New York's Michael Idov picks apart the rental situation at an independently-owned 28-unit East Village building where Madonna rented back in the day. Rents range from $0 (for the super) to $2,600 (second-floor 2BR), with all sorts of sizes and prices in between. Consider Apartment 9, renting for $875/month:
“Three-bedroom” is actually an understatement: There are four rooms here, plus an honest-to-God antechamber. Destabilized, it would easily fetch north of $3,000 a month. This is, without a doubt, the most spectacular unit in the building: spacious, light-filled, with a bathroom done up in blue tile that wouldn’t be out of place in an Ian Schrager hotel. Since Brunschweiler did most of the renovations himself, he enjoys Weinstein’s good graces. “Whenever she needs to show someone an apartment,” he says, “she shows mine.”· The Berserkonomics of One Rent-Stabilized Apartment Building [New York]