Flatiron District: Not Just a Place to Shop

Featuring Nicholas Athanail:

The first weekend that Layla Law-Gisiko and her family stepped out of their new apartment in the Flatiron district, after moving from the far less commercial West Village, Ms. Law-Gisiko recalls thinking, “What have we done?”

That was 15 years ago and she has long since revised her reaction. “It’s not cute and quaint like the Village, but I know my neighbors,” she said. “It’s a different kind of neighborhood. You absolutely have this sense of community, and personally I love it.”

She especially likes “the great diversity of people you meet during the day,” not only residents, but people who work throughout the area, which stretches from the Flatiron Building at the northern end down to West 14th Street. The people she encounters while sitting in coffee shops or walking in nearby Madison Square Park, she said, include literary agents, photographers and graphic designers. They are people Ms. Law-Gisiko, 45, finds especially interesting because she is a writer and filmmaker.

She and her husband, who works in advertising, and their two children, now 13 and 15, moved partly because of the central location and ample public transportation, she said, and partly because they found a full-floor loft, for which they paid more than $1 million. At the time, there were problems with noise from nightclubs on surrounding streets, “unsavory characters, and a little bit of crime,” she said. “It was not exactly the pleasant, good quality of life we were hoping for.” She became active with Community Board 5, where she has led committees. Much of the area is part of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District and has “fabulous architecture,” which has mostly been preserved, she said, as upscale stores, restaurants and condominiums have taken over many of the interiors.

 “It’s really become a foodie heaven,” said Nicholas Athanail, an associate broker with the Corcoran Group who has lived near the Flatiron building since 1995. Ms. Law-Gisiko doesn’t care for some of the new construction, including two glass towers on East 22nd Street, but Mr. Athanail likes “the contrast of new and shiny with the Old World atmosphere.”

Natasha Corio, 30, who lives in a two-bedroom, two-bath condo with her husband, Ken, and their two children, ages 2 and 1, said that when they bought their apartment in 2013, for $1.69 million, “it wasn’t the hottest neighborhood in Manhattan,” but now she thinks it is. “It’s just amazing how much the neighborhood has evolved,” she said, a change that includes more activities for children in the park. She doesn’t have to go far for anything, she added: “We’re in the heart of the city.”

Though definitions of the area’s boundaries differ, a traditional one has it running from 14th Street to 23rd Street, from Sixth Avenue to Park Avenue South above East 18th Street, and from Sixth Avenue to Fifth Avenue below East 18th Street.

Cultural attractions include the Center for Jewish History and the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site; dining includes Gramercy Tavern and Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop. Fitness studios and stores have also proliferated, said Jennifer Brown, executive director of the Flatiron 23rd Street Partnership, a business improvement district from 21st to 28th Streets. Local tech companies and start-ups have “younger, health-conscious” workers who like to stay late to exercise and shop, said Ms. Brown, whose organization maintains pedestrian plazas next to the Flatiron Building. Shoppers also take advantage of boutiques like Kate Spade and stores like ABC Carpet & Home and Bed Bath & Beyond, in former department stores that catered to the “carriage trade” of the Ladies’ Mile in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

What You’ll Pay

The median price paid for a home rose from $1,235,000 in the first quarter of 2012 to $1,510,000 in the fourth quarter of 2016, or 22 percent, said Cameron Stewart, an associate broker with Compass, using statistics from the Compass Markets App. Median days on the market dropped from 96 to 66.

The New York Times search engine showed 115 sales listings on Feb. 15, though the three lowest-priced ones — one-bedroom co-ops listed at $585,000, $799,000 and $840,000 — were already in contract or about to be, leaving a new $899,000 listing as the least costly offering. The most expensive, a five-bedroom condo, was listed for $26,950,000. There were 100 apartments for rent, from $2,460 a month to $29,500.

The Vibe

The streets to the north and south, along with Sixth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Broadway and Park Avenue South, thrum with noise and traffic; the side streets are more peaceful. Stephanie Dennett, a Halstead Property associate broker, said the building she lives in faced West 14th Street until the 1990s, when the entrance was moved to West 15th Street. “You walk in on a tree-lined block,” she said. “It brought in a more upscale atmosphere.” That change, she said, is “the story of the neighborhood.”

The Schools

Children are zoned for several schools. P.S. 340 has 207 students in prekindergarten through second grade, and P.S. 3 Charrette School has 768 students in pre-K through fifth grade. At P.S. 3, 74 percent of students met state standards in English and 78 percent in math, compared with 39 and 40 percent citywide, according to the 2015-16 school quality snapshot. P.S. 40 Augustus Saint-Gaudens, another school that covers pre-K through fifth grade, has 653 students, of whom 86 percent met state standards in English and 85 percent in math. P.S. 41Greenwich Village, likewise pre-K through fifth grade, has 698 students, of whom 84 percent met state standards in both English and math. P.S. 11, the William T. Harris School, is also pre-K through fifth grade and has 921 students, with 67 percent meeting state standards in English and 65 percent in math. For middle school, families in the area are zoned toM.S. 104 Simon Baruch, which has 1,168 students in grades 6 through 8; 61 percent met state standards in English and 64 percent in math, compared with 37 and 32 percent citywide.

The Commute

Subway lines that stop full- or part-time include the F, L, M, N, Q, R, W and 6.

The History

In the mid-20th century, the neighborhood around the 1902 Flatiron building was “downright dangerous,” said Alice Sparberg Alexiou, whose grandfather bought the building with three partners in the 1940s and sold it five decades later. Because it was cheap, “there were a lot of artists who moved in” to the neighborhood, said Ms. Alexiou, whose book, “The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City That Arose With It,” was published by St. Martin’s Griffin, which has its offices in the Flatiron building. “Then the money people came in and chased out the artists. One of the good things that happened is that the publishers came in.”

Copyright © 2017 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.

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