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buying at $616/ft at 38 West 26 St / one of NY Mag's happy stories from recession

Sandy MattinglyPosted on Posted in loft neighborhoods chelsea — No Comments ↓

 

not this time
NY Magazine is a big player in the Real Estate Industrial Complex, of course, but it does not have to always be a target for Manhattan Loft Guy. I liked the recent Eight Happy Stories From the Recession, because it had real people with real data points (unlike, for example, the vague pap I banged away at in my February 21, babbling in the Real Estate Industrial Complex / NY Magazine edition). One of those real people (well, two) bought a real loft.

After walking through a dispiriting series of about 40 apartments, they heard about this Flatiron loft from their broker…. It had been stuck on the market for eighteen months. They made a bid at 10 percent under asking and the owner balked. “He wanted to take it off the market,” [buyer] says. “Nobody was offering what he wanted.” Buyer and seller met midway between asking and first offer.
It took all of 45 seconds to find that this loft-with-the-happy-ending is #5B at 38 West 26 Street, which had been on the market from September 2008 (asking $3.595mm) for "3,000 sq ft" described as though it was something something of a Manhattan loft project ("divide and conquer"). Five price drops later (down to $1.995mm; StreetEasy provides price history here) it seems that these buyers showed up and settled on the contract last June that closed September 15 at $1.85mm, a nifty $611/ft. [Note to NY Mag: that was only 12 months from first offering to sale, not 18 months when negotiations began; maybe someone exaggerated???]

local comps look good
The prior sale in the building was of a smaller loft in (probably) similarly primitive condition (it was billed as an artist’s loft) that closed July 30 at $1.1mm (for "1,760 sq ft", that one was $625/ft). To use NY Mag’s parlance, these "recession prices" compared very favorably to loft #10A here, which closed in August 2005 at $2mm. Our data-base shows that loft is "3,000 sq ft", another "artist’s loft" and was said to be in "original condition". That sale worked out to $667/ft for a loft that should have been no more work than #5B (though it may have had better light, of course).

So, yes, those happy buyers did better in September 2009 than a nicely comparable sale in the same building from 2005. Happy, happy, happy. Then they had to pay cash to renovate 3,000 sq ft, but still….

(The h/t goes to Curbed on this one; thx guys)

 

© Sandy Mattingly 2010

 

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