Marjorie Dybec

A couple days ago, I posted some basic info for those dreaming of a little nest in Greenwich Village...

Well today the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation posted a wonderful blog showing how our TV sitcoms have often set up shop in Greenwich Village, fostering the mystique of a little charming corner of New York City.

I'm excerpting their blog here because it was very long...but the link is at the very bottom if you want to read every one of their many words.

"Let’s start with Will & Grace. Where was Grace Adler Designs located? Why, in the Puck Building of course.

This large, regal structure, which sits on the block bounded by East Houston, Lafayette, Mulberry, and Jersey Streets, was built in two parts, the north section in 1885 and the south addition in 1892. In 1983 it was declared an official NYC Landmark. Designed in a German Romanesque Revival style (technically known as Rundbogenstil) by Albert Wagner, the Puck building originally housed the printing facility of J. Ottmann Lithographing Company. Today, the space contains two large ballrooms on the ground floor, three floors that are owned by NYU, and a very controversial soon-to-be penthouse.

But enough history, let’s take a look at the Puck Building according to Grace Adler….

Don’t expect to bump into Karen Walker in the Puck Building, though. The show was shot entirely on set in Hollywood, as was our next series- Mad About You. Paul & Jamie’s apartment building was shown as 51 5th Avenue.

Somewhat unusually, the portrayal of apartment spaces in the building was surprisingly accurate — a rarity for TV shows set in uber-cramped New York City — as you can see from the below comparisons.

In a further surprising case of TV art actually reflecting life, in an early episode of Mad About You the Buchmans end up trapped in their apartment on a Sunday when they discover the Gay Pride Parade is going past their building, making the surrounding streets impassable (the annual parade does in fact go down Fifth Avenue past #51, and as anyone who has ever been here can attest, the throngs of people — to say nothing of the parade contingents and floats — do in fact make the streets rather challenging to navigate).

Next, we go to a show to which Mad About You was often compared – Seinfeld. Most of the portrayals (this one also was shot in CA) took place uptown, but there were still a good amount of below-14th Street references. As described in one of our earlier posts, the corner of 1st Street & 1st Avenue was where Kramer got lost and declared, “I’m at the corner of 1st and 1st, how can the same street intersect with itself? I must be at the nexus of the universe.” According to many blogs out there, Elaine’s apartment building in later seasons was known to be 17 East 7th Street, right next to McSorley’s. The New York Health and Racquet Club at 24 East 13th Street was where Elaine starting dating John F. Kennedy Jr., Jerry met Sidra (played by Terri Hatcher), who tells Jerry in a memorable farewell that her un-augmented body was “real and spectacular,” and Kramer believes he spots an incognito Salman Rushdie in the sauna.

Now, we know you’ve all been wondering to yourselves, “What about Mad Men??” Fear not, we have you covered. One of the first downtown references in the show was right at the beginning when Midge’s friend Roy invites she and Don to a poetry reading and music show at the Gaslight in Greenwich Village. This club was a real place located at 116 MacDougal Street, made famous by regulars like Bob Dylan and Allan Ginsberg. It opened in 1958 and closed in 1971.

In the premiere episode of season 4, Don Draper’s address was revealed as 104 Waverly Place, Apartment 3R. As New York Magazine discovered, though, this address does not exist: “There is a 106 Waverly Place, but after that, where 104 would be, there’s just a service entrance to 29 Washington Square West and the office of [a] gastroenterologist.”

So, there you have it, you’ll never watch TV the same again! Still left wondering about all those Sex and the City locations? Don’t worry, that’s coming next."

HERE's the Original BLOG from GVSHP. Conspicuously absent are: Sex and the City, and Friends.

http://gvshp.org/blog/2011/09/30/on-set-in-the-village/

Greenwich Village

Do you realize that this is the dream of nearly everyone who wants to own a piece of The Big Apple -- including some of the world’s most celebrated personalities ?

Greenwich Village is full of history and charm and peace and quiet in a metropolis that is very short on all of those items. To look at the golden glow emanating from an historic townhouse on Bank Street or to peer into an exclusive restaurant fills one’s heart with romantic dreams of snowy evenings by a crackling fireplace or lazy Sundays spent gardening in a leafy backyard while close friends brunch on freshly-baked popovers and Bellinis. Yes, this life does exist in Greenwich Village but as with all real estate purchases, everything is a balance.

That garden apartment with the charming backyard, large enough for entertaining, will cost upwards of $200,000 more than a similar property without the backyard. Because it is a ground floor apartment you may have limited sunlight in the apartment, safety concerns, or hallway noise. There are many apartments in Greenwich Village, and elsewhere in Manhattan, that havefireplaces; some buildings will even allow you to burn wood. Having lived in a Greenwich Village historic apartment with a woodburning fireplace, I believe it’s worth the neglible premium it costs to have one. It gives the mind a place to wander as you gaze absently into the flickering flames. Nothing is cozier on a cold January evening than a glass of port aside your fireplace. But fireplace apartments make up less than 10% of the available inventory. So you will need to skip many other very livable homes if a fireplace is a high priority. In a neighborhood with a scarcity of inventory, home-buyers searching for a special fireplace property often set aside this charming feature early on in order to find bigger space or better light. But if you want romance, and are willing to pay just a little bit more, a woodburning fireplace is a great way to get it without breaking the bank.

Let’s say you want something very “authentic.” This is the word of the moment in New York. We have lots of very authentic spaces in Greenwich Village. Most would say with certainty that a property in a 19th-century brick orbrownstone townhouse is quintessentially Greenwich Village. I agree. I love these properties, full of charming details, wide-planked floors, and beautiful stairs and balestrades. But can you live without an elevator? One bathroom? A second bedroom that is 6.5’-7’ wide? Or a duplex, to give you a little more space, where the bedrooms and second bathroom are below ground? Don’t give up on the dream of a townhouse space. They are charming, frequently have high ceilings and gorgeous details. Often they have been very smartly renovated and live quite comfortably today. But they are not spacious and they have some limitations that, from the street, the casual viewer can’t see.

You will discover that what makes the Village so special are its quirks and hidden treasures. I once lived in Patchin Place, a private mews of 19th century row houses, where Djuna Barnes and ee cummings once lived. And have you ever seen a "backhouse?" They are rare, but I was able to locate one for a client. It was love at first sight! We entered a typical brick federal style apartment building, walked to the back of the building down a narrow hallway and out a backdoor. Across a leafy courtyard sat a cozy two story brick townhouse, kitchen and living room and half bath on the ground floor and master bedroom and luxurious full bath on the second. For a little over $1,000,000 this adorable antique house could have been your home!

Adding to this mix are several midrise buildings from the 1960s. These apartment houses typically contain between 100 to 300 units -- mostly studios, 1 bedrooms and smaller 2 Bedrooms. For lovers of mid-century modern style or practical easy-to-furnish spaces, these buildings are great alternatives. Most of these buildings also feature doormen and lovely shared roof-top gardens. Because these are large buildings, owners share a smaller piece of the capital expenditure burden, should some sudden need arise. These larger buildings also tend to operate in a more consistently stable manner. For the risk adverse, these buildings are very appealing.

In far western Greenwich Village are a handful of early-20th century loft buildings now converted into larger living spaces and some spectacular modern palaces in glittering glass boxes. The solitude and gentility of this part of the Village is immeasurable. Some of the streets are still cobbled and the antique quality of the brick facades feels buffed and polished. These homes are comfortable and expansive and magnificent. A few rare gems even have Hudson River views. If you dream of something expansive in Greenwich Village, this is probably where your dream will take shape. There are no bargains in this category but there are some really special properties.

Let's find something that works for you. You'll be a "Villager" in no time!

Clients come to me with long wish lists of ideal qualities they hope to find in their future Manhattan home. In our market, as in many, buyers want authenticity. They want to own a piece of the Big Apple. Particularly out-of-town buyers have a fantasy of what a New York apartment looks like. The apartment from Friends, charming, quirky, large, in the middle of Greenwich Village ? Or the townhouses pictured on drunken walks home late at night in Sex in the City, also in Greenwich Village ? Maybe your vision is a timber-beamed loft in Tribeca with lots of exposed brick and Hudson River Views ? Or perhaps a Classic-7: built around 1910, rambling hallways, high ceilings, private cook's kitchen and formal dining room, on the Upper West Side is more your ideal.

These properties do exist but they are scarce and generally, come at a premium. What I find almost all our buyers can agree on in terms of what makes a great New York apartment, is VIEW. A gorgeous, open, interesting, charming or spectacular view screams "NEW YORK." One of my favorite downtown views are multiple layers of rooftops with old wooden watertanks.

I once enjoyed views of the East River which connected me daily to the maritime nature of my urban existence. To watch the working tugs and barges lumber up and down our waterways is a special and unique treat. Its even possible to find a humble studio apartment that has breathtaking open views over downtown Manhattan or even opening up toward the majestic skyline of midtown. A few even rise above Central Park which from the sky looks like a lush magic carpet amid all the elegant buildings that surround it. Tribeca is not a neighborhood known for views.
It was a tightly packed warehouse and industrial district until a few intrepid artists started occupying raw spaces they could buy cheaply in the 70s and 80s. Now the artists are selling their enormous spaces and other formerly commercial buildings have been converted into comfortable modern loft homes. However, the building density is still quite high. So expansive open views are rare. But even in low-floor dark apartments, I've seen fascinating views of vestiges of the old Tribeca, rusty old metal shutters, a large steel valve wheel in a courtyard, a steel rail on which to tie your horse, cobblestoned streets, a fading painted old sign on brick on a building outside the window.

In New York, where prices are high and our inventory can often not live up to the dream, reaching for an authentic view can make all the difference.

Most apartments for sale in New York City are cooperative apartments (coops). Only about 15-20% of our market are condominiums. We even have a property type called a condop which is sort of a hybrid of the two. This scarcity makes the demand, and thus price, for condo units significantly higher than equivalent coop units. Generally a condo will sell for 20-25% more than an equivalent coop apartment.

When you buy a condo, you are buying real estate. It is very similar to purchasing a free-standing building or land. The owner of a condo unit holds a deed.

When you buy a coop, you are purchasing shares of stock in the coop corporation. Based on your board application and acceptance, the board will grant you the right to inhabit the premises by issuing you a proprietary lease. A coop owner holds a stock certificate and a proprietary lease. It is like buying shares of stock in IBM or Coca-Cola. And with those shares, you are granted by permission of the Board of Directors, the right to inhabit the apartment based on the Proprietary Lease. If you violate the rules of the Coop, the Board of Directors can revoke the proprietary lease and begin eviction proceedings. It is rarely done and its a very complicated process, but it is possible and it does obligate cooperators to obey the House Rules.

There are many specific advantages and disadvantages for purchasing either a coop or a condo in Manhattan. Few markets other than New York City even have the coop structure as a possibility and I believe only Manhattan is dominated with them. They present unique complications in the buying process. The aide of a knowledgeable real estate broker can really guide a buyer through this process and help to educate a buyer as to the advantages and disadvantages of each type of property for their specific needs.

For a short, detailed description of the pros and cons of both condos and coops, please email me at mdybec@elliman.com and tell me a bit about your Manhattan property search. I'll email you the info immediately.