For those who read my post about The New York Times’ thoughts on the East Village, circa 1985 , I’ve found another gem from their archives, this time from 1997, closer to the time I was boppin’ around the Village, Soho, Chinatown, etc. The story chronicles the very start of a new building trend in my neighborhood: Along East 2d Street, New Market-Rate Apartments. Some quotes:
HISTORY has shown the East Village and the Lower East Side to be tough places to operate real estate. Most buildings are old and many tenants, among them many immigrants, are poor.
Jesus. Besides my landlord, there are at least another dozen or so that have become real estate barons based almost completely on picking up buildings in the East Village and Lower East Side at firesale prices, and sitting on them, until, well, now.
 Current market-rate rents for a one-bedroom apartment run from $900 to $1,400 a month and are usually between $1,100 to $1,200, said Robert T. Perl, president of Tower Brokerage on East 10th Street, which manages about 250 apartments in the area. But tenants who arrived about 15 years ago are paying anywhere from $300 to $600 for a similar-sized apartment — though at the time about half of them lacked a modern bathroom or kitchen, Mr. Perl said.
If my rent was $600 a month, I would gladly bathe with a bucket and sponge, and cook on a hot plate or camping stove.
Mr. Quillen, the son of Parker and Joan Quillen, antiques dealers based in Palm Beach, has been making all-cash deals for semi-distressed properties. Last year he bought a 20-unit building at 104 Suffolk Street, and in April he closed on the 26-unit 109-111 Ludlow Street, with a largely Chinese tenancy. The sale price, $905,000, was four times higher than what the seller had paid for the building six years ago, he said.
Something tells Mr. Whitney Quillen is doing pretty well for himself these days. Although, unless he is unscrupulous, he has to wait for those tenants to kick off, move out, or violate their lease before he can make those apartments market rate. I wonder if he managed to do so in these ten years. After all:
”Only the children can speak to me,” Mr. Quillen said.
And they very well may have grown up into LES hipsters who would rather throw away their Converse sneakers than give up a cheap apartment on Ludlow Street. Next time I walk by, I’ll try to gauge the building… Stay tuned…
