the last 13% haircut drives new development deal at 135 West 14 Street

down $950k overall
The Manhattan loft #5 at 135 West 14 Street is the latest sale at the new condo construction "Loft 14", having closed December 22 (deed filed January 14). The "2,161 sq ft" floor-through has a classic Long-and-Narrow loft array, with no windows evident on the long sides at this height so the two bedrooms are in the back (the plumbing is in the middle), plus balconies front and back (one of the Juliet scale). There’s a virtual doorman for the building, and apartments feature the kind of proper proper names common to high-end developments (Miele, Sub-Zero, Franke, Grohe, Blendheim, Thasos, Toto).

This unit looks like the fifth to close in a 10-story development originally slated to be completed in "early Winter 2008" — long enough ago that the developer let the URL for the original website expire some time ago.

running out of ink for the color printer
The clearing price of $1.9mm for Unit 5 compares to the last asking price of $2.195mm (a 13.4% close-out discount) and is a sobering $950k off the original asking price of $2.85mm from November 2007. There were three price changes, two brokerage firms, and one large increase in projected real estate taxes (from $986/mo to $1,493/mo) over the course of 2+ years.

One imagines that the developer’s spreadsheet is a bloody mess by now.

© Sandy Mattingly 2010