Category : Residential

Up a short flight of stairs from St. Nicholas Avenue, just steps from where the C subway line stops at 163rd Street, Sylvan Terrace doesn’t look much like New York City. The 20 wooden houses on the car-free, cobblestone street appear to be from not only another place, but another time. But for residents, the Washington Heights enclave is a place to enjoy the satisfaction, and headaches, of having their own house and a place kids play in the streets, all in Manhattan. “It’s almost like not living in the city,” said Felicia de Chabris, a senior vice president at Halstead Property who has lived in her house at 2 Sylvan Terrace since 2003.

Several years ago, Michael Stern, managing partner at JDS Development, set out to convert an Art Deco office tower at 212 West 18th Street into condos. Rather than tear down the 82-year-old building, which was owned by Verizon, and replace it with a modern glass-and-steel development, JDS and partner Property Markets Group (PMG) gutted the interior and spruced up the façade with ornamental metalwork inspired by the Art Deco era. “You’d never build something like this today,” said Stern, who founded JDS while in his 20s. “You couldn’t afford to.”

More and more people are paying for everything from cable, to energy and credit card bills online. Web platforms like KliknPay and ClickPay Services, Inc. have come online to give landlords the ability to safely and securely offer online rent and other payments. ClickPay, with clients now spanning 40 states, has nearly doubled its business in the last year, and has accepted payments from more than 200,000 units. “It’s like an E-ZPass for rental payments,” said Tom Keirnan, founder.