The Lower East Side, a neighborhood long associated with counterculture, after-hours bars and tenements, is increasingly going upscale.

The change has been ushered in by high demand for new housing stock as well as major developments like the $1.1 billion mixed-use Essex Crossing project and Extell’s One Manhattan Square, a luxury condo plan that has a projected sell-out of $2.1 billion and is being exclusively marketed to overseas Asian buyers. The new development pipeline in the LES is pushing residential condo prices there past the $2,000-a-square-foot marker.
Other LES condos coming that will bring additional residents and amenities to the neighborhood include 50 Clinton, 100 Norfolk and the Ludlow developments.

With nearby art galleries, trendy restaurants and nightlife and other cultural amenities, the LES appeals to millennials. What’s more, Brooklyn’s real estate prices have risen so that the LES is looking good by comparison.