The New York Times - USA (2020-11-15)

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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