180 Water Street, 1918

Quick Profile

The Financial District (FiDi) today is a bit of a hybrid neighborhood, as the residential component continues to grow in an area that has been historically dominated by the financial and insurance industries. The residential experiment, which began more than two decades ago, continues to evolve in an area with a large concentration of older, large office buildings. Developers have taken to these aged buildings and have re-positioned them as residential properties. In turn, the public spaces, services and retail establishments needed for a thriving residential neighborhood have followed making this an important destination for city residents.

Since 2000, the residential population of the Financial District has nearly tripled in size from about 23,000 residents to more than 60,000 inhabitants. Many of the residential pioneers to FiDi were people attracted to the lower rents in the neighborhood, particularly the post-collegiate crowd. While the millennials still maintain a large footprint here, there are plenty of families that now consider the Wall Street area home. 

Many of those that live in the Financial District walk to work. If you reside here and need to commute elsewhere, the transportation from here is about as good as it gets. Express trains can take you to Midtown, either east or west, in twenty minutes. Brooklyn is but a single subway stop away. There are also ferries across to Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.