12 days to contract 8% over ask at 284 Lafayette Street loft with 8 skylights

zoom!
I included a shout-out to the “3,000 sq ft” Manhattan loft #6D at 284 Lafayette Street, in my recent post about a total gut job opportunity at the other end of Soho (December 5, if gut renovation loft at 33 Greene Street went for $1,188/ft the roof rights were free), not because it zoomed through the market, but because it sold as a “meticulous” renovation at $1,433/ft, and so was a benchmark for post-renovation value of that south Soho gut job. Today, let’s look at loft #6D on its own merits. Let’s start with the brief marketing campaign:

Zoom! indeed.

what “meticulous” looks like to an artist
Perhaps there are other working artist lofts that have sold with “meticulous” renovations, but I can’t remember one right now. Loft #6D is clearly a working loft, with the southern third of the floor plan segregated as a studio with its own bathroom (the work is shown in the 3rd pic), leaving this a “3,000 sq ft” Manhattan loft with but one bedroom.

I read the broker babble as being light on bragging for a “meticulous” renovation. I see “ten new superbly designed and constructed oversized windows”, and a chef’s kitchen with properly named appliances, but I kinda hope the “lavish bathroom” does not look as lavish in a photo as it might in real life. Note that much bragging is about the bones: the ceiling height, the skylights, the “handsome” cast iron columns. When was the last time you saw a $4mm listing without a kitchen photo?

The most meticulous element I see in the photos is the inside paint job on the bookcase in the 4th picture. The rest looks like a conventional nearly square classic loft with a single exposure that will need some renovation. 98 buyers out of 100 would remove the studio wall, at least. If the 2 other baths are not “lavish”, they probably need updating.

But I quibble. This loft found a contract within 17 days $305,000 above ask. The campaign found more than one buyer who appreciates it for what it is, whether it fits an outsider Manhattan Loft Guy’s notion of what is or is not meticulous.

Hard to argue with 17 days to a contract at $1,433/ft that needs (at least some) work.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012