water fountain view from Chelsea Mercantile loft worth only $1,040/ft

what would you pay for a (real) view?
I had some fun in my January 20, privileged Chelsea Mercantile loft clears near $1,700/ft at 252 Seventh Avenue, talking about what spectacular views are worth at the Chelsea Mercantile (in two cases from the 17th floor, one north, one south: around $1,700/ft). When the “2,269 sq ft” Manhattan loft #10R at 252 Seventh Avenue sold five weeks ago, it showed the other side of the view coin in this building, selling on December 28 at $2.36mm, or only $1,040/ft. Unlike the iconic views from the 17th floor (Empire State Building in one case, Statue of Liberty in the other), loft #10R has … (wait for it) … “a view of the water fountain with planted courtyard”.

Not all of the $650/ft spread between #10R with water fountain ‘views’ and #17E at $1,697/ft with ESB views or #17B at $1,730/ft with Statue of Liberty views can be blamed on the water fountain.

is this the worst floor plan in the building?
You will not see many lofts as big as “2,269 sq ft” with a floor plan that is as inefficient or has so little utility as loft #10R. Number of (real) bedrooms: one; size of (interior) office (aka “interior” bedroom): 20 x 18 ft with a closet and a walk-in closet, and with a direct entrance to the “master” bath. Obviously, many people are going to put someone to sleep in that “office”, but still ….

The master bedroom (really, the bedroom) is quite large at 17’8” x 24’9” without counting the vestigial space around that column where there is a closet just waiting to be enlarged. But that bathroom door makes it complicated to fully use that (otherwise) wasted space. Why the hell didn’t the developer close off the bathroom entrance from the office then move the master bath entrance through that little closet? Then the master bath is really a master bath and that entire area around the column can be a walk-in closet.

That’s just weird.

Look at the size of that utility room. That is a huge laundry room (I assume the * is for a hook-up), or just very expensive and convenient storage space. I have seen sleeping areas in lofts not any larger than that.

Did you count the windows? The living room has that wall of floor-to-ceiling windows along that 21 foot wall, which look not only at the fountain down below, but two walls of windows of other lofts in the building. The number of windows in the (only) bedroom: one, with a view of the living room windows in this unit, and many, many other windows.

In the puzzle that is any building footprint with lots of units per floor, the “R” line got squeezed and pulled and jabbed. Short on windows, long on space and angles, with more nooks and crannies than most loft layouts (from the foyer, to the 2 walk-ins, to the large bathroom). I assume the layouts of other adjoining lofts make a lot more sense, but perhaps there are others that suffer in this very large loft building.

Given the exterior walls and the few windows, it is as though they were not trying very hard to use the space efficiently. No matter what they did, it was going to be a single (real) bedroom with other interior space (a 20×18 ft office; seriously?). They could easily have moved the kitchen and 2nd bath down that wall to shrink the laundry room, but what would have been the point? There’s space to burn….

floor plan penalty not as big as it should be
Compare the wasteful #10R floor plan with no view 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 floor plan is so efficient as to be cursed as ‘cookie cutter’. Yet it gets 2 real bedrooms and 2 baths in, with each room/area being quite large, Some of the advantage of #12H over #10R is the open view and sun, but I would say a larger part of the (near) $200/ft spread is the footprint.

Putting #10R into the mix of view values at The Merc doesn’t change much from that January 20 post: ‘iconic’ views are valued near $500/ft more than open views, such as from #12H. Interior ‘views’, as with #10R, are penalized further. Just not as much as I would have thought.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012