55 Liberty Street closes as if 2007, progress of a sort

free at last!
The Manhattan (mini) loft #11D at 55 Liberty Street (Liberty Tower) closed last week (May 21) at $602,500, just a rounding error off the last sale price (December 2007) of $590k. Sheesh … another reminder that I need to finalize my list of Manhattan lofts that sold in 2007 and then resold recently (March 5,  data dump: 27 Manhattan lofts sold in 2007 + recently) ….

mini is as mini does
At "750 sq ft" this 1 bedroom would be a decent size for an "apartment"; for a loft it is on the small end of the scale. But there’s an efficient, nearly square, layout with four large windows and a bedroom with length and width that both exceed the 11 foot ceilings (avoiding the ‘silo’ effect one sometimes sees in mini lofts).

quickly, quickly
The marketing campaign was short and sweet: to market on January 15, in contract by March 25, closed on May 21. From hopes to cash in 4 months, at just a 7% discount from the $649k asking price.

Liberty Tower was one of the early coop conversions near Wall Street (1980), and shows the bugs and features of living in the downtown canyons: #11D probably gets good light, but note that there is no bragging about views.

At $800/ft, #11D is a healthy sale, following the rather disappointing (for the building) most recent prior sale in the building. #21A came to market a month after Lehman collapsed, then took nine months to find a contract (basically, during the entire nuclear winter of the Manhattan real estate market, October 2008 to July 2009). That loft was said to be "1,250 sq ft" in move-in condition, with bragging about "great light" and views, yet it closed (finally!) on October 5, 2009 at $837,000, or $669/ft.

Shareholders are probably breathing a little easier after the #11D sale.
 

© Sandy Mattingly 2010