Parking at a premium

A private driveway and garage at East 94th Street between Lexington and Third avenues is a rarity in Manhattan with more than 1.5 million cars competing for a scarcity of spots, the New York Times reported. Parking is becoming an expensive and often controversial luxury in New York City, as The Real Deal columnist Michael Stoler noted. The owners of the Upper East Side garage sued the city for the right to build it, but since then, the City Council has been cracking down on regulations meant to tighten restrictions on curb cuts and zoning laws to prevent others from doing the same. At a West Chelsea building at 200 11th Avenue, apartments with private garages range from $5 million to more than $17 million, broker Leonard Steinberg told the Times. Madonna paid $32 million for a townhouse with a two-car garage, but even a one-car garage could add more than $500,000 to the value of a house, said Dexter Guerrieri, president of Manhattan brokerage Vandenburg, the Townhouse Experts. [NYT]