10 Bleecker remarkable space holds value remarkably well

as B goes, so goes A
You might look at the successful 9 day marketing campaign (NINE DAYS!) a year ago of the Manhattan loft  #7B at 10 Bleecker Street as a marvel of timing, in the sense of how marvelous (for these sellers) to time the top of the market. After all, they got more than $1,000/ft for the interior and the exterior space. The brief campaign aside (NINE DAYS, between coming to market April 2, 2008 and contract April 11!),  you might just think that the space is sufficiently special, especially with a private roof deck of "850 sq ft".

they came, they negotiated, they closed
As impressive as that brief campaign perhaps (you remember: 9 days), they closed within five weeks of contract — lightning speed for a Manhattan coop. All told, they asked $2.25mm for these lovely "1,300 sq ft" (interior) plus "850 sq ft" (roof deck) and compromised just enough, clearing at $2.2mm. Nice work by the sellers and Corcoran agent Binnie Wyper, no?

but wait … there’s more (as this is kinda old news)
Remember all that stuff about the changing market? Not so much in this little corner on top of Noho, it appears.

 

The neighbors at #7A at 10 Bleecker Street must have liked how #7B played out (and the major league in which that played), but they waited until September 17 to try the same trick for themselves — right after AIG + Lehman = Chaos, so you’d think that was a dicey proposition. But with the same agent again leading the way, not so dicey after all!

First, this loft is not described in such glowing terms as #7B (this kitchen is "open" and — of course — there is great light, but the open kitchen in #7B had proper proper names, and the light features included an 18 foot skylight there). Second, the interior is only "1,100 sq ft" (but with another roof deck of "850 sq ft"), rather than "1,300 sq ft". Third, The Market was simply in a different place when they launched September 17 than it had been five months earlier. So they had a bit more trouble in this corner.

#7A dropped the price once after 3 months, from $2.195mm to $2.095mm, then did some (hard?) negotiating to find a contract by January 5. It closed a month ago, though it took a while for the numbers to become public (closing on March 12; deed filed March 27). The clearing price of $1.75mm reflects a healthy discount (that hard bargaining) and — compared to #7B’s $2.2mm — probably reflects mostly the smaller size ("1,100 sq ft" vs. "1,300 sq ft") and the difference in condition, as the difference in dollars per foot is only about $100/ft (counting only the interior spaces; even less of a difference if you count the roof space as well).

 

The surprise to me is that the changed market from a year ago was not more of a factor.