Competition for Bowery development sites reaches a boil

Prices on the famously gritty street have skyrocketed

The Bowery
The Bowery

These days you won’t find any bums on Bowery. Fierce competition between investors and a lack of inventory have sent prices for new and redevelopment sites on the street soaring.

“The bargains on the Bowery are as far gone as the gangs of New York — no one’s using the b-word anymore,” Jason Haber of Warburg Realty told the New York Daily News. “It’s gone from hot to white hot in 60 seconds.”

But a local organization is hoping to slow things down a bit. They’re campaigning to have the east side of the entire Bowery rezoned so that developers or existing building owners can’t cash in.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

“The real estate speculation . . . is escalating the displacement of almost everything but luxury housing, bars and upscale restaurants,” said David Mulkins of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, a preservationist group. “It’s really sad. It’s turning the Bowery into another West Broadway.”

But developers are still seeing dollar signs. They cite a condo project at 250 Bowery, where prices ranged from $925,000 to $6 million, that recently sold-out, and the $30 million sale of 223-225 Bowery, formerly home to a Salvation Army shelter.

“When we did 250 Bowery . . . with those prices, people laughed at us — pretty loudly, actually,” John Gomes of Douglas Elliman, who marketed the apartments, told the Daily News. “They said, ‘We know the Bowery . . . as a crack den, but are you guys smoking crack, too?’ Now, everyone wants to be here.” [NYDN] Christopher Cameron

Recommended For You