one year to contract at 45 Walker Street

The deed transferring the Manhattan loft at 45 Walker Street #4 was filed two weeks ago, ending a rather long sales effort. At under $1,200/ft for a condo with low monthly charges, this is a relative Tribeca loft bargain.

the history
first offered for sale on March 26, 2007 for $6.2mm (and $3,600/mo in taxes and common charges)
price drop that May to $5.995mm
another price drop in October to $5.8mm
finally! a March 2008 contract
closed June 26 at $5.735mm

the goods
This "4,800+ sq ft" architect-designed no-detail-overlooked loft looks and sounds spectacular, down to the 1,000 bottle wine cellar and media room with drop down screen (suitable for screening all Hillary Swank films). The 12 foot ceiings and "50 feet" of mahogany windows give it max loft cred, while the wood-burning fireplace is an unusually homey touch for a loft. Teh long-and-narrow layout is classic (windows only front and back, bedrooms in back, plumbing on both long walls), though with 4,800 sq ft that is rather long and not very narrow.

The building was converted to condos only in 2003, but it is unclear if the architect doing the no-detail-overlooked design was hired by the first owner or by the developer.

the impetus?
Interesting that unit #2 sold March 9, 2007 (see any connection?) for $5.07mm; that one took only 3.5 months to get into contract off an asking price of $5.4mm. Interesting that the second floor is not quite the same size as the fourth floor (the second floor ‘lost’ a room-sized space off the stairwell) and that the layout and finishings for the second floor are very similar to those on the fourth floor (so maybe the developer did all the no-detail-overlooking).

That pretty quick sale on March 9, 2007 may have induced the 4th floor owners to go for it on March 27, 2007. At the end of the day, the 4th floor owners got nearly $650k more than their former neighbors on 2 — but that day (a full year before a contract) may have been much later than they anticipated when they started. (By that point, they obviously did not mind a 7.5% discount from their original asking price.) I wonder whether the Hillary Swank movie was being filmed before or after they decided to sell?

© Sandy Mattingly 2008