Flank’s new seven-story development, located at 385 West 12th Street, may be small, but it’s not at all lacking in amenities. The twelve-home community will have six full-floor units, two duplex penthouses and four town homes. Three and four bedroom units will range in size from just over 2,500 square feet to over 4,000 square feet. Residents will love the common condominium offerings: the custom-designed kitchen cabinetry, the brand name appliances and fixtures, and the 24-hour attendant in the lobby. But the added amenities reflect those of a much larger development. One of those amenities is a two-tier “recreation” area on the roof. This area can serve as a place to congregate on the weekends, and unlike other nearby recreational choices, familiar faces will become the norm after a few visits. The area is 2,700 square feet, and offers a 50-foot lap pool as the focal point. An outdoor shower and oversized hot tub round out the water activities. Below, residents can gather around the gas grills for an old-fashioned barbecue, or they may take their food to the convenient dining area. After the meal is over, the exercise deck beckons.

Being pampered will become second nature to people here at 385 West 12th, as the development introduces a number of lifestyle assistants for the overscheduled resident. They will be able to pick up packages in personal storage lockers. Dry cleaning will be delivered, and a full-time housekeeper will be poised to help keep their homes looking spotless. Finally, Flank has made arrangements with lifestyle manager Jennifer Bell to offer residents an alternative to luxury-style concierge services. Bell’s approach is much more personalized, whether dealing with dinner reservations or art curating.

While community amenities are always attractive, it is the home which must tell the final tale. And these homes have a good story to tell. Expansive ceilings of up to eighteen feet will encourage lofty dreams. A Viking dual oven in the kitchen will spark the creative juices with its grill and six gas burners. In the master bath, radiant flooring will ensure that no dream ever suffers cold feet.

In addition to all of the comfort factors offered here, the developers of 385 West 12th Street have also designed a technologically advanced home. When finished, residents will use a remote to control a lot of the processes in their homes, including climate, window shades, lighting and home audio/video. It will be customizable to fit the preferences of the residents. 385 West 12th Street is expected to be completed in early 2009. Prices start at $5.795 million and reach up to $13.5 million.

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Choice is the big-ticket at Ariel, the new two-tower development offered by Extell. East or West? You choose. Both high-rises launch residents high above the surrounding buildings, with wall-to-wall windows that afford expansive views of the Hudson River and Central Park. By the numbers, Ariel East, at 37-stories tall, is six stories higher than its sister. It has 64 units, while Ariel West has room for 73 families. The two buildings face each other across Broadway, and offer a similar glass facade.

The subtle differences between the two buildings provide for extra choice. But once inside, visitors will notice that both of the buildings have similar decor and amenities. Residents choose between three different kitchen styles, termed Classical, Modern, and Exquisite. They all boast efficient, ultra-modern designs. Hardwood floors throughout, and light, cheerful colors exude warmth that’s hard to ignore.

Living in Ariel has its perks, not the least of which is the large La Palestra Fitness and Wellness Center. The developments seem to cater to families, especially those who have children. This shows itself with a children’s playroom, a basketball court, and a private theater with widescreen picture. A four-lane indoor swimming pool caters to all ages, as does the Billiards room, which for the record also has a piano and room to sit and enjoy listening to the crack of the billiard balls. More sophisticated residents will enjoy the landscaped garden. And let’s not forget the most loyal members of the family, the family pets. For them, Ariel offers a pampering pet salon.

Ariel East has a number of one to four bedroom suites available, ranging in price from $1.195 million to $2.5 million. Sizes for the East units start at 1,440 square feet and extend to 2,263 square feet, more than ample living space for the modern family. If that’s not enough, the East building also has a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath penthouse suite, priced at $6.795 million, with more than 4,000 square feet. Ariel West, on the other hand, has two bedroom units for sale starting at around $1.6 million, and larger four and five bedroom units. These units range in price, with the largest offered for $4.0 million. The area of these units varies from 1,320-3,124 square feet.

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For those really wanting to experience the wonders of New York, this is the place to be. The Upper West Side is full of historical and cultural spots, including the American Museum of Natural History and a number of dance and music venues. Of course, being out and about doesn’t oblige anyone to go “to” anywhere, as the shady, old-neighborhood feel of the area offers plenty of tranquility for that evening walk.

As far as new developments go, Avery has pretty standard decor offerings. Brand name appliances like Sub Zero and Miele showcase the kitchen and Waterworks fixtures adorn the baths. Of course, what would such luxury be without freedom of choice? Avery allows residents to choose their own color schemes and kitchen countertop styles.

What Avery offers its residents more than other developments—and the reason behind its success—is an amenity package that doesn’t include just the basics. This development has the state-of-the-art fitness center, the full-time doorman, and even a children’s playroom. But with the help of some friends, Avery also offers a few extra perks. Through an agreement with the Lincoln Center, residents of this building are afforded special ticket privileges. The Center also curates the development’s library, which is open 24 hours a day and includes free Wi-Fi access. Avery has also teamed with Abigail Michaels, the world-famous Concierge provider, which will allow residents access to hotel-style amenities such as cleaning service and valet. Many more services are offered for a small fee.

In addition to the services offered through others, Avery also offers its own special amenities to its residents. An on-site garage means no walking blocks from the car to the house. A screening room with comfortable stadium seating premieres quality entertainment at the residents’ convenience. A gaming room caters to a more active crowd, and sports a dartboard and a pool table.

Most of Avery’s 274 one, two and three bedroom homes are sold, but there are still enough available for those people who always have to do things at the last minute. Square footage for the units range from 748 for the smaller one-bedroom apartments, to nearly 1470 for available three-bedroom, three-bath units. Prices start at $900,000 to over $2,000,000. Avery Riverside South is located at 100 Riverside Boulevard, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

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As with most buildings named after a person, The Clement Clarke is invariably going to be compared to its namesake. And in this case, it’s not too hard to imagine the building in the times of Clement Clarke, a Columbia professor and creator of the now-famous Christmas poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” The building’s facade looks like something out of the 1800s. In fact, it was made in 1911 as a factory for manufacturing. The crème brick with narrow arched windows looks like a building right out of A Christmas Carol. But that’s where the similarities end. The inside has been totally renovated.

The Clement Clarke is a twelve story development with fifty-one units, located at 140 West 22nd street, in the center of Chelsea, which by the way was the name Clarke’s ancestors gave to their plantation home back in the early 1800’s (and is where Chelsea got its name). It was converted from a factory to an office building in the 1970s, and is now facing a full conversion to a condo development.

Residents have no shortage of things to boast about to their friends. As with most other luxury developments, the units here have hardwood floors made of wide-planked American walnut, a rich and dark wood that goes well with most furniture. The kitchen has a large floating island with white glass countertops. High-value appliances are scattered throughout, including a Subzero refrigerator and an Insinkerator garbage disposal. Kitchens also come equipped with a microwave, a cook-top and built-in convection oven, and a dishwasher. Moving to the Master bath, designers took everything into consideration. A fumed-oak vanity cabinet holds all the bathroom essentials, while the 60″ by 21″ soaking tub gives residents a true place to relax. It’s also got a double sink and a glass shower stall large enough for two people.

Brand name appliances and expensive building materials don’t make these units a home. The Bosch washer and dryer helps, but that doesn’t do it either. A sense of community, a home that exudes tranquility, family bonding…these are the things that truly create a home. The Clement Clarke offers a peaceful setting with high, 11-foot ceilings, oversized windows and plenty of amenities to sooth the soul. The community of Chelsea offers the sense of place that is so important. This includes proximity to libraries and an Equinox fitness club. Ideally, the people who live here provide family bonding.

As of early 2008, there are eight units remaining, including studios, one and two-bedroom apartments. Both the size and the floor plans of these units vary. In general, prices range from $685,000-$2,000,000. Studios start at 540 square feet; one bedrooms have 850 square feet, many with an extra bath and another room that can be used as a study or an office. Larger units go as high as $4.17 million for an apartment 2,225 square feet in size.

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The apartment buyer who expects a yard-long list of amenities in every condo development will pass HL23 over with hardly a second look. It is true that the development, located at 517 West 23rd Street and designed by architect Neil Denari, doesn’t have a swimming pool or a community gym. But why would it need to have all that when it is literally steps from one of the most unique parks in the world? Residents can watch construction of the High Line Park right outside their windows. The thin strip of greenery will follow the abandoned rail line elevated above the West Chelsea landscape. This park will forever link High Line with the only other such park in the world in Paris, France.

HL 23 is really an architectural miracle for the area. With hardly forty feet width to work with, the building’s stainless steel and glass facade had to fit in the limited space while appearing spacious to the residents. In addition, because of the building’s proximity to the High Line tracks, one side of the building is cantilevered over the railway, appearing to hang in the sky. One look at the building and visitors can see that the builders met with success.

There are eleven full-floor units spread among the fifteen-story building, including two duplexes. The two-story duplexes have seventeen-foot, double-height ceilings in the living room along with private outdoor gardens. The penthouse duplex, located on the two upper-stories of the building, has 3,700 square feet of living space. The remaining units are smaller, but still spacious for the area. They boast custom interior decor by Thomas Juul-Hansen, including Corian countertops in the kitchen and rift-cut oak flooring throughout. Even the master bath reflects a unique flair with its honed stone floors and wall-mounted toilet.

While it is true that HL 23 doesn’t have some of the more common development amenities, the designers made up for what they couldn’t offer by offering other building-wide perks. One is the absolutely huge windows provided throughout. These monsters represent some of the largest ever used in residential construction, with panes measuring eleven feet by six feet. Imagine two or three placed in a row and that is what the typical living/dining room looks like. And they don’t stop there. The bedroom and the master bath both have the same floor-to-ceiling window, which is quite uncommon in modern homes. Bottom-up privacy shades guarantee privacy when it’s needed. Convenience amenities like the Nu-heat flooring system in the bathroom and the Aprilaire temperature sensor for further temperature regulation give the homes an extra boost.

The one and two-bedroom units at HL 23 are going on sale in Spring 2008. Homes start at 1,900 square feet and far surpass 3,000 square feet. Prices will range from $2.65-$10.5 million. The development is trying to achieve a LEED-certified gold rating for using recycled building materials and reflective roofing. Completion is expected in Summer 2009.

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The 36 families who choose 15 Union Square West as their homes are moving into a piece of New York History. “Buried” beneath the black zinc and glass facade are cast-iron arches from the building’s original structure, built in the 1800s for the Tiffany Company. Visitors might notice some of the changes, and should be able to tell the new from the old. The first five floors are strictly old-building, while the top seven, set back and stacked like a preschooler’s set of building blocks, represents the new addition.

Designed by the popular interior designers Vicente Wolf, 15 Union Square West is luxury “renovated.” Total Home Technology from the Crestron Company allows residents to control their home features with a remote, so lighting, central air/heat, and blinds can be manipulated at the push of a button. And if that doesn’t make life easier for the residents here, the development offers its residents access to Luxury Attaché, a top-of-the-line concierge agency with a never-ending list of services. There is no mention of cost with these services, which include everything from help getting tickets to sold-out shows to pet sitting to personal shopping service.

Potential residents have two style choices at 15 Union Square West. They may choose to live in the older, renovated section of the building, on the first five floors. These units are large, with ceilings as high as 17 feet tall, with the windows still framed in the original cast-iron arches. Higher above New York, the seven new floors have a different configuration. The ceiling height remains, minus the arches, but each set-back, upper-floor unit has an outdoor terrace. Many of the homes have a fireplace. All of the units, in the building have rift-cut maple wood floors stained a beautiful deep mahogany.

The community offers a number of amenities for residents to enhance their active lives. With a fifty-foot indoor lap pool in the middle of the building, residents can get in shape while enjoying the cool sanctuary of the water. For those who don’t want to get wet, there is also a modern fitness center located in the building.

Two-bedroom units range from 1,763-2,189 square feet, while three-bedroom homes can be over 3,000 square feet in area. Prices were finally released for these new apartments in February 2008. For the typical two-bedroom residents should expect to pay $4 million, with the three-bedroom units starting at $6 million. High, yes, but according to preliminary statements from the buying market, these apartments are quite worth it. Making a big impression are the thirty-foot wide windows and seventeen-foot ceilings set off with cast-iron arches. And the location cannot be beat. It is located in the center of New York City, surrounded by everything the city dweller could hope to do.

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The ten-floor building at 245 Tenth Avenue is highly distinguishable. With a facade of glass and stainless steel designed by the architectural firm Della Valle Bernheimer, it juts out irregularly, reflecting the ever-changing Manhattan sunshine. And while the outside of 245 Tenth attracts the eyes, the interior gives them a break. In fact, many would claim that the interior of the building and its units are rather plain. But this work of art, located in the center of the artistic community of West Chelsea, is simply constructed to allow the residents to decorate how they see fit, to encourage the artistic vision that made the area so appealing to begin with.

Residents of the nineteen units here have access to their apartments through keyed elevator entries. Upon entering the home, two things strike the eye. One, as previously mentioned, is the minimal design. Blended storage space in the kitchen, a box-like soaking tub in the bathroom, and frameless doors throughout make the apartment frighteningly sterile. But there is a glorious contrast of materials used. That’s the second thing visitors notice. Concrete ceilings give the home an unfinished look; the beautiful, dark hardwood floor spread throughout contrasts this rugged feel. Recessed lighting adds a unique glow to the atmosphere.

What really makes the homes here cozy isn’t the stuff they’re made from, but what the developers added to give it the comfort factor. The bathrooms have radiant floor heating, so there’s no more shivers after the morning shower, even in the dead of winter. The two penthouses make a cold house even more unlikely, as each has a wood-burning fireplace. And for a small fee, residents can sign up for concierge service through Abigail Michaels. What better way to stay cozy than to know that everything you could ever want will be taken care of? Hard-to-get reservations, valet parking, pet sitting, cleaning service…the services go on and on.

If you don’t want to pay for a concierge service, that’s okay. There are still some things free in life, and 245 10th Avenue has plenty of them. Each unit comes with a free washer and dryer. Private basement storage is offered free to each resident. Finally, the development offers a 2nd floor terrace and lounge to serve as a community hangout.

Pricing at 245 Tenth Avenue is expensive or reasonable, depending on the way you look at it. Yes, at $1.75 million for a one-bedroom unit, the price is quite steep. But if you look at the size of that one-bedroom unit, which happens to be around 1500 square feet with two bathrooms, it suddenly becomes quite acceptable. The development also has two-bedroom apartments available, and many of these units have an additional room that can be turned into an office. These go for $2.97-$3.75 million, with over 2,500 square feet of living space. The penthouse, the most lavish of the building’s units, is on sale for $5.99 million. It demands this price with its 10 foot 6 inch ceiling, its rooftop terrace and wet bar.

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Located at 333 East 91st Street, Azure New York is a high-rise with lofty standards. It stretches 34 floors above the street, which boosts window views past the road and into the Manhattan skyline.

Azure New York is a cooperative, which means that residents don’t own the individual units; rather they own stock in the company which owns the building. And while some may be frightened of the idea of investing in their home, others are glad for the opportunity. Besides, there are many benefits to a Co-op. Residents do not need to have board approval to sell their apartment, and they can sell it or rent it out right away.

Of course, why would anyone want to sell? Living in Azure expands the mind. At least, that’s what the designers had planned when they started putting their ideas to practical use. Builders put in large, full-room windows throughout the living and dining area, with views of the nearby river and the surrounding cityscape. Hardwood floors are spread throughout the rooms, combining practical design with beautiful elegance. The master bath adds exuberance to the unit with its spacious, glass-walled shower and deep soaking tub, surrounded by attractive graphite oak vanities and white marble flooring. Units also come equipped with a washer and dryer.

Although living in a nice home with nice décor is, well, nice, it can’t make the place feel like home. For with a home comes a community, and Azure offers that as well. It has a rooftop terrace for late-night conversation, a children’s playroom for the kids on those rainy days, and a fitness center for adults on those rainy days. Residents also have a chance to sign up with Stellar Concierge, a full-service personalized assistant. For an extra fee, Azure residents can get personal training, a private chef, hard-to-get concert tickets and reservations, and nutritional counseling, just to name a few services.

Azure offers residents another type of community as well, that of its Upper East Side neighbors. Developers plan to build a new gifted-and-talented middle school right beside the development as part of their agreement to develop the land. And there are a number of other schools scattered around the region. Down the road, residents will be able to buy fresh fruit from an outdoor market. This family-friendly area also has the 92nd Street Y, with activities for the whole family, not to mention the Carl Schurz Park, that’s just two blocks away. Also nearby is Asphalt Green, a recreation center with a large ball field and an indoor pool.

Prices for Azure New York are very reasonable for this side of town, with an average price of $1,000/square foot. The development has everything from studios to five-bedroom units, some with outdoor terraces, large kitchens with pantries and a large foyer. Square footage for the units varies from just over 600sf to more than 3000sf. Actual price range is $605,000-$5.5 million. As of February 2008, 15% of the units were sold.

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