Rising Rents and New Crowd in the “Hip” Bowery Triangle

Source: EV Grieve

The rents are so damn high with no ceiling in sight.  That’s pretty much the gist of an article in Crain’s over the weekend about the triangular parcel of real estate bounded by Lafayette, Astor Place, Bowery, and East Houston, and the new “hip” crowd that’s taking the reigns here. And in this case, “hip” is simply a euphemism for well-coined.

Within this geometric shape of land, the new order has taken hold, one catering to pricey hotels, pricey retail, and office space for technology companies. The writeup doesn’t present much in the way of new information, focusing mostly on the Death Star of 51 Astor Place (EV Grieve coverage) and touching briefly upon Intermix (first reported here).

Some choice print bytes:

In fact, the narrow, eight-block-long triangular slice of lower Manhattan running north along Lafayette Street from East Houston Street up to Astor Place, and from Lafayette one block east to Bowery, is becoming Manhattan’s newest hot spot. It boasts an eclectic mix of office, hotel, residential, academic and cultural tenants.

And up at the top of the triangle, developer Edward Minskoff is erecting 51 Astor Place, which is expected to boast the highest-priced office space outside midtown. Some landlords say that the Fumihiko Maki-designed building—where asking rents are expected to rise as high as $115 a square foot—is helping to elevate everyone’s sights.

Since then, he’s razed the old building and begun work on a 13-story, 440,000-square-foot, granite-and-glass office tower. Paul Glickman, a broker with Jones Lang LaSalle—which is heading leasing for the building—reports that several technology and digital-media companies have expressed interest. Many other landlords in the area, however, are pinning their hopes on much the same audience.

Marko Zivkovic, restaurant manager of the Gemma, located in the lobby of the Bowery Hotel, said his business has grown more than 12% in the past year alone. “We are always busy,” he said.