2nd Avenue Subway…FINALLY!

Local news station NY1 has released some additional information about the groundbreaking to occur for the 2nd Avenue subway line in just a few weeks.  You can find an even more detailed description of the construction plan as well as a map of the line on the MTA’s website.  And New York Magazine writer Greg Sargent provides some excellent background and history of the project in his article The Line That Time Forgot.  NY1 reports:

In a few weeks, say MTA officials, they will award a $333 million contract to build what they call Phase One.

"This is real now, and it is happening,” said Mysore Nagaraja of the MTA Capital Construction Corporation. “And we are excited about it."

The line that will eventually be known as the T will be simply an extension of the Q train, at first, running from 63rd Street to 96th Street.

Now I have heard mixed feelings from all of those I know who make the Upper East Side their home and the reviews are mixed but with a greater number of people welcoming this project.  Like most of my friends and colleagues who live between 63rd Street and 96th Street, which is Phase One of the project to be completed by 2013, I believe that the addition of this subway will directly and positively affect real estate prices in the area.  Over the past 15 years that I have been in the real estate industry many of the "bargains" available have been on the Upper East Side in the Yorkville area east of 3rd Avenue.  In fact, as many New Yorkers know, this area has been home to many returning college graduates because of the good real estate values available.  Normandy Court on 96th Street has been dubbed "Dorm"andy Court for just this reason. 

I suspect that the addition of more convenient public transportation in this area will result in an appreciation of property values to levels that bring more parity to the surrounding neighborhoods.  Of course there will be some growing pains as the construction takes place but according to the MTA and those in the know, the "mole" as they call it that drills through the bedrock is so superior to any used in the past that residents in the area won’t hear or feel the digging.  That remains to be seen, but as many of us know, with pain often comes incredible growth and the fact that the day has arrived to begin completing a project that was last attempted in the 70’s is good news for all Upper East Siders.