Add Northern Tribeca to the list of Manhattan micro-neighborhoods that have gone from under-the-radar to next-big-thing. This section of Tribeca stayed underdevelped for years, but no longer: developers are responding to high demand by building numerous luxury apartment buildings in Northern Tribeca. It was only a matter of time before the westernmost section of Canal Street became the next hot section of Manhattan, and now it’s Northern Tribeca’s turn in the spotlight. Pioneering Manhattanites are paying top dollar to live in this enclave, partly because it has that up-and-coming cachet that gives buyers of Manhattan luxury apartments the feeling that they’re living in the “It” neighborhood, and partly because the luxury apartments for sale in Northern Tribeca cater to current tastes. They're large, converted industrial spaces, exactly the kind of Manhattan properties that buyers of luxury apartments in Manhattan love.

We've written at our sister blog at Luxury Rentals Manhattan about the planned expansion of the 7 train into far-west Chelsea and -- if a coalition of developers and a lot of Clinton condo owners with crossed fingers get their way -- into the currently subway-deficient Clinton. As important as the 7 train's expansion into Midtown West is to the Manhattan luxury rental market, though, the extension of subway access is doubly important to those looking for condos in Midtown West and apartments for sale in Chelsea. While mega-developers like Steven Spinola have been the ones agitating the hardest for a new 7 train station at 41st and 10th Avenue -- to go with the planned station at 34th and 11th Avenue -- they're hardly the only ones who stand to benefit from the 7 train's expansion into Midtown West. The developers might be the ones with the advocacy website (and the lobbying dollars), but owners of Chelsea condos and apartments in Midtown West stand to see their lives get much more convenient -- and their condominiums become that much more valuable -- with expanded subway access. Which means that it's not just NYC real estate developers cheering what looks like a possible step forward in the 7 train expansion.