2d floor sale while pain continues on 3d floor at Ruggles House 112 E 19 St
“overlooking tree-lined street” – from tree level
Yet another second floor loft caught my eye, with the news that #2F at 112 E 19 Street went into contract as of yesterday.
This unit had been on the market since January, starting at $2.15mm (and $1,447/mo), took some time off in April and May, then came back at the new price of $1.995mm, from which it found a buyer this week.
Ruggles House is one of the very early Manhattan coop loft conversions (1973), with layouts that are almost square for the two-units-per-floor foot prints. I don’t know what it is about the construction, but many units in the building have some raised platforms – not just for plumbing but elsewhere in the units. #2F fits this pattern, with step-ups for the bedrooms in one corner and for the kitchen, diagonally opposite.
challenging layouts
Marcy Grau at Stribling is coy about the size, but other “F” units have been marketed as “1,800 sq ft”. With windows only along the street, the challenge is to keep the space open while having multiple bedrooms. In this case, note the many diagonal walls, the unusually shaped bedrooms, and the use of (otherwise) dead space for walk-in storage. Also note that the plumbing is all in the middle of the building, somewhat removed from the bedrooms.
The very large windows bring a lot of light for a second story space. The suggestion that the space is “serene” either accurately describes this stretch of 19th Street as not-so-noisy or is mere marketing.
3d floor history
#3F is still for sale through Taylor Hargrave and Doug Russell at BHS. That one started at $2.35mm in April and has been without a buyer yet at $2.25mm since May (maintenance goes up to $1,536/mo from eh second floor to the third floor). In this case it appears that #3F’s price helped sell #2F – particularly is that for many buyers the #3F layout is not very workable as a ‘real’ two bedroom.
I blogged about this unit when the price dropped in May (price drop at Ruggles House, getting to the point of pain?) and listed it in an open house review early in May (3 Sunday loft open houses $2.3 – $2.5 (each with history), both times when #2F was not on the market. There remains the mystery (to me) of why the owners are selling after having bought it only in January (8 million stories in the naked city, this one probably involves some financial pain), and the open question of whether the calendar has added any value to the unit over the $2.1mm clearing price in January.
The past sales I reviewed in May at Ruggles House suggest that The Market has viewed these units as worth “around 2” (depending). With #2F now unavailable, there may be more interest in #3F.
Time, of course, will tell.
© Sandy Mattingly 2007
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