Serene settings make downtown apartments enticing

Convenience, community and a setting like no other top the list of things drawing residents to downtown neighborhoods, according to a new residential brochure available now from the Alliance for Downtown New York and Wall Street Rising.

Living Downtown, a glossy twelve-page brochure created to make current and future residents aware of the amenities, history and culture of Lower Manhattan, provides phone numbers and addresses for all the residential buildings south of Chambers Street with five or more living units.   It also provides a useful, colorful map of services and resources - including ferries, schools, libraries, hospitals, subways and parking - for the residential community.

As a residential community, Lower Manhattan has shown tremendous resurgence since the events of September 11, 2001.  "Occupancy rates are up to 95 percent, which is great news," said Julie Menin, president of Wall Street Rising, a non-profit organization formed as a direct response to the events of September 11.  "We felt that it was imperative to continue that trend and to let people from the tri-state area know what a wonderful neighborhood Lower Manhattan is."

Menin partnered with the Alliance for Downtown New York to create a brochure highlighting Lower Manhattan's finest features in hopes of drawing even more new residents to the area.  "The goal is to let people know that there are incredible amenities here -- from the parks and the esplanade to the schools and the restaurants -- and to give them a guidebook that lists every building downtown where they might live," said Menin.

Parks and green space draw residents downtown

For people interested in relocating to Lower Manhattan, Living Downtown's listing of residential buildings may prove to be the brochure's most useful component.  "A comprehensive list of this kind does not exist anywhere else," said Bryan Evans, spokesperson for the Alliance of Downtown New York, which helped create Living Downtown.  The brochure also outlines residential incentives, created by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, that make moving downtown an affordable option.

Survey Says… 

The Living Downtown brochure lists the many reasons why people should consider moving to Lower Manhattan, and much of what it says is borne out by a recent survey of current residents, commissioned by the Downtown Alliance.   The survey, released in November 2002, drew the responses of more than 1,000 Lower Manhattan residents to questions about the downtown community, and the results reflected a strong sense of optimism about the neighborhood's future.

"We were pleasantly surprised to find people so committed to living downtown," said Shirley Jaffe, vice president of economic development at the Alliance.   Eighty percent of respondents to the study expect to be living in Lower Manhattan three years from now, and two-thirds expect to remain for at least five years. 

New Living Downtown brochure

That said, residents expressed frustration at the lack of shopping and dining options downtown.  Sixty percent report that downtown shopping -- at grocery, convenience and retail stores -- does not meet their expectations, and that the selection and quality of shops needs improvement.

"This was not unexpected news," said Jaffe, who herself is a downtown resident.  "There needs to be better convenience shopping.  It's what residents really want."  But the results of the survey will be put to good use, she said.  "The Alliance will continue to look and see what's needed, and find ways to attract the kind of businesses that are important."

Shopping aside, there are many great reasons to relocate to Lower Manhattan.  Said the Alliance's Evans: "Simply to be part of an area that is being reborn is a terrific thing."

To download a PDF of Living Downtown, click here.   To request a copy be sent by mail, please call (212) 835-2789. For a copy of the recent survey of current residents, "Lower Manhattan Residential Community: Growth and Strength After September 11^th," click here.