Brooklyn home prices are getting so high, some buyers are heading back to Manhattan. The median price of a Brooklyn home in the first quarter rose 14.4% to $515,000, the highest price reached since the second quarter of 2008, according to a report from Douglas Elliman. Brooklyn’s prices are being pushed up by strong demand coupled with a sharp decline in inventory, which fell 45% in the quarter to a five-year low. Prices in North Brooklyn, which includes the …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
More chain stores may be on the way to the Meatpacking District — already home to Patagonia and Lululemon outlets. With an average asking rent of $183 per square foot in the Village and MPD in the first quarter of 2013 — up 11% from $165 at the beginning of 2012 — commercial rental costs could triple when the new Whitney Museum of American Art opens in 2015. According to experts, retail rents could soar to $500 -600 per square …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
The magazine The Real Deal offers a window on the past of New York real estate. In the current issue it reports on the how the federal government rejected 21 bids from private investors who were interested in purchasing Ellis Island, 55 years ago this month.
In 1954, the federal government stopped using the island – which famously served as a gateway to 12 million immigrants for 65 years as they entered into the country. Two years later it was …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
The most ambitious downtown project in development now is 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca. The building will be a 60-story glass tower, comprising 145 units, which will make its immediate neighbors look like dwarves. It has a very special design with differently shaped floor plans that make it look like the Jenga game (the one where players take turns to remove a block from a tower of wooden blocks and balance it on top).
The project was in the works …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Prices continue to go up in downtown — below 34th Street — as buyers flock to this area. According to The Corcoran Group report, median sales prices in new developments there are up 51% versus this time last year. For the first time in a decade in the fourth quarter of 2012, the average asking price in the downtown luxury market (the top 10% of co-op and condo transactions) overtook uptown and midtown. Luxury pads …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
According to the New York Post, 7 Bryant Park, the new office tower by Hines, is looking to command $200 per square foot for the 42,285-square-foot penthouse triplex at the top of the 28-story tower, on Sixth Avenue between 39th and 40th streets. The space comes with an alfresco roof terrace of just under 850 square feet that has Bryant Park for its backyard. Outdoor space traditionally had not been a priority in office towers, because the developer and tenants …
by Riccardo Ravasini