You live in an apartment in the Financial District. Or a condo on the Lower East Side. Or are browsing East Village condo listings. Congratulations: you have good taste, both in Manhattan neighborhoods and in NYC real estate listings sites. Let's continue. You're looking for a Manhattan apartment that offers more than, you know, an apartment and a fistful of amenities. You'd like some green space in your neighborhood. Check. You like to jog. Check. You play basketball, say, soccer. Check. You enjoy lounging, or fishing, just taking in some river views. Check, check, check please. There is a park near your apartment where you can do all these things. Check... almost. Yes, work on the East River Park is almost done.

During the boom years of the last decade, a host of new construction condos (and an impressive number of pre-war condo conversions, such as the Cipriani Club Residences) sprang up in the Financial District. What these new Financial District condo listings had in common -- besides locations in what is, for your blogger's money, the most interesting-looking neighborhood in Manhattan -- was a certain youthful, high-energy vibe. During the boomingest of the boom years, this meant that FiDi condo listings such as Be@William functioned as well-amenitized dorms for high-earning twentysomethings. But as the economy has cooled, the Financial District has grown up into a very different and much cooler place to live. After a recent infusion of cash that amounted to a soft transfer of ownership, it looks like William Beaver House -- a New Construction Manhattan favorite and one of the superstar Financial District apartment listings of the previous decade -- will get a shot to mature along with the neighborhood it helped put on the map.

The first rule of Manhattan real estate -- of real estate in general -- is said to be "location, location, location." Which, as conventional wisdom goes, isn't the silliest thing in the world. But Manhattan real estate observers could be forgiven, in recent years, for believing that at least one of those "location"'s could be swapped out for "branding." New Manhattan neighborhoods are nothing new -- New York City is a study in flux, and all it takes is one zoning decision and a few bold real estate developers to turn a neighborhood like the nowheresville around the Lincoln Tunnel entrance into "The Linc," a newly branded Manhattan neighborhood between Chelsea and Midtown West that comes complete with its own new construction condo listings and superstar condos such as The Atelier. What sets Hudson Square apart from The Linc, besides a much cooler name, is that this new neighborhood is actually one of Manhattan's oldest. Hudson Square is, for all intents and purposes, West Soho.

New Construction Manhattan blog readers know that we love Financial District condo listings. This is not entirely because Financial District condos are among the most popular on our site, although that obviously helps, but because condominiums in the Financial District are so unique. In a city that is, for all The New Classics we discussed recently, home to a lot of identikit luxury condominium listings, the apartments for sale in the Financial District stand out because of the architectural distinction of their buildings -- many of them elegant art deco office towers making the switch to condominium (or luxury rental, in some cases). As new condo listings go, therefore, it's generally easier for us to get excited about a new condo conversion in the Financial District than it is over, say, a new construction listing in Murray Hill. (With all due respect to the lovely condo listings of Murray Hill, none of those buildings are National Historic Landmarks, unlike the Cipriani Club Residences) So it's always good news when we can report that another elegant Financial District office building is re-imagining itself as a Financial District condominium. The latest project, as Curbed reports: the stately art deco tower at 119 John Street.