What $5,000 rents in NYC

See what $5,000/month rents in five NYC neighborhoods, including Dumbo and Soho

Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, a weekly column that explores what one can rent for a set dollar amount in various NYC neighborhoods. Is one man's studio another man's townhouse? Let's find out! Today, we're looking at apartments renting around $5,000/month.

Warburg Realty

Upper East Side

On the Upper East Side, a one-bedroom in a condo building is renting for $5,000/month. The apartment was recently renovated, and has a brand new kitchen with a large marble island, plenty of storage space, one full bathroom, and a powder room. It's located in prime Upper East Side, on East 70th Street between Lexington and Third avenues.

Halstead Property Development Marketing

Dumbo

A Dumbo one-bedroom with Manhattan views is renting for $5,008/month (a figure that is so oddly precise because it reflects pricing with one month of rent offered for free as an incentive). The place gets plenty of light thanks to its floor-to-ceiling windows, and has all new everything. It's around the corner from the F train at York Street.

Compass

West Village

This West Village one-bedroom has plenty of modern conveniences—brand new kitchen appliances, a "cutting-edge bath" (not pictured, alas)—along with vintage touches like a wood-burning fireplace with a brick surround. It's also located in the heart of the West Village, on Charles Street between Greenwich Avenue and Waverly Place. The downside? No pets.

Citi Habitats

Crown Heights

A positively huge (2,000 square foot!) four-bedroom duplex in Crown Heights is renting for $4,995/month. In addition to the bedrooms, the place has two bathrooms, three fireplaces, hardwood floors, a laundry room, and period details. It's situated within a townhouse on Park Place between New York and Brooklyn avenues, right between the C or the 2 and 5 at Nostrand Avenue.

Compass

Soho

And finally, on the Soho/Hudson Square border, a large, "loft-like" apartment (translation: it's a studio with a "sleeping area") is renting for $5,000/month. It's bright an airy thanks to several large windows, and the sleeping area is actually rather large, if not closed off from the rest of the apartment. It's located in a former school building on King Street, less than a block from the 1 at Houston Street.

MTA looks to rooftop solar power to raise much-needed funds

The transit authority plans to lease more than 100 rooftops to generate renewable energy

The MTA is transforming the roofs of its bus depots and train yards into solar fields.

The cash-strapped transit authority is looking to lease more than 10 million square feet of rooftop space at dozens of its buildings to companies that will install solar panels. Once fully realized, the project could generate over 100 megawatts of renewable energy—enough to power 18,000 households in New York.

The effort is the authority's latest bid to generate sorely needed revenue, joining experiments in digital advertising and newsstand vending machines to utilize every scrap of space in the system.

"Green energy always had a dual benefit—it can help save the planet and it can be a big money-maker as well," MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber said in a statement.

For the first phase of the initiative, the MTA put out a Monday request for proposal for seven properties belonging to NYC Transit, the Long Island Rail Road, and Metro-North Railroad to generate some six and a half megawatts of clean electricity for New York households.

Those spaces include bus depots and maintenance facilities in Brooklyn and Queens, and parking lots in the Hudson Valley. Tours for interested bidders will be held in May with negotiations expected to begin in September. The MTA would not say when it anticipates the full roll out of the initiative.

The agency embarked on a similar undertaking in 2008 when, amid a push to be more environmentally friendly, it outfitted about a dozen bus depots, warehouses, and other facilities with solar panels. More recently, in 2014, the authority tested solar-powered kiosks to provide Metro-North riders with arrival estimates at the Woodlawn station in the Bronx.

City may demolish and rebuild two NYCHA buildings in Chelsea: report

The project, part of the Mayor's ten-year plan to resolve $24 billion in repairs, would bring profit to the embattled agency

The city's plans to partner with private organizations to fix NYCHA's problems appear to be underway. Back in November, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced public-private partnerships to repair 62,000 units of public housing; he followed that in December with a 10-year plan to resolve $24 billion in repairs.

Now, according to Politico, officials are considering demolishing two NYCHA buildings in Chelsea, with the intent of rebuilding them in partnership with private developers.

The plan, Politico has learned, includes demolishing the smallest buildings at Chelsea's Fulton Houses, and replacing them with one larger structure, as the value of the land will earn them enough profit to pay for the repairs at the complex (which are estimated to mount to $168 million in five years).

"This is an ambitious plan, and we will work with local elected officials and residents to discuss the different paths to achieve this," Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokesperson for the de Blasio administration, said in a statement.

As part of that plan, 70 percent of the new apartments would be market-rate, while the 30 percent remaining would be "affordable enough" for public housing residents.

A source told Curbed that the plan is still tentative and other options are still being considered to address NYCHA's capital needs. The source also said that families that currently live at Fulton Houses won't be relocated unless the plan moves forward.

The project would be part of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) federal program, which de Blasio's administration is currently partnering with to provide $400 million worth of upgrades on nearly 2,400 NYCHA apartments in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Staten Island could get its own dockless bike-share pilot

More than 61,000 riders have used dockless bikes on Staten Island since last summer

Building on the success of last summer's initial dockless bike-share pilot program, the New York City Department of Transportation announced today that it wants to keep those two-wheelers rolling with a borough-specific pilot on Staten Island.

The DOT has released a request for expressions of interest (RFEI) for a Staten Island pilot program, saying that it wants to "evaluate the safety, orderliness, quality, practicality, utilization, and sustainability" of a larger dockless investment in the city.

And Staten Island is a solid candidate for that experimentation. Currently, it's not served by Citi Bike, and As part of the larger, citywide dockless pilot, which launched last summer, 400 bikes—provided by Lime and the Uber-backed Jump—rolled out in the North Shore, with 61,000 trips taken since then.

"Lime is proud of the success of its dock-free bikeshare programs in the Rockaways and Staten Island, and would love to see them grow so that more New Yorkers who need reliable, affordable transportation have access to our vehicles," Phil Jones, senior director of east coast government relations and strategic partnerships at Lime, said in a statement. "We hope that, very soon, all New Yorkers will have access to dock-free bikes and scooters—so that anyone can get around their city easily, regardless of income or zip code."

In a statement, DOT commissioner Polly Trottenberg noted that the pilot was so popular, that some of the bikes ended up in other parts of the borough. "Now that riders have voted with their feet, we want to have the entire island to be available to them," she said. "Not only do we know that bike share is offering a great new travel option of thousands, we also think it has helped contribute to Vision Zero, as the last year with hundreds of Lime and JUMP bikes on the street has also been the safest year ever on the borough's streets."

Per the RFEI, the pilot could include regular dockless bikes, or pedal-assist e-bikes that are equipped with dockless technology. (Jump's dockless e-bikes are already in use in San Francisco, among other cities.) It also puts potential vendors on the hook for ensuring that the bikes are cleaned, maintained, and charged (in the case of e-bikes), as well as for rebalancing bikes and ensuring they're not left in strange places.

DOT, meanwhile, expressed the possibility that it will implement "corrals" where dockless bikes could be parked.

The agency will be taking responses through May, with the expectation that a pilot could launch as soon as July—one year from when the city's initial foray into dockless technology began.

Manhattan BP sues city over plan for private housing at NYCHA complex

The city has "illegally circumvented" the typical land use review, according to the lawsuit

A controversial private development planned on an Upper East Side public housing complex faces a new legal hurdle.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has followed through on threats to sue Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration over Fetner Properties's plans to erect a 50-story building on the New York City Housing Authority's (NYCHA) Holmes Towers development. Instead of going through the typical Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which gathers input from locals and elected officials before culminating in a City Council vote, the city plans to skirt the lengthy process and acquire mayoral zoning overriders for the project. But Brewer's suit argues that steamrolling the public review process is unlawful.

"From the beginning, Borough President Brewer has made clear that robust public review following established land use procedures is needed—and indeed legally required—to vet a proposal of this magnitude," states a Manhattan Supreme Court suit, which was filed Thursday. "Unfortunately, despite the enormity of the proposed changes, Respondents have illegally circumvented ULURP, to the detriment of the communities they are tasked with serving."

Brewer charges that the project, which is set to raze a playground and rise between two 25-story NYCHA buildings, violates state public housing law and the city's charter. The suit comes as a blow to a project that is poised to be the first of NYCHA's 50/50 program—rental towers built by private developers on land owned by the cash-strapped city agency.

Fetner Properties is set to lease land at East 92nd Street for 99 years and collect rent from the units—169 are slated as affordable housing units while another 169 will be market rate. In exchange, Fetner will pay NYCHA $25 million toward repairs at Holmes Towers.

A spokesperson for Fetner said the agency is "committed to delivering new affordable housing, open space, and a state-of-the-art recreational and community center, as well as new funds to support much-needed building and infrastructure repairs for NYCHA residents."

And while Brewer acknowledges the potential the 50/50 project offers the city and its public housing tenants, she has her doubts that the $25 million will be enough for upgrades at the complex, especially when NYCHA itself puts estimates of the complex's capital needs at $35 million.

"Serious questions exist as to whether respondents negotiated adequate compensation from the developer and whether the revenue generated will address NYCHA's pressing capital needs," according to the suit. "At the same time, the Holmes Towers Infill Development is also an exciting opportunity to create a model for thoughtful, inclusive planning on NYCHA land to raise funds for capital improvements and create affordable housing."

The city's law department says the suit is under review.

Former Bronx army reserve center will transform into affordable housing

Designed by MHG Architects, the development will have 54 studio units for formerly homeless veterans and 35 for low-income individuals

The former Joseph A. Muller Army Reserve Center at 555 Nereid Avenue will be transformed into an affordable housing development in the Wakefield section of the Bronx, offering 90 affordable residential units. The Doe Fund, a nonprofit serving homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals, will renovate the 51,000-square-foot building.

Designed by MHG Architects, the development will have 54 studio units for formerly homeless veterans and 35 for low-income individuals, with a preference for current area residents. The four-story building will also have a private side yard, a bike room, social services administered by the Doe Fund, and a 123-seat lecture hall theater.

As we reported last week, the Doe Fund is also developing a 15-story building with 355 affordable housing units at 1331 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, as well as a 10-story building with 68 units at 3188 Villa Avenue.

"Supportive housing is one of the most effective, long-term solutions to the crisis of homelessness," Eric Enderlin, acting commissioner of NYC's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), said in a statement. "By pairing 90 new affordable homes with supportive services, this project will provide greater stability and hope to some of our city's most vulnerable residents, including 54 veterans."

The Doe Fund acquired the former army reserve center in 2013 through the federal government's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program. The renovation of the center is expected to last two years, the Doe Fund said in a statement.

Long-awaited Pier 35 park on the Lower East Side finally debuts

Designed by SHoP and Ken Smith Workshop, the park is part of the city's East River Waterfront Esplanade project

After many years and several false starts, a long-promised piece of parkland is finally open on the Lower East Side.

SHoP Architects announced last week that Pier 35, an "eco-park" on the East River waterfront, is finally open to the public. Designed by SHoP and Ken Smith Workshop, Pier 35 is part of the city's East River Waterfront Esplanade project, a two-mile open space that stretches between the Battery Maritime Building and Montgomery Street.

The Pier 35 project had been in the works since 2011 but it was pushed back several times, as we previously reported, because of Hurricane Sandy and negotiations between city agencies.

The park and "urban beach" features landscaped lawn and dunes, a 35-foot-tall and 300-foot-wide plant-covered folded screen wall, and a raised porch with swings that face the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. The pier also features "Mussel Beach" a 65-foot shoreline designed as a habitat for blue and ribbed mussels, with "sloping precast concrete surfaces, textures, and rockeries in the tidal zone," according to SHoP.

"The creation of this unapologetically urban landscape was truly a collaborative effort with the city, the design team, the construction management team and their consultants, and the community," project director Cathy E. Jones said in a statement. "The new eco-park provides the passive recreation space requested by the local residents, as well as the vertical visual effect of the vine wall that acts as a green billboard to the city."