Building owners are always looking for ways to slice and dice their properties to maximize profits. On the commercial side, selling off condo interests for either office or retail space has become commonplace. On the residential side, savvy developers such as RAL Companies have created private rooftop “cabanas.”
But some building owners in Times Square are now looking to milk their prime locations by “condominiumizing” their properties’ lucrative signage. Though telecommunications antennas have been condo-ed for years, sources said, signage-specific …
by Riccardo Ravasini In the first quarter of 2014, the listing inventory in Manhattan was relatively unchanged at 4,968 units compared with 4,960 units a year earlier, according to a report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Meanwhile, the average number of days a property was on the market dropped to 115 from 132 last year.
Miller Samuel’s data show 45.9 percent of Manhattan condos and co-ops sold at or above the listing price during the second quarter, up from 38.1 percent in the …
by Riccardo Ravasini One man, Clement Clarke Moore, has two claims to fame: 1) writing “The Night Before Christmas” and 2) totally creating the neighborhood of Chelsea. In the 1800s, Moore split up and sold off his grandfather’s estate, which dominated the area (and gave it its name), and began developing the surrounding blocks. Fast forward 200 years, and a scrap of Moore’s grandfather’s land—holding an 1836-built house at 354 West 20th Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues—hit the market in January, asking …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
The Trust for Public Land gave the Big Apple 4.5 out of 5 “park benches” in its annual ParkScore index. Although New York came in behind Minneapolis, the nonprofit gave the city high marks for the parks’ proximity to residents and for overall investment in its public spaces.
The trust used three factors to determine its score: the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk from the park, median park size and the amount spent on park creation and …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
With record-high rents and extra-tight inventory, fewer Manhattan property owners are dangling incentives to lure renters and brokers to their buildings. But the practice persists in certain neighborhoods where competition to fill rental units is fierce; landlords are paying brokers’ commissions to fill rental units in these cases.
Even as Douglas Elliman data shows overall average monthly rents hitting a five-year high of $3,247 in April, brokers said that owner-paid commissions, or OPs, linger in select locations. OPs, of course, …
by Riccardo Ravasini 1924: Third Madison Square Garden site acquired
A boxing promoter in partnership with circus owner John Ringling and others purchased a former streetcar barn on the West Side 90 years ago this month, where they built the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden. This was the first of four arenas bearing the name to be built outside of Madison Square Park.
George “Tex” Rickard led the group that paid $2 million to the Eighth Avenue Railway Company for the parcel …
by Riccardo Ravasini