A nice apartment that’s fairly priced — practically an oxymoron in New York City.

But 28-year-old Jason Goodman, who built and opened 3rd Ward, the 30,000 square foot artist/party space in Bushwick, with his friend and business partner Jeremy Lovitt, has an inside scoop on BK real estate. For several years he and Lovitt have worked as interior renovation contractors on lofts and apartments throughout Bushwick and Williamsburg. And they’ve come across some great spaces as a result.

So Goodman decided to start sending out mass emails about their finds to his beloved creative community, the 10,000 or so subscribers to 3rd Ward’s email list.

The response was so good that a week ago he created a dedicated site, www.groundednyc.com, where you can sign up for his real estate email blasts. The spaces he posts are often places that area landlords tip him off to, or in the case of the Montrose Ave. apartments listed now (and pictured here), spaces that he and Lovitt renovated.

Typically the emails are more detailed. For instance, the Bushwick listing that’s online now doesn’t correspond to the pictures (those went with the now-gone $1600 two bedrooms in the same building). And the description doesn’t do justice to this deal: a 3-bedroom duplex with a backyard for $2400.

“If creative people can’t live in NY it’s gonna become a shopping mall,” said Goodman of his public service. “I’m very invested in the City and I don’t want it to end up [as a place for] just a bunch of rich people. [Grounded NYC] is my effort to keep the neighborhood culturally relevant and interesting.”

All the listings are available on his site and newsletter before being widely advertised to keep competition down, and he personally vets the apartment or work space as being fairly priced and well maintained before he or his colleagues show them.

“I can’t make magically cheap space appear. I can’t convince landlords to take less money for their space, but I can say ‘this is a good deal’ and put it out there to my people,” said Goodman.

In some cases, he’ll even build out a place to your specs, like the work lofts he’ll be listing in the next email blast for the low low price of $1.25 a square foot. As Goodman said, “We know how to make places that people want to be in.” He also knows how to make finding space in NYC more human.

Today’s post brought to you by Sara.