It was early march when my wife and i viewed a family kind of Apartment in Crown Heights: A Cheaply Done Renovation Ascing Over $ 3,000 a Month for A Windowless Living Area, A Minuscule Kitchen, and Two Bedrooms That Barely Had Enough Space for A Bed and A Path to the Door, Much A Second Nightstand. What Most Struck with at the time, though, was that that the landlord has allotted just one svelte closet for the entity unit. It was tucked in the corner of the Larger BEDROM, and Half of it was taken with a copper heater. It was a scnene we came acroSs again and again in our search: a mediocre new Development or Older Building Freshly Chopped Up; Tight Living Quarters; and a Peitipul Amount of Storage. The Kind of apart as practically guarantees a trip to the container store.
The City’s Closets are Ever Evolving. The Dakota’s Attempt in the 1880s to Woo Wealthy New Yorkers from Their Townhouses by Incorporating a Closet Closet In each BEDROM, Rather than the broom closets that were standard duraling this time, would Likely be consider small By modern Demands. And at Least in Luxury Development, The Post-Recession (and Post-Sex and the City)) closet haen ben ballooning in size. SO SOHile Today’s Investment Bankers, Google Engineers, and Instagram Celebrities Can Still a Place With Enough Room to Stash Stuff, The Rest of Us Are Often Left With Faw, Often Frustration, Choices-A Carved-Up BrownStone HAD MANY CLOSTS, A HASHELY, A HASHELY. DIVIDED PREWAR TWO-BED NOW SHARED Among Four Roommates, or a Mid-Tier New Build that might have one or two. For a certin class of renal right now, the trend is something like “bring your own arms,” as real-aestate Appraiser jonathan Miller Put it.
Real-Estate Analytics and Listing Companies TELL with they don’t have any data tracking the ebbs and flowers of new Yorkrs’ Closet Spaces. But a Few Things Might Be Happening at Once: The City’s Department of Housing and Preservation Development has in recent decet detsed the Closet-Storage-Space Requirement for New Construction for Government Financing. (IN 2000, One-BEDROM UNITS needed to have a minimum of 19 Square Feet for Clothing, Coat, and Linen Closes, but by 2016, that Number HAD been SLASHED to 12 Square Feet.) Apartments in New Development Rentals have also been shrinking over: The median Square Footage for one-Bedrooms in Broclyn and Manhattan Fell by Roughly 9 Percent BetWeen 2005 and 2024, According to the Real-Estate Date Firm Urbandigs. Given the Space Crunch, Surging Construction CostsAnd Ever-Increating Rents, Developers May Be Trying to “Maximize Unit Count” and Ultimately Prioritizes “Marketable” Square Footage in Apartment Layouts at the Expens of Closets, Says Urbandigs Co-Founder John Walupi.
What that trade-off means for the renters looking to pay $ 3,600 a month for a junior one-bedroom loft in Stuyvesant Heights or $ 4,600 for a terraced one-bed in greenpoint is that the seagus bonus Square Footage in their Living Room Will Likely Be Occupied by an Ikea Pax System. “I Walked ino Some of the Our Value Rentals after they’re Occupied, and we open the kitchen Cabinets and SEE sweaters and jeans,” Says Architect Ariel Aufgang, Whose Firm Luxlopments al-Witffordable and Middle-Incom Housing. “People Need storage. The amout we can build in new York City in any parcel is Being Held Back by Strict Loning Laws, so that is allowing for gracious apartments.”
Another thing that may be eating ouring our closets: Landlords, Apparently Responding to Pandemic-Era whims of Renters and Likely Sensing an Opportunity to Charge A Premium, Have increasingly saying uss. Washers and Druers. Then there are the Other Buildingwide Amenities that Require their Square Footage, Both Practical (Gyms, Conference Rooms) and Over the Top (virtual-Golf simulator, Movie Room). “The Focus for a Lot of Developers was home-officer amenities for work and living in your space, and I think Maybe the closets have been compromised a bit,” Says anthony Morena, a principle at the firm Mortar Group. One Prospective Renter was so torn over chooking a prewar one-bedroom with “tons” of closet space or a smaller, new-government apart with in-unit laundry and a balcony that they have they TURNED TO REDDIT for Help. (“We’d be giving up a lot of Space, but i am leaning the laundard in unit for sura,” They wrote.) Jason Haber, a Compass Real-Astate Agent, is less conflicted about a choice: “Closet Schmoset, give with the wash.”
Similarly, Many renters May Be Ready to Go Without a Closet iferynding Else About the Place Looks Decent (or if they JUST RUN OUT OF Steam Marathon Viewings). Sam Raskin, A Communications Strategist, Left What He Described As an Auging, Roach-Infasted Building in Prospect-Flene Gardens in 2021 for A Brand-New Development 15 minutes Away, “Literally the Shiny New Object,” he tells. The One-BEDROM Apartment on Clarkson Avenue Has a Few Things Going for it (Central Air, A Huge Terrace, No Bugs), but his unit also a washer-perfect, leaving hym with just one usable closet. IT Fits, he Says, “Maybe Five Jackets.” To get by, he’s installed cloting racks in his bedroom, one of which collapsed. “New York City’s Housing Crisis is so Severe People will take anything they can and if Developers think that they can get away with that, they’re probably right,” he says. “It sucks for the rest of us.”
One renal in a one-bedroom in a pricey new carroll street stuffed the vestibule outside her apart with a shelving system to containe doses of shoes and a foam roller, while linking the stairwell leading to the roof with a tower of plastic bins and suitcase, and bags. (Okay, Maybe some of us just need less stuff?) Another person in the same building has packed her $ 3,000-a-month one-bedroom’s Single Closet with so many shoes, bags, coats, suitcases, and linens that she cans shut its. “As you can see, i’m busting out,” She Says, Having Just Lugged a Package of New Amazon Shelves up the stairs. She’s notified the Building Has High Turnover, which partly blams on the landlord exorbitant rents for places that are soh at best. “They don’t take time or put any though into. “I raissed my bed. I built shelves.
Other Closet-Deprived renters have taken a less cluttered approach to their homes. “People have their realreal specialist on Speed Dial every season,” Says Compass Broker Phillip Salem. And for those unable (or unwilling) to pay the monthly fee for the manhattan mini storage or a cage in their building, there’s always mom and dad. Wold they Mind Holding on to this Box of Sweaters UNIL Fall? “A lot of my clients have family in upstate new york or on Long Island or in New Jersey,” Salem Says. Theree’s also an Entire tiktok Genre to consult for storage ideas. “If you don’t have closet space, this is what you have to do,” one guru says nor she Weaves What Appear to Be Christmas Decorations ino Her Bed Frame.
As for my Own Search, after spending two months checking out Bleak lisings, we pounced on a prewar one-bedroom near prospect park. The 1,100-Square-Foot Space Had Good Light, Cabinets on Both sides of the Galley Kitchen, and a Bedroom Big Enough for A Bed, Nightstands, and a desk. The final thing that has had us ready to sign on the Spot? Four closets.
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