Hudson Heights

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NYC Real Estate Attorneys Specializing in Co-Ops and Condos New Developments and 1031 Exchanges James Estrin/The New York Times AlmazanAssociates.com HEIGHTS IS RIGHT The George Washington Bridge as seen from Castle Village, a five-building co-op complex described as an “anchor” of a neighborhood with a distinct architectural appearance. More Photos > Transaction Lawyer -$850 By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS The firm the nations top banks use. Twenty years of experience. Published: October 16, 2009 www.jbfelice.com/212-867-2700 SIGN IN TO RECOMMEND Bronx Real Estate Lawyers LOOK down: The names of New York neighborhoods are not carved Find an Experienced Real Estate Lawyer for Your Case in NYC. TWITTER into the sidewalk. As an area begins to gentrify, a new label often pops www.PleaseGetMeAnAttorney.com COMMENTS up to match the rising property values. A southern piece of Harlem Marble Hill Victorian (21) Authentic, custom details, 10+rooms Close to Metro was recently rebranded SoHa, and Park Slope, Brooklyn , keeps SIGN IN TO E-MAIL north,subway & more creeping south into territory once known as Sunset Park. www.FieldstonProperties.com PRINT Advertise on NYTimes.com REPRINTS

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Go to Complete List » Usually, these nicknames are the invention of brokers Multimedia trying to sell the area’s new feel. But in Hudson Heights, which makes up the northwest corner of Washington Heights, a community group founded in 1993 to fight neighborhood decline claims the credit.

“The Hudson Heights Owners Coalition, H.H.O.C., came up with it,” said Simone Song, a principal broker at Simone Song Properties, “though the real estate brokers got blamed Search the Global Arts Guide for it.” ALSO IN GLOBAL ARTS » Spacey Ages Decades for a Role, With His Sarcasm Elizabeth Lorris Ritter, the owners group president, said, Intact Untold Stories of China and Taiwan “We didn’t set out to change the name of the neighborhood, but we were careful in how we selected the name of the organization.” To try to give their neighborhood a boost, members lobbied city officials, invested in area parks, and Living in Hudson Heights organized events. ADVERTISEMENTS MetLife® Life Insurance - as Low as “It’s a phony name,” countered Andrew S. Dolkart, the $12/mo for $250K of Coverage Readers' Comments director of Columbia University ’s historic preservation program. “It was Fort Washington — that’s the historic Share your thoughts on name of the neighborhood.” living in Hudson Heights. Post a Comment » Read All Comments (21) » Whatever you want to call it, this microneighborhood has always had a look and feel that set it apart from the larger area in which it nestles. For one thing, there’s the architecture. The area was developed in the 1920s and 1930s, later than the rest of Washington Heights, so it has a significant concentration of Art Deco buildings.

The cultural makeup of Hudson Heights sets it apart as well. The larger neighborhood has an enormous concentration of Dominicans, while Hudson Heights is more diverse. According to figures from the Census Bureau ’s American Community Survey, just over half of the population of Washington Heights and Inwood is Dominican; 62.9 percent are Hispanic.

Hudson Heights had an influx of Dominicans, Mr. Dolkart said, “but it didn’t become as heavily Dominican as areas to the south and to the east.” Advertise on NYTimes.com According to him, the 1980s brought another wave to the area: “what I call refugees of the Upper West Side and Park Slope. Prices were relatively low compared to other areas in Manhattan .”

Though real estate prices have gone way up in the last 20 years, a dollar still takes you much further in Hudson Heights than it does downtown.

Steven Benini and his wife, Ana Rodriguez, who rented in Hudson Heights for 10 years, bought a two-bedroom last winter. He declined to say how much they had paid; these days, two-bedrooms generally start at $400,000.

“We can actually get eight people at our dining room table,” Mr. Benini said. “That’s not something you can normally do with a Manhattan apartment. And quite frankly, farther downtown, we would not have been able to afford it.”

This affordability pulls in a lot of young families with children — the neighborhood is full of strollers and toddlers — but it also attracts retirees.

Frank Garcia and his wife, Clare, both grew up in Washington Heights. After spending more than 35 years in New Jersey raising a family and three years in a rental at Peter Cooper Village, they’ve just moved back, settling in a one-bedroom co-op on West 190th Street, which they bought for $425,000. Mr. Garcia cited the affordability as a factor in their return, but another is the area’s dynamism. It has always been a neighborhood of immigrants, he pointed out, so it’s always changing. Mr. Garcia, who is of Puerto Rican descent, and Mrs. Garcia, who is of Irish origin, say they also appreciate the diversity. “It’s New York,” was how she put it.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND

Geographically, Hudson Heights is set apart. The Hudson to the west is as clear a barrier as one could find, and Fort Tryon Park — home to the Cloisters — caps off the northern edge. The eastern boundary is more contentious, though most often it is said to be west of Broadway. And while many people consider the southern tip to be at the George Washington Bridge on 181st Street, others suggest that the neighborhood now stretches down to J. Hood Wright Park at 173rd Street.

The area feels more residential than most of Manhattan. The only commercial stretches are on 187th Street, which has small shops, and 181st, which in addition to local stores has chains, like the Starbucks on Fort Washington Avenue.

“It’s not as relentlessly urban as other parts of Manhattan,” said Alexis Higgins, who has lived in the area for five years. “I would even say this neighborhood is like the semi-burbs.”

Ms. Higgins, along with her husband, Scott, and their 2-year-old son, lives in Castle Village on Cabrini Boulevard, a five-building complex overlooking the river. They have a two-bedroom one-bath co-op, which they bought in 2005.

Built in the 1930s for renters, the five X-shaped towers went co-op in 1986. Along with Hudson View Gardens, a 1920s Tudor co-op complex across the street, they are among the largest buildings around.

“Architecturally, they’re great,” Mr. Dolkart said. “They’re anchors of the neighborhood.”

Castle Village received a lot of attention in May 2005, when part of a 75-foot-high retaining wall below the complex collapsed onto the West Side Highway.

According to Gerald Fingerhut, the president of the co-op board, repairs cost $26 million. The co-op is still involved in litigation — with parties ranging from insurance brokers to engineers — to recoup a portion of the costs.

But Castle Village is also known for something else: children. When Ms. Higgins, who is pregnant with her second child, told her old obstetrician that she now lived in Castle Village, she said, “Oh, you live in kid village.”

The complex has private gardens, but there are public parks throughout Hudson Heights. In addition to Fort Tryon and J. Hood Wright Parks, there is Bennett Park, on 185th Street between Fort Washington and Pinehurst Avenues. According to the Department of Parks and Recreation, its small patch of grass and playground is the highest point of land on the island of Manhattan, clocking in at 265.05 feet above sea level.

WHAT TO DO

There are restaurants and bars, but not many. Neighborhood life revolves around the parks, but there are also community events open to the public.

“Aside from the baby brigade, myself included,” Ms. Higgins said, “there are a ton of artists and creative people. It’s not going to become a cultural wasteland with that kind of demographic.”

There is a monthly chamber music series called Concerts in the Heights, and classical music at Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church. There is a film club and a speed- walking group, which marches through Fort Tryon Park three times a week.

There is an annual Harvest Festival in Bennett Park and, in the summer, an Uptown Arts Stroll, with visual and performing arts. Fort Tryon also hosts the city’s annual Medieval Festival.

WHAT YOU’LL PAY

Much of the housing stock in Washington Heights is rental, and there are rentals available in Hudson Heights as well. A one-bedroom runs about $1,200 to $1,700 per month.

But another factor that distinguishes Hudson from Washington Heights is the abundance of owner-occupied housing, most of it in co-ops.

According to brokers like Ms. Song of Simone Song Properties and Gus Perry of Stein-Perry Real Estate, one-bedrooms run from $260,000 to $400,000 and two-bedrooms from $400,000 to $650,000. Apartments in Castle Village, which has doormen, large gardens and sweeping views of the Hudson and the Palisades, can be a bit more.

“Like every other neighborhood in the city, we’ve been affected,” Mr. Perry said of the last year’s decline in real estate values. “But we’re probably less affected than other neighborhoods.” He estimates that prices have come down 5 to 10 percent.

THE SCHOOLS

At the combined elementary and middle school known as No. 187 Hudson Cliffs, on Cabrini Boulevard, 70.7 percent of fourth graders met state standards in English and 88.2 percent in math. Of eighth graders, 72.6 percent satisfied requirements in English and 88.4 percent in math.

The closest public high school is Gregorio Luperon Prep, on 165th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Its SAT averages last year were 340 in reading, 370 in math and 347 in writing, versus 435, 459 and 432 citywide.

THE COMMUTE

The A train runs through Hudson Heights, traveling express from 125th to 59th Street, and reaching Midtown in about 25 minutes.

THE HISTORY

The 1930s brought in a flood of Central European Jews. One famous son is the statesman Henry Kissinger , whose family settled in Hudson Heights after fleeing Germany in 1938.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 18, 2009, on page Next Article in Real Estate (3 of 18) » RE7 of the New York edition.

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