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51 Walker zooms, or not? agent/owner reaches for

Sandy MattinglyPosted on Posted in loft neighborhoods tribeca — No Comments ↓
 
how do you spell A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-I-O-N?
51 Walker Street is a new condominium “loft” building that was finished just last year. Most of the 15 units originally closed between November and February, but two closed this month – but that is not my story focus here.
 
Unit 6A is said to be 1,550 sq ft and is being offered for resale by its owner, an agent at PruDE, for $2.75mm ($1,242/mo, abated). Don’t know if he ever lived there, but he likes the building well enough to offer it for sale at a 50% premium over his DECEMBER 2006 purchase price.
 
patience pays
The seller signed a contract in September 2005, well before the building would be ready. The asking price at that time was $1.99mm but he paid “only” $1.86mm when he closed in December 2006.
 
How far has the market in this northeast corner of TriBeCa advanced since September 2005? By 50%????
 
At least at this early point (the listing is new today), there are no pictures or floor plan on the PruDE site, just a building rendering.
 
The last original unit to close was #3B, four weeks ago. It is not yet in ACRIS, but the asking price for this 2,056 sq ft unit was $2.7mm (and $1,263/mo, abated).
 
developer discounts
Other units were sold at discounts from their asking prices (the 4th floor most dramatically; to insiders??), as reflected in the inter-firm data:
 
 
 
 
Record price
Ask
Sq ft
2A
$2.2mm
$2.35mm
1,839
3A
$1.051mm
$1.45mm
1,146
4A
$1.09mm
$1.925mm
??
4B
$1.168mm
$2.15mm
1,642
5A
$1.55mm
$1.899mm
1,600
5B
$1.82mm
$1.95mm
1,642
6B
$2.025mm
$2.11mm
1,642
7B
$2.1mm
$2.135mm
1,642
8A
$1.73mm
$1.95mm
1,556
8B
$1.833mm
$2.1mm
1,642
 
 
(I wonder if the buyers of unit 7A know that they appear to be the only people who paid ‘full price’ for their unit: $1.995 in their case.)
 
This history shows that when this building was marketed (pre-construction) in 2005 the developer was (a) optimistic about prices and (b) realistic about what the market would bear.
 
if anyone knows this market…
Not much doubt that the agent/owner selling #6A – and asking for a 50% premium over his December 2006 price – is intimately familiar with the market for this building: he was the listing agent for the original sales. He did not get an insider price: his $1.86mm for 6A is higher than buyers paid for 5A and 8A, but lower than the full-price purchase for 7A.
 
Which leads back to my original question: has the market for this building increase by 50% in 18 months? Stay tuned….
 
© Sandy Mattingly 2007
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