From The Daily News:
Skip the holiday gifting anxiety attacks this year and head to the Union Square Holiday Market, now in it’s 13th year. There’s plenty of hand-made jewelry, clothes and other items as well as organic and free-trade finery. Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m; free admission. Union Square Park, E. 14th St. and Broadway. For more information, go to: www.nycgovparks.org.
Next week (October 21st to October 25th), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on the academic floors inside the building and we anticipate paving on 5th Ave.
The following week (October 28th to November 1st), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on academic floors.
This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, October 19th for interior activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.
Comparing 3rd quarter 2007 to 3rd quarter 2008, real estate prices around here have actually done pretty well, according to the Times.
Neighborhoods that experienced price drops include the Lower East Side and the East Village, where median prices fell 5.5 percent; and Carnegie Hill, where co-op prices decreased 7.2 percent. Median prices in Hamilton Heights and Morningside Heights dropped 30 percent, with sales decreasing to only 19 from 67 in 2007. In Washington Heights, median prices went down 6.3 percent, but the number of sales increased to 24 from 18 in 2007.
The neighborhoods that fared the best through the third quarter included Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue from 59th to 96th Streets, where median prices went up 35 percent. In Lincoln Square, an area between 57th and 72nd Streets from Central Park West to the Hudson River that is home to high-priced apartments in 15 Central Park West and the Time Warner Center, median co-op prices went up 18.6 percent and median condo prices went up 25 percent. Prices also rose in Lenox Hill, where median co-op prices went up 19 percent; and Chelsea, where median co-op and condo prices went up about 6 percent.
Other neighborhoods that experienced increases include Greenwich Village, where median prices for co-ops went up 3.9 percent; Union Square and the Gramercy area, where co-op prices went up 3.3 percent and condo prices went up 2.6 percent; and the Upper East Side, where median co-op prices went up 2.3 percent and condo prices went up 9.1 percent.
Just a note that the peanut butter cookies at Momofuku Milk Bar are seriously amazing.
Union Square is bustling, with robust foot traffic recovery, a strong roster of new retail and office tenants, and new mixed-use residential developments in the pipeline.
Key data points from the last 12 months highlight the district’s strengths:
1.1M SF of office
space leased in the
last 12 months
58K+ average daily
riders at Union Square
-14th Street Station
13% higher visitor
activity on Greenmarket
days in USQ
370K average daily
weekday trips to the
Union Square area
78K+ SF of ground floor
retail space leased in
the last 12 months
Visitor traffic reached
a high of 109% recovery
over January 2020
DISTRICT TRENDS
USQ IS THRIVING
∫ Union Square’s residents have strong spending power,
with average household incomes nearly 75% higher than the
Manhattan average.
∫ By the end of 2023, visitor traffic hit 109% of January 2020
levels, driven by Union Square’s vibrant mix of uses and the
steady return of office workers.
∫ Leading employers choose Union Square, and the biggest
new leases represent finance, technology, hospitality, and
fin-tech.
∫ Union Square grew as a job center, with its workforce
increasing by 12% since 2023 to reach 168K employees.
The tech and innovation sector remains strong, with over 45
companies located in the area.
∫ 43 new businesses opened in the past year, 60% of which
are food and beverage establishments. Indicating a return to
in-person dining, the number of new sit-down restaurants in
the district increased by 25% over the number that opened in
the previous year.
THIS LINK leads to the official new construction newsletter.
