Some people love a man in uniform, but they’re harder to find in front of pricey new real estate here. Rising rents and low crime rates have contributed to the increasing presence of higher-end, non-doorman buildings. Building size and neighborhood locations also play a role, but in the end, the question of cost versus security comes down to price.
“Because the rental prices are so high right now, many more people are opting to go with non-doorman buildings, just for the rent savings,” said Daniel Baum, founder of brokerage the Real Estate Group. “So what you find is, typically, there’s even less vacancy in the non-doorman buildings than in the doorman buildings.”
Luxury and amenities, if not safety, are still driving apartment hunters to doorman buildings.
“Nobody wants a doorman because they are afraid,” said Darren Sukenik, an executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman. Ironically, he said, “the areas you probably need a doorman, you don’t have one.”
Doormen still confer prestige and, for newly built luxury buildings in some areas of the city, such as the Upper East Side, it is a bare minimum.
“They are less for protection than they are for convenience,” said Michele Kleier, president of Gumley Haft Kleier. “I think the safer the city gets, the less people care. And, also, the popularity of townhouses has changed the perception that you must need a doorman.”
Still, the safety benefits of a doorman spur some people — single women, newcomers to the city, single executives and people with children — to live in doorman buildings, a number of brokers said.
Gordon Golub, senior managing director at Citi Habitats, said, “A lot of times it’s not the buyer or the renter that want it. It’s the parents, and the parents are willing to pay for it.”
An average of 11 percent of cooperative and condominium sales in Manhattan have been in non-doorman buildings in the last 20 years, said Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel. On the rental side, Miller said, a doorman adds about 12 percent value to a Manhattan building.
According to a Citi Habitats rental comparison of doorman versus non-doorman buildings, the neighborhoods with the greatest rent-rate gaps have either very few doorman buildings, such as the East Village, or have a larger variety of building types, such as the Upper East Side. The brokerage also found that it makes sense financially for a rental building to employ a doorman only if there are at least 50 units in a building.
Some people prefer to live in a non-doorman building.
“A lot of time, these people don’t want to be bothered with the gossip and want to keep to themselves,” said Jeff Silverstein, executive vice president at Century 21 NY Metro and exclusive broker for a new non-doorman condo, the Prime.
The Downtown market is different than the Uptown market. The majority of the upscale buildings in Soho and Tribeca do not have doormen. They tend to be boutique, smaller buildings in a townhouse style. Because of their small size, it often does not make sense financially to have a doorman. Farther south in Battery Park City and the Financial District, the majority of the buildings have doormen.
More important than a doorman, renters are concerned with location and budget, a number of brokers said. “If somebody has a budget and cannot afford more than $2,300 [a month], there’s no business for them to look for a doorman,” said Barak Dunayer, president of Barak Realty.
Escalating rental prices (see below) are prompting renters to settle for apartments in non-doorman buildings, doorman buildings in other areas of the city, or places outside of the city.
Golub said, “I would say that people are considering going into new neighborhoods more now than they have been in the last five years.”
A few years ago, only 10 to 15 percent of renters said they would like to live in a non-doorman building instead of a doorman building, Golub said. That number has increased to 50 percent, he said.
“The key word people use is I would ‘prefer’ to live in a doorman building,” Golub said.
Higher-end non-doorman buildings, such as the Prime, are cropping up throughout Manhattan. The Prime is slated to be a luxury nine-unit condo building, at 333 West 14th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, with apartments starting at $3 million. Because there will be no doorman, the maintenance is a paltry 50 cents a square foot.
Daren Hornig, managing partner of Shea Commercial and the developer of the Prime, said that he considers building size and location when determining whether to have a doorman.
“Any building in the world can have a doorman,” Hornig said. “The tenants pay for it in the carrying costs.” When the residents move in, they can decide if they want a doorman.
Sales started in September, Hornig said, but no contracts had been signed by the middle of last month.
There is also Chelsea Place, a non-doorman, 12-story rental building at 363 West 30th Street at Ninth Avenue, which opened in 2001.
At Chelsea Place, rents have been comparable in price to those in doorman buildings, said Laurie Zucker, vice chair of Manhattan Skyline, which owns and manages the building. The 77-unit building has had no vacancies since it opened five years ago, Zucker said. The market-rate studios at Chelsea Place start at $2,100.
“We absolutely don’t think it’s necessary,” Zucker said. “We’ve never had an issue with renting those apartments.”
Chelsea Place is surrounded by non-doorman buildings.
“We really try to gear the building to the market, the area, and the demographic of who we think will be buying or renting,” Zucker said.
Manhattan rents on the rise — vacancy, too
By Tom Acitelli
The vacancy rate for Manhattan’s rental apartments rose in September but remained well below 1 percent. The rate increased from 0.76 percent in August to 0.83 percent in September, according to a report from brokerage Citi Habitats.
Only two neighborhoods surveyed by Citi Habitats had rental vacancy rates above 1 percent in September — Midtown West and Midtown East. The Financial District had a rate of 0.91 percent and the Upper West Side was at 0.97 percent. Most neighborhoods, however, had vacancy rates for rentals of under 0.75 percent.
These low Manhattan rates continued a trend of several months. At the end of 2005, the Manhattan rental vacancy rate was 0.89 percent, and, in May, it was 0.43 percent.
As vacancy rates stayed low in September, rents went up. The average rent for all types of Manhattan apartments increased from $2,350 a month at the end of August to $2,641 by the end of September, according to Citi Habitats.
Soho and Tribeca together had the highest average monthly rent in Manhattan in September. The average jumped from $2,950 in August to $3,718 in September. As in August, Harlem and the Upper East Side had the least expensive rents at $1,636 and $2,493, respectively.