famous artist buys (another) loft at 173 Duane Street

if at first you don’t succeed
From the buy side, you have Richard Serra and wife, who apparently have lived at Manhattan loft building 173 Duane Street since 1977 (the first year his name shows up on The Shark’s page for the building, even before the coop was formed in 1979). On the other hand, you have the (former) owners of the 3rd floor, who tried to sell the “3,500 sq ft” for two very exciting years in the overall Manhattan residential real estate market, from January 2008 through January 2010. Those “sellers” got close enough to have a contract fail just after The Peak (off an asking price of $4.2mm), but then rode price drops all the way down to $3.375mm, holding near there for 7 months without selling.

His Wiki page describes Serra’s career as an artist, with the sole real estate factoid being that he “lives in Tribeca, New York and on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.” Perhaps that entry should explore his apparent status as a real estate mogul. He still owns his first loft at 173 Duane Street; he made a (tough) deal to buy the 3rd floor, in a private deal that closed at $3.925mm on August 25. That was a tough deal because the sellers who had been unsuccessful at a great many prices (and as low as $3.375mm) held out for $3.925mm — more than the 2nd floor loft sold for on September 8, 2008.

The full public listing history of the 3rd floor loft:

The 3rd floor was marketed as a pretty high-end loft:

Spectacular spacious full floor loft, beautifully renovated with exceptional and unique structural details, original steel and wood columns and beams throughout, a windowed eat in chefs kitchen with top of the line appliances….

not a Long-and-Narrow, but classic nonetheless
The footprint is more squat than a traditional Long-and-Narrow (the building is 51 x 87 ft, per The Shark), but like that classic layout the 3rd floor has windows only north and south. The space has a lot of rooms, with the huge kitchen in one windowed corner, two bedrooms also against that north wall, a library/office in a south corner, a den/bedroom without windows, and a master suite in nearly the middle of the loft (obviously, with no windows). The later listing has more photos, and the attention paid to the beams and columns shows that these classic elements are worth the exposure.

did the 3rd floor sell the 2nd floor at The Peak?
It is always interesting when neighbors directly compete. The 2nd floor loft has the same footprint (I can’t find a floor plan anywhere) and some of the same elements (note the columns), but was probably in a less highly-finished condition than the 3rd floor (despite being a “artists studio and home designed by the reknown Deborah Berke Architects”).

Perhaps that seller was more motivated than the 3rd floor owners (the seller was an estate), or maybe the estate was simply lucky in timing and competition. Check out this history (the accepted offer date is from our data-base):

The estate came to market $700,000 lower than the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor had that tragically failed contract in May (tragic in that it took the loft off the market for a critical 2 months), and then did not drop the price to the neighborhood that the 2nd floor got until after Lehman’s bankruptcy filing changed the world. Ouch, and again ouch.

But it seems pretty clear that the 2nd floor benefited from the comparison with the 3rd floor for the week it took to get an accepted offer, and for the 3.5 weeks it took to get a contract.

meanwhile, back in 2011
One wonders who approached whom, as between the 3rd floor owners and the Serras. The clearing price suggests it was the Serras who made the first move, as they paid $550,000 more than the sellers had last been asking, in January 2010 — a 16% premium.

The sellers actually made out pretty well, considering that they had been unable to sell within 10% of the Serra price after July 10, 2008. The Serras got the loft they really wanted, at a price they were willig to pay. Win-win!

I can’t tell which loft they already own inn this 6-story building, but (of course) wonder if they are going to combine 2 full-floor lofts of “3,500 sq ft” each. Real estate moguls!

© Sandy Mattingly 2011