.
4/10/14, "For New York City Doormen, Some Closed Doors," NY Times, Real Estate, Julie Satow
"Several
developers I spoke with said that hiring union employees raises a
building’s expenses by as much as 40 percent, which can translate into
much higher monthly common charges for apartment owners. Firing a union
employee who is not working out can also be more arduous.
Nonunion buildings include 231 10th Avenue, 245 10th Avenue and 200 Eleventh Avenue,
called the “sky garage” because it has private garages attached to each
of its apartments. The high-rise on 11th Avenue was recently in the
news as the home of L’Wren Scott, the clothing designer and girlfriend
of Mick Jagger, who took her own life there. The building has many multimillion-dollar units, including a penthouse that is on the market for $23 million.
.
Many
nonunion buildings either hire a third-party vendor who employs the
doormen and other staff, or, less frequently, hire nonunion workers
directly. Nonunion building staff members typically earn wages similar
to those of union employees, but often do not receive health benefits or
a pension plan, said Dan Wurtzel, the president of FirstService
Residential New York, a property management company.
“There
are plenty of buildings along the High Line with very large apartments,
but not very large buildings, so to keep costs down they will not hire
union workers,” Mr. Wurtzel said. While it is less expensive, there is
typically more employee turnover at buildings that do not have union
doormen, he added.
.
The
many new high-rise condominiums around the High Line that are nonunion
buildings illustrate a larger shift afoot. Not only have
new-construction luxury condominiums pushed prices ever higher here,
they have also seized much of the cachet that was once the sole dominion
of the city’s large co-op buildings.
In
particular, new-construction condominiums are a marked contrast to the
staid co-ops of Park and Fifth Avenues. These broad streets have served
for the last century as historic corridors of status, their understated
elegance and unionized doormen in gold-buttoned uniforms and white
gloves serving as globally recognizable markers of success."...
.
======================
.
Added: The High Line is "an area from
34th and 10th to 14th and 10th."
.
===================
200 11th Avenue shortly after Ms. Scott's death, Reuters via UK Independent. 3/17/14, "L'Wren Scott dead: Fashion designer and Mick Jagger's girlfriend 'found hanged' in NYC," UK Independent, Jenn Selby
.
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