Clinton

Starting December 21, Tourists and New York City residents alike can take advantage of a buy one ticket, get one ticket free promotion at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum until February 15, 2013. After closing due to damage sustained during Superstorm Sandy in late October, the museum will reopen after months of repairs to combat the four to six feet of flooding to its main electrical transformers and backup generators.

Hell’s Kitchen is a well known area that is planning to birth a new development called Bounce and Flip on 766 10th Avenue, a unique business that Midtown West residents can soon enjoy. A vacant building which has stood alone for a long time will finally be occupied by November 2012 with the opening of this new gymnastics and dance studio aimed at kids, including pre-schoolers.

Residents of Hell’s Kitchen apartments, take note: New York City’s Department of Transportation wants your advice. Community Board 4 and the DOT will host a Community Planning Workshop tomorrow in Midtown West that will let community members make specific proposals for how the DOT should implement an unprecedented program. Considering that the DOT is undertaking the formidable challenge of implementing New York City’s first bike share program by this summer, it shouldn’t come as a shock that they need some help. Just look at the size and scope of the project - 600 solar-paneled stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn will house around 10,000 publicly-available bicycles. It’s safe to say that without community input the DOT would only be able to make educated guesses as to where to place the stations, which is why they’re turning to community members. The only people who really know where the stations should go are the locals.

What was once considered to be the ‘rough side of town,’ Hell’s Kitchen in Midtown West may have cleaned up significantly since then but the residents are still unhappy. Many of the neighborhood’s changes, (whether they are for better or for worse, depending on who you ask) could be attributed to the area’s long-standing commitment to both commercial and residential developments.

We’ve been watching Midtown West’s development from a desolate part of New York City to the next thriving residential neighborhood with eager eyes. We get pretty excited each time a new development deal is announced, so imagine our joy when we read that the Brooklyn-based real estate investment company Fortis Property Group recently spent $23.5 million for a development site in Midtown West, which it plans to turn into a residential building.

Depending on whom you talk to, the Manhattan run from 34th to 59th Stree west of 8th Avenue is either home to bohemians or young urban professionals. The buildings are either gritty low-rises or shiny glass towers. The change from low-scale to amenity-driven all depends on the name: Hell's Kitchen or Clinton. Although both titles are appropriated in street talk and business identities, the tumultuous Hell’s Kitchen that served as backdrop to the popular musical West Side Story is clearly gone; glass high-rises stand erect, without dispute. Regardless, each alias has its crowds of hailers. And for those who want to tread more neutral waters, there's always Midtown West.

With all the development occurring on the West Side of Manhattan, we often tend to focus on Chelsea, the Meatpacking District, and Clinton, neglecting the Upper West Side in the process. After all, does the Upper West Side have the High Line? Well, no, it doesn’t, but instead its signature development project, Riverside South, is nearing completion with its final portion, Riverside Center, well under way. Although not as well known as many other luxury residential and commercial projects in Manhattan, Riverside Center is critical in the development and continued growth of not only the West Side but also Manhattan in general.

In Part 1 of this exclusive Elegran series on the Hudson Yards development, we analyzed the details of Manhattan’s largest real estate and development undertaking. In the 33 acres of re-zoning and re-development that constitute the Hudson Yards, the Department of City Planning expects that up to 12,600 new units of housing will be available, encouraging both current and prospective residents to stay in Manhattan and accommodate new growth in a sustainable and efficient manner. But how will this change the way we view luxury real estate in New York City?

The Hudson Yards, one of the signature development projects in the works for Manhattan, is a vast undertaking, requiring the coordination of a multitude of city organizations. Upon completion, the Hudson Yards’ numerous skyscrapers are expected to contain thousands of residential units, millions of square feet of retail and office space, and copious amounts of waterfront and green space. The Hudson Yards can only be described as massive, covering a 33-square-acre area that was extensively re-zoned in 2005. But what are the Hudson Yards, especially since so little of the project has even hit the groundbreaking phase?