Apartment buildings continue to propagate in and around urban cores to satisfy move back in trends and meet expected continuing demand from career-focused young adults. High rises with floor-to-ceiling glass and surrounding views, granite kitchen counter tops, well-appointed gyms, roof decks, pools, and business centers are all the rage. Developers and advisors sell institutional partners and investors on almost can't-miss “build-to-core” projects. Build them, lease them up, sell them to core investors hungry for any product, or in some cases hold them longer-term with the lucrative potential to convert into condominiums.
In the past, I have written about the apartment waves in Toronto and downtown Los Angeles, but the same phenomenon is happening in just about every major urban core. Planners and local pols give way and let developers build cheek-to-jowl projects on strips in old industrial districts or in emerging neighborhoods with plenty of nightlife--bars, trendy restaurants, and sports arenas. The prime target renters are high-salaried young professionals—singles and couples, looking for convenience to get to nearby work places and pay for the privilege. Their influx is supposed to create greater 24-hour vibrancy as well as tax base, while the need for affordable housing isn't much addressed since developers can't make money that way, and essentially they get a pass despite some lip service.
In New York—long a veritable kingdom of apartment towers—the building binge has been filling in the far West Side, starting around the High Line, then through and north of Hudson Yards in once active light manufacturing corridors. Of course, you also see the phenomenon in Brooklyn along the waterfront in Williamsburg and in Long Island City south of the 59th Street (Queensboro or Ed Koch take your pick) Bridge. All these projects offer exciting views across rivers of cityscapes and sunsets, but their various in-house amenities must make up for the desultory, sterile, even claustrophobic streetscapes enveloping them.
Lost in the rush to build are provisions for decent parks and any family-friendly amenities. In this age, the value of land is just too precious to be devoted to any reasonably useful public space even if it creates greater long-term value for the projects and communities. When Met Life built Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town after World War II, the clusters of redbrick apartment buildings were set around open tree lined walks with interspersed playgrounds and outdoor gathering areas for residents. These developments were designed to cater to middle class families, creating a calming neighborhood enclave in the midst of the bustling city. A similar nod to park space was given to the Roosevelt Island projects in the 1970s and 1980s.
But in the 2000 planning model, amenities are confined to within the buildings, while space in the common is forsaken. Instead of creating an inviting park in the densely packed financial district, the area at Ground Zero features more office buildings and an uninviting concrete plaza with pools … The High Line was inspired but new projects now close in around it—will it gradually transform into another building lined strip? A recent visit suggests that's happening. And the new apartment developments near the Hudson offer sterile sidewalks along new glass lined canyons leading toward the midtown mass a long way from Central Park—fine for pied-a-terres and investment banker crash pads, but hardly inviting for raising children.
And what happens when the millennial wave decides to replace the late night bar scene with marriage and kids? Will the soot on the roof deck seem so appealing? By that time developers have moved on.
At least bring back those justly vilified vest pocket parks of the 1970s and 1980s. Maybe you can fit in a jungle gym or a sandbox.
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
