Chinatown: the last authentic neighborhood?

Lofts are uniquely Manhattan. This city didn't invent them, but New York City is what everyone thinks of when you talk about loft or loft-like spaces. Go through real estate listings in print and online, for property outside New York, and they'll read "New York-style loft space," or "just like a Soho loft."

Many developers, trying to make a quick buck and with little respect for design or architecture, have bastardized the loft. Brick walls are obscured by sheetrock. Newly installed windows are smaller than the originals. Ceiling heights are dropped. Authentic details are covered up.

That's not the case at 136 Baxter Street, a small conversion project on the edge of Chinatown but within blocks of the heart of Soho. The building, called The Machinery Exchange, was designed by Mark DuBois and Ed Rawlings, and conceived by the noted gallery owner Max Protetch. Protetch has been an influence on the New York art and design scene since the 70s and promoted early 'starchitects' like Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. What he's created at 136 Baxter is true to this city's roots, and there aren't many developers thinking that way.

The old Police Headquarters at 240 Centre Street, which was one of the first major loft conversions in the area and helped bring new, affluent residents to the neighborhood, remains one of the area's architectural gems. It's a spectacular building and a real anchor for the entire area, including the quickly-evolving retail.

New hotels are coming to the area. Until now, most of the hotels in the neighborhood have been small, unbranded properties catering to Chinatown's visitors--family or business. But recent plans for a new Mondrian Hotel at 150 Lafayette are yet another signal that this area has unrealized potential for building owners and retail and hospitality businesses.

Retail in this area is exciting, and very Manhattan-centric. Yes, Calypso seems to own every corner in the neighborhood (at the corner of Lafayette and Broome there seem to be endless Calypso-branded stores), but the retailer is so unmistakably New York that it's hard to be critical.

Lafayette Street is already poised to become this neighborhood's prime, prime retail strip, and I would expect prices there to hit $150-200 per square foot in the next 12 months.

Not quite Bleecker Street, but you get the idea. Right now, ground floor commercial spaces are commanding around $75-110 per square foot, depending on the frontage, but it's hard to track precisely what the spaces are going for, because Chinatown is an anomaly in this city.

Regardless, this is less about change than it is about a marked evolution, and when it's complete New York's Chinatown may be the greatest in the world.

BY IVAN HAKIMIAN, SENIOR SALES

ASSOCIATE, ITZHAKI PROPERHES