8 Spruce Street: New York’s Comeback Symbol

It costs $2,600 per month to rent a studio in the highest residential skyscraper in the United States.

It hangs in the air like the scent of regeneration in New York. Two years after the financial crisis that had shaken its international stature, signs of recovery are increasing and the Big Apple — a small island of wealth in an America which is still in crisis — is rediscovering its legendary vitality.

The symbol of this regeneration is the brand-new skyscraper by Frank Gehry that has been erected a stone’s throw away from ground zero. It is the biggest residential tower on the American continent and one of the most luxurious in New York. The 265-meter-high steel structure — 60 meters less than the Eiffel Tower — designed by the architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is still being built, but 115 out of the 903 apartments have just been made available for rent. Project manager Mary Anne Gilmartin, executive vice president of the real estate development company Ratner, is optimistic. “We have been inundated with requests, and lots of people are interested in the apartments on the top floors, which will not be ready until 2012!”

We can see why. On the edge of Manhattan the view is spectacular: To the east there are the East River bridges; to the south the Statue of Liberty; to the west the Hudson River and the Freedom Tower, which is being constructed where the World Trade Center used to be; and to the north the city that never sleeps. “This tower is situated amongst everything that is great about New York,” our guide continues, before rattling off a list of services: a private entrance for cars, which is extremely rare in Manhattan; a pool; a gym suite; yoga, Pilates and fitness with a private coach; a cinema; a game room for children; and even a room for teenagers with Internet and video games. Monthly rent starts from $2,600 for a small one-room studio on the lower floors of the building. The most sought after apartments have not yet been listed, but in New York the rent for a top of the range three-bedroom apartment varies between $15,000 and $20,000 per month.

Real estate is soaring

The tower seems most impressive from the outside. The building, which has façades draped in metallic waves made up of 10,500 almost identical panels, is considered to be the first “designer” skyscraper of the digital age in New York. Charlie Attias, vice president of the real-estate agency The Corcoran Group, believes that it will revive a district which is in need of it, 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks. He is also optimistic about his sector, which has benefited from the acceleration of the economic recovery and from staggering bonuses given out on Wall Street ($17 million for the boss of JPMorgan). The average selling price has risen 42 percent over one year, returning to the same rates as October 2008. “In December an apartment on 15 Central Park West (where Sting and the boss of Goldman Sachs live) sold for $40 million,” he crowed.

Not far from there, at Bergdorf Goodman, a large luxury goods department store on Fifth Avenue, Barbara Stone, make-up artist for the Bobbi Brown brand, sees the New York elite come and go. There are more of them than ever. “At the end of 2008, the beauty department was completely deserted. Now it has picked up again, like before the crisis,” she assured us between two make-up sessions. The luxury industry is showing a remarkable upturn. The American giant Estée Lauder, which is based in New York, has achieved the best performance in the world on the stock exchange of all the groups in the sector for a year.

The return to true values

Despite the continuance of high unemployment rates, the mood is generally high. However, many New Yorkers state that the recession has done some good, because it “allowed us to start over.” “Before the fall of 2008, New York had reached illusions of grandeur and we all played along,” Carine Bauvey, who works for MA3 Agency, a creative consultancy in Soho, tells us. She remembers photo shoots where the champagne was flowing; a photographer could have five assistants and travel in first class. “As prices reflect reality more, relations between people have become healthier again,” she says. Yan Saquet, president of MBM Records, which creates large luxury brands’ musical concepts, tells a similar story. “The tradition in marketing used to be to take an aggressive approach. Now that is viewed as a bit cheap. We have gone back to the true values of creation.” The New York-loving French entrepreneur hopes that 2011 will turn out to be the year of the great comeback for the Big Apple.