did an ‘upgraded’ kitchen add $750,000 to way West Village loft at 380 West 12 Street?

21 months, that improved kitchen, a new bedroom, and those $750,000 between sales

Unless you know the Before and After details (I don’t), the recent sale of the “1,400 sq ft” Manhattan loft #2E at 380 West 12 Street (in the aptly named Waywest) is fraught: it was sold on September 24 for $2.575mm by the folks who bought it on December 27, 2012 for $1.825mm. In between, the overall Manhattan residential real estate market was up 22% (per the go-to StreetEast Manhattan Condo Index, of course), while the similar arithmetic for loft #2E is 41%. There’s some ‘extra’ appreciation here, no doubt due (in part) to the changes in the loft from the December 2012 purchase and the September 2014 sale.

No professional agent would soft-sell an extensive renovation with broker babble as modest as this:

The recently upgraded pristine cooks kitchen features a large counter top space, Viking cook-top & oven, Subzero Refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher and a wine cooler drawer. … The master suite features a large walk in closet …. The master bath is outfitted with a glass enclosed shower. The apartment features two more generous sized bedrooms and one more bathroom.

The 2012 floor plan was very similar to the present version, though with only two bedrooms.

the only thing completely missing in 2012 was the 3rd bedroom (from Corcoran site)

The present version suggests some other (minor?) changes:

the new bedroom borders a new kitchen wall and new closets for it and the master (a Nest Seekers pic)

Especially with curves and irregular shapes, it can be dangerous to put too much faith in floor plans (which are, after all, not to scale, blah blah blah), so I assume the funky bedroom is exactly as it was. The addition of the 3rd bedroom provided a wall to anchor (and expand) one end of the kitchen, and to do the same for the master closet. I have to guess that the master bath is reconfigured, from tub to that “glass enclosed shower”, but there’s not much bragging about that change (if it was a change). The kitchen and (possibly) the shower are much more expensive elements to change than the mere carpentry of adding maybe 25 linear feet of walls for the new bedroom and closets.

Whatever they spent, it appears to have been money very well spent. It’s not this simple, of course, but the StreetEasy Index implies that the ‘extra’ value realized last month over the end of 2012 was about $350,000. I am highly confident that the (merely) “upgraded” kitchen and (possible) new shower and the miscellaneous carpentry cost the sellers much less than $350,000. Nicely played, folks; nicely played.

a weird layout to get $1,717/ft

It’s obvious from the listing photos that there are no views from the much-ballyhooed windows (babbled as “impressive over-sized” and again as “expansive”). And that loggia? Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see:

nothing to see, that is, unless you like walls (Nest Seekers pic)

Whatever else you can say about this loft, living here is an entirely interior experience, with no thrills to be gotten by standing at the windows, gazing. You can take some air out on the loggia, but there’s not likely anything to be seen from here, either (you’d see that premium feature in the babble, right?), though you might be able to look up and see a slice of sky. And fancy kitchen appliances aside, this was not marketed as a loft with deluxe finishes. (Not a single material is given a proper proper name in the babble, for example.) Yet if the loggia is worth as much as half the interior space, the loft just sold for $1,717/ft (higher, if the loggia is worth proportionately less). With a very oddly shaped 2nd bedroom.

That value compares very nicely to the last sale in the building for which StreetEasy has a size, the “1,975 sq ft” duplex #7G, which sold a year ago at $2.995mm ($1,516/ft) in no-detail-overlooked condition and a host of proper proper names for materials, appliances, and fittings. (The StreetEasy Index is up 8% in that year, but that loft is much nicer than #2E.) And $1,717/ft looks very good in comparison to the smaller (“1,100 sq ft”) #7C that sold in June 2013 that sold for $1.605mm ($1,412/ft, if you count the small terrace as worth half the interior), which had an “updated” kitchen, “open city views including the Empire State Building”, and river and sunset views from the terrace. (The StreetEasy Index is up 20% in those 15 months, but that one looks to be in at least as good condition as #2E but with those views.)

Loft #2E will not appeal to the a great many buyers. It clearly had great appeal for the new owners. Enjoy!