[Arthururban]

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/re...bway.html?_r=0

Yorkville Bets on the Second Avenue Subway

By C.J. HUGHES APRIL 8, 2016

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016...ine1050-v2.jpg

The eastern Upper East Side, a subway desert, is about to see the end of its drought. In December, nine years after construction of the initial phase began — and decades after it was first proposed — the Second Avenue subway is scheduled to open.

For Yorkville residents, who have endured dust, explosions and barricades while workers burrowed tunnels under their feet, and who make long slogs to Lexington Avenue trains, that moment will probably be joyous.

But those who live in apartment buildings between Third and York Avenues, as well as those developing new ones, may already be celebrating: Their property is enjoying new attention and price premiums, a trend that doesn’t bode well for buyers in search of bargains.

“The subway has totally changed things,” said Michael Lorber, an associate broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate at the Azure, a 128-unit condop at 333 East 91st Street and First Avenue, which began sales in 2008, the year the subway project started. In fall 2014, when Mr. Lorber and his team took over sales at the 34-story high-rise, developed by the DeMatteis Organizations and the Mattone Group, there were 25 unsold sponsor units. By late last month, he said, just three were left, at an average list price of $1,600 per square foot.