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TriBeCa is expensive but filled with family-friendly amenities

TriBeCa is a small, peaceful neighborhood with beautiful buildings and plenty of family-friendly amenities.

It is also one of the most expensive places to live in Manhattan.

In 2015, the median sales price in TriBeCa, which is short for the “Triangle Below Canal Street,” was $3.69 million, according to the listings site StreetEasy.

To put that in perspective, the median for the borough as a whole last year was $985,000.

The median rent in TriBeCa was $5,900 in 2015, StreetEasy found, while Manhattan’s was $3,195.

But the hefty price is worth it, according to Tony Lorenzo, a former real estate broker who has also been a guide with Walk NYC Tour for 30 years.

“[Residents] have a lot of money,” he said. “They can live anywhere. They choose to live here.”

With just a stroll through the area, it’s easy to see why.

TriBeCa boasts beautiful cast-iron architecture — like the Cary Building at 105-107 Chambers St., which was built 1915 — along with art deco and beaux arts-style iron balconies, brick walls and decorative exteriors.

And though it’s in bustling lower Manhattan, its wide streets and sidewalks give the neighborhood a spacious feeling.

“It’s noticeably different from the rest of [Manhattan],” said Lorenzo, who moved to TriBeCa in the fall of 2001. “Walk into Times Square or Rockefeller Center or SoHo, and you know you’re in the city — the streets are congested — but the moment you creep into TriBeCa the weight of the city is off your back.”

It also as a surprising amount of green space for such a tiny nabe, from Washington Market Park on Chambers Street, which has multiple sports courts and hosts free concerts, to the smaller Duane Park by Hudson Street.

Residents of nearby areas head here to dine and shop.

Mom-and-pop businesses are common, such as Torly Kid, a children’s apparel and accessories shop at 51 Hudson St., and The Mysterious Bookshop at 58 Warren St., though chains are also available, like American Apparel at 140 W. Broadway and Target at 255 Greenwich St.

“There are some great places to eat, like Takahachi,” a Japanese restaurant at 145 Duane St., added Jessi Kurland, 30, a six-year resident who works in fashion. “They know my and my husband’s names. They have our order down — I love their tofu steak, their salmon avocado hand rolls.”

Due to its plethora of amenities, it’s no surprise that TriBeCa is a popular place to live for young families and professionals who work in the Financial District.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, half of the tables in Landmarc, a French restaurant at 179 W. Broadway, were filled with parents and children.

A few minutes away at The Odeon, a bistro at 145 W. Broadway, there was a sign offering stroller accommodations.

Fred Mwangaguhunga, 42, moved to TriBeCa six years ago to raise his family.

“They have a lot of good schools and daycare,” in the neighborhood, Mwangaguhunga said on a recent afternoon after shopping for a birthday gift at Boomerang Toys, an educational toy store at 119 W. Broadway. “It’s so family-friendly. It’s almost like you’re living in the suburbs.”

It would be, if it weren’t for TriBeCa’s urban-chic housing stock, which consists of co-ops, condos and mostly luxury rentals like 11-story Powell Building at 105 Hudson St., which was built in 1920.

“The [residential buildings] tend to be really large,” noted Susan Rosenberg Jones, a sales broker with Citi Habitats and area resident since 1984. “You get a lot of lighting and big windows with great views because they’re old factories turned into loft buildings.”

And although it can be pricey to live here, Jones said those who can enjoy plenty of peace and quiet.

On the weekends, a lot of people go away. You could walk around in your pajamas and be comfortable,” she said. “You go to different neighborhoods in Manhattan and it’s very busy on the sidewalks. In Tribeca, it’s like a small town.”