nice loft, great deck, but not so near work

if this is "near" so is Penn Station
It is always nice to see a beautiful Manhattan loft featured in the media, and this more-foodie-than-lofty item from The Observer does feature a beautiful loft. The loft in question is the Penthouse at 238 East 4th Street, which was sold last week (August 24) for $3,027,373. At "2,700 sq ft" with a "1,200 sq ft" terrace with Empire State and Chrysler Building views and "the highest caliber of finishes" ("magazine ready"!), that seems like a good deal for a loft that is (per The Observer) "near the storied Village eatery" One If By Land, Two If By Sea (on Barrow Street in the West Village) owned by the new buyer. (Unless it is not near the restaurant.)

remembering things in the past?
The Market did not take long to warm up to this listing, though it did take a few trips to the barber: they started at $3.75mm in March, but were flexible enough to drop twice in April ($3.4mm and $3.195mm), then held steady until the contract on July 22 at that funny purchase price ($3,027,373; someone’s lucky numbers??).

The story line for The Observer is the celebrity buyers and bold-faced-name sellers:

east meets west, eventually
I bet that someone at The Observer missed the "E" in the penthouse’s address, as 238 EAST 4 Street is hardly "near the storied Village eatery". That penthouse is almost at Avenue B.

Using the restaurant website’s Google Maps Directions feature (which can give you directions by foot, bless them) the penthouse is 1.2 miles from the restaurant. That’s about the same distance from the restaurant as Penn Station, or Madison Square Garden.

Indeed, Soho and nearly all of Tribeca is within that walking distance.

it is not the commute
A lovely loft, and a great roof deck. Just not very near the guy’s restaurant.

Indeed, unless there is a same-family situation hidden behind a purchasing LLC in City records, that was absolutely not The Point of the purchase. It appears that he is moving to Avenue B from just around the corner from his restaurant.

StreetEasy show that he and his wife just sold the townhouse at 123 Washington Place, a mere 361 feet from OIBLTIBS, on June 10 to a LLC for $4.8mm. If that is an arm’s length transaction, the clearing price is a long way from their attempts to sell at The Peak (March to July 2008), at $9.995mm and $8.995mm. But you will need a Manhattan Townhouse Guy / Gal to tell you that story.