New-built Times Square real estate is increasingly popular

Times Square
Times Square

Loathed by many New Yorkers first as seedy hotbed of crime and then as an over-the-top tourist attraction, newly built luxury condominiums have convinced some New Yorkers to give Times Square a chance. 

From 2004 to 2011, the number of households in the extended Times Square area rose 15 percent to 38,272, according to a report by the Times Square Alliance, a neighborhood advocacy group, and HR&A Advisors, a consulting firm.

“When I first moved in, you wouldn’t really [want to] be on Eighth Avenue alone after the theaters closed,” Tim Lorah, who lives in a brownstone on West 46th Street and is a board member of the alliance, told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s really settled into being a more gentrified neighborhood.”

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Brokers told the Journal that Times Square is drawing growing numbers of young professionals, couples or singles seeking pied-à-terre and, in particular, international buyers.

Listing prices for apartments in new condo buildings in Times Square generally range between $1,500 a square foot and $1,700 a square foot, compared to around $2,200 a square foot for new developments in the West Village, and $1,900 a square foot on the Upper East Side.

“There’s really not much of a discount considering the fact that it’s not in a prime [residential] location,” Karina Sagiev, founder of Evans Real Estate Investments, said. [WSJ]Christopher Cameoron