New York Magazine published a similar themed piece about Starchitects and their possible added value (or not).  I am all for architecture representing progress and being an expression of our society. Hopefully it pays respect to the past and takes us a direction in the future that we can be proud of in the years that follow.

A friend of mine’s father lived at Lexington and 89th Street in a rent stabilized apartment about ten years ago and paid more for his parking spot in the building than he did for his home! A useful tool to understand garage rates throughout New York City revealed that you can pay as much as $1,200 a month to park on either the Upper East or West Sides. I am sure a number of residents of these areas are paying less than that for apartments with stabilized leases.

As outdoor lots and older garages fall prey to development and parking availability dwindles, skyrocketing prices are sure to remain a reality for those that must drive. Not long ago, private spaces in a few CORE Group Marketing projects sold at unheard of prices. Is the advent of the half million dollar parking spot not far away?

The world at large is flattening and our mechanisms of communication have evolved. Not since the Alexander Graham Bell era, more than 130 years ago, have we seen this extent of innovation. The internet has allowed pioneers to navigate through unchartered territories. Lockhart Steele is one of those pioneers. In a few short years he has created Curbed.com, which has become one of the leading industry (and non-industry) related blogs. Love it or hate it, you can’t ignore it. I sat down with Lockhart in West Soho and discussed his creation, opinions and vision.

THE INTERVIEW

Shaun: Where did you grow up?

Lockhart: I’m a Massachusetts native.

Shaun: Did you go to journalism school?

Lockhart: I didn’t actually. I went to Brown. I’m a little older than I look. I’m actually 34. I graduated in 1996. I moved to New York immediately, so this is my 12th year here. I’m almost being accepted as a New Yorker.

Shaun: Why did you start Curbed?

Lockhart: Well, I’m a journalist by trade. I used to work in magazines and I love to write. At my core I’m a writer and I started writing on the web. I had my own personal website back in 2001. I live on the Lower East Side at Rivington and Ludlow Streets and I started writing about the neighborhood in 2001. It was right in that period of very fast transformation. 71 Clinton Fresh Foods opened, Schiller’s was just opening and the whole neighborhood was really changing. Everyday there was a new bar, a new restaurant. Lots were being sold, buildings were going up, and I started writing about this because it fascinated me. What I found was that people in my neighborhood discovered the site and started reading it. Because the stuff I was writing about was too minor to ever appear in NY Times even on the bottom of page B7. It’s just the stuff that is happening in your block is fascinating to you. It might not be with the bigger media. So I did it for a few years and I had the idea that it would be fun, the way I chronicled the changing of that neighborhood, to do for all of New York.

Shaun: When did you start Curbed?

Lockhart: I started Curbed in spring 2004. First and foremost my inspiration for the whole site was really to chronicle neighborhoods, and of course so much of what happens to neighborhoods in New York is tied to real estate. First and foremost, Curbed is about the neighborhoods of New York and telling the stories of the neighborhoods of New York. I am now in Los Angeles, San Francisco as well. Each of these cities is neighborhood driven. We tell the stories of how these cities are evolving and changing and what are they in the process of becoming?

Shaun: So it’s not only real estate related?

Lockhart: Some of my favorite stories on Curbed are the really stupid ones. Like, there’s a guy selling meat from the back of the truck in Park Slope. You know there are certain stories that make the site fun. People love to debate absurdities about neighborhoods. There’s so much happening in the real estate world in New York that obviously there’s a lot for us to write about and the site does end up being a lot about real estate. We have 2 full time writers who do most of the writing on the site and they’re both really funny, brilliant guys.

Shaun: Who goes on your site?

Lockhart: I think real estate for a lot of people is intimidating and scary, especially for those who have never bought a place before in New York, or if you’re renting. Curbed’s typical reader is actually about 15% from the industry. So 85% of our readers are Wall Street guys, lawyers, media people, people that sit at that their desk all day with a computer in front of them. People take a break from their job and they’re fascinated. A lot about what we try to do is write about real estate from a perspective of assuming that you don’t know what F.A.R. is, or that you don’t know what a 421a exemption is. Those are the kind of things we try not to talk a lot about on the site. If you’re just an average New Yorker, you don’t care about that. You care about why a developer can build a tall tower next to me. New Yorkers are smart, so we can be smart and we can be funny. We don’t want to bore them with a lot of the gory details, which is very appropriate for a trade magazine like The Real Deal to really dig in because it’s being read by brokers and people, this is their business. Curbed is foremost entertaining. People read it because they find it amusing. They love architecture and they want to see what’s going to be built next door to them.

Shaun: Where do you get your stories from?

Lockhart: We get our stories from three places. One of course we’re always keeping an eye on, is what everyone else is writing about. A lot of what we do is link. We want to make Curbed the place where if there’s a story about the New York real estate world published anywhere, we’re going to find the link to it. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the Dubai Daily Paper or if it’s on an architecture website or if it’s anywhere else. But the thing that makes the site, the second place we get our information, is our editors doing their own reporting. The third place, that’s probably the most interesting, is the relationship we have with our own readers, which is pretty crazy. We have readers who send us hundreds of emails a day.

Shaun: And how do you filter everything?

Lockhart: The way it works is: a typical kind of email we would get is “Hey Curbed, I was just walking down 11th Avenue in Chelsea and I was checking out the progress on three new developments and here are some photos I took”. And what’s amazing is these are people we don’t know who are so fascinated by the way New York is evolving. They love their city and they will take the time to take these photos and write us an email. A lot of the stuff we get is questions which become the stories for our editors to investigate. A lot of them are really great and our readers are doing the reporting for us. So our editor’s job is to track all this information, sift through and decide what we think the readers want to read today. You have to have a big bullshit filter and it’s surprising people always ask me; “How are you sure you’re getting this stuff right?” and I say we certainly make our share of screw ups (laughs). There is no question about that.

Shaun: So, how do you control the quality?

Lockhart: Blogging is a different way of doing journalism. I used to be a reporter and when I was going to do a story, I would make ten phone calls and I’d write 1,000 words and it would probably be published in the New York Times (or whatever) and that’s the end of the story. If I got something wrong, then I’d run a tiny correction on the bottom of the page a week later. The way we do it on Curbed, you get a little story tip from a reader, we hear this happened; we kind of throw it out there. We make sure if it’s something obvious or scandalous or it seems like it’s probably too good to be true we always check that stuff out. That’s what I mean about having a good bullshit filter. We have the fundamental assumption at Curbed that our readers know more than we do.

Shaun: So you think that’s a filter in and of itself?

Lockhart: Our readers know more about real estate than we do. We want to bring that knowledge out in to the open. That’s what the comments section on Curbed is. It can get crazy at times, but it’s the internet. People go off the handle, but I think more often than not the information that pops up in the comments is from people who know. Some of them will pop up and write a two paragraph comment about the entire history of the property. Obscure information that you would only know if you had developed that property or if you were so plugged into to it that you would know these crazy details. We’re never going to know that.

Shaun: I guess the genius of it is that you’re able to harness the power of all your readers.

Lockhart: That’s it. What makes us great are the readers sending us these tips and commenting. You know, a lot of ways we’re a conduit for the reader. We don’t know what we are going to write about tomorrow.

Shaun: Which I guess it’s a double edged sword, because you do have readers who have an agenda.

Lockhart: Of course.

Shaun: I guess that’s the entertainment factor.

Lockhart: Absolutely. As long as we’re always clear on what information comes from the readers, what information we’ve vetted and what information we are putting out there essentially unvetted, and we try to be good about that. Like I said, I assume people that read our site have a functioning brain. And they also have the ability. I think more often than not we get it right. That’s the power of this medium. It let’s information rise up.

Shaun: According to Quantcast, you get 2.5 million paged viewers per month.

Lockhart: That’s on Curbed New York

Shaun: And over 800,000 unique visitors.

Lockhart: That’s right.

Shaun: What do you attribute that traffic to? I don’t think you do any marketing?

Lockhart: We never started any marketing.

Shaun: That’s amazing.

Lockhart: It’s pretty crazy. It blows my mind to be honest with you. I mean this is something I started as a hobby and it’s just grown. Now I run it as a business. But four years ago I literally started this thing because I thought it was going to be fun.

Shaun: So how good of a business is it?

Lockhart: In the last year and a half I decided, like, oh shit! I should quit my job and do this.

Shaun: What were you doing at the time?

Lockhart: I was a magazine guy then I used to run the website, Gawker. I was the managing editor at Gawker media. I didn’t do any of the writing over there, but I was mostly responsible hiring all the writers. Gawker turned itself into a wonderful business. Nick Denton who runs the show over there is an incredibly smart guy. And I learned a lot about web publishing and how to turn a highly trafficked site into something that can actually make some money. It was only a year and a half ago that developers, a lot of developers, were discovering Curbed. And we started getting emails, Hey, can I advertise with you? Sure. And suddenly the site was making some money.

Shaun: Has anyone ever offered to buy the company?

Lockhart: We have had someone, but not that big. My mom has offered $20 for the whole enchilada. The summer of 2007 I started this full time and we built a team and we took a little bit of investment money last summer and this year we finally feel like we are set up now. 2007 was about turning what was a hobby into a business and now 2008 is a lot about getting out there in front of the industry in New York. I went to L.A. for two weeks. Curbed L.A. is not as big as New York. It’s about half the size.

Shaun: You have San Francisco, L.A. Is Miami one of the target cities? Are there any other cities?

Lockhart: We want to do Chicago next, because it’s another great neighborhood city. People in Chicago are obsessed with their neighborhoods. You know Miami, I love Miami. I think what we are going to do there is what we’ve been doing this site in the Hamptons in the summer, called The Beach. I think we’re going to re-do it – we haven’t even announced this – but you can put the information out there. We’re going to do a new version of it and launch it on Memorial Day. Cover the Hamptons really obsessively in the summer and then in the winter it’s going to be sort of like high end resort spots. Aspen, South Beach, Hamptons, you know kind of like Jason Binn’s magazines.

Shaun: Do you think blogs and online media is killing print?

Lockhart: I don’t think it’s killing print. So much of what we do is symbiotic with print. If we didn’t have all these print things to link to I think Curbed would be very diminished. I see the two of them kind of merging. I think print is dying on its own.

Shaun: Why?

Lockhart: It costs a lot of money to buy paper to run these giant presses. Then you print this thing and then it has to be delivered all over town. You have to put it in the mail and spend postage money. To get a new magazine for profitability you have to be making from 3 or 4 million bucks a year to cover your cost of printing and marketing. On the web we spend 5 grand a year on our servers. We’ve compressed that entire thing to 5 grand, which means we can run a lot leaner. Curbed is a small business obviously, but we run really lean. We’re sort of at that hungry boot strapping stage of any business. I’m sure you’ve been there.

Shaun: Yes I have.

Lockhart: You’re obsessed about your expenses. You’re obsessed that every penny really matters. You can’t eat lunch at fancy places like Giorgione 508.

Shaun: In order to have credibility in journalism, you have to be impartial. Once you bring advertising into that equation does it change? If a developer is paying you $10,000 to run a banner ad is there a conflict of interest?

Lockhart: I think there is. You can say the same things about magazines and news papers. Any media that accepts advertising has the potential conflict of interest if you don’t build your company the right way. We’re obsessed with making sure our editors have the right to write whatever they want. The first magazine I ever worked for was run by an entrepreneur who made a lot of money in the business. He said you serve your readers first and if your readers start to feel we’re pulling punches or that we’re favoring one guy over the other guy, readers are going to be like, “Fuck you Curbed.” We’ve had some big developments advertising on Curbed where we’ve gotten emails from someone moving in complaining, “Hey, the roof leaks here,” and we run that. I’m happy so far that the developers that have advertised with us kind of get that. Blogs are happening.

Shaun: You’ve grown exponentially very quickly. Where do you see yourself in two years?

Lockhart: I think a lot of what we have to do right now is expand what we started. I don’t think we’re going to see Curbed in twenty cities. We want to focus on the big cities where there’s enough going on everyday to warrant a daily news segment.

Shaun: Are you interested in venturing out internationally?

Lockhart: I think Sydney we’d love to do. That could be a couple of years out. I’m a news guy. If we could afford twice as many editors right now, I have tons of ideas of things we could be doing.

Shaun: What daily news do you read, watch or listen to?

Lockhart: I’m a newspaper guy. I’m the one that buys newspapers. I read The Post and The Times religiously every day. I can’t start my day without a newspaper. I use a piece of software that lets me follow about 400 blogs everyday if you can believe that.

Shaun: How do you think the web has revolutionized our world? We are clearly in a revolution as powerful in my opinion as the industrial revolution?

Lockhart: First of all I think it’s a hell of a lot of fun. In my world the web has brought so many people together. I met so many friends through it. I chafe at the idea when people say oh, the web is making us all hide in our rooms alone. I think it’s helping us be more social than ever.

Shaun: What’s next?

Lockhart: Here’s what I would really like Curbed to do next. I have a vision for the next few years. I don’t know exactly how we can do this, but something we’re thinking a lot about is finding ways to let people interact with each other on the site more than they do now. Right now we’re kind of topped out. We’re kind of old media in that we have writers that do all the writing and fact tracking, which is fine. I don’t want to lose that. What I can see is the site getting deeper. What if we can create some better tools?

Shaun: I look forward to seeing it.

THE INTERVIEW:

Shaun: Where do you live?

Alex: Hudson Street in Tribeca.

Shaun: You could live anywhere in the world. Why have you chosen to live downtown Manhattan?

Alex: First of all, New York is by far the greatest city in the world. New York has something to do anytime of the day for anyone in the world. It’s the financial capital of the world, one of the entertainment capitals and it’s the world’s melting pot. People from all over the world come here for a reason – this is the world’s greatest city. People can make a life in New York they couldn’t make anywhere else. That’s why New York is so magical. I look at my father who came from the former Soviet Union and knew that he had to go to New York. He didn’t say “I have to go to Chicago”, he didn’t say “I have to go to LA”, he didn’t say “I have to go to Miami”, he said “New York”. In the former Soviet Union they said New York was a city where the streets were paved with gold. There’s a reason they were saying that. If you look at New York City history, it’s had its downtimes, but compared to the rest of the world it’s really been a city in its own league. There are few cities in the world (London in the last couple of years, and Paris) that offer what New York has, and it’s a 24 hour city. I think the most energy anywhere in the world is happening in Manhattan, and Downtown New York City is by far the most vibrant exciting place to be.

Shaun: You talk about New York and the history of New York and the fact that it’s always been in international melting pot and destination. Where do you see New York 10 years from now?

Alex: I see it with a continued growth. I think that one thing financial services have provided is its innovative way to create new products and keep being innovative across-the-board. Wall Street is what drives New York. Wall Street is what drives the economy. So I think whatever downturn we’re seeing right now, we’ll figure out how to be innovative and create new products and create new ways to drive the economy again. I see New York only continuing its growth. There is not a bad part of New York City anymore. People remember New York City in the 60s, 70s, and 80s when there were a lot of bad neighborhoods. You don’t see that anymore. You’re going to see a really modernized city, a mega city that is not comparable and there is no other city that can do what New York can do.

Shaun: Just as New York is an innovative city, you are a developer who is innovative in a number of different ways. This is reflected in the projects you’re developing. The Trump Soho hotel condominium you are developing with Mr. Trump and Bayrock is the first of its kind downtown. It’s going to be the tallest building in the neighborhood. This has obviously been controversial, but whenever you have innovation there’s always going to be controversy. A lot of people are afraid of innovation, even though the city is famous for it. What led you to be this innovative with respect to this particular site, and build a hotel condominium?

Alex: Well, thank you. What has helped me develop as an individual is growing up in a loving family and having traveled a lot. I’ve been to so many places in the world. Some rich, some poor, and some somewhere in-between. Before the early 90s my family wasn’t poor, but we weren’t very well off, so whether it was getting in the car driving to Vancouver or Montréal, my parents always took us to different places. They wanted us to see different cultures and how different people live. I have always traveled, seeing different surroundings, seeing how people interact with each other. This has expanded my mind to want to do things in real estate. When I looked at this site in Soho with no height restriction, I realized that Soho and Tribeca downtown have been known to be cool, but have never had a luxury product to point to. There are a couple of hotels (that I won’t name) that are well known hotels, but none of them are known for their luxury. I think that the way the world has gone, with the world’s wealth being such a substantial part of real estate, we wanted to build something that was not only luxurious but in its surroundings cool. You can’t beat a luxurious product that is cool, and in a cool neighborhood. It was really the point to marry the two concepts together, and I think that’s done through design and done through the different amenities and elements that we have created. When the building is built, it will be known as the premier hotel in the city and I think it’s going to be known for being “the luxurious cool place”.

Shaun: Do you think this building will stand the test of time? How do you see this building 10 years from now?

I think in 10 years people will be talking about it just as much as today, probably more. It will be even more established and I think that it is an irreplaceable asset. I don’t think there will be any other 45 story five-star cool hotels being built anytime soon. That’s what makes Manhattan real estate so valuable. New York City has no room to expand. We’re not building any Palm islands, like they do in Dubai and Manhattan is an island. That’s why you’re seeing the outer boroughs get more expensive as well. They can’t build to meet the demand that New York City has. The need to be close to New York City is driving the outer boroughs. What’s happening in New York City is this resurgence of people that once left the city to move to the suburbs are now coming back, whether it is to live or spend two or three days out of the week here. There’s an urgency to be in New York. People are now working 24/7. It used to be you worked your 9 to 5 job and the day was over. But technology, (the Blackberries), has enabled people to do more business. The hours that they are doing business are really endless and more flexible. The point is to be close to New York regardless if you have a place in Connecticut or Montauk. Wherever it is, you still want to have a place in New York City. Or if you have a home elsewhere to have a place to hang your hat temporarily in New York City is a great thing to have.I think it’s necessary for anyone who comes in to New York once or more a week to work. If you have a late-night and you’re out with clients and you don’t feel like driving home, you can go into your luxurious suite and stay there for the night. If you’re married and you want to get away from the kids, you can bring your wife to your place and have a romantic weekend. Having a place in New York isn’t about just real estate, it’s about your identity, and I think that’s what Trump Soho is. It’s an identity. It’s not just bricks and mortar.

Shaun: You Mentioned the 90’s before you were as successful as you are today. I remember selling real estate in the 90’s at $400 a square foot. It’s the year 2007 now and we’re seeing deals in excess of $6,000 square foot. Where do you see that trend in the next five years? Do you think the market has peaked?

Alex: No. In the 90s, $1 million was a lot of money. $1 million today is still a lot of money but it doesn’t have the same value as it did in the 90s. And in the 70s $1million dollars was really a lot of money. I think you’ll find in the next 10 or 20 years $1 million will have less value. Real estate is a long term hold. You have to have the staying power, and if you want to hold real estate, what you buy for one dollar today is going to be worth a lot more later on.

Shaun: Let’s shift gears to another project you’re doing downtown which I think is equally as innovative. The project you’re doing with Andre Balazs and Larry Davis. It’s innovative because of the amenities. It’s almost hotel-like but it’s strictly a condominium. It’s also the only ground up residential development in the neighborhood, which is a very historic. The numbers are showing a huge success on that site, but I guess at the time you purchased it, the project was considered a risk. Is that the nature of your business?

Alex: If I’m not being called crazy in some part of the day then I’m not having a good day. The financial district is the financial capital of the world. You have the major financial institutions on Wall Street and you have this resurgence of young people going there. We followed that trend and we said “You know what? We’re going to build a really luxurious building in what has become New York City’s hottest market”, and it’s been proven, through its sales and the numbers we’re achieving that we are right. That building is so special because of its design and the ambience created through the amenities. Having André and Larry as partners has been a great added value. This is a residence. This isn’t a hotel, but it has a hotel-like amenities. Again, it’s all about the vibe of what we try to create. The development process takes a long time. The construction process is probably half the time of the development process and throughout the whole thing you surround yourself with creative innovative thinkers and the final product should be creative and innovative. I think we’ve had incredible teams on both projects that have led us to develop premier assets in New York.

Shaun: The majority of the industry and non-industry people will consider the two projects you are working on to be the two iconic projects in Manhattan at this time being built. Let me shift gears a little to the commercial side of the business. How many square feet of commercial space does the Sapir organization own, control and manage?

Alex: We currently own over 7 million square feet. One of the first properties we bought was 2 Broadway, which is the MTA headquarters. We bought that building in a very depressed time of real estate in New York. At the time we signed the largest single lease in New York City history and the building now stands somewhat as a landmark in the city. You see it in a lot of movies. Some people don’t realize that they are actually looking at 2 Broadway which is the building that’s in front of the Bull in Bowling Green. We own 100 Church St which we actually just signed a big deal with Niche Media.

Shaun: Congratulations.

Alex: Thank you. Signing the Niche Media deal was an important image for the building and it proves that Downtown is real. After the tragic events of 9/11 everyone was saying “Don’t touch downtown”, but we had some really great leaders in the city saying, “We have to rebuild and we have to build it better than it ever was”. Thanks to people like Larry Silverstein and the other leaders in this city, and thanks to our government, downtown is here today, and it has a huge presence in every aspect of the economy. You have Goldman Sachs building their headquarters. There are major tenants moving downtown and the World Trade Center will be a true symbol of what America is: strength and versatility. We’ve only been around since 1776 and we’ve seen so much. We are still a young country and we have a lot more to prove. We’re a superpower and we have to continue to be super power, and having New York City as an anchor proves how great we can be. We are there but, we still have a long way to go.

Shaun: I have met many successful second generation entrepreneurs who are living the American dream. You have a very strong work ethic. What do you attribute that to?

Alex; It all comes from my childhood. My father drove a taxi for 19/20 hours in a day. When he had his electronic store he was there for 18 hours a day. He used to take me to work with him on the weekends and watching him come to this country with $80 and do what he’s done, it would be a shame for me not to have the work ethic that I have.

Shaun: What advice would you give to someone who is looking to get into the real estate market now whether it is a developer, or just a regular buyer?

Alex: Call Shaun Osher, (laughs) you can quote me on that.

Shaun: Thank you. Other than your father, where do you find inspiration from?

Alex: My love for life is an important thing and my love for my family. I really am blessed because I enjoy what I do. If you don’t enjoy what you do, you can change it. At the end of the day you need to feel every time you sleep and every time you wake up that you’re happy. I find a lot of inspiration from that. Being lucky enough to be able to go travel the world and see different things and see how small the world really is. As many miles away as the city is, the world is really small and it keeps getting smaller. If you’re a business leader, you must give back a portion of what you earn to those less fortunate out there, and the only people that can help them are people with the means. The more people you help, the smaller the world becomes, and the closer to people you become. I try to let everything inspire me. I try to surround myself with great people, great partners, and live life to be happy.

Shaun: Where would you like to see yourself 10 years from now?

Alex: On a beach with long hair. No seriously, I think you will find me in New York, I love New York. I will always have a presence here. On the business level, I obviously want to expand our portfolio, expand our reputation, be known as one of the top names as a Landlord, Developer, Manager, and Business Person in the industry and have a real brand loyalty. On a human level, continue to do the things that my family has been known to do. It’s really growth, expand on what we are doing today, and continue to be happy, surround ourselves with good people, and enjoy the treasures of life.

Shaun: What is next in the pipeline? Is there anything imminently in the future that you’re working on right now that you can discuss?

Alex: Well, I just signed a deal in Miami. I can’t talk too much about it, but it’s a small deal, but it’s a deal with a lot of character. The size of a deal is important, but character and other great traits are really important and important to our brand. It’s going to be luxurious and it’s going to be cool. It’s going to be fun and it’s going to be what Miami needs. It’s going to bring on things that Miami doesn’t have. That’s all I can talk about. Other major markets, whether it’s nationally or internationally there is still great potential. Bringing the world closer and taking our name to become a household name. And working with Shaun Osher more.

Shaun: Thank you.