After decades of delays, the Second Avenue subway will debut on New Year’s. But a new report says higher rents are the next stop for Upper East Side residents near the new stations.
People who live near the subway stop at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets could see their rent jump by as much as $462 per month, according to StreetEasy. Already, big name developers have cast big bets on the neighborhood.
Until now, Yorkville — perhaps because it was so far from the train — has been relatively affordable. The area’s median rent is around $2,700 per month compared to the citywide average of $3,300 a month, StreetEasy data show.
But transportation and real estate development go hand in hand.
In the last five years, median rents near the subway have grown 27 percent to $2,520 per month, according to StreetEasy. And two-bedroom condos in new developments on First and Second Avenues are in the $2 million range.
Business owners who can’t wait for foot traffic to return to the area are worried that high rent could force them out of business, only to be replaced by high-end stores. There are also concerns about gentrification and longtime residents being pushed out. “When you increase the values in areas like this, you need to do things to protect affordable housing” and prevent “displacement,” Thomas K. Wright, president of the urban policy group the Regional Plan Association, told the New York Times.
Not everyone believes new residents will flock to the Upper East Side, however. “The neighborhood is intrinsically boring,” said Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University. [NYT] — E.B. Solomont