price drop for raw Alpha-Land space at 430 E 10 St (bring caution)
no C of O, no elevator, much space, fewer dollars
The 4th floor at 430 East 10 Street is “3,600 sq ft” that is not only an “absolute rarity”, “unique”, and “an exceptional opportunity”, but it is “spectacularly large spaciousness”. But they are having a bit of trouble finding out what it is worth, in its raw, walking-up-stairs, pre-Certificate of Occupancy state.
This loft space came to market in January for $2,570,500 (huh?), dropped to $2.195mm in March, and then again this week to $1.975mm. How do you value something like this?? How do you get your lawyer to figure it out?
Corcoran says it is a coop (maintenance is only $1,100/mo, but that may not be a good thing), but it is hard to see how it can be a formal cooperative housing corporation if there is no Certificate of Occupancy. (The Attorney General would know.)
Property Shark shows no activity filed with the city in 17 years for this address. A corporation called something like “428-430 East 10th Street Corp” apparently owns the building (and has since 1985), and it looks from the 1990 building permits that there is some relationship among the neighboring buildings at 432-434 East 10 St and 735 East 9 St, as the 1990 building permits have to do with converting “dry” pipe sprinkler system in the two 10th St buildings to a “wet” pipe system, with the water supply coming from the 9th St building. (I’ve come across 735 E 9 St before; I will have to find the blog reference).
pioneering is hard, lonely, and expensive
Many buildings this size were converted into coops by pioneers in SoHo more than 30 years ago. Presumably, this building has been a (legal?) rental, but there is much pioneering to be done – including by the lawyers. (N.B., lawyers tend to charge a premium for pioneering.)
If the 4th floor is the only “coop apartment” so far (or the only non-sponsor apartment), that shareholder (who are the others?) can be outvoted on everything. Chances are that the building will need a capital budget (how to fund?) and that there isn’t much of one yet. If there are two units each on the 2nd and 3rd floors (and ground floor commercial?), that is a pretty intimate coop.
The ‘small coop’ risk seems much greater here than in a more established building.
If you go, bring a pen and lots of paper. Ask lots of questions.
© Sandy Mattingly 2007
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