To get to the Edge, you take an elevator from the fourth floor of the shopping mall at 30 Hudson Yards to the ear-popping 101st.
The observation deck is actually on the 100th floor, where you take a small set of stairs down to a glass-enclosed space, which offers sweeping views safe from the whipping winds. This area would also make for some great roller skating, should Related Companies decide to spice things up.
Out on the deck itself, you are more than 1,000 feet above ground, and struck by a panorama of some of the city’s most iconic skyscrapers: the Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building. The scenery also allows for an annoying real estate reporter to point out buildings plagued by controversy: “Those dancing towers over there were once called the XI, before the project’s developer imploded. There’s a mafia component too.” “That’s 432 Park Avenue. One of the tallest and slimmest residential towers in the world. Its design was inspired by a trash can, AND its facade may or may not be falling apart. Isn’t that fun?”
Or you can admire the mechanical equipment on various rooftops. Perhaps you are charmed by the greenery on top of the mail distribution center on West 30th Street. And if you raise your eyes a bit higher to the west, New Jersey is there too.
You can also see a building that used to be a chocolate factory and is currently home to The Real Deal’s office.
It is from this vantage point that I started writing this edition of The Daily Dirt, which also happens to be my last. Dramatic, yes? (But don’t worry! The Daily Dirt will continue running, just without me.)
My initial idea for my final newsletter was to visit every observation deck in the city and rate them. That felt like a return to the newsletter’s early days. I was a bit snarkier then (a voice our publisher and editor-in-chief once referred to as “Twitter Katie”) and quicker to add a gif.
But the Edge is actually a perfect bookend for this newsletter because it was from TRD’s fourth-floor office that we watched Hudson Yards rise. When the company first moved to the area, the office’s immediate surroundings were a wasteland populated by construction workers and fashion models on their way to a shoot. Occasionally warlocks and Spidermen joined the mix as they journeyed to the Javits Center for Comic Con.
Now, obviously, the area has transformed, and Related is gearing up for the next phase of the mega development.
As for TRD, it has also grown exponentially, and I’m excited to see what’s next for “real estate’s bible.” I don’t have to tell you that the work done by my colleagues is essential, and I’ll be cheering them on from afar.
I began writing The Daily Dirt in January 2019, and I’ve been so grateful to the newsletter’s subscribers. I’ve really enjoyed hearing from readers over the years, even those who reached out to disagree or complain about the frequency of zoning-related content. (Sorry not sorry for that last one!)
It’s also been a thrill to hear from people who say The Daily Dirt is the last thing they read before bed. One septuagenarian developer told me this, and I thought of all the dumb gifs and jokes I made over the years, and it was very funny to me to think of him reading a thing we’ve learned about “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But hey, where else can you get that alongside a deep dive into air rights transfers?
Thank you for reading (and indulging me)!
What we’re thinking about: Keep an eye out for future editions of The Daily Dirt written by my very talented colleagues. And if you want to send me a note, I’ll be at kathryn@therealdeal.com for a bit and am happy to stay in touch.
A thing we’ve learned: Mockingbirds can mimic the sounds of predators, but they aren’t necessarily being crafty. Walking around my neighborhood, I saw a mockingbird do a pretty convincing impression of a red-tailed hawk, and assumed it was trying to ward off other birds from its nest. But according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website, researchers haven’t really dug into the mockingbird’s motivation for mimicking other species.
Elsewhere in New York…
— The city’s Department of Transportation has repaired 102,000 potholes since Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office, and the agency plans to go on another pothole-filling “blitz” this weekend, Spectrum News reports.
— The city is investigating allegations that a city Department of Probation employee was wrongfully fired for reporting that Commissioner Sharun Goodwin was having a relationship with a subordinate, who was hired after she became commissioner, Politico New York reports. In a lawsuit, Ebony Huntley, who was the department’s chief investigator, alleges she was fired after sending a staff complaint about the relationship to the Department of Investigation. The complaint raised concerns that the relationship “may present a conflict of interest and impact impartial decision-making” at the department.
Closing Time
Residential: The largest residential sale Friday was $8.3 million for a pre-war co-op at 30 East 71st Street in Lenox Hill. Serena Boardman with Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale was $9.4 million for a 5,000-square-foot lot at 28-02 41st Avenue in Long Island City. Crain’s reported that Jade Century Properties purchased the development site.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $18.5 million for a 5,500-square-foot condominium at 1 Central Park South. Charlie Attias with Compass has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 17,189-square-foot, six-story residential project at 604 Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Gladmore Mwandiambira with Baobab Architects filed the permit on behalf of Hertzl Benyamini.
— Matthew Elo
