyhow congrats to Marcus and Maya on their new Harlem home. It’s crystal clear from the recent home purchase that they plan to stay in Harlem for the long-term! Good for them!

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This weeks HGTV Selling NY to feature Harlem again

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A real estate broker has given us the heads up that Harlem real estate and Harlem’s restaurant row will be featured in this weeks edition of HGTV Selling NY. The broker and two of her clients, who are looking to purchase their first home together, venture into Harlem to look at apartments in the neighborhood. In the course of the episode, the clients receive a tour of Harlem restaurants and shops to show them that everything they have become used to downtown can be found right here in Harlem, specifically along Frederick Douglass Blvd.

Check out the TV show this Thursday, Feb. 7 at 6:30 pm.

Latest Manhattan Rental Market Report, how does Harlem make out?

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I came across an interesting clip from Brick Underground about renting or selling during the Winter months, which then lead me to a Manhattan rental report and from there I tripped over housing stats about Harlem. If you’re an owner of property in Harlem, you’ll enjoy this news. If you’re a person looking to rent in the Harlem area, this is info could be bad news for your endeavor.

According to the 2012 November issue of Manhattan Rental Market Report, “Harlem is the only neighborhood that saw increases,” which is unusual because during the cold season the real estate market typically slows down for both selling and renting; and numbers are flat. But not for renting in Harlem. The numbers are up, according to this report. Here are the Harlem stats:

Non-Doorman Studios (3.1%)
Doorman Studios (4.4%)
Non-Doorman One-Bedrooms (3.5%)
Doorman One-Bedrooms (2.6%)
Non-Doorman Two-Bedrooms (2.0%)
Doorman Two-Bedrooms (1.2%)

To learn more about the Manhattan Rental Market Report, go here.

Harlem’s Frederick Douglass Boulevard goes mainstreaming says NY Times

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Harlem’s restaurant row, aka Frederick Douglass Blvd between 110th and 125th Street, is back in the news again. The New York Times recently IMG_2762spoke with Leon Ellis, the owner of Moca Lounge, Chocolat Restaurant and Harlem Underground, about how this part of Harlem has gone through a complete transformation since he first opened Moca, which was back in 2003.  Ellis told the NY Times that his friends thought he was crazy for opening up a restaurant back then. Since 2003, Ellis has expanded his business presence in Harlem on FDB with Chocolat opening about two years ago and then Harlem Underground, a Harlem-themed clothing store.

The owners of bier international were also interviewed for the article and stressed that while this area is going mainstream, they emphasized “we need to find a balance and not forget what was here” in Harlem.

To read the full article, click here.

220 St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem going rental, not condo

The abandoned, halfway finished, glass building on 121st Street and St. Nicholas Ave., aka 220 St. Nicholas Ave., is apparently going rental, not condo. The Real Deal reports that the developers are foreclosing on this odd structure and taking title to the property and turning into a rental.

I walked by this place yesterday afternoon and saw a forklift (if that’s what it’s called?) on site carrying someone to the top of 220 St. Nicholas Ave in Harlem. Maybe it was the young developers checking out their soon to be foreclosed place?

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In the News: Victoria Theater Development Project in Harlem moves closer to reality

The Victoria Theater Project is moving closer to becoming a reality. On September 26, Real Estate Weekly reported that Danforth Developers, the developers behind the project, picked Aufgang & Subotovski as the designers of the commercial and residential project. The article also states that construction is “slated to begin early next year.”

Fast forward to this week and we have the Globe St. And The New York Observer reporting that there are more changes to the design plans. The Empire State Development Corporation approved plans for two 26-story towers: a 230-unit apartment tower and a 210-room hotel versus the previously planned 140-unit rental tower and 175-room hotel.

So in 2014 or 2015, West 125th Street will have two new towers that will be the tallest buildings in Harlem. Stay tuned.

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Inside Maya Angelou’s Mt. Morris Park home by The Wall Street Journal

The Mount Morris Park area of Harlem is home to several famous people. One of them is Maya Angelou, an American author and poet. The Wall Street Journal takes us inside Maya Angelou’s Harlem brownstone in a recent article.

As expected, Angelou’s brownstone has most of the original detail on display. Its colorful and gigantic! Her Harlem home is 3,500 square feet with 14 rooms. She also showcases on her walls works of well-known African-American artists, such as Romare Bearden, John Biggers and Charles White.

The interesting tidbit in the article is apparently Maya Angelou owns an apartment building 10 blocks away from her Mt. Morris Park home. She bought the building as an investment back in 2004. Imagine living in that building? Your landlord is Maya Angelou! How cool is that?

To read the full WSJ article and see slides of Maya Angelou’s Harlem home, go here.

Dear Harlem: Is it better to buy or rent?

There are those so-called “million dollar question(s)” out there in the universe around housing that we have all asked ourselves at one time or another. I know I have. And that is…is it better to buy or rent? It’s a loaded question…huh? Well, there is actually an online, interactive tool available now that is trying to help consumers answer that question: buy vs rent? It’s in The New York Times’ Making the Most of your Money section.

To use the online tool, fill in the information on your left, i.e. monthly rent, home price, etc. After you fill out the information, then place your cursor over the grid and it will reveal whether its better to buy or rent? Below are two samples.

Try it by going here. And good luck with finding the answer to that familiar question.

250 Park View joins condo market in Harlem



If you want to live right across the street from the Morningside Park Farmer’s Market in Harlem, now is your chance. Renovated condos called 250 Park View hit the Harlem condo market on Manhattan Avenue this past week. They are located exactly across the street from the park and a stone throw away from Central Park North.

According to its website, 250 Park View has an exposed-brick entryway which leads into 20 elevator-accessible units, a live-in super, security camera and color video intercom. The 20 units range from studios to 3 bedrooms with either park or courtyard views. Studios start at $450k, and the largest 3 bedroom duplex penthouse are going for $999. Wow!

Better hurry if you’re interested in living in Harlem at this location, which I think is a good one since it’s by two big parks, close to Harlem’s restaurant row and its very close to a subway stop, 110th Street B/C. Out of the 16 apartments listed on its site, only 8 are left. Harlem apartments clearly sell like hot cakes!