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SoHo Rental Rates are Driving Out the Artists that Shaped the Neighborhood

NEW YORK CITY-In the latter half of the last century the neighborhood named for its location south of Houston became a mecca for artists. Now the people who made the neighborhood cool can't afford to stay.

By Amy Vaughn | Updated on January 29, 2001

NEW YORK CITY-At the chapter meeting of NACORE at the Yale Club last Friday afternoon, Jan. 26, Tahl-Propp Equities’ CEO Rodney M. Propp spoke on the current state of affairs in SoHo. He commented, “What started as industrial space became home to artists and then to galleries. Now there is not one gallery in our space. The galleries are moving to Chelsea and Harlem.” The shift, as was evident from the testimony of all the spot market overview panelists, was the result of continued gentrification of the area.

“People paid about $30 per sf in 1993 for retail, now rates are in excess of $300 per sf today,” Propp explained. Rates for housing have also gone much higher.

Henry M. Buhl, founder of the SoHo/Tribeca Partnership says that his organization is not ‘really in the real estate business,” working rather to help the homeless in the community, but even he has been a part of the real estate shift in the area. “We did have a condo building that was an old shoe factory that we developed that was very successful. The 4,200 sf lofts sold out. There were 30-foot ceilings wine cellars in the basement. The top two floors had titanium like the planned Downtown Guggenheim. We got $1,200 per sf for the condo penthouses and $600 per sf downstairs.”

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