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They’re trading in Birkenstocks for Bentleys.
Downtown Manhattan — long known for its bohemian flair and cobblestone cool — has officially gone couture, with property prices now giving Billionaires’ Row a serious run for its money.
In the biggest signal yet of the neighborhood’s changing fortunes, financier Harsh Padia and his wife, Purvi, sold their swanky duplex at 150 Charles St. in the West Village this March for a jaw-dropping $60 million — more than double what they paid nearly a decade ago.
The buyer? A high roller from quant trading giant Jane Street Capital, which recently expanded nearby, sources told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the area’s luxe transition.
“There’s a whole bunch of very wealthy people working in the vicinity, meaning they often want to live in the vicinity,” Compass broker Clayton Orrigo told the outlet. “They’re buying up the West Side Highway.”
Indeed, downtown’s transformation from an artsy enclave to a gilded playground is being fueled by a flood of finance and tech firms staking their claim south of 14th Street.
Heavyweights like Deloitte, StubHub and Jane Street have inked major leases at Hudson Yards and near the World Trade Center, while Google has planted its latest flag in the former St. John’s Terminal in Hudson Square.
“It’s one of the wealthiest corporations on the planet,” said Leonard Steinberg of Compass. “That changes the profile of the neighborhood.”
And the homes, they’re just as flush.
Downtown saw more $30 million-plus sales in the past five years than the entire previous decade, according to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.
Since 2023 alone, buyers have scooped up more than $1 billion worth of homes priced above $20 million.
A few highlights: a penthouse at 67 Vestry St. in Tribeca went for $41.4 million in February. One High Line in West Chelsea sold a $49 million stunner last year. And a $52 million deal closed in 2023 for another 150 Charles unit tied to ex-Credit Suisse exec Robert Shafir — who originally paid $29.38 million in 2016.
These eye-popping sales are also fueling an avalanche of eight-figure listings.
At Aurora Capital’s 140 Jane St. — a boutique West Village project with a private park, a gym, a pool and even automated parking — one penthouse is asking a staggering $87.5 million.
Twelve of the building’s 14 units have already been snapped up since August 2024 — mostly via Zoom.
“We didn’t have a sales gallery, to be honest with you,” Aurora’s Bobby Cayre told the Journal.
The development at 80 Clarkson, beside Google’s HQ, is another big-ticket entrant. Both, as well as 150 Charles, were designed by COOKFOX. Zeckendorf Development and Atlas Capital Group, with the Baupost Group, round out the development team for 80 Clarkson.
The largest of the new projects with 112 units, 80 Clarkson launched with prices from $6.75 million up to $63 million — but they’ve already raised prices four times. One newly listed residence clocks in at $75 million. Want your own private wine cellar? That’ll be another $1 million.
“There’s just a backlog of buyers that haven’t been able to buy ultra luxury apartments downtown,” Serhant broker Peter Zaitzeff, who listed the Padias’ unit, told the Journal.
Zaitzeff, who helped launch sales at Tribeca’s 70 Vestry in 2016, still gets weekly calls begging for a shot at a unit.
“I have clients in the building who can basically name their price,” he said. “You’re not getting into that building.”
Even downtown’s historic brownstones are commanding stratospheric numbers — like a Greenwich Village townhouse that sold for $72.5 million earlier this year. But thanks to tight zoning and limited land, brand-new developments in these parts are smaller and more exclusive than their uptown cousins — making them even more coveted.
“In the past, you just couldn’t get that scale — whether a townhouse or apartment,” said Steinberg. And today’s deep-pocketed buyers? They want turnkey, not touch-ups.
“It really is an arms race in luxury to out-luxe your neighbor.”
English (US)