TIME WAS (ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO) WHEN A SMALL BUT livable Manhattan studio went for $195,000. What’ll that get you now? At the Onyx Chelsea, an 11-story, 52-unit residential building rising at 261 W. 28th St., it buys a 153-square-foot parking spot. That’s $1,275 per square foot-for your car.
This, of course, raises the question: How much are the apartments? The one-, two- and three-bedroom units range from 677 to 1,812 square feet and were priced from $700,000 to more than $2.75 million when sales began. After a moment with a calculator, we find that those smaller apartments are $1,034 per square foot or nearly $250 less than the parking spots. To be fair, Evan Haymes of Bronfman Haymes Real Estate Partners, developer of the Onyx, says units in his building are now “pushing” $1,300 per square foot.
“I find, as a born-and-bred New Yorker, Manhattanites are looking for an urban experience with all the convenience of the suburbs,” says Haymes.
Apparently. All five parking spaces have sold.
Think it’s expensive to park? Try storing your stuff. At Slate, a new building at 165 W. 18th St., where pads average $1,300 a square foot, there are 13-square-foot storage units that cost, get this, $18,000. That’s $1,384 a square foot for a metal box big enough for a mattress – wait, no, it won’t fit a mattress, maybe a bassinet.
Sure, other, bigger units hover around $1,000 a square foot. But still.
“That [extra space] makes a big difference when you’ve got skis and memorabilia,” says Dan Cordiero, Slate’s project director.
The idea of finding these parking or storage prices anywhere other than in New York City is absurd; most Americans live with something called a garage, where they can park and store their stuff.
“In Atlanta or Palm Beach, you drive into your garage and walk directly into your house,” says Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Leonard Steinberg. “In New York, if you’re lucky, you are stuck in the dungeon parking lot in the basement, and if you’re not, you have to walk three blocks home in the cold.”
Enter 200 Eleventh. Each of the 16 units in Annabelle Selldorf’s latest project will come with its own garage-not relegated to the basement, but right next door to the apartment.
Just drive into the building, enter the car elevator and sit tight while you rise to your apartment. Then back into your garage, turn off the car and walk in your door.
What’s more, the garages have high ceilings (read: room for storage). And with units starting at $5.5 million and going up to $12 million-plus, that’s exactly what you should expect.
TIGHT FIT!
Here’s what you can’t stash (right side up, at least) in the $18K, 13-square-foot storage unit at Slate:
* A twin bed
* A three-seat sofa from DesignWithin Reach
* An IKEA “Jerker” computer desk
* A 50-inch plasma TV
* A Ridgid Jobsite chest (60 inches by 30 inches by 37 inches) available at toolup.com for $449.10