New York City, a global hub synonymous with exorbitant real estate prices, is witnessing the rise of a new ultra-luxury residential enclave poised to rival the famed Billionaire’s Row on 5th Avenue. This exclusive corner of downtown Manhattan is West 11th Street, particularly the coveted stretch between 4th and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. For years, West 11th Street has been an address of prestige, attracting notable figures from Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick to Liv Tyler and Rupert Murdoch. However, recent real estate transactions on West 11th Street signal an unprecedented surge in property values, potentially pricing out even affluent millionaires from this increasingly elite neighborhood.
In 2019, The Wall Street Journal aptly dubbed this section of West 11th Street a “power block,” recognizing the influx of high-profile buyers and significant renovations undertaken by individuals like Chipotle founder Steve Ells and Softbank CEO Marcelo Claure. Existing residents such as Melissa Schiff Soros, former spouse of George Soros’s son, and venture capital firm co-founder Stuart Peterson, further solidified its elite status. More recently, a Curbed report highlighted a trend of high-net-worth individuals vacating their newly renovated properties, often transformed from multi-family buildings, paving the way for even wealthier homeowners to claim their place on West 11th Street. Notably, in late 2019, Liv Tyler sold her West 11th Street residence for a substantial $17.45 million, a significant appreciation from the $2.53 million she invested in 2001. Similarly, in 2022, Vicki Been of NYU’s Furman Center of Real Estate and Urban Policy sold her townhouse for $18.8 million, realizing a considerable gain from her 2002 purchase price of $1.88 million.
Adding to the escalating desirability of West 11th Street, recent sales figures further underscore its ascent into the upper echelons of luxury real estate. Just last week, two more prominent properties on this street changed hands for impressive sums: $26.75 million for an expansive 8,000-square-foot townhouse and $15.9 million for a five-unit, four-story building. These transactions firmly establish West 11th Street as a domain exclusively for the ultra-wealthy, with the availability of rental options dwindling to near zero within this particular segment of the street.
Luxury brokerage Official co-founder Tal Alexander, in conversation with Curbed, suggested that renovated mega-mansions along this nascent Billionaire’s Row could command prices “in the $100-million-plus price point” if they were to be listed on the market. He specifically pointed to Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s combined townhouses, acquired for $34.5 million in 2016 and meticulously transformed into a unified property by architect Morris Adjmi, as prime examples of this potential. While West 11th Street may lack the towering skyscrapers that define Manhattan’s official Billionaire’s Row overlooking Central Park, this tree-lined, historically rich stretch—while technically Greenwich Village, embodying the spirit of the West Village—is rapidly becoming just as financially inaccessible to all but the top one percent of New York City’s population, solidifying its status as Manhattan’s newest, understated, yet equally extravagant, Billionaire’s Row.
