Murray Hill, which sits at the mouth of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, sees its fair share of passers-through, especially neck-craning out-of-towners arriving by bus from an airport.
But the neighborhood has grown in popularity as a string of popular bars and bistros has opened along Third Avenue, especially on its western flank, between East 32nd and East 40th streets. Its sister neighborhood to the east, Kips Bay, is also often a destination for renters out of college, along with professionals attached to some of the area’s nearby hospitals.
Now, many former renters are buying in this area, which is bordered by the East River, East 42nd Street and East 23rd Street, according to brokers, developers and residents. (Murray Hill’s western boundary is generally considered to be Madison Avenue. Kips Bay’s is roughly Lexington.)
Residents cite a host of reasons for staying, including the youthful vibe, proximity to subways and the ease with which they can walk to their Midtown jobs.
A recent Sunday open house at the Charleston, a condo at 225 East 34th Street between Third and Second avenues, saw a steady turnout, particularly by the younger generation. The 191 units are about 90 percent sold after 14 months, said Simona Stanica, a vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman.
Apartment 10J, the 870-square-foot one-bedroom showing that day, was listed at $1.05 million. Floor-to-ceiling windows bathe it in light, and it is relatively quiet compared with other units that face roads that access the Midtown Tunnel. The apartment’s defining features are its double-door closets, wenge kitchen cabinets and a 25-square-foot balcony. The unit faces north, and a sliver of the East River is visible beyond the gold dome of the St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, a local landmark — though that view may soon disappear, as developer Sheldon Solow moves forward with plans to erect a huge tower on a now-empty lot at First Avenue and East 35th Street.
One of 10J’s draws is that it is a resale, in which the owner never moved in. Unlike sponsor sales, where the buyers often pick up the full tab for closing costs, resales can mean significant savings for young, first-time purchasers, Stanica said.
Sanna Franklin was accompanied by her mother, Karin, and father, Nils Olaf. Franklin currently rents in a Kips Bay walkup, but with financial help from her parents, she is in the market to buy her first place. She’s considering several neighborhoods south of 42nd Street, especially Soho and the West Village.
Franklin said she likes Murray Hill-Kips Bay because “you can walk pretty much everywhere.”
“I don’t know if it’s my favorite neighborhood in the whole city,” she continued, “but it feels safe, and there are lots of young people here.”
The prices, she said, are reasonable compared with Downtown addresses.
Nine months into her lease, she is eager to find a place soon, while the Charleston is six months behind schedule and has hallways that look more like construction zones.
Although sales of only about 30 percent of all the building’s units are closed, Stanica assured Franklin that it was a matter of “a few months” before the unit would be ready.
Ross Gadye, a vice president with Brown Harris Stevens, said many co-ops also attract younger buyers with parental co-signers. At an open house he held at 20 East 35th Street, more than half of the seven groups that filtered in were parents with children in tow, he said.
The apartment, 10E, is an 850-square-foot one-bedroom that has never been remodeled. It’s listed for $865,000.
“Their children are first-time buyers who are starting careers in New York,” Gadye said. “The idea of spending less than a million dollars for a one-bedroom excites them.”
Empty nesters like the area, too. Peter and Bobbie Bartucca, from Farmington, Conn., lived in an East 39th Street rental in the 1980s. They returned to the neighborhood on a recent Sunday to look at a studio for sale in a co-op at 123 East 37th Street.
The 550-square-foot unit, 6B, which had an asking price of $425,000, has one bathroom, a sunken main room, which is down two steps, and an elevated kitchen, up one step. (The building, called the Lindley House, was completed in 1940.) It also has refurbished oak parquet floors and an unusual curved dressing room outside the bathroom, which could easily fit a desk.
For one young male visitor, who checked out the unit without removing his sunglasses and who wouldn’t give his name, the deal-breaker was the view, which takes in the brick wall of an adjacent building.
“Can you move that building for me?” he joked. “It’s funky and nice. It’s just not for me.”
But the Bartuccas seemed more interested, lingering for about 15 minutes. “This is really nice, just a lovely apartment,” said Peter, as he peered into the two closets.
With Peter’s recent retirement and foray into self-employment, the Bartuccas have decided to downsize and relocate.
“When we used to live here before, I would remark how great it would be when we got older, because you can take cabs everywhere, and there are elevators,” Peter said. “It’s like one giant retirement institution.”