privileged Chelsea Mercantile loft clears near $1,700/ft at 252 Seventh Avenue

was it the iconic views?
If there is a data geek out there looking for a laboratory to explore the value of views, one could do worse than start at the Chelsea Mercantile at 252 Seventh Avenue. The Merc is an unusually large building for a Manhattan loft conversion with well over 300 units where there is a very active market and a wide variety of views. Low floor units look at buildings across the street or into the courtyard, and even many higher floor units have compromised views.

At the top of the views = value spectrum might be the “1,267 sq ft” loft #17E, which sold on January 4 after a brief tussle with The Market for $2.15mm, or $1,697/ft. Compare that princely value to the “sun-drenched” “1,602 sq ft” loft #12H, which sold with “open views” on March 16, 2011 for $2mm, or $1,248/ft. That is quite a spread.

The house specialist who wrote the loft #17E broker babble babbled the best views are limited, even from the top floors:

iconic views from approximately 10% of the building’s higher-floor units. Loft 17E is among this privileged category of high-floor units and literally rises above downtown’s pre-war sector

90% of high floor lofts lack iconic views?? I would never have guessed that. (Note to self: highlight the next high-floor sale at the Chelsea Mercantile that does not have iconic views.)

that brief tussle
The loft #17E seller actually thought (hoped?) the views would be even more valuable, coming out at $2.4mm on September 13, and dropping once 3 weeks later before finding the contract by December 1 at $2.15mm. If $1,687/ft is a princely sum, asking $1,894/ft is more like a king’s ransom. But the ransom was not paid….

things I did not know (that are not true)
I found this assertion in the broker babble to be intriguing, then questionable, then confusing:

Chelsea Mercantile is the highest pre-war building south of 34th Street and therefore offers an incomparable combination of 11foot ceilings, oversized windows, and iconic views ….

Put aside for the moment that the Empire State Building (completed in ) sits (just) below 34th Street; there are a great many buildings built before World War II that are taller than the Chelsea Mercantile, even much taller than The Merc (19 stories, so something under 250 feet; Emporis has it ‘estimated’ precisely at 179.37 feet). This page from Wired New York lists the tallest buildings in Manhattan. Of the buildings that were world record-holders at one time, at least 3 are prewar, downtown, and still standing (not including the Empire State):

• 1909: Metropolitan Life Tower (700 feet, 50 stories)
• 1913: Woolworth Building (792 feet, 60 stories)
• 1930: 40 Wall Street (927 feet, 70 stories)

I count at least 12 other Manhattan skyscrapers with heights of at least 300 feet on that Wired New York page that are prewar, downtown, and still standing. And many others on the list (count them yourself!) that were built after the war. (It takes a real pre-war snob to not even look at the post-war part of the skyline.)

Believe me, I get it that none of these 300+ foot prewar, downtown, and still standing skyscrapers are in the valley between the midtown (if you extend that down to 23rd Street) and downtown skyscrapers; I even updated my blog post about that on Wednesday after an academic study was again in the news (my September 3, 2010, no skyscrapers in Manhattan loft neighborhoods, but why not?). So the views south of The Merc go a long way.

But that’s where it really gets confusing for me: loft #17E faces north. (Look at the 3rd and 4th pic in “large photo” format on StreetEasy.) So why say “Loft 17E … literally rises above downtown’s pre-war sector”? Loft #17E is higher than most buildings due south until you hit the City Hall area, but it turns its back (or its bare wall) on downtown’s pre-war sector. It does not rise above the buildings you can see out the windows (which include pre-war towers) unless there is a metaphor here that I am not getting.

So that’s weird.

is the south view a little more expensive?
As nice as that view from #17E is, The Market is full of people who would prefer the very long, very clear, nearly forever views south from the Chelsea Mercantile. Like the views to the Statue of Liberty from #17B, which I hit when it sold in a private sale last month at a building record $1,730/ft, in my December 27, did Chelsea Mercantile loft sell at a record by accident at 252 Seventh Avenue?. That sale did not truly test The Market, but the difference between the north views of #17E and the south views of #17B is smaller than I would have expected ($1,720/ft v. $1,697/ft).

In a fair fight I would expect the spread in favor of the south view to be higher.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012