Young families are flocking to West Chelsea, an area developers had originally pegged more for socialites than strollers. Thanks to the High Line, a relatively affordable downtown location, and most especially, the forthcoming Avenues World School the demographics have bucked expectations, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In 2011, 102 apartments with at least three bedrooms sold in the neighborhood, north of 19th Street between 10th and 12th avenues, compared to just seven such apartments five years earlier. Much of that increase can be attributed to the increased options for large apartments, as new construction proliferates around the High Line. Further, there’s a generation of young parents who covet downtown Manhattan but can’t afford to live in the city’s priciest neighborhoods, Soho and the Village, and settle for the grittier, less expensive option.
But the for-profit, 1,600-seat Avenues private school, located at 10th Avenue and 25th Street, with a tuition of $40,000, is the main draw. “All the schools on the Upper East Side are all long-standing institutions, which not only have long-standing cultural [norms], but have dated facilities,” said Benjamin Yogel, who moved to the area from the Upper East Side with his wife and three-year-old son. “This is a brand new state-of-the-art school that doesn’t have any legacy issues.” [WSJ]