Construction of 535 West End Avenue, that is the condo with an asking price of $14 Million for an apartment with seven bedrooms, is progressing. Even thought the real estate market, stock market US and world economies have tanked,  at least for the moment, I have not heard of any change in their offering price.

535 West End Avenue Under Construction by Jeff French Segall

The Upper West Side Campaign Against Hunger food pantry is located across the street from the condo. This is a city of contrasts.

This afternoon, a GothamGirl correspondent went to the Church of St Paul and St Andrew in order to help out in the West Side Food Pantry located there. He reported that The Collegiate School donated 200 cases of frozen hams to be distributed to needy neighborhood families for the holidays, and that another school, The Heschel High, arrived with many students to help stock the pantry’s grocery shelves, and to help out with other tasks.

GothamGirl understands that the developer of 535 West End has donated to the pantry in the past and we hope that this generosity continues.

Stocking the Shelves of the West Side Food Pantry by Jeff French Segall

The pantry operates on a budget of about $2 million per year and serves 300-350 families per day with food for their homes. The pantry depends on the generosity of donors.

So much is needed in difficult times, and the pantry has had problems keeping up with needs. Remember them when thinking of donating and volunteering.

A new residence is being built on the corner of 86th Street and West End Avenue (by Extell), which can’t be ignored. It will be 22 stories and have one apartment per floor of about 8500 square feet each (!) I hope this finally gives people enough room for closets. Also, each unit will have extra sized kitchens making it very attractive for families that keep kosher, if that indeed is the builder’s intent on this avenue with a large Jewish population.

Each apartment will cost about $14,000,000. So much for a real estate slump, not here! I am sure the units will be sold and probably very quickly too.

This is an ideal location, close to Riverside Park on the Hudson River, one block from Broadway shopping and transportation, on WestEnd Avenue.

West End is a quiet, old world, elegant avenue lined with pre-war, doorman buildings. On Shabbat and Jewish holidays, families stroll to the local synagogues. The building height matches the surrounding buildings and the size and price of each unit is in it’s own category. There is nothing else like this to my knowledge on this avenue.

Most interesting is that diagonally across the street from this incredible building is the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, which is a small, liberal Methodist congregation dedicated to possitive interfaith and social action. It also houses the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, a supermarket style food pantry which helps provide food for about 900 needy families per year. Also, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun (West 88th Street) meets in this church for Saturday morning services and for holiday overflow services. The church building is in poor shape and the congregation hopes to renovate and sell it’s air rights to secure income for it’s future, a plan that has been opposed by some community groups.

Perhaps the future condo owners of 535 West End can be convinced to become respected community neighbors by keeping the needs of the pantry in mind. This season the shelves became quite bare and the local synagogues and churches asked their members to donate (checks not food) in order to restock the shelves. Helping to support this pantry certainly would cost the new owners only a fraction of the cost of a small closet and would do a great deal of good for the needy and for their respect in the neighborhood.

 PS: See the comments for more about the neighborhood and the UPDATE AND PHOTO on the March 20, 2008 posting.