Location: 1 River Terrace (Murray and Vesey Streets)
Size: 264 units
Prices: $1.7 to $6.2 million
Expected Occupancy: Spring 2008
Developer: Site 16/17 Development LLC.
Architect: The Polshek Partnership/ Ismael Levya/ David Rockwell
Sales and Marketing: Corcoran Sunshine

Overview: Combining Luxury and Green Development

The Riverhouse is ahead of its time. In an age where many other buildings still ignore environmental sustainability altogether, The Riverhouse is an entirely green building. This means that priority is placed not only on quality, but on energy efficiency, occupant health, environmental health, and overall environmental friendliness as well. The Riverhouse achieves these goals through many innovations, such as using only non-pollutant materials and finishes, heating and cooling the building with a geothermal system, placing solar panels on the roof, filtering its own waste, re-filtering air, and employing an energy efficient triple pane window system. These efforts have earned The Riverhouse a Gold rating from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the national rating standard for green buildings.

No need to worry, though; this focus on eco-friendliness does not come at the expense of comfort. In addition to green technologies, The Riverhouse includes all the luxuries and amenities of contemporary New York City condo living, such as health club, valet parking and laundry. Eco-friendliness also does not mean skimping on technology either. Units come equipped with high speed internet, wall mounted TV’s, and a sound system with speakers in every room.
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Hardwood floors and big closets are great, but the difference between a good apartment and a not so good apartment often comes down to the quality of the landlord. In fact, the quality of your landlord can drastically effect your entire quality of life.

A good landlord means quick and attentive help with problems. A good landlord means a painless living situation. A good landlord means concern for tenant well being.

A bad landlord can mean living in a unclean or unsafe building. It can mean having your concerns ignored, getting ripped off, or even having your civil rights violated.

But frankly, we don’t need to tell you what makes a good or bad landlord, because you know from your own experience. As always, we’re interested to hear from Ask LaLa readers about their experiences. So tell us: Who are the best landlords in New York City? Who are the worst ones? We’d love to hear how different landlords youv’e come across- as either a tenant or as an apartment hunter- rate on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), or any other comments you have about New York City landlords.

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An article in Friday’s New York Times describes a lawsuit against Brown Harris Stevens by a Brooklyn couple who claim the brokerage firm repeatedly steered them away from suitable apartments because they have a child. This type of steering is a clear violation of federal housing laws. I don’t want to prejudge this particular case, whose facts are in dispute, but it’s an open secret that steering is a common practice in the New York rental market. Some landlords don’t want to rent to families with children. Others don’t want to rent to people of color, or gay couples, or immigrants, or whoever else doesn’t conform to their notion of an ideal tenant. And too many real estate agents are willing to help landlords act on their prejudices.

Yes, brokers are supposed to represent their clients, but – just like attorneys – their representation is supposed to stop at the point where the client asks for help in breaking the law. Brokers also have a larger responsibility to the communities where they live and work, and steering is a betrayal of that responsibility.

Discriminating against would-be renters doesn’t just hurt the individuals who are discriminated against (which would be reason enough not to do it); it hurts us all by making New York City an even more difficult and expensive place to live. Middle-class couples have a hard enough time raising kids in the city, and brokers shouldn’t be helping to drive them out. Think about it – one of the couple in the lawsuit is an ER doctor. Do we really want to lose our ER doctors?

We also have to ask why brokers are willing to go along with this kind of behavior. Generally it’s not because they hate children (or blacks, or gays, or whoever). It’s because they only get paid when they rent an apartment. When they spend time showing apartments to tenants they think will be rejected, they lose money.

This is why alternative brokerage models are needed – an idea we’ve been promoting at MLX for many years. Successfully renting (or selling) an apartment shouldn’t be the only way for a broker to get paid. Apartment seekers should have the option of hiring brokers and paying them for services rendered, whether or not they close the deal. Under this type of arrangement, brokers know they’re only working with serious renters (or buyers) and not wasting their time with window shoppers. This allows them to price their services more reasonably, and – getting back to the original subject of this posting – it takes away their incentive to accommodate landlords’ prejudices.

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Location: 25 East 77th Street (between Madison and Fifth Avenues)
Size: 160 units (118 hotel/ 42 condo)
Prices: $1.9 million to $60 million
Expected Occupancy: Summer 2008
Developer: Alexico Group
Architect: Shwartz & Gross (new interior by Jacques Grange)
Sales and Marketing: Corcoran Group Inc.

Overview: A Perfect Blend of Past and Present

Across the street from the Cafe Carlyle- where the legendary Bobby Short once held court- lies The Mark Hotel.

This copper-topped building has been a premier New York hotel since being built by the architecture team of Shwartz & Gross in 1927. It is now undergoing a full renovation and will reopen Summer 2008, featuring 118 hotel rooms and 42 cooperative suites.

The Mark will still be very much a working hotel and- unlike with a typical condo conversion- buyers will have a chance to reap the benefits. Those who wish to purchase a furnished condo in the Mark, but plan to only live there part of the year or only during the week, will have the option of allowing management to use it as one of their hotel rooms and receive 70% of the room rate in return.
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