gut job loft at 395 Broadway provokes war, gets $1,000/ft

location, location … and what’s the 3rd one??
The Manhattan loft #15A at 395 Broadway that sold on December 23 is a fascinating contrast with the loft I hit yesterday (303 Mercer Street loft with nothing but potential sells for $640/ft). That coop loft was larger, darker, hinted that it was all about potential, and took 7 months to get a contract at $640/ft. This condo loft is only “1,200 sq ft”, boasts “all day sunlight and unlimited views”, is very clear that it needs a gut renovation, and took less than 3 weeks to get a contract at $1,000/ft after a bidding war.

The light+views helped, I am sure; you know being a condo generates a higher price; but I suspect that the biggest factor is location. That a loft in Tribeca (even one at the gritty fringe at the corner of Walker Street at Broadway) has a geography premium that a loft just off the Gold Coast in the Village can’t touch.

brilliant babbling
If I did cheesy ‘awards’ (might Ricky Gervais be available next year?), this loft would be an early favorite for Broker Babble of The Year.  Talk about taking lemons and making lemonade!

NEEDS IT ALL – BUT HAS IT ALL!

This top floor Tribeca loft has all day sunlight and unlimited views from seven huge windows facing north and east, PLUS two more south facing oversized windows can be punched in. Needs complete gutting, but the spacious 1200’ allows for 2 BR/2BA.

This manages expectations so well that no one who visits should care about anything but the floors, the windows, and the footprint (including plumbing stacks).

modest pricing
As mentioned, this loft went to contract within 3 weeks, after a bidding war. So the ask of $1.05mm was proven to be Below Market. (Not claimed to be, but proven to be.)

As a gut-job loft at a fringe corner of Tribeca, this would have been a hard loft to comp, particularly as nothing had sold in the building since The Peak. #13E sold on February 28, 2008, but went to contract almost exactly 3 years before #15A:

This “1,200 sq ft” loft was a bit of a hybrid, with no interior walls but in “mint” condition (and great light). In order to use #13E as a comp, that $1,320/ft value needed to be adjusted for being perfectly timed and for being in mint condition. (Fascinating: this is precisely the kind of time+condition comp analysis yesterday’s loft-with-potential had to have gone through, as that most relevant building comp was also a sale at The Peak; in that case, a contract on December 2, 2007 and a closing on January 31, 2008.)

Starting #15A 3 years later as a gut-job at $875/ft seems a reasonable set of adjustments. Retrospect, of course, shows that a $450/ft adjustment for time and condition overshot the mark.

Well played, sir. Well played. Props to the #15A seller and to Warburg’s Cathy Haft.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011