Manhattan’s richest are abandoning the neighborhoods long favored by billionaires and decamping downtown for the area’s ultra-luxe penthouses and A-list appeal.
While the Upper East Side has played host to everyone from George Clooney to Gossip Girl, it’s losing ground to posh Manhattan locales like the West Village and Tribeca.
A recent PropertyShark ranking of New York City’s most expensive neighborhoods didn’t even include the Upper East Side in the top 20, as several areas farther south topped the list.
Major companies like Google, Deloitte and Fanatics recently purchased office space downtown, leading their wealthy employees to purchase real estate in neighborhoods like Hudson Square and the Meatpacking District.
‘There’s a whole bunch of very wealthy people working in the vicinity, meaning they often want to live in the vicinity,’ real estate agent Clayton Orrigo told the Wall Street Journal.
‘They’re buying up the West Side Highway.’
Hudson Square, just west of celebrity-filled Soho along the Hudson River, has become a coveted neighborhood for the rich – with a median sale price of $2,600,000 compared to $1,615,000 at this time last year, according to PropertyShark.
A luxury Hudson Square building on Clarkson Street has raised prices four times since February, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Luxury buildings in the Meatpacking District and Hudson Square have become hot spots for NYC’s wealthiest
Apartment buildings in downtown Manhattan have seen prices surge as wealthy residents leave the Upper East Side
The million-dollar price jump comes as Google opened its newest office space in the neighborhood.
‘It’s one of the wealthiest corporations on the planet. That changes the profile of the neighborhood,’ real estate agent Leonard Steinberg told the Wall Street Journal.
Rich buyers are typically looking to buy units in luxury buildings instead of historic brownstones.
Since downtown neighborhoods often have historic buildings and restrictions on how high new developments can reach, the competition is intense to secure a new unit in these up-and-coming areas.
Real estate broker Peter Zaitzeff told the Wall Street Journal that there’s a ‘backlog of buyers’ eager to purchase ultra-luxury penthouses downtown.
Zaitzeff recently listed a luxury condo in the West Village that made history as the priciest apartment ever sold in downtown Manhattan.
The duplex, at 150 Charles Street, was sold by financier Harsh Padia and his wife, Purvi Padia, for $60 million.
The couple sold the home for over double what they purchased it for, securing the unit in 2016 for $29.1 million.
The Upper East Side was the setting for the hit television show Gossip Girl, which followed the lives of ultra-rich teenagers living in the neighborhood
Real estate prices downtown are rivaling areas like Billionaires’ Row on Central Park
George and Amal Clooney are among the world’s rich and famous who have lived on the posh Upper East Side
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the sale in March, with Zaitzeff telling the publication at the time: ‘We’re seeing prices downtown that we used to only see in Midtown on Billionaires’ Row.’
Billionaires’ Row is located at the intersection of East 57th Street and Fifth Avenue at the corner of Central Park South.
The neighborhood is lined with luxury retail storefronts like Bergdorf Goodman, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, and Bulgari.
Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin made history in 2019 when he purchased a penthouse in the area for $238 million, the highest sum ever paid for a home in the US.
But as luxury living moves downtown, prominent figures are hoping to score units in buildings like 150 Charles St., where the Padias sold their home.
A-listers including Jon Bon Jovi and Ben Stiller have reportedly lived in the building.
‘These are new levels that we’ve never seen before,’ Orrigo told the Wall Street Journal.
The agent recently listed a penthouse in Chelsea, previously owned by Howard Hughes Corporation CEO David Weinreb, for a whopping $75 million.
Sarah Jessica Parker has owned properties in New York’s West Village, and has even filmed Sex and the City and the show’s spinoff, And Just Like That, in the neighborhood
A recent ranking put downtown’s Hudson Square as the fifth most expensive area to live in New York City
Real estate brokers told the Wall Street Journal that wealthy buyers are drawn to luxury high-rise buildings, which are few and far between downtown
The recently renovated home sits atop at 20-story building and features a private swimming pool.
Celebrities are also drawn to the West Village, with a 2019 Forbes article noting that the neighborhood is an underrated spot for A-list sightings.
Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker reportedly renovated a property near Bleecker Street.
Architectural Digest began speculating back in 2019 that the enclave was attracting stars, claiming that West 11th Street between West 4th Street and Bleecker was the ‘most star-studded block’ in the city.
