11 months to sell 58 Walker Street penthouse loft at (eventually) modest discount

3rd time = charm
The Manhattan loft on the 5th floor at 58 Walker Street had been a serial non-seller until finally selling on May 5 at $2,832,500. It had not sold when offered at $3.5mm (and higher) from July through September 2006; it had not sold when offered at $3.495mm (and higher) from July into November 2009; and (until a month ago) it had not sold when offered at $3.495mm (and other prices, both higher and lower) since May 26, 2010. It finally worked when it finally got over that $3.5mm / $3.495mm fixation, dropping to $2.995mm on December 17 and then $2.9mm on February 22.

You have the feeling they really wanted to sell at $3.5mm, no?

That is three sets of very different market conditions, in 2006 leading to The Peak, in 2009 as the (rest of) the market thawed, and as a relatively deep market re-emerged in the last year, in each of which the $3.5mm (and similar) numbers were unacceptable.

With a history this extensive it is almost silly to dive too deeply into the marketing and numbers, but I will risk one comment: that it is odd that the $2.995mm ask did not work for 2 months, given that the $2.9mm ask worked in two weeks.

One more comment: yesterday I hit a loft on the other side of Tribeca that also took abut a year to sell, but that one never dropped the price (stubborn loft seller at 44 Laight Street takes a year to get right price). Not that this one would have sold at $3.495mm for any length of time….

how many feet do you count?
The loft has really high ceilings, which complicates consideration of how big it is. The Condo Declaration must say “1,927 sq ft” because that is the figure associated with the deed record. The listings have claimed “2,591 sq ft”, with the difference being very irregular lofted space (and irregular math?). And by “very irregular lofted space” I mean space that is of unusual shape and that is just … odd. (I have seen it, as I visited with buyers who spent a lot of time pondering the possibilities under those 16 [per floor plan] or 20 [per babble] foot ceilings one Sunday afternoon.)

The floor plan is a challenge to read if you have not seen the space. My guess is that the very industrial steel and squared staircase in the middle of the loft was an original feature, providing the only access to the pair of roof decks (“1,318 sq ft” of roof decks). That staircase winds around on top of the (main floor) master bath and public bath, leaving this platform “loft” of 12’ 6” x 11’ 2”. What do you do up there, other than pause on your way up to (down from) the roof to use that (second) public bathroom?

The other lofted space is accessible only from the master bedroom, reaching another platform “loft” (14’ 7” x 4’ 2”) that leads to … a walk-in closet. Trust me: the arrangement is at least as odd irregular in real life as it sounds on paper the web. And … trust me that these curiously wall-hugging stairs are not as nice as the one leading to the roof; indeed, they have such a fee of a handyman or DIY job that I will be shocked to learn that the buyer did not rip them out.

One result of this up-ing-and-down-ing is that the loft as built out has a very odd irregular feel to it. My guess is that the middle (‘real’) staircase, which is needed to get on top of those 16 foot ceilings to access the roof, tempted the seller to play with the height in the rear, not to good (or lasting) effect. With no side windows and the plumbing where it is, there is no place for bedrooms other than the back wall. The result is, among other things, a second bedroom that feels like a silo with ceilings (nearly) as high as it the room is long.

Odd space. Irregular, even.

agent trivia
The loft was marketed by 3 different firms, but in each case by the same (main) agent. That was one loyal seller!

fun fact, 2004 edition
The recent seller bought the loft on September 29, 2004 for $925,000. It was the last floor in the building to be sold by the developer, with the others having sold a year earlier at dramatically higher prices.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011