“It’s a gated community”: Private driveways are back at Manhattan’s luxe condos

Private driveways and gated courtyards are back en vogue at luxury condominiums in Manhattan.

The 53-unit condominium at 443 Greenwich Street has attracted the likes of Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Reynolds and Harry Styles due, in part, to the building’s private underground valet entrance, the New York Times reported.

The 65-story rental and condo tower at 252 East 57th Street has a car entrance at 56th Street, which has minimal signage.

“It’s a little bit like a private club, where there’s very little signage,” Julia Hodgson, director of development at World Wide Group, one of the building’s developers, told the Times. “That’s the messaging to the outside.”

A seven-foot-tall hedge along East 46th Street hides a 10,000-square-foot circular driveway at 50 United Nations Plaza. The Corigin Real Estate Group’s 20 East End Avenue will have a 12-foot-tall wrought iron gate to close off a 4,000-square-foot courtyard.

“It’s not a walled, gated community,” said Edward Baquero, president of Corigin. “It’s not like a castle with a moat.”

Richard Florida, the author of “The New Urban Crisis,” said a gate at a luxury building “sticks a big finger in people’s faces to say: ‘I’m better than you. I live here.”‘

“Call a spade a spade,” he said. “It’s a gated community.” [NYT] — Kathryn Brenzel 

Correction: A prior version of this story incorrectly stated that Corigin Real Estate developed 20 West End Avenue; it is 20 East End Avenue.