Some passages from the piece on the Bowery in the Times ... titled "The Skids? Hardly"
Gene Kaufman, whose architectural firm has been commissioned to design a hotel on the Bowery, said that the street had become “stuck in time.”
“And a city that does not change dies,” he said.
And!
Hamid Rashidzada bought a studio at 199 Bowery five years ago for $390,000, when prices had not yet begun to soar. Now, he needs something larger and is selling the apartment for $549,000, confident that at that price he will find a buyer, because it is tough to find an apartment anywhere on the Bowery for under $1 million.
And!
The new Bowery is defined by apartment prices approaching those in Manhattan’s most expensive neighborhoods. Just off the Bowery, at 48 Bond Street, a 5,000-square-foot penthouse with an additional 1,100 square feet of outdoor space is listed for $15.8 million. Last month, another penthouse on the strip sold for more than $13 million. There are now half a dozen condos on the Bowery on the market for over $3 million.
And!
Alan P. Miller, the senior director of the real estate investment firm Eastern Consolidated, who brokered the hotel deal, said that although parts of the market remained sluggish, investors were eager to get a piece of the Bowery.
“All of the Bowery is gold,” he said.
