One Bed Wonder at Glass Farmhouse lofts goes for $4mm

a very large One Bed Wonder
The New York Observer observed late last week that A Famous Photographer just sold a penthouse of 2 long-combined lofts and roof terrace at 448 West 37 Street [the Glass Farmhouse] for $4mm. While the Observer got some details wrong (at least, different form what I see in city records) it had a very useful link to a Real Estalker post about the loft from February, which in turn has terrific background and a link to a 1999 New York Times article about the loft, the owner, and the neighborhood.

I am less interested in the Famous Photographer than in the fact that he sold “4,101 sq ft” of Manhattan loft One Bed Wonder.

a very wonderful One Bed Wonder
The last time I hit the Manhattan Loft Guy category of One Bed Wonders (September 16, "true Soho loft" at 169 Mercer St closes at $766/ft, with a collection of OBW links) I closed with the note-to-self to pay more attention to the genus, as it had been quite a while since I had noted one. Mirable dictu! here we are (thanks to the Observer) less than a month later. Would that all MLG resolutions resolved so quickly….

Even for Manhattan lofts, “4,101 sq ft” is a very large one bedroom unit. And make no mistake: despite being described as a 2-bedroom loft, with the only route to the master suite requiring transit through what is labeled the other “bedroom” on the floor plan, the current layout does not work as a real 2-bedroom loft. But what a loft!

Much of the loft is set back from the building edge, leading to the “L” shaped terrace of “1,500 sq ft”. Ceilings are 16 feet, much of which is open to the sky, with an electric system for shades for the skylights. Needless to say, the windows are also very large, with the principal exposure being south with ample views west of the river.

I can’t tell exactly where the two lofts were combined way-back-when, but it was either at the east wall of the second “bedroom” or the west wall. (The second entrance still sits in the laundry room.) Basically, the Famous Photographer turned one 2,000 sq ft loft  into a living room and kitchen, and a second 2,000 sq ft loft into a master suite with a second not-really-a-second-bedroom-room.

business was good
Per the RealEstalker and the New York Times “Habitats” feature from November 28, 1999, the Famous Photographer has lived and worked in the Glass Farmhouse since the early 1980s, starting as a renter. In the early 1990s he bought first one loft, then the adjoining one, living in one and using the other as his studio. The Times pegged the purchases as 1990 and 1991 (both for $300,000) but Property Shark has them in 1991 and 1993. Not that it matters, but I suspect his memory was faulty when he spoke to the Times, and he got the transition from renting to buying just a little off.

When business got really good, in the late 1990s the Famous Photographer moved his studio elsewhere and in 1999 combined the two lofts for living, apparently not changing much in the way of general layout but significantly upgrading the finishes. The NY Times article noted truly grand plans to renovate in 1999 (adding a 1,000 sq ft bedroom on top of the current units, spending about $1mm), but that never happened.

Property Shark shows a $5mm mortgage on the two units in March 2006, probably long after the renovation. But the lis pendens filed against the lofts by JP Morgan Chase in August 2009 suggests that the Famous Photographer no longer lived on Easy Street by then.

The guy has been trying to sell since March 2007 (a year after cashing $5mm out), starting at $5.8mm. Aside from 4 months off the market at the end of 2008, it has been for sale ever since, also asking $5.6mm, $4.9mm and (most recently) $4.495mm. The contract at $4mm was signed as of June 2, after 35 months of marketing in the prior 38 months.

the nabe was rough
I highly recommend that NY Times article from 1999. The photographer has a way with words, here describing the change from the early 1980s to then (1999):

15 years ago … the block was distinguished mainly by the six-foot-tall prostitutes who would hang around in full lingerie. Later, he says, the neighborhood got worse, drawing ”14-year-old crack-addicted hookers.”

The current local 14 year old traffic is likely to be headed to the Baryshnikov dance complex next door.

© Sandy Mattingly 2010