painful renovation of 22 Wooster Street loft nets $550k over Peak

errr … “painstaking”
I loved the huge 2-bedroom (“3,200 sq ft”) Manhattan loft #4C at 22 Wooster Street when I saw it with some buyers when it was asking $4.35mm, but not so much that my people bid on it. The Market (eventually) loved it too, but it took ten months and 4 price drops for it to sell (at the last asking price!) on August 5 at $3.75mm. In between a near-Peak sale (July 9, 2008) at $3.2mm and this sale $550,000 later, the loft was given a

remarkably extensive renovation, and has been lovingly and painstakingly transformed into a stunning home

(I take “remarkably extensive” to mean a full renovation; anything less would not be remarkable, no?) You can’t see the prior floor plan from the 2008 sale (I hate when that happens), but our data base shows that the floor plan did not change a great deal (bedrooms and bathrooms in almost the same places) but that all the interior walls were changed, a half bath was added, and closets were moved and/or enlarged. The babble claims “[f]ar too many unit features & upgrades to list” and I can testify that the new finishes were top notch.

did they spend a million bucks?
Of course I wonder how much they spent on that “remarkably extensive renovation” after buying it in July 2008. With “3,200 sq ft” to work on and with central air, extensive sound-proofing, new windows, new kitchen and new baths, and new “fully leveled” flooring among the new features, they may well have spent upwards of $300/ft.

If it had not been improved, you’d think that the loft would have been worth around $2.75mm (15% below the near-Peak sale at $3.2mm). In a nice bit of round numbers, the renovation would therefore be said to have earned the entire premium over that notional unimproved state, or one million dollars. Seems about right to me.

a Two-Bed Wonder?
I don’t (yet) have a category for limited floor plan lofts set up with more functionality than my One Bed Wonders. But this floor plan tempts me ….  

Perhaps there is something about the kitchen plumbing stacks that limits the choices in this footprint, or maybe it is just a coincidence that the last two floor plans have found space for only two bedrooms in “3,200 sq ft”, but the most logical (simple) way to add a third bedroom to the current layout would be to move that “absolutely gorgeous custom kitchen” west towards Wooster and insert the bedroom where that north window is.

Doing that would ruin the proportions of the nearly square Great Room, and may complicate the plumbing re-design. It would at least be a hugely expensive renovation to add that third bedroom (due to moving the kitchen), so this relatively large footprint (“3,200 sq ft”) is limited as a practical matter to a 2-bedroom. The Market for 2-bedroom lofts near $4mm may not be all that deep.

slogging and slogging, and squeezing
Each of the last two sales has been somewhat labored, in fact. As noted, the current sale took ten months and four prices; the last time it took five months and four prices in 2007 and then another price and another six months in 2008 for it to sell. To repeat: The Market for 2-bedroom lofts near $4mm may not be all that deep.

Speaking of depth, this is a relatively low-ceilinged loft, at just 9 feet. Having been in it, I can say that the loft suffers a bit for that ceiling, as it lacks the volume of many classic Soho lofts.

And speaking of small, there is the elevator. I recall it being a tight squeeze with 5 passengers. The placement of the elevator at the extreme front of the loft, taking up a window, just screams out as a late addition to this 5-story (90 year old?) building.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011