It was about the lifestyle, the commute and the “killer view” for one Westchester County couple.
Michael Matthews, a shareholder and former head of digital advertising technology firm Interclick.com, was on the cusp of becoming CEO of Aspen University in Denver when he and wife Nancy Matthews seriously contemplated their living condition.
“When you run a really big company, you have to be mentally sharp when you”™re talking to shareholders and investors and customers,” he said.
From the door of his northern Westchester home to his Flatiron office, Michael Matthews each day spent two hours per leg commuting. The couple”™s home was “equidistant” from the Mount Kisco and New Canaan, Conn., train stations at 30 minutes each way.
Now, from the 51st floor of the couple”™s newly rented Chelsea digs at luxury residential development The Beatrice, the Matthews call the neighboring Empire State Building and sprawling Manhattan landscape their second home.
Cutting back on an arduous commute bought Michael a mental break, too.
“Now that I have the opportunity to get up in the morning, work out and walk two blocks to work, I feel like a million dollars.”
The Matthews”™ pied–Ã –terre in Manhattan serves as their weekday dwelling place. They lock it and return to Westchester on the weekends.
The space in-and-of-itself is the main draw. Residents get a taste of the high-life, complete with panoramic sky lounge and concierge services.
“I had girlfriends over when Michael was traveling and we just sat, had wine and talked,” Nancy said and gestured to the view around her. “We didn”™t even have to go anywhere. This was our entertainment.”
While the city is the couple”™s playground, their primary residence in Westchester is their way to reconnect with the countryside, akin to the English landscape they called home during the years Michael built Agency.com overseas.
“The renter of the luxury property wants to be in the location and may not purchase, but is sort of investing in the location itself,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel Inc., New York City-based real estate appraisers and consultants. “We see consumers renting in a totally new market just to get the lay of the land and becoming a buyer a year or two down the road.”
The Matthews”™ two, college-age children will likely work in fashion and finance in the city when they finish their degree work, Michael said.
He added: “We”™re definitely going to buy an investment property here within the next year or two.”
Kerry Fedigan-Cid, vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, called the purchase of a pied–Ã –terre a smart investment, as it simultaneously provides living quarters for the new graduate entering the business world “with the hope that the parent will ultimately have it to use at a later date.”
But luxury properties are equally attractive to the young executive renting for oneself to the empty-nester looking for the full-amenity experience.
“It”™s people who are looking for a certain quality lifestyle,” said Evan Stein, president of J.D. Carlisle Development Corp., developers of The Beatrice, which was 98 percent leased at press time. “It”™s about the product you provide appealing to somebody who wants a higher standard of living.”
Diane Levine, senior vice president at Sotheby”™s International Realty in downtown Manhattan, said the trend of the purchase of a pied–Ã –terre comes in spurts.
“When the financial markets tend to be doing very well, we see people who will buy a place in the city and keep a place in Westchester,” she said.
However, her brokerage has seen more homeowners selling their home “because the kids are grown and they decide to move back into the city.
“It”™s not so much the business executive who doesn”™t want to commute back and forth to their home,” Levine said. “Even if they did do it in the past, it was more of the Connecticut people because maybe it”™s a little further”¦ the whole Wall Street commute back and forth to Connecticut.”
