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The Bristol Named New York Times Magazine Best of Luxury Homes and Estates

Published November 13, 2022

THE BRISTOL

Located on the corner of 56th Street and Second Avenue, The Bristol is one of Glenwood Management’s prime rental towers, two blocks from Sutton Place and a 10-minute walk to Central Park in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan. With a variety of 370 one- to four-bedroom residences, the building has been welcoming generations of New Yorkers home to its distinctive circular drive with fountains since the early 1970s, Many of the apartments in the 33-story building offer sweeping river and city views.

Key amenities include: landscaped gardens and rooftop sundeck, fitness center with new equipment, second-floor resident’s lounge, children’s playroom, building-wide water filtration system, complimentary luggage and bicycle storage, a choice of the most popular cable TV and internet providers, and an on-site attended parking garage. The recently renovated building is noted for its elegant two-story 24-hour staffed lobby with a separate attended service entrance, package room with in-house delivery and laundry facility. Valet and maid service is also available through the building.

The building consists of convertible two bedrooms (where the dining room could serve as a second bedroom), conventional two bedrooms and three bedrooms, with a handful of four-bedroom apartments that could be converted to five bedrooms. The renovations include spacious contemporary kitchens with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances, marble bathrooms, central air-conditioning and noise reducing/energy efficient windows.

“Some of our renters have been here from the beginning, or pass their apartments down to family members, “said Yelena Daniel, The Bristol’s director of leasing. “They appreciate the generous layouts and overall size of their apartments. Even our one-bedrooms are spacious, with dining entry foyers, and they come with one full and one partial bathroom. They also appreciate the very spacious Art Deco-style common spaces, with an elegant two-level stepdown, double-height lobby, all very open, surrounded by gardens and beautiful landscaping and fountains that surround the building.”

The amenities make the building especially appealing for work-at-home residents and their families, she continued. “The second-floor lounge, which is new, is very popular, and can be reserved for celebrations or a meeting, and with a kitchen there, it is ideal for catered events.”

One-bedrooms with one-and-a-half bathrooms start in the high $4,000 per month price range, with convertible two-bedrooms, with 30-foot living rooms starting at around $6,000. Convertible three bedrooms start at around $7,000.

“There are many contemporary rental and condo buildings that offer a full list of amenities – but what sets us apart is the classic construction and very spacious layouts with a full list of amenities that people actually use, with parking in the building in an ideal residential location very close to, but importantly not in, the busy center of Midtown Manhattan.”

For more information, call 212-286-3900 or visit glenwoodnyc.com

Asphalt Green to Unveil New Field Named After the Late Leonard Litwin of Glenwood Management

Appeared in AsphaltGreen, September 2019

Asphalt Green will host event commemorating Litwin Field at their Upper East Side campus

Leonard Litwin

New York, NY – Asphalt Green will present its 90,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art turf field on its Upper East Side campus at a community event, named after Glenwood Management’s Leonard Litwin in honor of his legacy and the late developer’s 40 year patronage of the organization and his dedication to the community.

A ceremony to commemorate the naming of the field will take place on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 2:00 p.m. during Asphalt Green’s Soccer Club (AGSC)’s first home game of the season. The event will be followed by a reception for people attending the event, including Asphalt Green board members, NYC elected officials and Litwin family members and supporters of the AGSC.

Mr. Litwin had an enduring commitment to and passion for the community in which the campus sits and the active lives of the residents and Litwin Field is a fitting tribute to that legacy. With this upgrade, the community will enjoy many more years of a field that provides its athletes with the same elements that professional sports teams utilize.

A number of Asphalt Green’s outdoor programs will utilize the new turf on Litwin Field at Asphalt Green, including competitive and recreational soccer, free community sports leagues and events, flag football, and summer camp. Litwin Field at Asphalt Green boasts nearly 90,000 square feet of IRONTURF™, GreenFields USA’s premium product and the turf of choice for the country’s most demanding sports venues, including the New England Patriots’s practice facility and an MLS soccer complex for Sporting Kansas City.

Asphalt Green now boasts New York City’s preeminent sports field. Asphalt Green expects the field to receive FIFA certification, making it the only field in Manhattan with such a distinction.

ABOUT ASPHALT GREEN

Asphalt Green is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting individuals of all ages and backgrounds achieve health through a lifetime of sports and fitness. Community service is at the core of the organization’s origin and the heart of its mission. A city-wide institution, Asphalt Green has two first-class campuses: a beautiful 5½-acre Upper East Side campus and a 52,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility in Battery Park City. Asphalt Green will help more than 50,000 public school children stay active this year through free programs in schoolyards, gymnasiums, and pools across New York City. www.asphaltgreen.org

ABOUT GLENWOOD MANAGEMENT

Glenwood Management was founded by father and son, Harry and Leonard Litwin. Leonard Litwin was involved in NYC residential real estate for over sixty-years. In the 1950s, they began building wood framed multi-family housing in Long Island and Queens, NY. Glenwood, incorporated in 1961, developed its first largescale project, Briar Hill, in Riverdale, NY. Glenwood is now one of New York City’s largest owners and builders of luxury rental housing. The full-service Manhattan real estate organization has earned a reputation as the leader in its field through the continuity established as owner, builder and manager of all of its properties. Prestigious locations, innovative design, superior construction, outstanding views, elegant lobbies and impeccable services are benchmark qualities that have become synonymous with every Glenwood residence. Glenwood has provided personalized care and attention in every detail and enriched the quality of life offered in each of its rental apartment buildings for nearly five decades. Glenwood owns and operates a multitude of apartment buildings throughout Manhattan such as Barclay Tower, Paramount Tower, The Brittany, The Grand Tier and The Pavilion. glenwooddev.wpengine.com

Life In The Lux Lane: Guide To Top 10 Most Awe Inspiring Residential Buildings

Appeared in New York Family, October 2017

The Encore

Neighborhood: Upper West Side
Address: 175 West 60th Street
www.glenwoodnyc.com

The Encore, Glenwood’s latest luxury rental building, offers superior living for growing families on the Upper West Side. The building offers one- and two-bedroom homes where families can feel safe with intrusion alarms in every apartment and a 24-hour doorman.

Amenities: Roof terrace, children’s playroom, state-of-the-art fitness center, multiple resident lounges, and a building-wide water filtration system.

Nearby attractions: Central Park, the Central Park Zoo, and Lincoln Center

Why we love it: The building is designed for growing families and has amenities to keep kids entertained through their teenage years. The property was also designed for LEED certification, with green features like eco-friendly plumbing fixtures and a water filtration system that promote a healthy lifestyle for kids and adults alike.

An Amenity That Is Going Places

Appeared in the New York Times
By ISABELLA MOSCHEN

HAMPTON COURT, a luxury rental in East Harlem, appealed to Thati Schlesinger and Renato Taralli for a variety of reasons when they were apartment hunting two years ago. But one amenity in particular helped seal the deal: a free shuttle bus to the local and express subway stops.

As developers add endless enticements to remain competitive, the private shuttle is one offering that can truly be useful. The morning trek becomes shorter; lugging home groceries isn’t such a chore. And there’ss no need to sacrifice accessibility in the quest for magnificent views, square footage or cheaper rent.

Ms. Schlesinger and Mr. Taralli, who relocated from the West Coast, fondly call their neighborhood “the Upper-Upper East Side.” What led them to Hampton Court was Ms. Schlesinger’s longing for amenities like a doorman, a laundry room in the building and an elevator, as well as Mr. Taralli’s longing to pay less than $2,500 a month for a one-bedroom.

The apartment building sits on a quiet stretch of 102nd Street, surrounded by clusters of public housing near the East River. Three avenues separate Hampton Court from the subway, and to catch the express train, residents must traverse an additional 15 blocks.

“I didn’t love the neighborhood,” said Ms. Schlesinger, 36. But she and her husband felt the amenities more than made up for whatever the area lacked.

After moving in, Mr. Taralli, 39, was initially nervous about his wife’s walking around by herself and insisted that she take the shuttle bus. “Everyone was telling us, be careful, it’s not a safe neighborhood,” he said. But once he became better acquainted with it, his view changed. “We don’t see any trouble with this neighborhood at all.”

What began as a concern about security became an appreciation for the time-saving convenience of a private bus. The midsize vehicle picks up passengers and takes them to and from the subway from 7 a.m. to 8:50 p.m. weekdays, with increased frequency during rush hour. Mr. Taralli says it takes him only 25 minutes to reach his office in Midtown. Gary Jacob, the executive vice president of Glenwood Management, which runs Hampton Court, said it was “very important for the buildings we have that are not really close to the subway line.” Farther downtown, the Ohm lures renters to the wilds of 11th Avenue. The building offers residents a “retro arcade,” a communal lounge with a fireplace and the assurance that they won’t have to walk the 13 or so minutes to Pennsylvania Station during rush hour — a stopgap measure until the subway expands west in the coming years.

“We did know the 7 train was eventually coming,” said Steven Charno, the president of Douglaston Development, the group behind the Ohm. “We’ve done development in pioneering neighborhoods, and we’re always concerned about things like proximity to the subway.”

Mr. Charno added that Douglaston had always intended for the apartment building, which opened in early 2010, to have a private bus. “From the beginning, as part of our marketing, we let residents know — and it was part of our initial planning — that we would run a shuttle to Penn Station,” he said. “And it’s been very successful.”

In the outer boroughs, where many residents commute to Manhattan, the private shuttle can be especially appealing. On a cobblestone street in the Columbia Street Waterfront District of Brooklyn, a block west of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, four apartment buildings share a van. The vehicle transports passengers to the major transit hub at Borough Hall — about a mile away — and back again, during morning and evening rush hour.

And although residents could also catch a city bus at a stop near Tiffany Place, or walk the 10 minutes to the nearest F/G train stop, the van service streamlines the morning commute. “When you’re trying to bring people over the highway, you make it a little bit bigger and a little bit better,” said Rosalind Zarlin, a Halstead Property agent who currently has a one-bedroom rental listed in One Tiffany Place (rent is $3,000 a month).

As the city’s real estate landscape changes and people move farther from the subways, they will no doubt continue to find a free shuttle a desirable amenity. But in neighborhoods where luxury buildings already present a contrast, the reactions of others can be mixed.

Karen White, 61, lives near Hampton Court. It takes her 10 to 15 minutes to reach the 103rd Street station on foot, and she’s envious of the service. “I wish it was my building,” she said.

Still, for others who live near these luxury buildings, the sight of a private shuttle cruising past can be an uncomfortable reminder of a changing neighborhood.

“Why move into the community if you don’t want to socialize with the community?” asked Ericka Martin, as she walked with a friend down East 102nd Street on a recent afternoon. Ms. Martin, 30, is a longtime resident of a city housing development a few blocks away. As she makes her daily commute to Midtown, she often notices the private buses cruising past.

“And why don’t you get picked up by a shuttle?” Ms. Martin’s friend asked her pointedly. “Because you live in the projects?”

IN THE NEWS ARCHIVE

 Hidden Gems

Appeared in Refinery29.com

By Sarabeth Sanders 

So your lease is up in June? Welcome to the club: the lunch-break-apartment-hunting, Google-Street-View-ing, StreetEasy-bookmarking, income-divided-by-40-calculating club. Yes, this is by far the busiest, most competitive, and most expensive time of year to rent an apartment in New York City. And we know it’s totally daunting.

After all, this is a city where a dishwasher is considered a luxury amenity and a sixth-floor walk-up is worth considering, given its proximity to an express train. But, it’s also a city where taking that express train just a few extra stops can land you in an up-and-coming neighborhood with spacious, chic, and affordable homes. And where, if you’re able and willing to pay for it, you can have white-glove concierge service at your door, any hour of the day, sending out and picking up your dry cleaning, or refrigerating your FreshDirect deliveries while you’re stuck working late. In short, this city can be pretty great. The trick is finding a place to house your bed, your clothing, and occasionally, yourself — that doesn’t completely suck.

Diamonds in the rough exist, of course. But getting in the door usually requires a bit of luck and someone in the know to ensure your rental application rises to the top of a very tall pile. Here, we break down the basics for how to make that happen. Click through to check out some of the city’s latest and greatest apartments for rent, and to hear tips of the trade from veteran leasing brokers who were kind enough to offer up their secrets.

Midtown West

330 West 39th Street (Crystal Green) (between Eighth and Ninth avenues), $2,949.

Pricey though it is, you’ll rent directly from the landlord and at least avoid a broker’s fee for this lovely and ultra-convenient apartment, blocks from Times Square’s many transportation options and Hell’s Kitchen’s plethora of trendy restaurants. There are four closets, new stainless-steel appliances, and washer/dryer in the unit, and the building, known as Crystal Green, is all-over luxury, with a fitness club, billiard room, 24-hour garage, and dry-cleaning valet services.

April 5, 2013

Appeared in the New York Times

Closets, Please, and the Bigger the Better

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

When Apartment J in a Prospect Heights co-op went on the market last summer, 120 people streamed through to see it. At packed open houses, potential buyers marveled at the beautifully renovated kitchen, the privacy-friendly split bedroom layout, and the proximity to Prospect Park.

“We had about 30 people at the first open house,” said Kris Sylvester of Halstead Property, the broker. “It was standing-room only.”

But Apartment J drew only one offer — for $450,000. That was the asking price, but it was also $25,000 less than Mr. Sylvester had gotten for the apartment next door, and $32,000 less than the one downstairs had gone for a few months earlier.

The difference? Closets.

The owners of Apartment J had removed the apartment’s permanent closets, Mr. Sylvester said, replacing them with large, attractive Ikea wardrobes that were more practical, and actually accommodated more belongings. The wardrobes, the sellers promised, would stay.

But in buyers’s eyes, the apartment was closetless. And, as Mr. Sylvester discovered, “that was a deal-breaker.”

If the desire for square footage is insatiable in New York, so is the quest for an uber-organized life, and closets are increasingly being recognized as a factor in the mysterious real estate equation. Sure, it’s about having a place to put your stuff. But closets can also represent something deeper.

Closets, said Jennifer Baumgartner, a clinical psychologist and the author of “You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Reveal About You,” can be repositories for memories and aspirations. “Hobbies you’ve wanted to pursue and the outfits that go along with them,” she said. “Kind of like a timeline of a life.”

Clothing, Dr. Baumgartner added, is “the internal bubbling to the surface — we choose how we want to look to the world, we choose how we package ourselves. The closet is a container for that.”

It’s not that closets dictate real estate decisions. But they can tip the scales.

“Closet space has always been very, very important,” said Stephen G. Kliegerman, the president of Terra Development Marketing, which advises Halstead on creating and marketing buildings. “But it’s been something that developers overlooked in the past. What we’ve all certainly learned over the years is that although kitchens and bathrooms are very, very important, you cannot overlook closets.”

In general, regular closets are 3 by 5 feet, while walk-in closets are 5 by 8 feet, said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal company. But the closet sweet spot — the point at which an apartment’s closets are big and plentiful enough to grab buyers by the lapels, but just small enough that they don’t seem to encroach on living space — can be elusive.

“In space-starved New York City, closets always come up as being an issue,” said Andrew Gerringer, the managing director of new business development for the Marketing Directors. “It’s really, ‘At what cost are they to an overall apartment?’s ”

Developers take different tacks on closets when plotting new condos.

In luxury buildings, they are carving out space for closets that will make buyers swoon. Some are outfitting closets in model apartments with come-hither shelves and multiple hanging bars; others are lavishing attention on every closet in the building. The day when a lone pole and a shelf sufficed is long gone.

“To me, the hallmark of luxury in New York City is wasted space,” said Michael Gross, who is writing a book about 15 Central Park West, to be called “House of Outrageous Fortune.” “A walk-in closet big enough for not only Madame, but her dresser, the person who came to blow out her hair, her three Shih Tzus, and perhaps the husband allowed in to comment on the outfit for tonight, would count as wasted space.”

When the Glenwood Management Corporation was developing Emerald Green, a Midtown West rental building completed in 2010, an early blueprint was scrapped to eliminate one apartment per floor — so that the rest could have more and bigger closets, said Gary Jacob, an executive vice president of Glenwood.

“It takes a lot of thought to try to get enough closet space to satisfy people,” Mr. Jacob said.

In a newer Glenwood building, Crystal Green on West 39th Street, most apartments have five closets, and many have a walk-in closet. Even studios, which start at $2,950 a month. With that much storage, it may be possible for real people to keep their homes as stylishly minimalist as they were when staged for viewing.

“You really do have a chance of it,” said Nancy Albertson, the director of leasing for the building.

Daria Salusbury, a senior vice president of the Related Companies, says Related also builds studios with copious closet space. After all, just because you have a one-room home doesn’t mean you don’t ski, golf, surf, skate, shop and entertain.

“Some people in a studio have more hobbies than people in a three-bedroom,” she said. “If you’re in a three-bedroom, it’s your kids’s hobbies you have to worry about.”

At 150 East 72nd, a century-old building that Macklowe Properties is converting into luxury condos, all of the closets will be custom-built by Poliform, a luxury Italian brand. The model apartments are equipped with Poliform shelves, cubbies and shoe racks, although buyers will be able to work with Poliform to design the closets they want.

“You decide to put in a kids’s playroom, a fitness center, a screening room,” said Dorothy Sexton, Macklowe’s vice president for sales, drawing a comparison with closets. “Think of it as an amenity, but a personal amenity.”

At 18 Gramercy Park, a beyond-high-end renovation project featuring 4,000-square-foot floor-through units, closets in the model apartments were staged by a company called Clos-ette.

“We have a superluxury product here,” said Jill Mangone, the building’s sales director. “Our buyer is accustomed to being in a well-appointed environment.”

Although Clos-ette hasn’t been hired to design all the building’s closets, some buyers, apparently inspired by the model apartments, have themselves hired Clos-ette, said Melanie Charlton, its chief executive.

“People have started realizing, ‘If I’m going to put my pots and pans in a $250,000 room, why don’t I put my clothes and jewelry, which cost a lot more than my All-Clad or Le Creuset pots and pans, in an equally special place?’s ” she said. “I think people have really started giving it the homage it deserves.”

When Lynn Filipski and her husband bought an apartment in a newly renovated building overlooking Madison Square Park, one of her first moves was to pay “in the high five figures” to have Ms. Charlton’s company customize the closets.

“You kind of gag and think, ‘Wow, this is twice as much as what I thought it would come in at,’s ” she said. “When you go to sell it, you realize it’s definitely worth it.

“The closets were something that definitely sold the apartment,” added Ms. Filipski, who parted with the place last summer — and hired Clos-ette to overhaul the closets in her new apartment on West 12th Street, this time without hesitating. “Every inch counts.”

Last year Tristan Andrews, an agent with Douglas Elliman, received an unusual request from a Hong Kong couple he had just worked with on buying a 3,900-square-foot pied-à-terre on Fifth Avenue.

No, they weren’t looking to flip the place. They were looking for a second apartment, not necessarily in the same building, to use as a closet for the wife’s sizable wardrobe.

They were in the market for a pied-à-closet.

Co-ops were out of the question, and even filling out rental applications proved to be tricky. “It’s very difficult to say, ‘Occupants: 1,000 pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes,’s ” Mr. Andrews said.

For $7,950 a month, the couple are now renting a two-bedroom condo a few blocks away on Madison Avenue from an owner who was not offended that his renters were using his home as a closet. “He thought it was funny,” Mr. Andrews said.

After Chelsey Ward and her husband bought a three-bedroom co-op in TriBeCa, they used one room as a bedroom and one as an office, and hired California Closets to convert the third into a closet for Ms. Ward.

“Being able to turn a bedroom into a closet in New York City is a little bit like using your whole paycheck to buy a Chanel handbag,” Ms. Ward observed. “It’s a little slice of what it would be like if you had an entire house, or a car and a driveway and a backyard.”

Then there are those who use closets as bedrooms — or, as brokers have increasingly noticed, home offices.

Doug Perlson, the chief executive of the online real estate brokerage RealDirect, converted a closet in his Upper West Side apartment into a home office that he shares with his wife, a lawyer. “It’s a very attractive feature for people to be able to work from home and have a dedicated space,” Mr. Perlson said, “but be able to shut it off and not see it.”

Brian Lewis, an executive vice president of Halstead, and his family have recently completed an unusual renovation project in their Upper West Side apartment.

“I literally have a 75-gallon fish tank in my walk-in closet,” Mr. Lewis said.

Mr. Lewis has always loved fish, he explained, not in “gaudy Vegas-style fish tanks,” he emphasized, but in clean, beautiful, elegant ones. He wanted the aquarium in the living room, but it was too sunny. So the tank is in the master bedroom closet, viewable through a porthole cut into a living room wall.

“It was one of those aha moments in design,” he said.

At the more modest end of the market — at least by Manhattan and Brooklyn standards — developers eager to squeeze in every square inch of living space sometimes cut corners on closets. Sometimes buyers notice; sometimes they don’t.

When Melissa Bartolini Kearney and her husband shopped for two-bedroom apartments in Brooklyn, she said, “all the newer places within our price point had really small closets.”

The couple almost bought a condo in a new building in Fort Greene. Had the closets been larger, Mrs. Kearney said, she would probably be living there now.

Instead, Mr. Sylvester of Halstead found her an apartment in Park Slope with more closet space — and a kitchen with a breakfast nook. Mrs. Kearney turned it into an extra closet.

Over more than a decade, Carolyn Musher, the New York City sales manager of California Closets, has counseled thousands of New Yorkers through closet crises. Among her clients: frantic condo buyers suffering from closet-induced buyer’s remorse.

“When you first walk into an empty apartment, you’re not taking into consideration, ‘Where’s my stuff going to go that I want behind closed doors?’s ” Ms. Musher said. “You’re enamored with the space. Then you move in and reality hits.”

When Ms. Musher and her husband decided to buy, after years of renting, she set her sights on a Brooklyn Heights building she had admired from afar. The apartments were all sold.

“Now, I’m doing closets there, and I’m like, ‘Thank God,’s ” she said.

Ms. Musher moved instead to a condo in Park Slope with generous closets. Even so, she plans to divest a half bathroom of its toilet: Voilà, another closet.

“It’s a 1,500-square-foot apartment,” Ms. Musher said. “My guests can use my kids’s bathroom.”

Article Orginally Appreared in the February 2013 Issue of New York Family Magazine

Click Here for Full Article

We’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of New York Family. To help rejoice in our love of all things parenting, the editors have traveled back in time to take a look at what things were like in the 1980s compared to today. We spoke with some of our favorite parenting experts to find out how raising kids in the city has evolved. Join us as we journey back 25 years, to reflect upon what parenting in the city was like back when New York Family was born.

 

Real Estate Then

In the real estate sector in New York City, the family buildings category has changed drastically over the past 25 years. Back in the ‘80s, one of Manhattan’s most popular neighborhoods for families and young intellectuals was the Upper West Side. Pre- and post-war buildings were being converted from rentals into co-op apartments, and the average rental fee was $1,700 per month. Family-friendly buildings were not focused on amenities such as playrooms and pools. David Stern, the Downtown Leasing Manager for Glenwood Properties, explains that 25 years ago, the majority of families were looking to move to suburban areas. “There were no playrooms, there were no amenities like that for the kids,” he notes.

 

Real Estate Now

While there are still a lot of families living uptown, lately, couples with kids have been drawn to the downtown area as well as Brooklyn brownstones. The trendy Tribeca neighborhood has attracted a lot affluent families to be within walking distance of stores that offer art classes and other activities for children. Generally, the average rental is $3,500 per month, a significant hike in price compared to 25 years ago. The real estate industry in NYC now caters to the demand for indoor entertainment. Glenwood Properties rents apartments with indoor movie theaters and pools with special hours for kids. In fact, the second floor of downtown’s Barclay Tower is home to the Barclay Street School, for children between the ages of 2 and 5. Stern says: “There’s a tremendous attraction for parents [to live] downtown, in many instances to be close to where they work, if they want to come home for lunch and see the kids.”

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

This article orginally appeared in the New York Times on Feb. 4, 2013

Click here for the full article

The online listing for a condominium in Brooklyn Heights advertises five bedrooms and wide-open views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline for $4.995 million. A 19th-floor two-bedroom on East 59th Street offers floor-to-ceiling windows, a gas fireplace and two balconies; corporations and pieds-à-terre welcome, $2.495 million. And a penthouse on Greenwich Street offers a 500-square-foot terrace and a pet spa for $6.195 million.

In addition to large price tags, these listings have something else in common. They all puff out their chest to announce: This apartment has a garbage disposal.

This little appliance of convenience has been widely available in much of the country since the middle of the last century, but residential garbage disposals were, in fact, illegal in New York City until 1997. And although the laws have changed, many apartment buildings, especially older ones, continue to ban them, fearing for the health of aging pipes.

They do pop up now and again in apartment listings, especially in newer buildings. On Monday, 83 listings on the StreetEasy Web site considered this modest gadget, which typically costs less than $200, worth a mention, right alongside the gyms and the views, the pet wash rooms and the 24-hour doormen.

Nancy Albertson, director of leasing at Glenwood, a company that builds new rental buildings, many of which have included garbage disposals in recent years, said that when many New Yorkers saw them, they had the same reaction: “Isn’t that illegal?”

No, just rare.

Michael J. Wolfe, president of Midboro Management, which manages mostly prewar co-op and condominium buildings, said that out of 95 buildings, maybe three of his prewar buildings and a few newly constructed projects allowed garbage disposals.

Garbage disposals were banned in much of the city in the 1970s over concerns for the aged sewer system. (More creative and gruesome reasons worked their way into city lore. Stuart M. Saft, the chairman of the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, said he had heard the police feared that the bodies of murder victims might be disposed of down the drain. And in an essay in The New York Review of Books in 1991, Joan Didion wrote that a city employee had expressed concern to her that people might be tempted to “put their babies down them.”)

Before lifting the ban, the city distributed more than 200 disposals to New Yorkers free for a 21-month trial run. The sewers survived, so the ban did not.

Yet years later, worry remains that the remnants of dinner will become clogged in corroding old pipes, especially in apartment buildings that were not built with in-sink disposals — or washing machines, or dishwashers — in mind. But plumbers, building managers and real estate lawyers said they were hard pressed to think of a single recent horror story of a flood or broken pipe caused by the appliance.

“It probably has a lot more to do with fear than fact,” Mr. Wolfe said. “But nobody wants to be the test case.”

Some plumbers do say that putting extra grease down the drain while grinding up leftovers can damage plumbing, and if every apartment in an older building suddenly put in a garbage disposal, that could cause problems over the course of many years.

The real threats to pipes, they say, comes from cat litter flushed down the toilet or a child’s toy shoved into a bathtub drain. And the true dangers of garbage disposals — many of which now operate only when there is a cap on to protect wandering fingers — appear to lie elsewhere, as well.

“I was operating a garbage disposal once, and a turkey popper flew out and whacked me right in the forehead,” said Steven Sladkus, a real estate lawyer, offering up one example.

Shawn Calkins, a manager at Fred Smith Plumbing and Heating Company in Manhattan, provided another. “Anything that can fall down there generally does,” Mr. Calkins said. “Wedding rings tend to be the most common thing down garbage disposals, and toilets and sinks.”

Regardless of the reasoning, Mr. Sladkus added, if a building’s board wants to ban disposals, it is perfectly within its rights.

This does not mean that everybody listens.

“People sneak them in,” Mr. Wolfe said, describing scenes of them being surreptitiously hustled into buildings in shopping bags. When they are discovered, his management company asks that they be removed, but some disposal lovers put up a fight. Occasionally, he said, a lawyer even gets involved.

The frequency of these sneaky instances is impossible to gauge, but Mr. Saft has a suspicion.

“My guess is everybody who modernizes a kitchen puts in a garbage disposal unit,” he said. “All of a sudden, there’ss a plumber and a unit goes in — and gee, I don’t know how that got there!”

There are plenty of new buildings, however, that have taken the plunge willingly, eager to provide an extra touch of convenience. The kitchens at Crystal Green, a Glenwood rental building on West 39th Street, include garbage disposals — as they do at the ultraluxury Midtown building One57, where two apartments are under contract for at least $90 million.

But old buildings, according to plumbers and real estate professionals, will probably continue to drag their feet.

“People are just used to doing what they’ve been doing for decades,” said Philip J. Kraus, owner of Fred Smith Plumbing. And though he believes that disposals are not a problem, he does not have one himself, for another prototypically New York reason: space.

“I just don’t happen to have enough room under my kitchen sink,” Mr. Kraus said, “or I’d be happy to have one.”

Besides, the garbage can is right over there.

This article originally appeared on Inhabitat.com on November 14, 2012.

Click here for the full article. 

New Yorkers looking to rent apartments that are just as sustainable as they are high-end have a new building to choose from, Crystal Green in Midtown, Manhattan. Luxury rental company Glenwood launched leasing for the property last month and in addition to opulence, the 25-story Midtown West building also boasts a design that strives for LEED certification.

Crystal Green is Glenwood’s second sustainably built rental, and is located at 330 West 39th Street in the same Midtown neighborhood as Glenwood’s first sustainable property; Emerald Green. “Midtown West stands as one of the most exciting and dynamic neighborhoods in Manhattan,” noted Glenwood Management’s Executive Vice President Gary Jacob. “As a company, we’re also dedicated to sustainable development and have built this property according to LEED guidelines in our pledge to help make a positive impact on the environment while enriching the lifestyle of our residents.”

Crystal Green has 200 luxury apartments in layouts ranging from studios to two-bedrooms. Designed by Stephen B Jacobs Group, Crystal Green’s interior design boasts high percentages of recycled materials that have been regionally sourced from the Northeast. All homes have sustainable bamboo wood flooring, which adds a feeling of environmental sophistication to the homes’s interior design. The building was designed for energy efficiency and lower water consumption. Energy Star appliances dot every kitchen and laundry, and lighting sensors also help to keep the energy use low when people aren’t occupying the building.

Crystal Green is centrally located and is within walking distance of Penn Station. Though it may be in a wonderfully vibrant and active neighborhood, this luxury homestead offers 24-hour lobby attendants, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a children’s play center, and a recreation lounge, which will collectively help create a peaceful and relaxing environment for an instant getaway. So if you are interested in a new place to live in Midtown Manhattan give Glenwood a call.

This article orginally appeared in Real Estate Weekly on November 14, 2012

Click here for the full article

By Al Barbarino

Glenwood Management Corporation has launched leasing at the 25-story, 200-unit Crystal Green at 330 West 39th Street in Midtown West.

The luxury rental building, designed to qualify for LEED certification, is the latest step in the transformation of a once industrial neighborhood into a residential and tourist attraction.

“Midtown West stands as one of the most exciting and dynamic neighborhoods in Manhattan, and we are committed to continuing to promote the steady evolution of this community with the launch of Crystal Green,” said Gary Jacob, executive vice president of Glenwood Management.

The neighborhood marries a healthy mix of culture, entertainment, restaurants and world-renown retailers, and it has seen a number of high-end residential buildings prop up over the last several years.

In 2009, Glenwood developed Emerald Green, one block south at 320 West 38th Street, where 568 apartments were rented in less than a year.

Among other residential properties in the area, Equity Residential opened Hudson Crossing, a 15-story, 259-unit building at 400 West 37th, in 2003; and the firm recently bought Mantena, a 12-story, 97-apartment high-end building at 431 West 37th Street.

Lalezarian Properties’s 30-story, 207-unit Townsend at 350 West 37th opened in 2010; and construction manager New Line Structures Work has resumed work on a stalled 12-story condo/hotel project formerly called Galerie at 515 Ninth Avenue and 39th Street.

Crystal Green is located within walking distance of Penn Station, multiple city subway lines, and is in proximity to Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Broadway theaters and Bryant Park, with rents starting at $2,795 for studios, $3,545 for one-bedrooms, and $4,610 for two-bedrooms.

Designed by Stephen B. Jacobs Group, it was built in part with locally-sourced, recycled materials; an efficient building-wide water filtration system; roof terraces with heat-reflective pavers; occupancy sensors for lighting in common areas; and staff will use eco-friendly cleaning supplies.

“As a company, we’re also dedicated to sustainable development and have built this property according to LEED guidelines in our pledge to help make a positive impact on the environment while enriching the lifestyle of our residents,” Jacob said.

Homes include bamboo wood flooring; Energy Star-rated appliances; eco-friendly plumbing fixtures and faucets; and washer/dryer. Kitchens feature granite countertops and floors; and marble bathrooms include porcelain sinks.

Amenities include a 24-hour attended lobby; a 24-hour garage equipped with electric vehicle charging stations; fitness center; residents’s lounge with kitchen; children’s playroom and recreation lounge with pool table.