Chelsea

Location: Chelsea is located in Midtown Manhattan, between 14th and 34th streets, west of Sixth Avenue.

Character: Formerly a warehouse district that bleeds into the now-hot Meatpacking District, Chelsea started transforming in the early 1990's when club kids would flock to the area to legendary parties at The Tunnel, Limelight (and before that Twilo) or Avalon. The infamous Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street attracted rock stars, writers and creative minds of the 60's and 70's and is currently still a functioning hotel (as well as luxury condos with a lengthy waiting list). From the late 1990's, art galleries started moving from SoHo to the less-expensive areas in Chelsea. Now, over 350 galleries are located in the area spanning from around 30th to 15th Streets and mostly far west, from Ninth Avenue to the West Side Highway. Now almost completely gentrified, Chelsea has become an upscale neighborhood with bistros, luxury apartments, art galleries and designer boutiques.

Chelsea is quite uneven architecturally - there's no single block that can be called "typical". There are three major "types" of buildings: the brownstone type, the "housing project" type, and the "industrial/loft building" type. All three are mixed here in roughly equal proportions.

Demographics: Seventh and Eighth Avenues are extremely gay-friendly, with cafés and shops sporting rainbow flags of tolerance. Further west are live/work artist studios, and newly renovated luxury high-rise condos inhabited by gallerists, financial professionals and young families. Chelsea has several housing projects, mostly in the north-central section of the neighborhood.

Apartments & Real Estate

New doorman high-rises have begun springing up along the neighborhood's west side as well as along Sixth Avenue and near the Highline, while historic brownstones and town-homes create a quaint neighborhoody feel along the side streets.

Selected Rental Buildings

• 777 Sixth Avenue (Chelsea) [10 available no-fee apts]
  A modern high-rise concierge building offering a gym and laundry facilities. The apartments have high ceilings.
• Archstone Chelsea (800 Sixth Avenue, Chelsea) [11 available no-fee apts]
  A high-rise concierge building offering a gym and a garage.
• The Beatrice (105 West 29th Street, Chelsea) [16 available no-fee apts]
  A modern high-rise concierge building offering a gym.
• The Carteret (208 West 23rd Street, Chelsea) [19 available no-fee apts]
  A pre-war mid-rise doorman building offering laundry facilities. The apartments have high ceilings.
• Ten23 Apartments (500 West 23rd Street, Chelsea) [9 available no-fee apts]
  A modern mid-rise concierge building offering laundry facilities. The apartments have high ceilings.

See all Chelsea Rental Apartment Buildings (118 buildings)

Selected No-Fee Rental Listings

See all Chelsea No-Fee Rental Apartments (105 total)

Condo & Co-op Buildings

• 555 West 23rd Street (Chelsea)
  A two-tower (12 and 15 stories, respectively) luxury condo building. The building includes 14,000 square feet of on-site parking and approximately 11,000 square feet of on-gra....
• The Caledonia (450 West 17th Street, Chelsea) [3 available no-fee apts]
  A modern building with 190 condos in the main tower and 288 rental units in the 8-story wing.
• Loft 25 (420 West 25th Street, Chelsea)
  A mid-rise doorman elevator condo building offering a gym. The apartments have high ceilings.

See all Chelsea Condo Apartment Buildings (49 buildings)

• 221 West 21st Street (Chelsea)
  A low-rise elevator building.
• The Marais (520 West 23rd Street, Chelsea)
  A modern mid-rise doorman building.

See our list of Chelsea Co-op Apartment Buildings (24 buildings)

Additional Links

Please note that the site(s) mentioned below are not affiliated with NYBits

• 23/Jun/2011: Clubs No Longer Aces on 27th Street (Wall Street Journal)