On Sunday October 9th we went to NY. Travel went smoothly and without anecdotes. We arrived, left things in the hotel (with its spectacular penthouse lounge that we had no time to visit) and we went for dinner (all the restaurants visited, here). Without exaggeration, from Monday 10 to Tuesday 18, virtually the entire time we were looking for apartments, visiting flats with and without agent, meeting with real estate agents, collecting information for signing the lease … and the first thing we noticed is that without a local phone, it was all much more difficult. Note for my next life: rent a phone upon arrival at the airport if I do something like this again (and if possible, with data, to view mails, maps, etc). Another thing that was needed was to open bank accounts (savings and checkings, both business and personal). We had to go 3 times, because there were missing papers, ID numbers, etc.. But in the end we succeeded. The main problem with the apartment was that we started looking for “an impossibility” (no-fee, good, nice, cheap … and in Manhattan!). By the time we realized we needed an agent, and then we had to raise the price limit, we had already spent almost half of the days available. In addition there were occasional “breaks” as having to visit an interesting prospect on Friday, or meet with immigration attorney in the spectacular Mandarin Oriental Lobby Lounge(Columbus Circle) on Monday.

View from the living room

In the end, after ruling out co-ops (because they demand a lot more paperwork, including personal interview, which could not be done since we had to return to Spain) we opted for 10 East 29th Madison Belvedere (between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue). Just before leaving for the airport, we delivered all the papers in PDF and now we must wait for verification by an outside company (On-site), which, in the worst case,will make us pay the full year in advance.

Sundeck

Compared to renting apartments, the office was very simple: since we knew we wanted the power and flexibility of a co-working space, we visited several. First Projective Space, which we liked a lot, but it was already full. Then General Assembly, which is very well organized but conveys too cool of a formula, almost forced. We did not like GreenSpaces (somber, silent, isolated…). We went through WeCreate (sad), and went a couple of times DogPatchLabs, which was not bad, but because we could not meet with Matt, we ended up settling on NewWorkCity: a very cool place, with energy, flexibility, where the atmosphere is playful, well located…Perfect! (if it wasn`t because the immigration attorney says that we will need a “lease of physical space”, so we might still need to rent a second office).