SoHo
SoHo—the
name alone brings to mind chi-chi boutiques, fat wads of
money, and intimate/expensive restaurants where wailing
men serenade with accordians. Welcome to the
neighborhood-where the fantasy is often also the reality.
Here you’ll find sky-high rents that ensure, if nothing
else, that you’ll have 24 hour access to some of the
city’s best clubs, bars, shops, restaurants, and some
might even say “ambience.”
Once
an industrial sprawl of lofts, photo studios, and
warehouses, SoHo began to rejuvenate in the 1970s with the
influx of artists who needed space to spread their
postmodern palare. These artists, as is usually the case
in urban sprawl, brought with them a tag-along supply of
galleries who set up shop in the quaint little downtown
nook, where rents were cheap and spaces were hardwood and
inviting. After the galleries started moving and shaking
the atmosphere, rents in the neighborhood went up, and
with the smothering arrival of high-end boutiques in the
90s, SoHo saw a dramatic transformation. Art had once
again worked its charm, and made this area south of
Houston Street into one of the most desirable locations in
the city—replete with mammoth loft apartments, sidewalk
art sales, and every clothing designer you could think of
shoulder to shoulder on West Broadway. The attitude had
arrived.
And rightly so. Nowhere else will you feel as
connected, as branche, as ‘in,” as you will in an apartment in SoHo. If the
downtown night flair is your thing, you can almost
assuredly walk to your destinations or at worst take a
very cheap cab ride. Famous lounges have come and gone (in
popularity or in physicality) through the years—Spy Bar,
Veruka, Lucky Strike, et al, but new ones are popping up
all the time. If there’s one thing that’s certain in
SoHo, it’s that anyone roaming the streets, at almost
any time of day, will find something to satisfy his or her
particular sartorial, eating, drinking, or hanging out
appetite.
Most apartments in SoHo are converted loft spaces
with freight elevators or the teeny variety of studio
walkups that you’ll find in other neighborhoods like the
East Village. For its obvious draws, however, many have
more luck seeing apartments on an artist studio tour, at
which point they draw in deep breaths and say “Ahh, I
wish I lived here too…” For those with the cash money
to do so, however, the world in SoHo is your oyster.
Exposed brick walls, huge windows, hidden fire
escapes/balconies, and intricate hardwood or parquet
floors are an interior decorator’s wet dream or the
perfect way to showcase your Herman Miller collection.
If you can afford it, and if you don’t mind
constantly being in the center of the action (i.e. all
your friends coming over to meet before drinks, and
crashing there afterwards), or if you can be hermit enough
not to let them know where you live, SoHo might be the
perfect little slice of paradise.
SPREAD THE WORD TO YOUR FRIENDS.
We are trying
to influence the rental market to rid itself of tenant
broker fees and we need your help to Spread The Word.
Sincerely
David Drake
President