716 Broadway closes after (count 'em) 126 weeks

to brag, or not? and about what?

The Manhattan loft on the 2d floor at 716 Broadway boasts of many things: views of Washington Square Park, 13 foot ceilings, "huge" private terrace, and mahogany woodwork. They may not be bragging about having taken 126 weeks to sell, but perhaps they should be.

I am so impatient about this developement in a loft I have been following for years that I will post now with what I know, even before gettng to the punch line — the clearing price is not yet available in city records [updated below]. But let’s jump in….

radical patience

Between June 25, 2006 and November 11, 2008 the sellers here used two different PruDE agents and a narrow range of prices for the "2,800 sq ft" (or is it "2,400 sq ft", or "2,600 sq ft"??) loft. They started three Junes ago at $2.995mm but dropped within 4 months to $2.65mm; they took much of the summer of 2007 off (off the market from mid-July to mid-September) and changed agents (but not firms) in March 2008, before dropping to $2.575mm in June. A contract was signed before Labor Day and the sucker has finally closed.

You can see some of the history, and the … uncertainty about size on the StreetEasy page for this buidling, here. You will also see on that StreetEasy page why the sellers might be bragging afterall, torn calendar pages notwithstanding: the November 2008 sellers who started their careers as sellers in June 2006 had only just bought the place in May 2006 — for $1.85mm.

a long MLG history

You can see the history of this loft on this blog from January 11 (716 Broadway has another birthday loft) and from when I hit it in a riff about seasonality of the Manhattan real estate market on September 19, 2007 (hope falls eternal? 716 Bway is back) — way back when I used to regularly comment in new loft listings. The January 11 post was one of a series I did on lofts in this "NYU Corridor" of Broadway, including about the 2d floor loft at 710 Broadawy referenced in that post.

the tide rose?

As I said on January 11 about these two neighboring, maturing loft listings:

that patience, revisited

As noted above, they were asking $2.65mm in October 2006, and they hung on there for 20 months before signing a contract off an asking price of $2.575mm. That is a simply remarkable length of time to be (technically) a "seller" without adjusting the price significantly ($90k off $2.675mm does not qualify as "significant").

Have you seen that poster of a kitten hanging from a line ("hang in there")? I will now think of this loft whenever I see that poster.

I am guessing that the tide did not rise, but that the sellers came down in a tough negotiation more than they were willing to signal to The Market through another price drop. (How else to consider 20 months of not-selling??) Can’t wait to see how wrong I can be…

[update 12.12.08: deed filed November 10 at $2.45mm is now on-line, so they hung on to get 92% of the October 2006 asking price — that is some patience — or 18% off the Juen 2006 original ask]