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Battery Park gets battered
<i>Wall Street's bedroom community feels pain of ground leases and finance fallout </i>
From the October issue: Despite its prime waterfront location and its disproportionate amount
of cutting-edge “green” architecture, Battery Park City is getting
slammed by the downturn more than many other Manhattan neighborhoods. Stephen and Mary Lacoff, for instance, have been trying to sell their
1,158-square-foot two-bedroom at 2 South End Avenue for more than a
year now. Despite dropping the asking price from $1.385 million to
$999,000, they’ve received no offers. The apartment — which, like everything in Battery Park City, is in a
land-lease building — has some of the higher ground rents in the area,
contributing to common charges of $2,003 a month, or $1.74 a square
foot. “There has been some intermittent interest, but no offers,”
Stephen Lacoff said. “What I’m taking from that is there’s not a huge
demand.”