waiting for the market to grow / 521 W 23 BOM again
luck be a lady?
BigJulie in Guys and Dolls was proud of his criminal record: 33arrests and no convictions.
Lessproud (but equally stubborn?), the owner of #7F at 521 West 23 Street has spent much of the last 40 months”selling” his apartment, with no conviction (sale).Yikes.
This”beautifully renovated” “1,800 sq ft” loft (asking $1.975mm and$1,420/mo in taxes and common charges) shows up as new on themarket Tuesday because there is a new exclusive arrangement withPam d’Arc of Stribling. That arrangement succeeded the one withPruDE that lasted 13 months, ending in August, which followed anexclusive arrangement with Corcoran that lasted 5 months beginningin October 2005, which was preceded by an exclusive with PruDE thatbegan in June 2004 (can’t tell how long that lasted officially).Yikes.
Along the way, the unit was offered at $1.795mm,$2.15mm, $1.95mm, $1.785mm, and $1.975mm in addition to the current(“new”) $1.945mm/ Yikes.
layout strengths
Theunit has a great layout, more “T”-shaped than Long-and-Narrow, withonly the 8 south-facing windows along the top of the “T”, but withplumbing in enough places to give maximum flexibility. It is ratherloft-y, with 13 foot ceilings and has the requisite beautiful”chef’s” kitchen with the proper proper names.
Inoticed this listing tonight as a price that struck me asaggressive for a 10 year-old condo conversion on thisto-be-High-Lined-but-still-very-gritty block. Then I was intriguedby the patience and stubbornness of the owner, who tried to sell at$1.795mm in 2004, $2.15mm in 2005, $1.95mm in 2006, and mostrecently $1.945mm in 2007.
price cures down, time curesup
Itis often the case that lofts don’t find the buyer because of price,while lowering the price offsets many deficits. So my workingassumption is that this loft has been over-priced in each yearsince 2004. It is also often said that time can cure a priceproblem, if the general market increases sufficiently (“the risingtide” floating “all boats”).
Without knowing more, it appears that this ownerhas been tide timing (or tide mis-timing). Certainly, the High LineProject has brought a cachet and attention to this once-blightedblock that the High Line-as-dilapidated-elevated-track neverdid.
best comp is near + recent
There has only been one unit sold in thisbuilding in the last two+ years, but fortunately for purposesof ‘comps’, the most recentsale was four weeks ago, and the other unit on this floor. #7R iscarried in city records as “1,902 sq ft” compared to the “1,650 sqft” the city thinks #7F is. I have no information about thecondition of #7R except that the condo conversion occurred only tenyears ago. (Property Shark shows no building permits for majorrenovation work in either 7th floor loft since they weresold in 1998.) #7R – at least 15% larger – sold onAugust 23, 2007 for $1.6mm. Yikes.
Tobe fair, #7R also sold in June 2006 — for $1.9mm. More a “hmmm”than a “yikes”.
forgive me Lord, for I havepunned
Onlytide will tell if The Market has risen enough to float #7F with theasking price of $1.945mm.
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