Yorkville Owners to profit from Long-Awaited Second Avenue Subway

Image: Mansionglobal.com

“...The kinds of restaurants and boutiques has changed drastically in the last year. Organic cafes, Asian-fusion restaurants,” said Jason Lanyard, an agent at Stribling & Associates. It’s these new arrivals piggybacking off the subway line that will spur more luxury development and buying in the area, he said.

It’s a wild change from even a decade ago, when east of Third was “a no man’s land,” as Mr. Lanyard put it. He pointed to Leighton House, on First Avenue, a higher-end development with unobstructed views over the East River that came online in 1990, a much tougher time to sell in Yorkville.

“The developer couldn’t give apartments away. It was like selling someone a condo in a crack den,” said Mr. Lanyard. Nowadays, there have been 10 sales in the building this year alone, including a four-bedroom unit that sold for just under $4 million this fall—a major increase from the $2.35 million the sellers paid 13 years ago.