Applications are piling up for the chance to live in the city's first building of micro-apartments. NY1's Michael Scotto filed the following report.
Inside a building in Kips Bay, construction workers are putting the final touches on some of the city's tiniest apartments.
The 10-story apartment building on East 27th Street opens in February, with 55 super-small apartments ranging from 260 to 360 square feet, dimensions that make the average Manhattan studio - 550 square feet - seem palatial.
This is an experiment launched by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to determine if micro-apartments can help to ease the city's housing crunch. The building needed a waiver of zoning rules prohibiting new units smaller than 400 square feet.
"People are living in small well-designed spaces all over the world," said Tobias Oriwol of Monadnock Development.
At first glance, some New Yorkers don't appear to mind cramped living. Sixty thousand people have applied for the 14 apartments set aside for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, with rents starting at $950 a month.
There is nothing teeny tiny about the rest of the rents. They will be market-rate, some fetching $2,900 a month.
The construction of this building here addresses the fact that more and more New Yorkers are choosing to not get married. It's estimated that about one-third of all households in the city are comprised of single adults.
So far, the de Blasio administration is embracing micro-living. It's considering a permanent zoning change so more downsized apartments can be built.
"What the smaller units allow you to do is to actually buy or rent less space - just as much space as you actually you need - rather than get more and try to scramble and find roommates or people you're going to share with," siad Jerilyn Perine, executive director of Citizens Housing and Planning Council.
Some of these units will come with amenities, but with fewer than 400 square feet, sharing does not appear to be an option.