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Rachel F. Elson Brooklyn New York rachelelson@yahoo.com 415-336-5262		From the New York Post October 4, 2003 Beyond doorman In a city still looking over its shoulder after 9/11, high-end buildings are turning to high-tech security. By RACHEL F. ELSON Gate-crashing is getting harder. In a city still looking over its collective shoulder two years after the 9/11 attacks, developers and building managers are boosting safety for residents and guests. Doormen are already de rigueur, of course, in New York's swankiest buildings, but lobbies now boast new video cameras and key-operated controls that restrict elevator mobility. The upgrades are a marketing tool, say real estate sources. "It sold me immediately," says Manhattan mother-of-two Kathleen Kelly, of the high security in Trump Place, where she's been renting for three years. The divorced actress, a Manhattan resident for 21 years, says she knew it was time to give up her doorman-free existence when a deliveryman was shot leaving her last building. At the five Trump Place towers on the Hudson River, security guards escort deliverymen and messengers to and from the apartments. Each of the towers also contains a security room in which guards can monitor video from the 300 or so cameras trolling the property's common areas. "When you come in, it's like a welcoming committee," Kelly says of the staff presence. "With kids, it makes sense to have that security when you come home." For landlords, one big challenge was ensuring that new tenants would make safe neighbors, says Douglas Wagner, president of Benjamin James real estate brokerage. "We thought it was tight in 1999 and 2000, but now the checks extend beyond financial . . . to personal background," he says. ñNow almost all the major landlords I work with do criminal background checks." At the same time, buildings have been looking at ways to tighten safety on the premises themselves, says Pam Liebman, president of The Corcoran Group. "After Sept. 11, security became a hot topic," she says. "A lot of buildings brought in security consultants and asked, ïWhat should we be doing that we aren't?' " "One of the things that's happening -- and it's a really good security system -- is that the doorman or concierge has control over the elevators," Liebman says. "If the concierge knows you're going to the seventh floor, he sends you to seven." Among the buildings Liebman cites is the landmark art deco Eldorado, on Central Park West, where a doorman issues elevator passes to everyone that enters the building -- whether resident or guest. The one-time-use cards provide elevator access to a specific floor. At the new Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, the whiz-bang technology reportedly includes thumbprint access to its elevators. Further downtown at the Chelsea Mercantile building on Seventh Avenue, health club users must put up their hands for a palm scan to get access to the club facilities. And at Apple CEO Steve Jobs' recently sold San Remo penthouse, a highly sensitive alarm system would activate itself nightly after 6 p.m. -- in one case summoning the building's security staff when a terrace door was opened, says Roger Erickson, a William B. May senior managing director who had to reassure the building guards that he was indeed authorized to be in the apartment. Not all high-security buildings employ such "Jetsons"-style approaches. At the Loft at 30 Crosby St., where Nicole Kidman had famously been borrowing "good friend" Lenny Kravitz's pad, the security system has an old-fashioned, human touch. Because elevators open directly into the lofts, each floor requires key access from inside the elevator. Doormen there also extend their line of sight with video cameras positioned on the street outside and at the entrance to the wine cellar. Uptown buildings in particular often opt for soothing touch over high tech. Hotel/condo combinations like the Pierre Hotel and the Essex House offer tenants a special set of security features, such as 24-hour elevator operators and dedicated security staffs, brokers note. Residents at the Trump Parc, on Central Park South, must pass numerous building staffers before reaching their apartments. The Trump Organization declined to comment on security practices in its buildings, and other developers were similarly hush-hush about the cameras and keypads they use to keep residents out of harm's way. Responding to questions about the Time Warner Center, a rep sniffed, "The best security is not discussed." From the New York Post