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In New York City’s forest of tall buildings, having a view is an inestimable commodity, to be treasured and, when necessary, fought over.

There have been pitched battles over Brooklyn Bridge vistas blocked by waterside apartments, and the shadows cast by billionaires’ apartment towers over Central Park.

But when the residents of a 12-story loft building in Chelsea learned that a proposed tower next door threatened to darken most of their windows and block their Empire State Building views, they tried a less confrontational approach.

They banded together to make the developer an unusual offer: $11 million not to build.

The gambit captured the kind of wealth that now courses through New York City, where residents of a former warehouse building — with full-floor apartments that stretch 5,600 square feet, twice the size of an average American new home — were willing to pay a hefty price just to protect a view.