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Basically between 1st-2nd Ave and 40th-43rd Street, near the East River just overlooking the UN. Basically if you look west from the UN HQ you can see the brownstone looking apartments.
I remember chilling out in the communal garden there, and thought if I ever live in Manhattan this would be the place I'd like to live. I imagine it's very expensive, though, but a better location than say the Upper East Side IMO and also pretty quiet.
Tudor City is not terribly expensive by Manhattan standards, actually. The main problem with the buildings tends to be the size of the apartments, as they tend to be quite small, and there have been rumblings of dissatisfaction with the way some buildings are managed by the cooperative association, nit uncommon in many Manhattan buildings. The area is also a bit removed from the city, as a whole, which can be good or bad, depending upon perspective, and is a protected historic urban renewal project.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
What I remember most about visiting the people I know who lived there was that the apartments are relatively small, even by Manhattan standards. But of course that's offset by the nice location and the quiet that comes from the isolation of the place.
Basically between 1st-2nd Ave and 40th-43rd Street, near the East River just overlooking the UN. Basically if you look west from the UN HQ you can see the brownstone looking apartments.
I remember chilling out in the communal garden there, and thought if I ever live in Manhattan this would be the place I'd like to live. I imagine it's very expensive, though, but a better location than say the Upper East Side IMO and also pretty quiet.
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Whilst the apartments are smaller they do tend to be much better built than the new developments and living area size is fine. All have been converted to co-op and a number of occupants/landlords have done some great renovations to the apartments.
Co-ops
Mgt competence varies building to building
Just feels isolated, its avg 1/2 block walk to 2nd Ave in Midtown, 2.5 blocks to Grand Central Terminal and Grand Central Station. Though you wont need the latter as TC has its own USPS substation.
When 2nd ave subway arrives, it will be less isolated
The new owners quickly set about converting Tudor City into co-op apartments, as was happening across the city. Conversions were completed with little problem but when the real estate market and economy slowed in 1989-1994, some co-op prices dropped significantly, as owners and investors were concerned that the co-ops themselves would become insolvent.
In April 2008, New York Magazine recalled the 1989 slump:
"... at Tudor City, owner Time Equities couldn't cover the complex's underlying mortgage and taxes (not to mention utility bills and staff costs), and ended up giving it away, unit by occupied unit, in a jaw-dropping fire sale: In 1992, if the new owner were willing to assume the accrued debts, a Tudor City one-bedroom could be had for $3,500
I rember the fire-sale auctions very well, but most were in the outer boroughs...not Tudor City that one slipped by me.
Part of the gimmick was that some of the lower priced co-ops came with a stabilized tenant who was as immoveable as Rodin's THE THINKER.
The developers having the fire sales often tried to hide this fact.
It was an EXCITING time...1989 to about 1992. Best time for a real estate bargain in my lifetime.
"... at Tudor City, owner Time Equities couldn't cover the complex's underlying mortgage and taxes (not to mention utility bills and staff costs), and ended up giving it away, unit by occupied unit, in a jaw-dropping fire sale: In 1992, if the new owner were willing to assume the accrued debts, a Tudor City one-bedroom could be had for $3,500
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Great thread! I love NYC history. A 1 bedroom for $3500 but I wonder how much the accrued debt was! Betcha it was waaaaaaay more than that.
Based simply on the fact that the last people to get a good deal on Manhattan real estate were the Dutch ...when they bought it from the Lenape.
Great thread! I love NYC history. A 1 bedroom for $3500 but I wonder how much the accrued debt was! Betcha it was waaaaaaay more than that.
And that was half the problem: you bought in very cheaply but then stood the risk that the whole complex would go belly up because people would default on maintenance payments (mostly their share of the mortgage) and be taken over by the banks. And then your stockholder's rights AND your $3500 would all go up in smoke. Turned out that the economy turned with the Clinton years and almost NONE of these co-ops failed.
BUT the other half of the problem is buying an apartment occupied by Mrs. Methusalah, all of whose ancestry lived to be centenarians, who had 37 great grandchildren able to claim they lived with her when she finally kicked off.
But though you couldn't get an unoccupied apartment for $3500, you could usually get one for double or triple that and those that bought in to ANY of them made a kiling that rivalled the Dutch deal (or the Astors.)
Not buying at one of these auctions is one of my deeper regrets. (I don't have many.)
Problem was that at the time you could RENT a comparable apartment at quite a bit less than the maintenance payments of any of these co-op conversions. That's what gave me pause.
Last edited by Kefir King; 05-11-2012 at 07:56 AM..
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