“Chibeca” becoming a hive of residential development

Times are changing for “Chibeca,” an area along Broadway in Tribeca that is so-called because of its proximity to Chinatown.

The area has thus far managed to escape the gentrification poshing up the rest of the nabe, but now nine new residential projects are brewing in a four-block stretch of Broadway between Worth and Walker streets. The work will bring over 430 new condominium units to the area, riding the wave of a booming condominium market and unquenchable desire for luxury apartments Downtown.

In the second quarter of 2013, the average condo in Tribeca cost $1,583 per square foot, up 17 percent from last year’s rate. The neighborhood’s median sales price was $2.75 million in the second quarter, well above the $1.25 million for all of Manhattan, according to data from Miller Samuel cited by the New York Times.

“With prices approaching $2,000 a square foot or better in Tribeca, it is encouraging the expansion of the core of the neighborhood to adjacent areas like Broadway,” Daniel Fasulo, a managing director at Real Capital Analytics, told the Times. “The amount of deal-making in the neighborhood is astounding.”

Among the notable deals in the neighborhood are Bizzi & Partners’ 350 Broadway, Don Peebles’ 346 Broadway and El Ad’s plans for Franklin Place, a 53-unit condominium complex at Broadway and Franklin Street.

One perk of the area is that it is on slightly higher ground and not in the flood zone at the core of the neighborhood that sustained much damage during Hurricane Sandy.

While residential development is hot in the area, however, retail has yet to follow suit. Area retail rents are around $100 to $150 per square foot, a steal compared to $1,000 A Square Foot On Broadway in Soho.

“Retail hasn’t happened yet, it is all very embryonic,” Roger Eulau, an executive managing director at the Lansco Corporation, a retail brokerage firm, told the Times. [NYT] — Julie Strickland