The downsizers picking Park Avenue over Palm Beach
Affluent empty nesters and retirees are trading square footage for slick apartments in the heart of New York
Neither the well-travelled path to Florida nor a retreat further into suburbia was the choice for fiftysomethings Pete and Tracy Ganbarg when they decided to downsize from the five-bedroom New Jersey house where they had raised their two daughters. Instead, in May 2022 they packed the bare minimum of their lifetime possessions — including Pete’s Grammy awards for his work as producer on the original Broadway cast recordings of Dear Evan Hansen and Jagged Little Pill, and a favourite Al Hirschfeld drawing of The Beatles — and with their dogs Benny and Roxie moved to a 15th-floor, three-bedroom apartment on New York’s Upper West Side.
With the help of interior designer Elizabeth Bolognino, they created a slick living space with art deco mirrors, original Slim Aarons photographs and antiques that sit well within the bones of the contemporary building they now call home. “Raising our kids in suburbia made sense, but once they grew up, we couldn’t wait to get back to where we’d lived 30 years before,” says Tracy. “New York keeps us young because there’s so much going on.”
Pete was president of A&R (Artists and Repertoire) at Atlantic Records before setting up his own company in midtown Manhattan, Pure Tone Music, and the downsize reduced his daily commute from a one-hour drive to a five-minute subway journey or 25-minute walk. Their daughters, aged 29 and 26, live 25 blocks away. “We go to restaurants downtown — the West Village has the best Italians — or across to Williamsburg, and it’s easy to get back to New Jersey to see friends,” he says. “New York can be tough. You have to like the grittiness and the 24/7 vibe but other than a back yard for the dogs, there’s nothing we miss, and anyway, we have Central Park two blocks away.”
This downsize-to-the-city trend is on the rise at the upper end of the market, says Eric Brown, co-founder of Elevated Advisement at Compass Brokerage. And one that is very much in focus in New York City. In the first week of October, 29 contracts above $4mn were signed in Manhattan, according to the Olshan Luxury Market Report.
“There’s strong energy from downsizers,” says Brown. “We’ve seen a 15 per cent increase in empty nesters opting to downsize to high-end buildings but with ultimately smaller footprints. As priorities shift and bedroom count becomes less pivotal, many look for a real life change. Empty nesters want to travel more, have time with their children and enjoy all the cultural and lifestyle benefits of the city.” The moves are both from suburbia and from out of state. The common thread? The yearning to be at the heart of action.
Prime downtown neighbourhoods for wealthy downsizers include Tribeca, with its low-level converted warehouses, the West Village, Soho and Chelsea, all of which offer the benefits of the “15-minute city”, says Brown. He suggests looking at 80 Clarkson, a soon-to-launch handsome limestone building by Cookfox Architects on an entire waterfront city block next to the Google office in the West Village, with 112 apartments.
The trend is something of a rollback. In the first year of the Covid pandemic, New York City’s population fell 4 per cent, in part as residents decamped to the attractive beaches (and equally attractive tax rates) of Florida. Prime property prices rose 113 per cent in Palm Beach and 82 per cent in Miami from January 2020 to Q1 2024, while NYC registered a 3.3 per cent fall in the same period, according to Knight Frank.
But in 2024, net migration to NYC from within the US grew more than any other US metro area, while the flow heading to Florida slowed significantly, in part due to the increasing frequency of natural disasters, declining affordability and RTO — return to the office. Despite tales of wealthy Americans hotfooting it to Europe in ever-larger numbers, overall NYC remains the global city with the highest number of residents with a net worth exceeding $30bn, their numbers growing 23 per cent last year. In the second quarter of this year, NYC outperformed Dubai for total sales value of super-prime stock, a total of $2.9bn of deals of more than $10mn, according to Knight Frank.
“In our experience, many New Yorkers who relocated to Florida during the pandemic soon realised they missed the energy and culture of the city,” says Renee Micheli, sales director at 53 West 53, a Jean Nouvel-designed 82-floor Midtown tower above MoMA which recorded NYC’s highest-value sale — $46mn — for the first week of October. “Our data shows that nearly half of all Floridian real estate investments in New York last year, about $141mn, went into high-end properties.”
Whether that trend might now reverse with the election of mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has pledged to raise taxes on the city’s millionaires, remains to be seen.
It’s by no means just Floridians making moves. Even New York’s Upper West Side was too “staid” for Dr Michael S Aronoff and his wife Dara Welles Aronoff. Well past retirement age and with his recent knee replacement, Michael is showing no signs of slowing down. He is clinical professor of psychiatry at NYU with a weekly national radio show; his wife is a former NBC broadcaster. Together they are self-proclaimed “gym rats” whose idea of a relaxing holiday is cycling around Vietnam.
In 2023 they downsized to One Wall Street, the artful conversion of the former Bank of America headquarters into 566 apartments. Sitting on the building’s wide restaurant terrace overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, Aronoff says their home has given them new vim.
“We would never have considered living down here 30 years ago when it was dead after work hours, but it has changed, and seeing the apartments and facilities — the gym, swimming pool, workspaces all set in a beautiful art deco building — we immediately decided to move,” he says. “We were among the first to move in and love it. The Upper West Side felt old and as we were getting old ourselves, we wanted something new.”
While their sixth-floor apartment is just over half the size of their Upper West Side home, the 10ft-high ceilings and open-plan layout make it feel more spacious. “My grandson lives in Manhattan so we get to see him and we travel everywhere by subway,” says Michael. “I was never without a car, but we don’t have one now and I don’t miss it because just about every subway line comes here.”
Living in New York does come with its drawbacks. Beyond the lack of space, residents face property taxes that are nearly double the US average. But, as Michael says, you can’t beat the fact that “there’s so much on the doorstep”. The recently built or refurbished buildings favoured by downsizers, with their high-quality services and air-conditioning for New York’s sweltering summers, also help.
Downsizing is rarely more dramatic than Nathan Fenton and Karen Nercessian’s move last year, when they swapped 1,200 sq ft in Jackson Heights, Queens, for just 350 sq ft in Gramercy Park. Fenton runs construction company HMH Inc, while Nercessian stepped back as associate vice-provost at NYU to set up Nomad Centre, a mental health private practice. While space is limited — especially with the addition of Leo, their energetic cockapoo — it is worth the proximity to their offices and their two adult children, who remain in the Jackson Heights house.
“Without a commute, I get two hours a day back, and I take Leo everywhere,” says Nercessian, 55. “We walk and bike and life is super healthy. I have time to enjoy the city, sit in the park, work out and go to concerts. We have the life we want. Being with people is so important, especially as you age. The suburbs can be so isolating.”
Helen Nitkin refers to New York lightheartedly as a “Norc”, a naturally occurring retirement community, for the opportunities it gives her. After co-founding an investment company in 1984 with her late husband Bradley, where she remains chief executive, four years ago she moved from a substantial home in Connecticut to a Park Avenue apartment. Now in her seventies, with a passion for photography, she is vice-chair of the foundation at not-for-profit Aperture Photography. Her elegant home, designed by Sandra Nunnerley, features works by James Casebere, Stephen Shore and Todd Hido.
“I live in an architecturally beautiful part of Manhattan on 73rd and Park in one of the prettiest sections, designed by [Italian-American architect Rosario] Candela. I’m eight blocks from the Met, three blocks from the Frick, Sotheby’s is around the corner and it’s an easy walk to Midtown,” she says. “One of the great things about New York is you can be part of a broad choice of communities. A sophisticated community is on a different level in New York, one of the world’s great centres for culture. It’s in the air.”