by JULIE SATOW, The New York Times, March 20, 2014

The developers of 215 Sullivan Street in the Village promote its “lushly landscaped backyard”.
Photo: Watson & Company
Source: www.nytimes.com

After a seemingly endless winter, the first hints of spring have teased us with a day or two of temperatures over 60 degrees. That fleeting glimpse of warmth sent many New Yorkers flying out of doors to enjoy the sunshine. For my part, I sipped my morning coffee at home last week and stared wistfully out the window at a neighbor’s balcony.

In our concrete jungle, there is a hefty dollar value attached to having your own garden oasis — even the smallest of shrubberies carries a price tag. And with so many residents suffering from a vitamin D deficiency these days, brokers are promoting listings that can claim specks of green, even if they’re barely large enough to hold a bonsai.

Yet there are some listings for which the warmer weather was made.

Downtown, the average price of a luxury condominium with a terrace is $8.3 million; that compares with just $6 million for those without terraces, according to Vanderbilt Appraisal. And developers are doing whatever they can to take advantage of that pricing edge.

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by SCOTT SPECTOR, The New York Observer, February 10, 2014

Over the last few weeks, I’ve shared different “Tales from the Field,” each of which included a lesson I’ve learned while on the job. This week, in the fourth installment of this five-part series, I’m going to use an increasingly popular trend to illustrate a very valuable point: if you’re going to do something, do it right.

Lately more and more companies – from boutique firms to multinational corporations – are embracing rooftop terraces. However, utilizing your roof space is hardly a new trend. In fact, roof terraces began coming into favor four to five years ago, starting mainly with major, iconic buildings such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. Fast forward to 2014 and things have changed. Roof terraces are now being frequently incorporated as a design “must” by tenants of all sizes, as well as landlords who are using them as a feature to attract tenants.

Their popularity is undeniable; I am asked about roof terraces on a nearly daily basis. A couple of weeks ago, I had a walk-through with a landlord client in Long Island City and we discussed taking advantage of his building’s 360-degree views of Manhattan and Long Island by creating an enormous rooftop terrace. I also recently worked with an established hedge fund client who enthusiastically collaborated with us to create a green lounge to enhance the work environment and build some stress relief in for his employees.

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