Many New Yorkers may not know where Hudson Square is – or even what it is. But that is likely to change when thousands of employees from Google and Disney ABC, which are building new offices there, begin pouring in over the next few years. The 33-square-foot community between SoHo, West Village and TriBeCa is also prepared for some who want to live there: 18 new residential buildings have been completed since 2003, with two more in the planning stages. plan. And housing prices are still slightly lower than in neighboring areas.
Jesse Luo, 27, a software engineer who moved to New York from San Francisco about a year ago, was unfamiliar with Hudson Square when he started looking for an apartment. But he knew he wanted to be near Hudson River Park. “I cycle and walk a lot,” he says, “and the West Side is the best place to go long distances.”
He found a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom apartment with a patio in a new building with a gym and common spaces where he can work, for about $3.5 million. “A good deal,” he said. The proximity to bars, restaurants and Chinatown is also a plus, along with the new offices of Google and Disney, which he says will make it easy to rent out your apartment for the next few years. if he wants.
“There is a lot of construction, a lot of development” in the area, said Phillip Salem, a Compass real estate agent. “I think it will be an improvement.”
Mr. Salem said the “bottom line” came about five or six years ago, when a number of luxury buildings hit the market and “captured the attention of the deserted land in SoHo that became Hudson Square.” .”
But that development and the rising prices that come with it mean that some longtime residents “can’t move in right now,” says Ronnie Peters, 58, a designer and photographer, said. In 2001, he was part of a group of people pooling their money to buy two adjacent eight-story commercial buildings in what was then known as the printing press.
“You can smell printer ink on the street and hear presses, especially at night,” he said. The group converted the buildings into residential spaces, and Mr. Peters took over the entire fourth floor of one of the buildings two years later. Recently, a similar full-floor apartment sold for $3 million, which would be “restrictive” for him.
Cass Calder Smith, an architect and interior designer, was another early resident. In 2005, he bought two apartments in Greenwich and Spring Street, and turned them into a single unit. He also opened an office nearby, on Varick Street, in a 17-story building that had many architects as tenants. “I want to live in a place where I think there will be a good creative community, and I want to walk to work,” he said. “I know it’s a growing area.”
Calder Smith, 61, is now a board member of the local Business Improvement District, which has “made the neighborhood better,” he said, by adding parks, sidewalk benches and green trees. Although the area is still sometimes referred to as West SoHo, it is now more of a different place, he said: “People love living in a neighborhood and knowing what it is.”
What you will find
The area, defined by the Business Improvement District, is bounded by Clarkson Street to the North, Canal Street to the South, West Street to the West, and Sixth Avenue to the East, despite its northern border. Vandam Street is a bit jagged and not always accessible to Sixth Avenue. Hudson River Park and Piers 34 and 40, while not technically part of the neighborhood, offer a variety of recreational spaces, including bike paths, tennis courts, and sports fields.
While heavy traffic from the Dutch Tunnel is an ongoing problem, the Business Improvement District has worked to prioritize “people over cars,” said Samara Karasyk, the organization’s president. Karasyk, the organization’s president, and recently completed a 10-year plan involving widening sidewalks, creating protected bike lanes, installing benches and planting hundreds of trees. The group also renovated Spring Street Park and created two new public spaces, Freeman Plaza East and Freeman Plaza West, in areas that were once used for toll collection near the Dutch Tunnel.
Karasyk said a new 10-year plan that includes “reinventing Houston Street between Varick and Washington,” will get busier when the Disney ABC building at 137 Varick Street, also known as Four Hudson Square, opens. doors in 2024.
Google, recently paid $2.1 billion for the St. John, a freight facility in 550 Washington, is incorporating it into a new 1.3 million square foot building that will include two blocks and serve as the New York headquarters for the company’s global company. business organization when it opens next year. Builders removed structures that block views of Hudson River Park and added a walkway from Washington to West Street, making it easier for residents to access the park.
What you will have to pay
Hudson Square may be a bit more affordable than its more famous neighbors, but housing prices are often high by Manhattan standards. However, you can “make more money for your money” than in TriBeCa, West Village or SoHo, said Compass agent Salem.
Mickey Conlon, a dealer for Douglas Elliman, said: “I see it coming to a point. “It is only a matter of time before it reaches parity” with the surrounding areas.
At the end of August, more than 50 Hudson Square homes were up for sale on StreetEasy, which uses slightly different boundaries than those of the Business Improvement District. All but eight apartments. The least expensive is a co-op studio at 2 Charlton Street with a full-time doorman, a live resident manager and a patio on a tree-lined street, listed for $639,000. la; the most expensive is the four-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bath apartment at 565 Broome Street overlooking the Hudson River, in a Renzo Piano-designed building with a 55-foot pool and fitness center, listed for $20, 95 million dollars. .
As for rentals, there are already 20 homes available, ranging from a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment at 30 Charlton Street listed for $3,750 a month, to a fully stocked five-bedroom townhouse Fully furnished with private garden at 38 King Street for $35,000 a month.
The Vibe
Among the cultural offerings in Hudson Square is the Jackie Robinson Museum, which officially opens this month, honoring the baseball legend’s career and civil rights activism; The New York City Fire Museum, which displays New York Fire Department artifacts in a renovated Beaux-Arts firehouse; and Children’s Museum of Art, temporarily closed.
Restaurants include casual spots like Pret a Manger and Le Pain Quoprisen, and nicer ones like Altro Paradiso, on Spring Street, and Café Hugo, in the new Hotel Hugo on Greenwich Street, home to two bars on the rooftop.
But the most famous restaurant and bar is the Ear Inn, which opened in 1817. The building, on Spring Street, was built around 1770 for James Brown, a black aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. .
Schools
There are two public schools zoned for the neighborhood: PS 003 Charrette School, which enrolls 600 students in kindergarten through fifth grade for the 2020-21 school year, and 297 High School, which enrolls 818 students. nouns from grades six to eight. Both are in Greenwich Village.
In 2018-19, the most recent school year for which ratings were available, 74 percent of students at PS 003 met the requirements New York State Standards in English, compared with 48% citywide; 78 percent met standards in math, compared with 50 percent citywide. At MS 297, 66 percent of students met state standards in English, compared with 47% citywide; 60 percent met standards in math, compared with 41 percent citywide.
M560 High School, City-As-School, is also in the vicinity, although it is not a zoned school; the student must apply for a transfer from another high school. Founded in 1972, it has 685 subscribers and, according to website, where “students study while working.” Jean-Michel Basquiat attended the school, but did not graduate.
Route to work
Train 1 stops at Canal and West Houston Street all the time; 2 trains stop there only late at night. Trains C and E stop at Canal and Spring Streets; A just stops at Canal. Buses include M20 and M21.
West Street has eight lanes traveling north and south, and the Holland Tunnel carries vehicles to and from New Jersey.
History
On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr left his estate, Richmond Hill, in what is now Hudson Square, to meet former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton across the river in New Jersey for the duel. their infamous duel. Burr purchased the property in 1794 from John Adams, who lived there when he was vice president, during George Washington’s first presidency. John Jacob Astor, America’s first millionaire, later bought the property, moved the house to the southeast corner of what is now the intersection of Varick and Charlton streets, and divided the property into lots for the houses. smaller house. The grounds of the estate now form much of the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, known for its concentration of Federal and Greek Renaissance homes.
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