Luxury Living Neighborhood Showcase Wouldn’t - HOW S Live Anywhere ORK CONDOS Else Y EW N Lisa Urban and Michael Urban, with daughters Jennifer and Zoe. SE LUXURY LIVING :: A LUXURY CA New Yorkers Talk About Their Neighborhoods By Steve Cutler Second Avenue Deli back then,” “My kids all have friends here says Urban, “so when they opened and by extension my husband MURRAY HILL up here we were incredibly excited.” and I have friends here,” she Attorney Lisa Breier Urban shares Beyond tongue sandwiches, for says, “which gives us a feeling of a destiny with the Second Avenue Urban, whose two girls, Jennifer neighborhoodishness.” And she Deli. finds Murray Hill to be “a little “My first apartment was on 12th more low-key and community- Street between Second and Third,” ‘People are people oriented” than other residential neighborhoods, such as the Upper she recalls, two blocks from the and people like iconic pastrami emporium. East Side, which suits her. Loyal patrons of the Deli — “I good food.’ For Second Avenue Deli owner love the tongue, my husband has —Michael Urban, Jack Lebewohl, the major difference the pastrami and chopped liver and Murray Hill between the East Village and Murray we’re both fans of the pea soup” Hill — “it was easier to park on10th — Urban and her husband Michael Street. You had metered parking off and Zoe, are 11 and 13, Murray Hill the corner for a quarter of the block, never suspected four years ago is about school and family. They’ve when they moved to 28th Street and and then you had alternate side. both attended the highly-rated PS Here you have alternate side on one Third Avenue that the legendary 116 and Urban has been on the kosher restaurant would one day side and commercial on the other.” executive board of the school’s PTA “You can’t park here.” He has follow them to Murray Hill. since 2001. “We were always going to the resigned himself to having to put the 16 CONDO SHOWCASE :: FALL 2008 Second Avenue Deli owner Jack Lebewohl. car in a lot. “There is no choice in the definitely a lot of change in Murray “One of its teams won the matter,” he says. Hill,” reports Bond New York real national chess championships,” he Parking aside, “People are people estate agent Liz Spano, who lives at says. “They didn’t win weightlifting, and people like good food,” he 26th Street and Lexington Avenue, you know.” observes. A famous destination which she calls “Gramurry,” where ORK Y restaurant, Second Avenue Deli Gramercy Park meets Murray Hill. TRIBECA could be anywhere and business has “Restaurants like Prime House are Even in the six short years since EW been going pretty much as usual. opening,” she notes. The elegant, Lan Tran Cao opened her art gallery, N V-Gallery, and adjacent Vietnamese SE Except, Lebewohl reports, “we find modern-design steakhouse replaced that the crowd coming in during the plasma TV-laden sports bar Park restaurant, V-Café, on Greenwich CA the evenings is younger now. We’re Avenue Country Club at 27th Street. Street, and moved into an apartment selling a lot more hamburgers than “And a lot of the Indian restaurants right above, she’s noticed a change HOW we sold before.” are completely revamping and in the neighborhood. S For chef Alex Urena, owner of the cleaning up their act — going “Tribeca used to be an artist’s Spanish tapas restaurant Pamplona upscale.” neighborhood,” she says. “Used to on East 28th Street off Madison The quiet residential neighborhood be.” Avenue, the move to Murray is getting a slew of luxury high- Some galleries, like her own, Hill made a world of difference, rise condominiums — 33 of them have survived, and some artists still LUXURY LIVING :: A LUXURY CONDOS especially compared to Marseilles, according to Warburg Realty agent live and work there, but only “the a restaurant whose kitchen he ran in Burt Rubin, a 35-year resident of accomplished ones,” she says. “The the theater district. “Marseilles used Murray Hill, “and you’re starting to famous photographers or painters.” to be packed from about 5:30,” he see stretch limousines.” But, according to Benj Gershman, recalls, “but after eight o’clock it was At the same time, it’s becoming a photographer and bassist for the almost halfway empty.” more family-oriented, he adds — rock band O.A.R., even if beginning Here the theater IS the food, and “you see baby carriages all around.” artists have been priced out of the the festive décor and Spanish music. To enhance its neighborhoodishness, area, “one of the cool things about “A tapas place has to be something the Murray Hill Neighborhood Tribeca is that even if you’re not fun,” says Urena. “Sometimes I get Association has just planted over an artist with a studio, it’s the kind packed around eight o’clock” 150 new trees in the area, says of neighborhood that artists will Urena figures Murray Hill is about Rubin, a trustee of the group. And gravitate towards because of the to become a destination spot for Jane Hsu, principal of PS 116 is artistic vibe down there.” people from all over the city. “It’s working to put a green roof on the Taking up residence in Tribeca going to be a good neighborhood school. three-and-a-half years ago, for restaurants in maybe two more Murray Hill certainly doesn’t lack Gershman has found the area ripe years,” he says. “You know, Union in smarts. “Sixty-nine-percent of the for artistic entrepreneurship. He has Square and the 20s was hot before people in 10016 have a bachelor’s founded an art community called us, and I think we’re going to catch degree or better,” boasts Rubin, Look at Life, which runs exhibitions up to them.” who claims, “the rest of the country and programs like City Culture, New The action on the trendy Park is only 25-percent.” And PS 116 is York, which offers resident artists Avenue strip is flowing upstream to one of the brainiest schools in the the opportunity to exhibit their work Murray Hill at a steady clip. “There is system. at Central Park Summerstage. The 18 CONDO SHOWPLACE :: FALL 2008 “The community has a very good mix of people,” —Lan Tran Cao, Tribeca - HOW S group also has a program which places art in the model of apartments per client than in the boom times. apartments of new-construction condominiums. Where people used to see 10 or 20 apartments Also, while the neighborhood has become more before settling on one, now they see 20 or 30. “I have upscale — its 10013 zip code was cited by Forbes one person who saw 119 homes before I found them a magazine as one of the wealthiest in the country — it place,” she says. “I keep a running roster, because you ORK CONDOS remains comfortable, friendly and, says Cao, more don’t want to see the same apartment twice.” Y interesting than most. Architect Dana Sottile and her husband saw 80 “The community has a very good mix of people,” says apartments before closing on their pre-war loft, which is EW N Cao. “There are professionals and TV, movie and media now finally complete after a two-year renovation. Sottile people. And families. PS 234 is one of the best schools first discovered Tribeca when she was commissioned to in the city, so people are flocking down here to get their design 48 Laight Street, a boutique condominium. kids into that school. Getting to know people with wide Living on the Upper West Side at the time, she found varieties of experiences and backgrounds is a breath of herself seduced by the terrain in Tribeca, which, she fresh air.” says, “is more interesting architecturally, more muscular,” Also, says Cao, “I really like the architecture down having been built for manufacturing. here. The structures are really beautiful. I don’t know any “I love it,” says Sottile. “Like people have chemistry, I part of Manhattan that has a similar loft style, with the have chemistry with Tribeca. I’m here to stay.” SE old skylights and steel doors.” LUXURY LIVING :: A LUXURY CA While the Tribeca Film Festival has raised the profile and energy level of the neighborhood, as has Nobu, WILLIAMSBURG Bouley and Chanterelle, it doesn’t teem with outsiders as Willamsburg was not always the trendiest yet. neighborhood in the United States. “A lot of friends say they come down here maybe once When he was growing up there, recalls Dave a year,” says Cao. “It’s like another country.” But, she predicts, “I see it becoming even more popular than the Meatpacking District one day.” Till then, residents have the amazing waterfront promenade and parks to themselves, as well as tennis courts at both the Hudson River Park and Chambers Street, which Cao and her friend Sonia Stock frequent three or four times a week at midnight, their only undisturbed time of day — winters included. “Winter doesn’t bother me,” says Stock, Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate agent and former tennis pro, “as long as I’ve got plenty of layers.” With the real estate market having slowed down a bit in recent times, Stock stays busy trudging Benj Gershman, off to a greater number a photographer and bassist. 20 LUXURY LIVING :: SPRING 2008 ‘Like people have chemistry, I have chemistry with Tribeca. I’m here to stay.’ —Dana Sottile, Tribeca Williamsburg the name that it is today are long gone.” Still, he says, “there is a real sense of community here.