Basketball courts, bowling alleys, decked out lounges, lounged out rooftop decks, pools, state-of-the-art fitness centers, libraries, screening rooms, indoor baseball fields, children’s playrooms, catering kitchens, full-time concierges and doormen. What are ‘amenities inluxury new construction condominiums’, Alex? Amenities make already luxuriousnew construction buildings ultra-luxurious, giving them ways of differentiating themselves from their neighbors. “We have a bowling alley, what do you have?” shouts one new construction building to its not-as-cool neighbor. “W-w-we…” stammers the neighbor and unable to finish the sentence, shakes its head, turning back to its duties of rising into the Manhattan skyline. What a skill, thinks new construction building number one. I rise just as tall, but I have some pretty awesome amenities to offer and you don’t. So, ha.

As the scorching summer rages on, New Yorkers find themselves searching for the sweet, serene relief that goes hand in hand with swimming. Recently, however, it has become increasingly difficult to find Manhattan apartment listings offering on-site pool facilities. Even more rare are the highly coveted rooftop, outdoor pools. It is more likely, if a building has a pool at all, that it is an indoor unit, a trend that has become increasingly more prevalent. According to the New York Times, outdoor pools have become a rarity in NYC. In fact, while there are nearly 150 condominiums with pools as an amenity, only about 15 of them are outdoors and several are privately owned townhouses. Those offering outdoor swimming facilities see it as a source of pride -- and therefore use it as a selling point. But as the number of outdoor pools dwindle, the demand for them is rising, and Manhattan new construction buildings are innovating their pool amenities.

A small enclave in the northern reaches of the Upper East Side, Carnegie Hill is in many ways unlike any other neighborhood in New York City. Next to Central Park, quiet streets full of limestone rowhouses and pre-war co-ops are home to some of Manhattan’s most powerful residents, all of whom desire to claim this historic section of the Upper East Side as theirs. Yet Carnegie Hill wasn’t always like this; until Andrew Carnegie built his now-landmarked mansion on Fifth Avenue and 91st Street in 1901, much of the area was farmland. In turn, wealthy New Yorkers built their estates in the surrounding blocks, in doing so creating one of Manhattan’s most architecturally-significant neighborhoods. With the arrival of the subway a decade later, Carnegie Hill’s expansion continued at an even more rapid pace.

Recently, MNS released its second quarter report on new development sales, and to our delight, it contains a new metric: cost per square foot. In doing so, MNS is allowing us to compare neighborhoods and their new construction more accurately, as paying more for less square footage indicates that the location or building is partially or entirely the main selling point. What is interesting, however, is that while the same neighborhoods are consistently more expensive, they differ when considering price per square foot, and the winners are in some ways unlikely. When we look at new development by neighborhood in terms of price per square foot, MNS’ combined Gramercy/Flatiron District neighborhood is the clear winner as well as the only part of Manhattan to average more than $2,000 per square foot. In contrast, the favorites that vie for the title of Manhattan’s most expensive neighborhood -- Tribeca, SoHo, and Greenwich Village (including the West Village) -- are surprisingly low. Of interest is Tribeca, which barely outdoes the Lower East Side in terms of new development pricing; this could be attributed to Tribeca’s almost completely built-out nature, with little new development to drive prices up. SoHo and the Village are still growing, with the former’s addition of the rather large 40 Mercer and Trump SoHo edging the neighborhood into second place.

One street in Manhattan is about to gain 350,000 square feet of new development, and it’s not what you may think. 125th Street, often considered Upper Manhattan’s Main Street of sorts, will grow yet again thanks to three initiatives spearheaded by the New York City Department of City Planning and Economic Development Corporation. The former’s 2008 rezoning and the latter’s two pet projects, CREATE @ Harlem Green and the Corn Exchange Building restoration, will serve as anchors to make the 125th Street corridor one of Manhattan’s most important. In doing so, it will serve as a hub for new residential and commercial development as well as a catalyst for the continued growth of Upper Manhattan.

At New Construction Manhattan, we’re huge fans of the , but it’s great to hear that it might have a little competition on the East River. The two-mile-long East River Waterfront Esplanade that runs from the Battery Maritime Building to Montgomery Street opened on July 14 and is quickly becoming a hit. The park has features similar to the High Line, but they are in no way the same. While the High Line is a raised park, the Esplanade is located underneath FDR Drive, providing shady spots on hot summer days.

40 Riverside Boulevard will soon be home to a new 650,000 square-foot mega-glassy condominium. Nearly a dozen apartment buildings have been built at Riverside South and the site at 40 Riverside Boulevard will be one of the final projects in the area, offering Upper West Side residents the chance to live in the in the neighborhood with unobstructed views of the Hudson River. The new tower will rise 33 stories into the Manhattan skyline, ranging in apartment size from one-bedroom condos to duplexes and even single-floor apartmentsreported Crain’s New York. Developer Goldstein Hill & West Architects are no strangers to the Upper West Side; partner Stephen Hill has taken part in developing Riverside South for years now. Through him, the architectural firm also had a hand in developingThe Rushmorecondos, as well as and luxury rental building, the Ashley.

In June of this year, the New York State Legislature legalized gay marriage, ending a decades-long fight over marriage equality and making New York the sixth state to have gender-neutral marriage (we’ll avoid dealing with the California situation for now). In terms of real estate, this is actually an interesting and promising development, especially when considering the long history that this small, yet powerful, demographic has had in terms of development, gentrification, and neighborhood revitalization. Further, the fact that same-sex marriage is now legal in America’s largest city means that many couples will move to New York, in most cases Manhattan, bringing with them significant disposable income and a need for luxury housing on this already heavily-populated island.

We talk a lot about New Construction in Manhattan on this blog, mostly because it’s our name, but also because we find it interesting to research certain areas that are growing or have interesting developments under construction or in the works. Yet for all of that, none of New Construction Manhattan’s posts have ever actually compared neighborhood growth, whether it be a comparing specific areas or comparing one neighborhood against Manhattan as a whole. With new and updated mapping and data collection techniques, the 2010 Census was able to accurately depict a number of important statistics, including housing unit growth and vacancy as well as overall population growth. Unfortunately, the Census didn’t exactly get a warm and welcome response. City officials, including the Mayor, a number of City Councilmembers, and some borough presidents derided what was seen as a vast undercount. Luckily, the areas in which they saw these errors are not in Manhattan, so the following numbers should be pretty accurate, and in any case, they seem to confirm what we’ve been predicting all along.