THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2020 MBRE 11
Tucked behind the playhouses along Broad-
way, Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan has long
attracted theater people. For Holly-Anne
Devlin, a 37-year-old producer and director,
the relationship began when she studied
theater at the Fordham University Lincoln
Center campus, one block north of the
neighborhood’s West 59th Street border.
Ms. Devlin lived in rented walk-ups, includ-
ing a tiny, dark loft that she and her two
roommates called “the bat cave.”
Now, in addition to having worked on
Broadway shows, she owns production
companies that have toured with entertain-
ment like “Wine Lovers: The Musical.” Two
years ago, she bought a one-bedroom apart-
ment in a high-rise on West 42nd Street. She
paid $770,000 for it, an estate-sale bargain,
she said, that was appraised in January at
$925,000.
“I was pleased, and then this happened,”
she said, referring to the coronavirus pan-
demic, which has hit this neighborhood
harder than most. “I had 111 employees, and
I had to lay everybody off.”
But in “show must go on” spirit, Ms. Dev-
lin created the Hell’s Kitchen Happiness
Krewe, which pays performers to visit
restaurants and other small businesses to
help bring in customers. Over the summer,
she also organized, with Marisa Redanty,
the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Action
Committee, which has worked with the po-
lice and other organizations to bring more
safety measures to the area, where many
homeless people are now housed in hotels.
There has been some pushback from resi-
dents about the homeless situation, said
Corey Johnson, the speaker of the New
York City Council, where he represents the
district that includes Hell’s Kitchen. Ms.
Devlin, he said, is a “really good community
activist” in what has been a “welcoming
neighborhood to the vulnerable.”
Community engagement came to Chana
Widawski while she sat on the steps of the
building where she has lived for nearly 15
years, in a rent-stabilized apartment. “I met
the person on the next stoop,” who encour-
aged her to join Hells Kitchen Commons
and the West 45th and 46th Street Block As-
sociations, linked groups. She has orga-
nized swap events, food-scrap collections,
outdoor film screenings and other events.
Ms. Widawski, who works at Transporta-
tion Alternatives in the financial district
(she commutes by bicycle), said Hell’s
Kitchen “still felt like an old-school neigh-
borhood,” when she first moved there, espe-
cially along her row of tenements.
There were “more mom-and-pop shops,
more affordable groceries, more character,”
she said. “Now there are more chains, more
bars and more high-rises.”
LIVING IN HELL’S KITCHEN
An Old-School Neighborhood Adapts to Changes
By AILEEN JACOBSON
In recent years, Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan has added several high-rise condominiums and rental buildings. Ninth Avenue, above, is lined with restaurants and stores.
KATHERINE MARKS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
THE NEW YORK TIMES
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What You’ll Find
Stretching from Eighth Avenue to the
Hudson River (busy commercial thorough-
fare to sublime park) and from West 59th
to West 41st Streets (sleek Time Warner
Center to scruffy Port Authority bus termi-
nal), Hell’s Kitchen is a jumble of contrasts.
In recent years, it has become “more at-
tractive and more diverse on every level,”
said Steven Gottlieb, an agent with War-
burg Realty. “It has this really interesting
balance between the best of East Village
grit and the artsy, intellectual West Side.”
For many years, rentals in walk-up tene-
ments dominated. But recently, chic new
buildings have brought wealthier residents,
Mr. Gottlieb said, many feeling priced out
of the West Village or Chelsea. “It is
cheaper,” he said, “but not as cheap as
people think it is.”
The building boom is continuing, said
David Chang, the sales director of Bloom
on Forty Fifth, an eight-story condominium
at the corner of 10th Avenue. Studios start
at $750,000.
What You’ll Pay
Like much of New York, Hell’s Kitchen had
huge spikes in inventory in July, August
and September, said John Walkup, the chief
operating officer and a founder of Ur-
banDigs, a real estate analytics website.
Only 14 contracts ($14.2 million in sales),
were signed in September, a big drop from
the 26 contracts, representing $43.6 million
in sales, for September 2019.
At the end of October, 231 Hell’s Kitchen
apartments were listed for sale on Ur-
banDigs. The least expensive was a studio
in a 1929 co-op at 457 West 57th Street,
listed for $255,000; the costliest was a
five-bedroom penthouse in the Time
Warner Center, at 25 Columbus Circle,
listed for $62.5 million.
Of the 378 apartments for rent, the least
expensive was a studio listed for $1,400 a
month; the most expensive was another
penthouse at the Time Warner Center,
offered furnished for $59,500.
The Vibe
West 42nd Street is home to many Off
Broadway theaters, including Playwrights
Horizons and Signature Theater Company.
All are temporarily closed because of the
pandemic.
Restaurant Row, on West 46th Street
between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, has
been a hub for theatergoers and now caters
to local diners. Ninth Avenue has emerged
as a center for lively gay bars.
“Hell’s Kitchen now probably has the
biggest L.G.B.T.Q. concentration of any
neighborhood in the city,” said Mr. Johnson,
the City Council speaker.
Hudson River Park winds along the
waterfront and provides paths for walkers,
runners and bicyclists. The Intrepid Sea,
Air & Space Museum (open for limited
visits now) is on Pier 86, near West 46th
Street. DeWitt Clinton Park, between West
52nd and West 54th Streets, is the neigh-
borhood’s largest park east of 12th Avenue.
Other smaller parks dot the area, including
Hell’s Kitchen Park and Ramon Aponte
Park.
The Schools
P.S. 51, the Elias Howe School, at 525 West
44th Street, has 467 students in prekinder-
garten through fifth grade. According to the
2018-19 School Quality Snapshot, 41 percent
met state standards in English, versus 48
percent citywide, and 47 percent met stand-
ards in math, versus 50 percent citywide.
P.S. 111, the Adolph S. Ochs School, at 440
West 53rd Street, has 407 students in pre-K
through fifth grade. On 2018-19 state tests,
52 percent met state standards in English,
and 49 percent met them in math.
P.S. 212, Midtown West School, at 328
West 48th Street, has 339 students. On
2018-19 tests, 78 percent met state English
standards; 75 percent met math standards.
The Commute
Among the subway lines that stop in or
near the neighborhood are the A, B, C, D, E,
N, R, Q, S, W, 1, 2, 3 and 7.
The History
In the mid-1800s, Hell’s Kitchen was home
to slaughterhouses, lumberyards, ware-
houses and factories, according to the New
York City parks department. Many immi-
grants moved into the area to work at the
factories, and some formed rival gangs. By
the 1960s, civic leaders seeking to improve
the area’s image began referring to it as
Clinton, after a family that owned property
there in the 19th century. Most residents,
however, prefer Hell’s Kitchen.
350 West 42nd Street,
No. 37D
A three-bedroom, two-bath-
room condo with floor-to-
ceiling windows, panoramic
city views, an open kitchen
and a washer-dryer, in a 2007
building with a doorman, a
pool, a gym, a children’s
playroom and a courtyard,
listed for $2.295 million.
917-960-8524
310 West 52nd Street,
No. 12B
A two-bedroom, two-bath-
room condo with floor-to-
ceiling windows and a
washer-dryer, in a 2007
building with a 24-hour door-
man, a live-in super, a fitness
center and a terrace, listed
for $2 million. 917-821-9613
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