Street-level hangout and viewing room
Location and Prices
90-92 North 5th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; $550,000 for a one-bedroom to $900,000 for a two-bedroom duplex
Description
With its sights on the Brooklyn hipster instead of the midtown golfer, this 24-unit building guns for the young buyer with a street-level gym and a library–television lounge. Thanks to ten-foot windows fronting the street for a good 50 feet, you can monitor the ebb and flow of bright young things without braving the elements. (And they can monitor you.)
Great or Gimmick?
Even hipsters obsessed with the authenticity of the Williamsburg street scene might tire of pounding the treadmill and watching The O.C. (ironically or otherwise) in a fish tank.

Private wine cellars
Location and Prices
26 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; $450,000 for a one-bedroom to $1.3 million for a three-bedroom penthouse
Description
After children and pets, wine may be New York’s Most Pampered Accessory. With a private, secured cubby in your building’s 1,100-bottle cellar, you can treat your Silver Oak and Petrus with the respect they deserve.
Great or Gimmick?
If you’re this finicky about your wine, maybe you’re not ready for Williamsburg.

Courtesy of Rubenstein Associates

Super-automated parking garage
Location and Prices
One York Street; $750,000 for a one-bedroom to $15 million for the three-bedroom penthouse
Description
Instead of handing off your keys, you drive into a parking bay, exit the car, and swipe a card; a robotic system of lifts and carriers slots your car into its own pigeonhole. Then, when you return and swipe again, your car is automatically extricated. No attendant, and therefore no stinky Seinfeld scenario.
Great or Gimmick?
Weirdly fun, and anything that packs one more parking spot into Tribeca is useful. But at $150,000 per space?

Related:

• Archive: “Real Estate”
• Articles by Katie Charles
• Table of Contents: Nov 7, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!