extra BR + extra bath cost exactly $475,000 at 270 Broadway loft

I hope everyone was polite at the closing
What do you do when you grow out of your loft? For most people who can’t make to do with … say … 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths (such as … say … the Manhattan loft #16C at 270 Broadway, Tower 270, which sold on September 15) you uproot your family to get that additional space. But these sellers-of-2-BR-seekers-of-3 were lucky: they did not put their too-small loft #16C on the market until they had an accepted offer for the larger loft right next door. They bought #16B with 3 bedrooms + 3.5 baths on August 31.

sometimes The Numbers work
#16B sold at $2.2mm, a tiny discount from the $2.225mm asking price, or $862/ft. It came to market on March 30 and had a signed contract with the next-door neighbors by May 1.

So the next door neighbors in #16C knew they had a handshake deal to buy #16B when they put their #16C on the market on April 29. They obviously knew that they had valued #16B at $862/ft in that contract, but they first gave it a shot at $1.875mm, or $938/ft. When that had not worked by June 3 they dropped to $1.795mm, from which they generated a contract by July 22 at $1.725mm, or $863/ft.

I assume that the #16C buyers did not know the contract price for #16B, which was by far the most relevant comp in July, when they started negotiating for #16C. It is likely that the #16C sellers used their #16B contract price to justify drawing a firm line in the sand for #16C at that $1.725mm, essentially identically valued as #16B.

Let’s push these numbers a little farther …. These recent sales show that The Market valued these two lofts the same on a price per foot basis. I guess it is not surprising (but it is cool) that the sponsor achieved essentially the same values for these two lofts when they originally sold in 2002 ($16C at $558/ft, or $1,115,142; #16B at $547/ft, or $1.395mm). Put another way, #16C sold for 79.9% of the #16B price when they both sold in 2002, and then sold for 78.4% when they both sold in 2010.

That is a pretty efficient market, no?

similar condition
Although #16C got to be too small for these folks, at “1,998 sq ft” it is hardly “small” for a 2 bedroom loft in Manhattan. The problem is that this particular Long-and-Narrow footprint provides little flexibility to add an additional room, as all the windows are along (most of) one long wall and it is not quite wide enough to make two bedrooms on the back (narrow) wall, even if one wanted to rip out the master bath to do it and even if one could live with a bedroom with no window.

The building was converted only in 2002, so the condition of all units in the “Tower” portion that have not been renovated should be pretty much the same. Here is the babble on the 2 BR #16C:

Balthaup [sic] designed chef’s kitchen featuring stainless steel counter tops, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, Miele cook top and double ovens and a Kitchenaid garbage disposal …. en-suite [master] bath with a glass paneled stall shower, a Phillippe Stark tub and Dornbracht chrome fixtures ….

In not very great contrast, the 3 BR + 3.5 bath #16B (with “2,551 sq ft”) contains these (now familiar) elements:

Bulthaup kitchen and Miele appliances …. en-suite master … [bath]  features a glass paneled shower and freestanding Philippe Starck bathtub with Dornbracht chrome fixtures ….

(Snark alert!) So it is fair to say that these two lofts were in essentially identical condition when they sold, so long as a "Balthaup deisgned chef’s kitchen" is really identical to a "Bulthaup kitchen".

same commute, same dry cleaner
One of the reasons that people don’t like to move is that they don’t want to disrupt their lives: they are loathe to break in a new dry cleaner, or to learn to time the walk to the subway and the subway trip to work, or to risk losing play date partners for kids by moving to a (new) inconvenient location. Not a problem for the folks who moved from #16C to #16B.

And they probably saved thousands on movers, without tying up the elevator.

fun with broker babble
What are the chances that #16B really has ceilings that are two feet higher than #16C? (See the listing descriptions….)

© Sandy Mattingly 2010