Last Wednesday, New York City’s Central Park Conservancy hosted “Central to Spring”,  a kickoff event to welcome the new season at the Park. Residential buildings surrounding the Park, including One Museum Mile, hosted residents and guests for cocktails and hors d’oeuvre as a way to support the Central Park Conservancy and celebrate spring in one of the world’s greatest parks. In addition to the gatherings within each building, guests were invited to watch a fireworks display that took place within Central Park.

Guests at One Museum Mile mingled on the building’s expansive rooftop before heading down to see two units of the 18th floor that housed live music in one room, and a preview screening of the building’s appearance on Selling New York in the other. One Museum Mile’s sales team members, Tom Postilio, Natalie Rakowski, Parul Brahmbhatt, and John Harrison were all present to toast to the season and join in the celebration. Click the break for a look inside the event. (more…)

This week’s question: How do you improve a space with viewless windows?

The CORE Agent verdict: When windows don’t provide views, create a visually pleasing scene inside.

Agents are often tasked with finding a beautiful apartment with views, but not every home comes with stunning vistas. A lack of views can be a major obstacle when selling an apartment but there are ways to draw the attention away from what’s missing and focus on the positives of the space.

An eye-catching ceiling light elongates the space and draws attention inward.

Patrick Mills suggests “making the interior living space the center of attention.” With out natural light an apartment can feel dark and uninviting but if you can think creatively there are ways to brighten a space. Patrick stresses the importance of a cultivating a fun and welcoming atmosphere, “whether it’s using interesting lighting choices or adding candles, there are always way to make viewless properties seem brighter and more energetic.”

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This past Thursday, brokers, potential buyers and residents gathered on One Museum Mile’s roof to celebrate the new season in style with the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band. Sales team member Tom Postilio welcomed guests to this soulful celebration noting that the building is now over 40% closed and in contract.

Attendees sampled the best in gourmet comfort food with bites from The Culinistas and some seriously decadent hot cocoa from Godiva. Guests were invited to tour One Museum Mile’s model residences and amenity spaces, where seeing the sun set from an apartment overlooking the park was a special treat.

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When is a stager not necessary? When an apartment is already a work of art. That’s the case at the massive Flatiron District loft at 32 West 20th Street just listed by CORE’s John Harrison and Kirk Rundhaug. The 4,000-square-foot space was the home and studio of Lenore Tawney, who turned weaving into fine art and helped create the fiber art genre before passing away in 2007 at the age of 100. The Wall Street Journal reports today on Tawney’s live/work studio hitting the market, pointing out that the $3.95 million co-op is an artist’s loft in the truest sense of the term. Who says the best art in the world is only hanging in museums?

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HGTV’s “Selling New York” follows along with CORE agents as they navigate the country’s most competitive—and compelling—real estate market. Here’s our behind-the-scenes look at Episode 311, which first aired on August 25, 2011. For more SNY epilogues, click here.

In this week’s episode, “Seeing is Believing,” SNY alum Maggie Kent partners with fellow CORE agent John Harrison to help a young client, Vanessa, navigate the intimidating Manhattan real estate market as she searches for her first apartment. After losing a competitive bidding war on what Vanessa thought would be her dream apartment, Maggie and John had to tackle the challenge of picking up the pieces and starting the apartment search all over again.

Continue reading for some exclusive behind-the-scenes information about what happened after the cameras stopped rolling and what didn’t make it into last night’s episode of “Selling New York!”

1) Initially, John began showing Vanessa apartments in the $700,000 range, but could quickly tell that she wanted more out of an apartment. Maggie called the apartment hunt not a process of elimination, but rather “a process of addition,” stating that the more apartments Vanessa saw, the more items she added to her wish list. CORE’s experts ended up showing Vanessa around 60 apartments in total. John said that the more options a client sees, the better able he is to meet their needs.

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