NoLIta: Mixing Hip and Historic
259 ELIZABETH STREET, #1B A two-bedroom one-bath duplex condo with a sleeping loft, listed at $1.675 million. (212) 941-2592 Credit Aaron Zebrook for The New York Times
When Renée Green bought her two-bedroom apartment at Prince and Elizabeth Streets in 1985, her friends and her brother warned her about living in what they called a slum. She didn’t see the area that way. “Something drew me to it,” said Ms. Green, a retired township clerk and town council member in Livingston, N.J., who is now 84.
As it turned out, she couldn’t afford to use the place as a pied-à-terre, as she had intended, so she rented it out for 22 years before moving in full time in 2007. During those years, the area was radically transformed — her apartment, for which she paid $150,000, is probably worth 10 times that now, she said. But the qualities that drew her remain. “It’s definitely a community,” she said. “That’s what I love about it.”
Around the mid-1990s, the name NoLIta (along with several other alphabet soups that didn’t stick) was proposed by some residents and business owners for the northern part of Little Italy, where fashionable bistros and boutiques were just beginning to replace the old neighborhood places familiar to the many Italian-Americans who grew up there.
Within the last 10 to 15 years, the trend has accelerated, attracting a young, hip crowd, according to Brett Miles and Reid Price, agents who work together at Douglas Elliman Real Estate. “It’s what SoHo used to be, before it became crowded and expensive,” Mr. Miles said. “NoLIta has so many fantastic finds, artists with little jewelry or textile shops. That’s what makes NoLIta really cool.”
The prevalence of smaller buildings, with no room for big-box stores, is likely to keep it that way, Mr. Price said, though a few new buildings have risen and several older ones have converted to luxury condominiums. “It’s certainly gained its own name and its own brand.”
Many residents still use the name Little Italy for the neighborhood, even when they welcome the changes. Among them is Janine Zeccardi, 46, a freelancer in the fashion industry and the mother of two children, ages 5 and 7. She and her husband, Vincent Zeccardi, 51, a producer and editor, moved into a three-bedroom apartment on Broome Street in a building owned by Mr. Zeccardi’s family in 2004. They hadn’t intended to stay, she said, but after she found the local Public School 130 to be excellent, with “a unique and beautiful mix of cultures,” they saw no reason to move.
Though the Zeccardis are hardly alone as parents, many newer residents are single millennials, mostly renters. “They’re our future, and we minister to them,” said Msgr. Donald Sakano, the pastor of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, at Mott and Prince Streets, established in 1809 and once the seat of the Archdiocese of New York. When Monsignor Sakano arrived in 2007, he said, barely 200 people attended Mass. Now, 800 to 900 come on Sunday, including to an evening Mass that attracts young people.
But the number of children attending the church’s school dwindled, and it was closed in 2010. In 2014, the church sold most of the former school to developers including Time Equities. Francis J. Greenburger, the company’s founder, had come to know NoLIta because a co-worker and a nephew live there, and he admired its “vibrancy,” he said. The school buildings are being converted to seven condominiums and two townhouses, called the Residences at Prince, where prices range from $7.74 million to about $25 million.
What You’ll Find
NoLIta, which stands for North of Little Italy, is bounded by the Bowery to the east, Lafayette Street to the west and East Houston Street to the north. The southern boundary is more pliable, with nearly all maps now using Broome Street.
Most buildings are no higher than five or six stories, with commercial space on the ground floor. Even the massive Puck Building, which covers an entire block bounded by Lafayette, East Houston, Mulberry and Jersey Streets, is only nine stories high. The top two floors and rooftop are being developed by Jared Kushner as six condominium penthouse apartments, the second of which sold in February for $28,511,000, a neighborhood record.
Though not overcrowded, the area does attract tourists, shoppers and cafe sitters. One of the quieter blocks is Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets, where the 0.46-acre Elizabeth Street Garden stretches back to Mott Street. The garden was developed by Allan Reiver, who leases the land, the site of a demolished school, from the city, and owns the Elizabeth Street Gallery next door.
“It’s a unique and magical space,” said Mr. Reiver, 73, a former developer from Denver who lives above the gallery and displays sculptures from his shop in the garden. But the space is being considered for an affordable housing project, a move that is being fought by many, including the Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden.
“It’s a beautiful and heavily used park in a neighborhood with very little open space,” said Jeannine Kiely, president of the nonprofit group, which she said hosts more than 175 free public events a year.
The only New York City parks are DeSalvio Playground, at Spring and Mulberry streets, scheduled for reconstruction soon; andPetrosino Square, which is actually a triangle bounded by Kenmare and Lafayette Streets and Cleveland Place, filled with trees, plants and benches.
What You’ll Pay
On June 20, the 26 properties on the market ranged from a one-bedroom offered at $1 million to a penthouse listed at $58.5 million, according to Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel Real Estate, an appraisal and consulting firm.
The median sales price for apartments, Mr. Miller said, shot up by 50.9 percent over the last five years, to $3.425 million during January through May of this year, compared with $2.270 million in the same period of 2011.
The median rental listing last month, Mr. Miller said, was $3,048 a month for a studio, $3,695 for a one-bedroom, $5,198 for a two-bedroom, and $6,500 for a three-bedroom.
What to Do
The Mulberry Street Branch of the New York Public Library is a gathering spot, as is McNally Jackson Books, at 52 Prince Street. The nonprofit Storefront for Art and Architecture has a gallery at 97 Kenmare Street.
Café’tal Social Club, at 285 Mott Street, a cafe and restaurant, survives from a bygone era. “This has become the neighborhood social club for everyone,” said Louis Russo, the manager, a lifelong area resident. “People get their packages delivered here.”
Other older spots include Lombardi’s Pizza at 32 Spring Street, founded in 1905, and Parisi Bakery Delicatessen, 198 Mott Street, which opened in 1903 as a bakery. Trendier places include Delicatessen, 54 Prince Street, which has sidewalk seating; Toms Roasting Company, 264 Elizabeth Street, which sells shoes along with coffee and pastries; and Gimme! Coffee, 228 Mott Street.
The Schools
Elementary school students are zoned for Public School 130 Hernando De Soto, which has around 970 students in prekindergarten through Grade 5. In the 2014-15 school quality snapshot, 59 percent met state standards in English, versus 30 percent citywide, and 80 percent met standards in math, compared with 39 percent citywide. For middle school, students are zoned for Middle School 131, which has about 420 students in Grades 6 through 8. In 2014-15, 28 percent met state standards in English and 51 percent in math, compared with 30 and 31 percent citywide.
The Commute
Subway lines that stop around the edges of the neighborhood include the 6, B, D, F, M, J and Z.
The History
Giuseppe (Joseph) Petrosino, for whom the small park along Lafayette Street is named, came to the United States from Italy with his family in 1873 and joined the police department 10 years later, according to the city parks department. In 1895, Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt personally promoted him to sergeant of detectives. Later, he commanded a new squad created to combat the Black Hand crime organization. He was fatally shot while investigating organized crime in Sicily.
Copyright © 2016 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. Aaron Zebrook/The New York Times.
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