The widow of John Henson, son of Muppets creator Jim Henson, is selling this almost 14,000-square-foot home, which has been gutted for renovation.—Leigh Kamping-Carder
http://online.wsj.com/articles/on-the-waterfront-gets-new-life-along-hudson-1415330810
The transformation of the Hudson River waterfront between Edgewater and Weehawken, N.J., into a residential community for white-collar professionals is well passed its halfway point, wiping out remnants of the area’s past as an industrial and railroad hub a century ago.
Brokers now consider the area the northern strip of New Jersey’s Gold Coast, as thousands of luxury townhomes, condominiums and rental units have attracted residents drawn by views of New York City and quick access to their workplaces most often in Manhattan or Jersey City.
“I remember Edgewater having some 20 or 30 factories when I was a child,” said Fred Daibes, a developer in Edgewater. “Almost every industrial site has turned into luxury housing. It’s really come a long way.”
ENLARGEAlthough the area might appear to have little space left to develop, there are still a few large parcels in transition. Hess Corp. is in the process of selling a 13-acre decommissioned tank terminal at 615 River Rd.; the company says a deal is pending but declines to elaborate.
In addition, Mr. Daibes’s company is constructing the Alexander, an 11-story luxury residential rental building with 300-plus units that is slated to finish up by the end of the year. The units are targeted at empty-nesters and senior citizens, with on-site amenities including dining, a carwash and dry-cleaning services.
“I’m trying to bring back the classic feel of old Park Avenue” in Manhattan, said Mr. Daibes, who is also developing a 300-unit rental building at 7601 River Rd., across from the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen.
Construction also has been picking up steam farther south in Port Imperial, the waterfront area in Weehawken and West New York near the Lincoln Tunnel, where several companies are progressing on the remaining parcels of undeveloped waterfront land.
ENLARGEMiami-based Lennar Corp. has found recent success in selling large luxury condominium units. A 74-unit building, the first of five in Lennar’s Avenue Collection complex, is about 70% sold, said Craig Klingensmith, division president at Lennar Urban, with prices for the one-to three-bedroom units ranging between $800,000 and $4 million.
“We’ve had a nice mix of Russian, Chinese and Indian buyers, and some that are migrating from Manhattan, who’ve either been priced out or had little luck finding something due to the lack of inventory there,” Mr. Klingensmith said.
The second building, currently under construction, will have 103 units. The full complex of buildings is expected to finish in about six years.
With the construction of about 2,000 new townhouses, rental and condo units, Roseland Property, a subsidiary of Mack-Cali Realty Corp. , has now completed about half of its Port Imperial development plan. The firm is currently finishing RiverParc at Port Imperial, a 10-story rental building with 280 units.
ENLARGE“It’s been a creation of a small city, essentially,” said Andrew Marshall, an executive vice president at Roseland. “We’ve been catching people moving out of the city, but don’t necessarily want to venture farther out into central Jersey.”
Public transportation has been a prime factor to the growth of the area, developers say. The New York Waterway ferry crosses between the Port Imperial/Weehawken terminal and Manhattan’s Midtown/West 39th Street terminal in about 10 minutes.
As each new community has been built, developers have been required to construct new roads and park space. Developers were also asked to provide public access to the waterfront by adding stretches of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, a continuous recreational path that will, when completed, run from the George Washington Bridge to the tip of Bayonne.
Some community activists say that more municipal control was needed on the design of the walkway in this area, however.
ENLARGE“I feel that each developer had too much freedom in designing their portion of the walkway so it doesn’t have a continuous look,” said Ron Hine, the executive director of the nonprofit group Fund For a Better Waterfront. “In portions, you can’t tell what’s private and public. It was a missed opportunity.”
Despite the onslaught of new residents along the waterfront, local officials say there hasn’t been much of an impact on traffic or schools.
“The buildings have come over time and in increments,” said Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner. “The shuttle buses the developers run to and from the ferry terminals and light rail stations have certainly helped with traffic.”
The school district in West New York, which has a total enrollment of about 7,800, has seen a slight increase—perhaps an added 50 preschool and kindergartners—in recent years, estimated Superintendent John Fauta.
Recent development hasn’t been limited to new homes. In addition to new restaurants and grocery stores, a 226-room Marriott Renaissance and a 154-room Marriott Residence Inn are currently under construction, both on top of a parking garage adjacent to the Port Imperial/Weehawken ferry terminal.
http://coldspringliving.com/realestate.htm
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| COMMERCIAL RENTAL - PRIME SPACE AVAILABLE on Historic Village Main Street Available January 2015 | ||||
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| COMMERCIAL RENTAL - PRIME SPACE AVAILABLE on Historic Village Main Street Available March 2015 | ||||
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Currently Available : Loft & Studio Apartments / 1400 Sq Ft Retail Space W/ Full Basement & Outdoor Space.. Coming in March 2015 1500 Sq Ft Renovated Retail/Office With Great Exposure .
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http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/06/04/whats-the-deal-private-hudson-pier-sold/
Highlights from Greater New York’s weekly commercial property report:
For close to three decades, New York Waterway, an active ferry operator in the region, owned a small pier just south of the Lincoln Tunnel, one of the only private Hudson River piers in Manhattan, according to the City Planning Department.
Now New York Waterway has sold Pier 78 to another transportation company for $7.5 million. It was purchased by a limited liability corporation with ties to the Marmurstein family, which owns a number of sightseeing tour and bus lines in New York and Miami, according to Armand Pohan, chairman of New York Waterway.
The Marmurstein’s company, Twin America, runs double-decker bus sightseeing tours under the City Sights and Gray Line brands, and sightseeing cruises, which depart from Pier 78. Representatives of the Marmurstein family and Twin America couldn’t be reached for comment.
Pohan said in an interview that New York Waterway used Pier 78 for years but moved its ferries to the municipally-owned West Midtown Ferry Terminal, which opened in 2005 on the adjacent Pier 79. He said that Pier 78 will continue to be used by tourist boats.
“We do best in running boats, they market tourism much better than we do,” Pohan said of the Marmurstein family.
New York Waterway acquired the Pier 78 property in 1983 from a subsidiary of the Penn Central Transportation Co., which was operating out of bankruptcy protection at the time. The pier, which runs north-south about 65 feet and extends more than 300 feet west on the Hudson River, has been used as a ferry terminal since the 1980s.
—Alessia Pirolo
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013604576246932531454612.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Top
BEDFORD, N.Y.—Los Angeles has celebrity bus tours. In this suburb, the best way to gawk at the homes of the rich and famous is on horseback.
The residents pay up for privacy here. Dirt streaks on cars—a result of living on prestigious unpaved roads—are a status symbol. And the houses of this area's most famous residents, including George Soros, Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren, Richard Gere, Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, are set back upon acres of land.
To get a closer look at the multimillion-dollar estates, realestate agents and home buyers are saddling up and hitting a 160-mile network of horse trails maintained by a local nonprofit.
"I can talk about the horse trails, the homes, and about this community, but sometimes the best way to truly experience living in Bedford is from on top of a horse," said real-estate agent Muffin Dowdle, who regularly takes clients house-hunting on horseback.
The privately owned trails are reserved for the 465 members of the Bedford Riding Lanes Association, created nearly a century ago to allow farmers and fox hunters to ride from estate to estate. The association doesn't police the trails but sometimes puts warning notes on the windshields of unauthorized horse trailers on the side of the road, says Charlotte Kooyman, vice president of its board of directors.
The association has had to work to retain access to all the 220 properties the trails cross. In the mid-1990s, newcomers, including Carl Icahn and Ralph Lauren, closed off their properties. Every trail shuttered then, including those crossing the properties of Messrs. Icahn and Lauren, has since reopened, says Bob Torre, the association's chairman and the owner of a lumber company in Yonkers.
"As soon as we know a house has changed hands, we rush over and knock on their doors right away to ask if we can keep their property on our trails," Mr. Torre says. "Occasionally we run into issues and have to reroute the trail."
The association is negotiating now with Martha Stewart to bring a trail across the 153-acre estate she purchased in 2000, the association says. Ms. Stewart, an avid rider, helped redesign a trail map given to members of the association. A spokeswoman for Ms. Stewart confirmed the negotiations but declined further comments.
Other horse trails exist in Westchester, such as the Twin Lakes trail in Eastchester, N.Y., and across the U.S., including the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park and Kokopelli's trail, which runs 142 miles from Loma, Colo., to Moab, Utah. But few connect such a wealthy concentration of homes as the Bedford Riding Lanes.
The median home price in Bedford is $755,000. Some of the homes for sale have listing prices as high as $30 million.
Yearly membership in the Bedford Riding Lanes Association ranges from $70 for non-riders to $1,000 for a "triple crown membership," which includes invitations to the various events. The association collects about $100,000 a year.
For Ms. Dowdle, also a riding club association member, getting property owners to fall in love with the homes in the area and with the trails is about how you sell the idea. She's ridden the trails since she was a little girl growing up in a family of 11 kids in nearby Mount Kisco.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, she saddled her palomino pony, Biscuit, for a house-hunting expedition with friend and client Peter Hauspurg, chief executive of real-estate investment firm Eastern Consolidated. Mr. Hauspurg and his wife sold a farm in Bedford on 26 acres and want to buy another place.
"We're looking to buy a property close to a lake or river and this is the best way to find the perfect place," said Mr. Hauspurg, atop his quarter horse, Sky.
Write to Shelly Banjo at [email protected]
http://bestplaces.nydailynews.com/stories/turn-your-house-billboard-and-adzookiecom-will-pay-your-mortgage
NICOLE CARTER
VIA ADZOOKIE.COM
Need help with that mortgage payment? Turn your house into a billboard.
That’s just what startup ad firm Adzookie is doing. According to CNN Money, the company is looking for houses to paint with their colorful ad, and in exchange, they will pay the mortgage as long as the ad is up.
The company told CNN they already have more than 1,000 applications.
"It really blew my mind," CEO Romeo Mendoza told the outlet. "I knew the economy was tough, but it's sad to see how many homeowners are really struggling."
According to the company's website: You must own your home. It cannot be rented or leased. We'll paint the entire outside of the house, minus the roof, the windows and any awnings. Painting will take approximately 3 - 5 days. Your house must remain painted for at least three months and may be extended up to a year. If, for any reason, you decide to cancel after three months or if we cancel the agreement with you, we'll repaint your house back to the original colors.
They reportedly have not painted any houses yet (* the photo above is a mock up to promote the campaign).
So what exactly does Adzookie do? The outlet reports the small company is a mobile ad network, which is at the moment funded by Mendoza.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989004575652630596788508.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_realestate
Getty Images
Q: I am about to list my house, and have interviewed three real estate agents. One agent charges 5%; the other two say 6%. I was most impressed with one of the agents who wanted 6%, but given how far home values have fallen in the neighborhood these past few years, I need every nickel. I'd like to try to negotiate a lower commission with the agent I prefer. But I don't know if she'd be offended if I asked, or how I should go about it. Thoughts?
—Boston
A: Your agent is a professional haggler, so I doubt she'll be offended if you ask if she's flexible on her commission.
Whether she'll budge is another matter.
According to RealEstateEconomyWatch.com, real estate commissions fall during housing's boom times, when selling a house doesn't take much help, and rise when the market slows. Nationally, the average commission rate reached 5.29% in 2009–a nine-year peak–compared to 5.02% in 2005. (That's still lower than the 6% commission your agent wants, however; the last time commissions reached that level was in 1992.)
Yet even though commission levels have been rising, falling home prices and a poor economy have taken a toll on agents' incomes. Last year, the average income for agents was only $35,700, down 17% from two years earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Add to that a general decline in home sales—down by about a third since 2005—and you can see why agents are protective of their commissions.
Nevertheless, the fact that many agents need listings to boost their flagging income does give you some leverage. You'll do best in your negotiations if you give something in exchange for a reduced commission. For instance, you could ask the agent to both list your home and to represent you when you shop for a new home. Or you could offer to do things that would defray her marketing expenses. For example, you could provide food for open houses for brokers and buyers or, if you're an excellent photographer, make a digital album of your home taken during various seasons of the year that can be displayed on a laptop on your kitchen table while your house is being shown.
But in the end, it may be enough simply to mention that another agent has offered to list and market your house for a lower commission, and ask her to match it. She may not be able to; if not, find out why. If the reason is that she's providing more services than the 4% agent, the higher commission may be worth it. But if she's paying a higher commission split to her broker than the 4% agent, it may be that she's simply not as productive as that agent (top producers usually get a higher percentage of the total commission in exchange for the greater volume of business they bring in). In that case, the 4% agent might actually be the better choice.
Write to June Fletcher at [email protected]
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