more terraces, more envy, as 15 East 15 Street loft sells at another premium

putting the sweet in master suite
If it seems like only yesterday that we were talking about multiple terraces and multiple bids, we were! That was my August 29, 4 terraces = 1 bidding war for penthouse loft at 144 West 18 Street. Today’s subject is the duplex Manhattan loft at the top of 15 East 15 Street, with (only!) two terraces and (again) one bidding war, closing on July 19 at $4.945mm after asking (only) $4.895mm for “2,938 sq ft” interior and the terraces that total not quite 800 sq ft. That is only a small premium over ask (unlike yesterday), but let’s not quibble, please.

I have been by this building hundreds of times, never guessing that there was such wonderful space at the top. With concrete floors and garage-style glass doors, the feel is likely to be more industrial loft than artist loft, but what space! I don’t quite get the “90’+/- south-facing windows”, as there are walls between many of those south facing windows that don’t face the lower terrace, but thre are a lot of windows. The lower terrace is integrated into the space when those garage doors are open, but the glory of the space may be the upper level, with an office, library and dressing room (each the size of many Manhattan bedrooms), plus master bedroom with his-and-her bathrooms. And another (larger) terrace. Sweet suite, no?

I don’t read a lot of ‘volume’ into the floor plan or photos, even with 12 foot ceilings, but maybe the nearly 3,000 sq ft spaces feel bigger than I think they would. (There are a lot of rooms.) Although the broker babble is relatively restrained, the market reaction confirms that this entire loft is top notch: almost $1,500/ft, if you value the outdoor space at 50% of the interior. That is not the level of dollar-per-foot across the street at 15 Union Square West, but here there are no frills or amenities in the condo while there there are “luxurious five star hotel-worthy amenities”.

hard to track
This unit is designated “D”, we know from the babble it is the top two floors of the condo, and Property Shark thinks there are 2 residential units and 3 commercial units in the building (one is the restaurant 15 East, one is Park Bar). The condo looks like 2 buildings, with the terraces for this unit on top of the lower building that houses Park Bar (see pic 8 of 10). (There is a lot of diligence to be done with an ownership structure like this.)

I see only one record of a prior sale in the building, of this same unit. Unfortunately, there is no prior listing for that sale, and no floor plan, but I would love to know the condition when it sold in February 2006 at (only) $3,156,575. You’d think those 2006 buyers put a lot of money into it to be able to sell in 2011 at nearly a 60% premium. A lot.

Interesting that they tried to sell just after The Peak at almost the exact price they just sold for. That listing was dubbed “2F” and came out April 30, 2008 at $4.95mm, holding on well into the nuclear winter, not giving up until March 2009.

You’d think they’d have found a buyer at what proved to be the 2011 price, even post-Peak, as it was still then pre-Lehman when they started. But you’d (I’d) be wrong.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011