EMERALD CITY Darryl Grant on the roof deck of his building in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He recently paid $20,000 for one of three 200-square-foot rooftop cabanas there. TO escape the frenetic pace of city life, Troy and L. Camille Thornton need only slip out through the glass door of their bedroom in SoHo. There, tucked away on an expansive deck, sits a verdant garden of rose of Sharon, lavender and andromeda, along with Hinoki cypress, Japanese maple and cherry trees, artfully displayed in jardinieres and wooden planters.
L. Camille Thornton uses her terrace in SoHo almost like a second living and dining room. She also exercises there. "Every morning when I wake up, I look out at the garden, and it gives me peace," said Ms. Thornton, a vice president of Atlantic Records who helped design the 400-square-foot urban oasis outside their two-bedroom condominium at 65 Thompson Street.
Her husband, an executive at Goldman Sachs, had mostly ignored the space when he lived there as a bachelor. "I couldn't wait to move in," she said, "so we could finally use it!"
Her husband, an executive at Goldman Sachs, had mostly ignored the space when he lived there as a bachelor. "I couldn't wait to move in," she said, "so we could finally use it!"
There was a time when Adelaide Polsinelli was as enthusiastic about her terraces. She has two of them in her four-bedroom co-op overlooking Washington Square Park, at 2 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village, where she has lived for nearly 17 years.
But her need for outdoor space has diminished as her three sons have grown up and their lives have become busier. She and her family rarely use them now (and many of her neighbors don't use theirs, either). The benches and hammock and outdoor toys her boys played with languish, "dusty and dirty," she said.
The funny thing about private outdoor space in the city is that some people who have it use it, others don't, but most people seem to want it regardless and are willing to pay extra for it.
"It's a prestige thing, almost like a trophy," said Ms. Polsinelli, a real estate broker at Besen & Associates. "I guess people are looking for and expecting more because apartments are commanding such high prices."
Lisa Maysonet, a senior vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, agreed. "People want that big wow, and that usually means three things: a view, a fireplace and outdoor space," she said.
But outdoor property you can call your own — be it a garden, patio, terrace or even a balcony — remains a coveted commodity in limited supply, at least in the crowded environs of Manhattan. The homes that have these amenities come on the market less often than those without, and when they do, they typically sell at top dollar, and often quickly, especially at this time of year, real estate professionals say.
"Basically, outdoor space has become rare," said Jacky Teplitzky, a veteran broker and an executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman. The inventory tightened over the years, she said, in part because developers in recent decades had concentrated more on maximizing indoor space and in part because owners have held onto these prize properties longer. Of course, zoning and design constraints have also affected supply.
Only 10.9 percent of all residential sales in Manhattan last year included units with some type of private outdoor space, down from 14.4 percent in 2000 and 18.3 percent in 1995, according to the appraisal company Miller Samuel. "The drop suggests that the properties with outdoor space — more likely large space like terraces and gardens — have a longer holding period and do not turn over as often," said Jonathan J. Miller, the company's president.
But the supply appears to be slowly expanding now as more developers — many of whom are catering to an increasing number of families choosing to stay in the city but still wanting suburban-style amenities like yards — are incorporating generous and often innovative outdoor designs into their buildings.
Last year, 9.4 percent of all sales in new buildings in Manhattan were units with private outdoor space, up from 8.2 percent in 2000 and 6.3 percent in 1995, according to Miller Samuel.
There were also twice as many terraces, which occupy buildings' setbacks, as there were balconies, which are usually smaller and project outward from the facade, Miller Samuel found. Ten years before, the ratio was reversed, it said. "Balconies are not as functional, except maybe as a place to store your bike," Mr. Miller said. "They seem to have fizzled out as an amenity."
At least, it seems, in new high-rises. "There are a lot of people who are afraid to go out on their balconies if they're dangling high in the sky," said Louise Phillips Forbes, a senior vice president of Halstead Property. She said she had not found that objection at 296 East Second Street, a new five-story condominium that she is marketing for Baruch Singer, the developer. All but one of the eight units, which range in price from around $600,000 to $1.785 million, have some type of exterior space, she said.
Throughout the city, there are residential developments and projects in the pipeline incorporating exterior layouts and designs, which, the developers assert, are as functional as they are fanciful.
"It's important to integrate that exterior to match the content, format and aesthetic inside the apartment," said Josh Guberman, the chief executive of the Core Development Group. His Union Square Lofts at 10 East 14th Street will include organic materials like walnut paneling that are carried onto the terraces and decks. Four of the seven apartments will have outdoor space.
Adelaide Polsinelli has two terraces but used them less as her three boys got older.At the new 120 Gramercy Hill building, at 120 East 29th Street on the border of Murray Hill and Gramercy Park, more than half the 25 condos have outdoor space. Eleven have private terraces or balconies, and six ground-floor apartments have private gardens. "We try to include as much outdoor space as possible because people like to have it — it expands their living space," said Kenneth S. Horn, the president of Alchemy Properties, which developed the building by combining five brownstones. The apartments, now sold out, were priced at $675,000 to $2.4 million.
Mr. Horn's current projects include 50 West 15th Street, where 21 of the 47 units will have some type of exterior space, and the Lookout Hill Condominiums, at 199 State Street in Brooklyn Heights, where 10 of the 45 units do.
At another new project, 36 duplexes at 101 Warren Street in TriBeCa will have large terraces, and 72 apartments will have glass-enclosed loggias, many overlooking a "forest" of 101 Austrian pine trees at the center of the complex. The 228-unit condominium is being developed by Edward J. Minskoff.
At 10 West End Avenue, a 33-story glass tower with 173 condos, all the apartments from the 14th floor up and a few units on lower floors have a balcony or a terrace. Prices range from $750,000 to $4.5 million.
"We had these great views, and it would be crazy not to take advantage of that," said Andrew S. Cohen, a partner in Apollo Real Estate Advisors, the developer. Because of the building's West Side location, at 59th Street, many apartments have panoramic views of the Hudson River.
The views are not the only advantage to being on a high floor. There is also less air and noise pollution to contend with, which may help to explain why some people who live on lower floors, like Natalie Litman, who has a terrace in Greenwich Village, rarely use their outdoor space.
"I'm on the fourth floor, and everything gets so dirty from the cars," Ms. Litman said, "and in the summer it gets extremely hot."
Developers, too, are aware of the benefits of a stunning view or a whiff of fresh air. "It's very valuable space — you get a premium for them," said Gary Barnett, the president of the Extell Development Company. At the company's latest building, the 32-story Avery on Riverside Boulevard, on the Upper West Side, about 5 percent of the condos will have private outdoor space.
For builders, exterior space comes at a price. "It is so hard to provide, and much more costly to design," Mr. Barnett said, noting, among other things, various building and zoning regulations.
Not surprisingly, many developers choose to work with existing buildings with ample setbacks. Rooftop development is common, too, and many buildings slice up portions or sell usage rights to residents, sometimes in addition to those living in the penthouse units.
Darryl Grant, who owns a one-bedroom at 101 Wyckoff Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn, recently paid $20,000 for one of three 200-square-foot rooftop cabanas. They are little more than open wooden structures, but he sees plenty of value in his.
"I get a panoramic view of the entire East Side of Manhattan — I can see the Verrazano-Narrows, the Williamsburg Bridge," said Mr. Grant, a mortgage loan consultant who plans to spruce up his cabana with a retractable roof.
Just how much of a premium buyers can expect to pay for a patch for earth (or concrete) will vary greatly. Typically, apartments with private outdoor space get an extra 25 to 50 cents on the dollar per square foot, Mr. Miller said. (So at $1,000 a square foot, the average price of all Manhattan apartments right now, a 400-square-foot terrace could add as much as $200,000 to the price tag.)
Sometimes, though, depending on a unit's location in a building and the finishes offered, it could even match the interior price per square foot, Mr. Miller said.
But there are limits. "We tend to see a diminishing return if the size of the outdoor space exceeds the indoor space," he said.
At the Atelier, a high-rise going up on West 42nd Street, a one-bedroom with a terrace starts at around $820,000, versus $770,000 for one without a terrace; a two-bedroom with a terrace starts at $1.305 million, versus $1.145 million without, according to Elad Dror, residential director for the Moinian Group, which is developing the 46-story, 478-unit condominium.
Even renters can expect to pay more. "I would say that we charge an extra $500 a month per apartment with a terrace on our rental apartments," Mr. Dror added.
Some developers are expanding the common outdoor areas in their buildings, by offering sundecks, basketball and volleyball courts, even a rooftop observatory, as at the Solaria, a 20-story condo under construction in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
But buyers like Rhoda and Peter Kunzler, retired stockbrokers who live in Holmdel, N.J., say they prefer having their own space, and they didn't mind paying extra for it. The three-bedroom, three-bath apartment with a 500-square-foot terrace, a pied-à-terre that the Kunzlers recently bought on the Upper West Side, cost $2.5 million, or $200,000 more than the larger three-bedroom unit (terrace not included) that they sold in the same building.
"We were dying for outside views," Mrs. Kunzler said. "I've been living in a house for so many years, and you're used to walking in and out. In the city, when you're in an apartment, no matter how spacious, you still feel closed in."
Ms. Thornton says she appreciates the privacy of the deck garden in her SoHo condo, which she uses almost like a second living and dining room. Her old two-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side, where she lived before she married, had a small balcony overlooking a courtyard, but she never felt alone there — thanks to the pigeons.
Now she can go out in peace and read the newspaper with a cup of coffee, have a glass of wine in the evening or even work out with her personal trainer.
Mr. Grant likes to exercise outdoors, too. He heads up to his cabana or the building's common roof area almost every morning with his yoga mat and dumbbells. Sometimes he just sits there soaking up the views, watching day melt into night.
"It's almost like having a vacation home," he said.
