Keystone Loft at 38 Warren Street pushes the envelope, envelope opens

will this sale re-set values in this 2002 south Tribeca loft conversion / expansion?

The last time I hit a loft sale in the Keystone Building at 38 Warren Street (March 13, Keystone loft at 38 Warren Street sells up 15% in 11 months), the story line involved a (then) record-setting sale. In four sales since then, all in the newly built upper floors, that story continues. Let’s start with the “1,955 sq ft” loft #7B, right next door to the loft I hit on March 13 when it broke a $/ft record to hit $1,338/ft. Loft #7B just sold for an even $3mm, or an uneven $1,534/ft, but that’s no longer enough to get a building record. Such is life in SoP (South of Prime) Tribeca these days.

Let’s look at the loft first, the various envelope-stretching numbers next.

layout is more unusual than the finishes

The #7B broker babble claims it was “meticulously renovated” but it is difficult to see many changes over the pretty high base-line from 2002.

a design eye for couture european-style elegance distinguishes this condominium residence from its competition. … dining room features built-in banquette …. Expansive chef’s kitchen has black granite counters, double-sink and top-of-the-line appliances including Sub-Zero refrigerator and wine cooler. … Well-proportioned master suite has spa bath, enormous walk-in closet, 3 additional closets and home office or nursery. Large second bedroom with en-suite bath has walk-in closet. Rich wood flooring and custom HVAC radiator covers throughout. This comfortable home was meticulously renovated to maximize space with functionality.

The kitchen looks and sounds like the #8B kitchen, but for cabinet fronts being white over natural. The banquette must be new, as are the radiator covers. The master bath photo resembles that of #8B.

Whatever differences in finishes there may be to distinguish #7B from the competition (in the building and elsewhere), the “1,955 sq ft” 2-bedroom layout strikes me as unusual. It is not that the floor plan is optimized as a 2-bedroom+office, as that office could be expanded into a third bedroom if the doorways and closets back there get rearranged a bit; it’s that much less than half the space in the loft is public. To an unusual extent, this loft is optimized for bedroom living. The master suite without the office and that closet is larger than the living / dining room; with the office and closet, the master suite is larger than the living / dining room plus the kitchen. The second bedroom is, of course, additional private space.

Maybe it is a combination of the (relatively) low ceilings and the amount of furniture in the living room, but I don’t get a sense of volume from the living room photo. You see a great many 2,000 sq ft 2-bedroom lofts in which well more than half the loft is public; many of these are billed as ‘great entertaining spaces’ so I have to wonder what the antonym is for that bit of broker babbling. A “great place to nest”??

Regardless of shapely challenges or benefits, based on the difference between #7C at $1,338/ft in February and #7B at $1,534/ft in October, I’d be tempted to think there was more meticulous work done than meets the camera, or was babbled about. But there are other data points in between.

that envelope is already in tatters

As mentioned, the “1,850 sq ft” 2-bedroom #7C set a building record for $/ft for purely interior space when it sold in February at $2.475mm. Let’s put aside (a) the May 23 sale of #6A at $2.4mm because in addition to the “1,248 sq ft” interior 2-bedroom space that loft came with “1,153 sq ft” of terraces, and (b) the June 14 sale of #9A at $2.1mm because that included 600+ sq ft of terrace. But in between #7C at $1,338/ft and #7B at $1,534/ft we also had:

• #8A Oct 10 $2mm $1,603/ft

That sits on the interior 2-bedroom “1,248 sq ft” layout in common with #6A and #9A. Loft #8A blew #7C’s (short-lived) building record for $/ft even further out of the water than #7B did.

The #8A broker babble is pretty enthusiastic, seemingly matching that of #7B but for that opaque “meticulously renovated” angle. I could talk myself into #8A being more valuable than #7B because “[a]ll windows have extraordinary downtown skyline views”, an element not mentioned about #7B.

I could also make an argument that #8A is worth more than #7B on a $/ft basis for that set of buyers who need exactly 2 bedrooms, for whom the extra space in the “B” unit is unwanted (unaffordable?) luxury. But that smacks of over-determining principles from sparse data points.

Regardless, I can confidently say that building values should continue to match those newly re-set here, at least for the new upper floors. For so long as current market conditions continue. Even in SoP Tribeca.