From the September issue: In Manhattan, a doorman is a marker of luxury and status.
But as rents rise in a tough economy, tenants are increasingly willing to go without that friendly face to screen visitors and accept packages if it means staying in New York’s most exclusive borough, industry experts said.
Data shows that the premium that renters are willing to pay for doormen has shrunk dramatically in the past two years. Between 2010 and mid-year 2011, the premium for rental apartments in buildings with attended lobbies dropped 36 percent for studios, 21 percent for one-bedrooms and 18 percent for two-bedrooms, according to a market report compiled by real estate consulting firm and brokerage Nancy Packes Inc., in collaboration with StreetEasy. [more]

Nancy Packes, president of her own new development marketing firm, at 316 11th Avenue, where she is the leasing consultant. The building is slated to begin renting units this winter.

From the December issue:
Once the province of a few niche players, the new development rental
sector is becoming a hotly contested battleground as brokerages look to
replace once-lucrative condo deals.
In the booming economy of the mid-2000s, many new development
marketing firms focused most of their attention on sales, while a few
firms had the rental field to themselves. But now, as marketers migrate over from the stagnant condo market,
newly built rentals are emerging as an increasingly important source of
revenue. And the sector is only expected to grow more competitive in
2010. “During the condo boom, they only focused on condos — that’s where
the money was,” Citi Habitats President Gary Malin said of new
development marketing firms. “Their condo stuff has slowed down, so
they’re trying to get in [to the rental market]. They’re looking to
find other revenue streams,” he added. While the pipeline of condos coming to market is slowing, brokers anticipate a healthy number of new rental buildings in 2010, largely because they have proved easier for developers to finance in the current climate. Some 2,935 rental units have come online in Manhattan so far this year, compared to 1,482 in 2008, according to a market report by Nancy Packes, the president of Brown Harris Stevens Project Marketing and founder of her own new development marketing firm, Nancy Packes, Inc., which does both new development sales and rentals.  More

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