505 Greenwich Street loft wonders “what slump?” after closing up 61% since 2004

not pushing a good thing too far
Rumor has it that the overall Manhattan residential real estate sales market has been … (how to put it?) … up and down over the last few years. Looking specifically at one 2004 new Manhattan “loft” condominium development, I took a somewhat systematic look at the down part of that rumor in the post-Lehman nuclear winter in my May 6, 2009, pretty efficient (depressed) market at 505 Greenwich Street as both 6F and 7F sell, off 25%. The January 28 sale of the Manhattan “loft” #5D at 505 Greenwich Street represents the up part of that rumor, its clearing price of $2.875mm is a cool 61% appreciation over its sponsor sale of $1,781,937 on December 8, 2004.

See that May 6, 2009 post for why I say “loft”, but let’s look at that #5D sale before considering other activity in the building. At “2,404 sq ft”, that clearing price on January 28 comes to $1,196/ft. The space is set p as 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths, and seems to have exactly the same finishes, materials and appliances as when it was sold by the sponsor in 2004. It came to market September 24 at $3.1mm and found a contract by November 16, so it hardly lingered. That fairly quick 7% negotiated “discount” from the ask shows the seller was flexible (with a purchase price of $1,781,937, why not??).

what a lab!
Manhattan Loft Guy has hit this building a lot recently, as recent sales here have been at least interesting and even illustrative of Weird Stuff About The Manhattan Loft Market.  On February 4 I used a (very nicely matched) pair of sales to prove that a river view here was worth $370,000 (these water views from a 505 Greenwich loft are worth $370,000 (really)). On February 1 I hit a loft her that has now sold twice since the sponsor sales in 2004, but with a very different trajectory and scale than the 2-beat hit by #5D (505 Greenwich Street loft is up 8% since 2004, down 12% since 2006). I called the sales data of #7B a “surprising history”, as indeed it is, on its own and especially in comparison to #5D:

But note what about the January 3 #7B sale is similar to the January 28 #5D sale: #7B got $1,192/ft; #5D got $1,196/ft. Yet #7B was up only 8% overall. Did I mention that life is not fair?

using the E word
Note that 505 Greenwich also provided an opportunity for what I have sometimes termed neighborly extortion, when a neighbor needs room to expand and the next door neighbor is willing to let a loft be annexed … at the right price. In my November 9, another neighbor extorted, as Queer Eye tires of "Soho", leaves 505 Greenwich Street loft for Chelsea, the selling neighbor is a celebrity and the above-market premium paid for the annexation is extreme 30+%. That deal was plainly motivated by the buyer’s need for more space, as the seller never put it on the public market … and got a huge premium.

My June 9, 2010, the vultures next door / 505 Greenwich sells to neighbor, addressed the opposite dynamic, as the attempted seller of one unit ended up (after a long time on a terrible market) selling to the next door neighbor who decided to expand.

That is a great deal of interesting stuff coming out of a single building in the last two years!

© Sandy Mattingly 2011