110 Duane Street penthouse loft owner loves it so much he bought another one

 no extortion evident in this neighbor-to-neighbor Tribeca loft  sale

Whoever is behind the LLC that bought the “2,254 sq ft” penthouse loft #PH3N a year ago October from the developer for $3,309,312 just bought  the “2,297 sq ft” penthouse loft next door (#3S at 110 Duane Street) for $3.75mm in a private deal. Long-time readers of Manhattan Loft Guy know that I love to look at private deals to see how the prices relate to (possible) market value, sometimes going so far as to call it ‘extortion’ when a neighbor requires an apparently healthy premium over market to sell to the unique buyer next door. (See past posts collected under the tag “extortion”; there are at least 10, with the last being my August 7, 1 Worth Street loft neighbor bails out neighbor, at a (likely) discount, which came at it from the opposite perspective.) Note that I am not criticizing anyone who does that, as the situation is often one in which the seller has to be persuaded to sell.

The sales price of $3.75mm for penthouse #3S does not seem like one of those ‘extortionate’ deals, as that seller had paid $3,431,502 to buy it from the developer in July 2012. If you are scoring at home, that’s a gain of only 9% over a time that the StreetEasy Manhattan Condo Index was up 10%. Granted, the seller ‘saved’ 5% or 6% on a sales fee (though had to pay New York City and State transfer fees on the exit), but that spread is hardly extortionate.

living large, Manhattan loft style

The result is a to-be-combined 4.500 sq ft duplex penthouse with one lower level balcony and four upper level terraces (the largest pair of which probably abut), solving the most awkward thing about both of the pre-combination penthouses. The floor plan for #3S presumably connects to the floor plan of #3N at the kitchen wall of each (mentally flip the #3S plan 90 degrees to the right to fit the two together). With space of this scale there are a huge number of possible configurations for the combined space, but the problem that gets solved is that in their pre-combination states, both penthouses had access to the largest terraces only through the master bedrooms upstairs. That’s awkward. (Not as awkward as the smaller upper level terraces in each penthouse, accessed only through their respective master bathrooms, but awkward enough.)

Once combined, I’d guess there will still a master bedroom on the top, but the other one becomes a media / den / entertaining space with the most frequently used doors to the terraces. Before any walls come down inside each unit, there are 6 bedrooms and a library, so there is likely to be a much larger (truly) great room in the new configuration, probably dictated by whether there is a better view north or south. (Only the north unit seems to have the arched windows on the lower level, so I’d guess that’s where the largest public space in the new loft will be if the views or light are at all comparable.)

The LLC is going to spend a fair amount of the renovation budget on demolition, though there is no limit to what someone could spend upgrading spaces like this, given that they are already in for $7 million for the two purchases. My guess is that they essentially combine the two kitchens, as at this point neither alone is of the scale that can support a 4,500 sq ft lifestyle, with another few thousand feet outdoors. I never get this lucky, but I’d hope the combination work is so spectacular as to be picked up in design or architecture or lifestyle magazines and lives to be featured in a Loft Peeping feature on Tribeca Citizen (like this bit of Loft Peeping of the truly opposite kind of loft in Soho). A Guy can dream, can’t he?

Net-net, this looks the best kind of deal: a fair price for the seller of #3S and the the new owner of this entire floor. With the outcome that a truly spectacular loft will be created.

Nicely played, LLCs; nicely played.