53 N. Moore Street loft flies (yes) off the shelf, above ask

it only sells in December
The Manhattan loft #5H at 53 N. Moore Street (the NorthMoore) sold on December 15; the prior sale was on December 5, 2003; the original sale from the sponsor was December 21, 2000. I can’t tell you in which year the new owners will sell, but it should be a December sale. This year, The Market loved this loft at the asking price, as it came to market on September 24 at $1.399mm and was in contract by October 12 at $1.48mm. That is a lot of bidding to squeeze into 18 days, given that there was room in there for due diligence and contract negotiation.

At “1,083 sq ft”, #5H is nearly as small a loft as a Tribeca loft gets. At this scale, and in a 2000 new condo conversion that sold finished lofts (not white boxes), the 2-bedroom layout is indistinguishable from an “apartment”. But there’s no question that this is a loft, as 4 former factory buildings were combined to create this condo; it is just that the larger units here are more obviously ‘loft-like’. (IMHO!)

small market love
As I mentioned, #5H was a quick sale, above ask. At $1,367/ft, this sale compares well to values of larger (more flexible) units in the building, and probably represents the bottom of the ‘starter market’ in Tribeca, at least for full-service condos. The six lofts that sold here since mid-2008 (all larger than #5H) sold from $992/ft to $1,275/ft (using the square footage in Property Shark, not StreetEasy). That implies that the full-service is a proportionately more valuable amenity for the smallest unit in the building. (Hmmmm … note to self ….)

Setting the highest price-per-foot record for the building makes this recent sale an impressive sale, but it is less so in comparison to the 2003 sale. That sale at $890,000 represented a 50% premium in only three years (over the sponsor sale of $591,000 in 2000), as opposed to the seven years it took to realize a mere 66% appreciation from 2003 to the present. (It is possible that the recent no-expense-spared-high-tech-high-quality in the current broker babble is the same condition as the 2003 sale [with renovated baths and ‘gourmet kitchen’], but — if not — the 2003 price comparison is even more impressive.)

© Sandy Mattingly 2011