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Named after its location, South of Houston, SoHo is bordered by Houston to the North,
Crosby Street to the East, Canal to the South and 6th Avenue to the West. Few would
believe this area was a slum called Hell’s Hundred Acres in the 1950s. Fewer still
would have guessed SoHo was a free black community made up of Former Dutch West
India Company slaves. Today models (or those easily mistaken for them) walk these
streets eating in the hippest restaurants, browsing through the latest gallery shows
and shopping at the various gourmet stores and clothing boutiques. Buildings with
refurbished cast-iron facades of renaissance columns and palatial porticos as well
as retail spaces with experimental interiors testing new design techniques abound.
The atmosphere is distinctly SoHo. Image is everything.
Gentrification began with the influx of artists and activists who moved to the area
in the 1960s seeking solstice from rent increases in the Village. It was these pioneers
who pushed to have SoHo declared a Historic District by the New York City Landmarks
Commission and the zoning laws changed to allow tenants to legally move into spaces
that had been previously restricted to industrial use. Wanting to get in on the
new art scene many established galleries moved from venues uptown, and with them
came the appreciative. The influx of money and the moneyed not only spruced up the
neighborhood but it drove out the natives. In the end, few of experimental gallery
spaces or artists that moved to SoHo stayed in the area. Many have moved to Chelsea
or Williamsburg in Brooklyn, once again seeking cheaper rents.
The word loft for some conjures up ideas of huge open spaces with floor to ceiling
windows. Beware; the term can be used liberally. Where some lofts in SoHo are enormous
others are ridiculously small. In attempts to cash in on the demand for rental apartments
many landlords have carved up once larger spaces into several very small ones. Ask
about the size of a place before you bother to see it.
Given some of the sweat shops that originally encompassed the area still remains
near Canal Street, the majority of the non residential buildings are galleries,
record companies and graphic shops. While residents need only walk out their doors
and across the street to find the hippest boutiques and trendiest eateries, finding
a grocery running specials on Charmin is tough. Got a thing for trees? You won’t
find any, or parks either. And if you like to kick back with an occasional Pabst
Blue Ribbon and bust out the cheese whiz, you’ll have to compromise. Microbrew and
Vermont Cheddar might be all SoHo has to offer.
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Metropolis Real Estate of Manhattan | 167 Lexington Avenue, Suite 100 | New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212.696.1900, Fax: 212.696.0220 | Email: info@metropolisre.com
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