Why this neighborhood is an undiscovered Manhattan gem
City Hall Park: New York City’s best kept secret
One of my favorite neighborhoods in the city happens to be the one in which I live, the part of Tribeca that borders City Hall Park. Technically, the neighborhood is called Civic Center, a truly terrible name and probably partly to blame for why the area has been such a sleeper while all the other surrounding neighborhoods have experienced meteoric price increases over the past decade. That’s why I prefer to call the neighborhood by its best attribute, City Hall Park.
The City Hall Park submarket borders Tribeca, Chinatown and the Financial District and consists of the blocks south of Canal, north of Barclay, east of Church and west of William. People who live in this neighborhood (myself included) generally refer to it as “Tribeca” even though it is technically well outside the boundary of the neighborhood traditionally designated as such. This practice has become so common that Streeteasy even built a cheeky ad campaign around it.
Residents claim to live in Tribeca when they live outside its technical boundaries because Tribeca is one of Manhattan’s poshest neighborhoods. And the area around City Hall Park feels much like the rest of Tribeca, so despite technicalities, doing so does not really feel like a misrepresentation. Truthfully, there is no clear line of demarcation separating the “Real Tribeca” with this part of town in real life, other than the borders that were drawn by some mapmaker many decades ago.
Tribeca is best known for its historic, 1800s-era industrial buildings which have been converted into loft-style apartments. This housing stock, considered some of the city’s most desirable, has large, open floor plates which lend themselves to gracious apartments perfect for family living, filling with art and entertaining. The apartments also tend to be memorably unique with historic details, tall windows, original wood plank floors, and corinthian columns — in a way that a postwar high-rise can never be.
Like Tribeca, the housing stock in City Hall Park consists largely of the same period architecture. In fact, the blocks of White, Water and Franklin Streets between Church and Broadway contain some of the most beautiful examples of Tribeca’s signature cast-iron facades that can be found in this city — even though they are technically NOT in Tribeca.
One of the most stunning examples of beautiful architecture in City Hall Park is 108 Leonard, a condo conversion project currently underway. The Elad Group is converting a beaux arts-style McKim, Mead & White building into 150 luxury apartments that perfectly preserves its character and will bring a high price point to a building that directly faces some of the less attractive courthouse buildings in the Civic Center.
City Hall Park is lined with perfect examples of fin-de-siecle architecture, ranging from the magnificent Woolworth Building, the top of which was converted to condos in 2012 and has units that have sold for $16 and $18 million to 25 Park Row, on its southern border, a luxury high-rise with a $25 million penthouse. Just one block off the park, the Beekman Hotel has set a new standard for downtown cool and apartments on that block have soared in value as a result. And though New York City’s real estate market has taken a bit of a beating this past year, I believe the market fundamentals remain, particularly in the City Hall Park neighborhood. New York City always comes back.
On the park’s north edge, some magnificent examples of government architecture lend an imposing presence and feel very much like the best parts of Paris. As an added bonus, the constant police presence at the courthouse buildings tend to keep the area very safe. The Brooklyn Bridge, one of the city’s most iconic vistas, sits on the park’s eastern edge. City Hall Park has to be one of the city’s prettiest, most underhyped, public green spaces in Manhattan. After living through a pandemic in New York City, we’ve all come to understand and value the importance of green space. A good park enhances the value of every neighborhood.
Older brokers often steer wealthier buyers away from City Hall Park since it is considered to be on Tribeca’s fringe. Historically, this “fringe” status was further delineated by public school zoning. Tribeca has a beloved public elementary school (PS 234) which has a cult-like following among its families. Historically, the streets east of Church (the City Hall Park area) have traded at significant discounts to core Tribeca because the apartments there fall outside the PS 234 zone and therefore have not been considered “Real Tribeca.”
However, five years ago the city commissioned five new schools for this neighborhood to handle the overcrowding at PS 234. The new schools (including Spruce Street School and Peck Slip School) are housed in brand new facilities and run by former administrators and teachers from PS 234, bringing the unique teaching methods and strong community-building ethos with them. Now these new schools have become nearly as coveted as the original. (What’s also worth noting is that Spruce Street School, housed in a Frank Gehry-designed architectural masterpiece, runs from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. For those families fortunate enough to be zoned for this school, this alleviates the middle school application process dreaded by NYC public school parents.) These new schools serve the City Hall Park neighborhood, which naturally stands to improve property values when this well-kept secret leaks to the masses. And while headlines have harped on some families fleeing Manhattan, other families have taken advantage of these turbulent markets and have moved to desirable neighborhoods like City Hall Park for proximity to great schools and amenities.
What makes the City Hall Park neighborhood so unique? Perfectly-preserved period architecture, secret alleyways (like Courtland Alley where speakeasy diner Au Cheval is tucked away) and pedestrian-friendly streets lend a quintessentially New York City charm. Superb public transportation access (nine subway lines!) make commuting almost anywhere a breeze. The proximity to Tribeca, with its nosebleed prices, make this a fairly conservative investment since per square foot prices run 20 to 30% lower than Tribeca.
I believe this is a neighborhood that will outperform other city neighborhoods. The rest of the city will take notice of this great little neighborhood that is sitting there, in plain sight and yet very much off the radar.
Today, it is still a bit of an insider’s secret, but it will not be for long. Highcourt, an upscale member’s club along the lines of Soho House or the Core Club, is opening its flagship location in the neighborhood, which might do the very same thing that Soho House did to the Meatpacking District — jettison prices from somewhat affordable to astronomical.
You heard it here first!
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