Neighborhood Chatter: Hudson Park River Snacks, Manhattan Rental Market Report

By Jessica Mastronardi New Park Snacks Come spring, Hudson River Park will be offering new food and drink options throughout the park. According to the recently released Request for Proposals, which will be open until March 15, the West Side park is looking for bids for seven new food carts and trucks to be located in various locations including Battery Park City, Hell's Kitchen and Hudson Square. These new additions will more than double the six mobile food vendors currently operating in the vicinity. According to DNAinfo.com, the Hudson River Park Trust is interested in certain vendors that offer food and drink at affordable rates. Specifically, they want vendors that charge $2 or less for at least two items. The Hudson River Park Trust is hoping that not only will the low prices improve visitor satisfaction; the monetary increase from monthly fees will help with the projected $80 million deficit. Hudson River Park is looking to have these mobile vendors up and running by May 1. Manhattan Rental Market Report Real estate brokerage firm MNS has released its January 2013 Manhattan Rental Market Report. MNS specializes in the sale, rental and marketing aspect of residential properties in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the report focuses on market summary, inventory analysis and trend prices. As far as downtown neighborhoods are concerned, Soho, Tribeca, the Lower East Side and Harlem yielded the most interesting finds. In terms of average prices, Soho was ranked most expensive for non-doorman studios, and one- and two-bedrooms in doorman buildings. While the non-doorman studios were most expensive, rent for doorman studios in Soho had the second largest decrease in all of Manhattan. Tribeca was ranked most expensive for non-doorman one- and two-bedrooms (even with a 1.9 percent decrease in two bedrooms) and for doorman studios. While Tribeca's doorman studios had the highest mean studio rental prices in all of Manhattan, the rent price for non-doorman studios had the largest decrease in Manhattan by far at 32.9 percent due to a 43 percent fall in inventory. Soho and Tribeca were the only two neighborhoods in Manhattan to experience a crisscross of studio price trends between doorman and non-doorman, and both switches happened between this past December and January. Doorman studios on the Lower East Side had the highest price increase in all of Manhattan at 26.1 percent. The yearly basis average increase shows that rents were raised by $225 or 8 percent. In the past month alone, rents were raised $207 due to a fall in inventory. If you want to live in Manhattan, this report shows that Harlem is the place to be. It was ranked least expensive in all of Manhattan and experienced a drop in rent of at least $49 across all studios, one bedrooms and two bedrooms. One-bedrooms in both doorman and non-doorman buildings experienced the highest drop of $78. "Rents are lower in this area compared to other desirable places in Manhattan, so any renters interested in going uptown should not wait around," MNS said in its statement.