Oculus squints just a bit to get it at 50 West 15 Street

can you see me now?
The NY Post today demonstrates the somewhat elastic use of language in even the real estate news on this tabloid, as today’s Just Sold feature includes a new development sale at The Oculus Condominium, 50 West 15 Street. City records show that the sale of Unit 2D closed on December 2 and the deed was filed on December 12, at $1.9mm for, as the Post has it:

(Since the building was marketed by its developer, Alchemy Properties (the building website is here), the Time Equity guys who get credit in the Post must have brought the buyer.)

do you think the neighbors talk?
The unit came to market in September 2006 ("on market one year"??) at $2mm, as noted in the Post, but our data-base does not show when it went into contract (or for any units in this building, for that matter). A 5% discount from list price suggests the developer made other concessions, and that this #2D buyer and the buyer for #4D signed contract under different market conditions than the buyers of #3D, #6D and #7D (all these "D"s are said to be 1,769 sq ft, but #2D does not have the 84 sq ft balcony of these others):

painful delay
The developer’s building website shows 38 units sold and one with a contract out, out of 46 that have been offered for sale, with the first closings in October 2008. Looks like they will do pretty well with this project, overall, though they surely wish they had kept to their original projected completion date ("anticipated opening December 2007") or even their projected delayed opening (May 2008).

Of course, you can follow the building via StreetEasy, here.

yeah I know … not a loft
I walk by The Oculus a lot, and it is on a block with some great loft buildings (as well as truly ‘apartment’ buildings like The Grosvener House and that thing on the NE corner at 6th Av). So the NY Post item caught my eye and started me composing a blog post well before I remembered that this building is not a loft. It is no less a loft than some other new construction condos that are marketed as ‘lofts’, but Alchemy Properties makes no claims to loft-dom. So consider this a non-loft post, with an (interesting?) update on The Market.