Given all the attention that NYC real estate heads gave 8 Spruce Street, the game-changing new luxury rental building in the Financial District designed by Frank Gehry, it's something of a surprise that there are things about the building we don't already know. Any Manhattan real estate watcher can quote you the starting prices for studio apartments for rent at 8 Spruce Street -- around $2,600, if you were wondering -- and of course the name of the star architect behind this most well-observed of Financial District rental listings is right there in one of 8 Spruce Street's alternate names, New York By Gehry. But for all this celebrity luxury rental listing's sky-high profile, it's something of a secret that 8 Spruce Street belongs among on any list of green rental listings in Manhattan. And while that secret is out, there's also a reason why 8 Spruce Street isn't flacking its green building bona fides.

As we've written before, and proved time and again, the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog is secretly about food. Yes, we write about Manhattan rental apartments most of the time, but from the neighborhood-enhancing aspects of Shake Shack to the farmers markets of the Financial District, we will definitely write something about food when the time's right (or when there's nothing else to write about). Today, thankfully, our two usual topics -- food and Manhattan luxury rentals -- have come together in a bit of good news involving the green rental listings of Battery Park City. As Manhattan real estate heads know, many Battery Park City rental listings are green rentals, but the ones developed by Manhattan green rental superstars The Albanese Organization have taken green building a step further -- by actually providing access to fresh greens (and tomatoes, and beans, and corn, and potatoes) to residents of Battery Park green rental stars The Solaire and The Verdesian. The pioneering CSA-delivery program set up by The Albanese Organization is another reason why they're officially LRM heroes, and more proof that Battery Park City is one of the greenest and most appealing places to live in Manhattan.

When Christopher Albanese speaks, the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog listens. This is because Albanese's real estate development company, The Albanese Organization, has developed some truly extraordinary green rental buildings in Battery Park City: the Solaire and Verdesian. Two of the greenest green apartment listings in Manhattan, the Solaire and Verdesian were trend-setters in the burgeoning market for green rental apartments in Manhattan, and happen to be pretty beautiful buildings beside. Given your blogger's admitted soft spot for green apartment buildings, the Solaire and Verdesian are sentimental favorites of a sort, but the apartments for rent at the Solaire and Verdesian are also among the most popular rental listings here at Luxury Rentals Manhattan, so the favoritism isn't entirely sentiment-driven.