62 Orchard Street closes on the button, at the ask

useful comp, no?
At the risk of flaunting my ignorance, I am not aware of many true lofts on the Lower East Side, a neighborhood in which the typical (old) housing stock is the tenement. 62 Orchard Street is a true loft building, in which the 5th floor just sold for $2.2mm (deed was April 26; filed on April 30; PDQ!). They made quick work of it, as it came to market December 3 and found a contract by February 4.

It was also surgically precise work: they got the full ask of $2.2mm, which would indicate good work by agent Richard Orenstein of Halstead under any circumstances. This is particularly good work if (as I believe) there are few nearby lofts from which to draw relevant comps. Indeed, in this 7-story, 5 unit coop I see no sales since the building was converted in 1999.

The "2,400 sq ft" loft has the classic loft elements: brick walls, tin ceilings, cast iron columns, (100 year old?) pine flooring; and something unusual for a Long-and-Narrow loft in Manhattan: 4 exposures (although the two long walls have only one window each, this is still unusual). The layout is rather funky, with the entry near the bedrooms, and the bedrooms in the front of the building. It appears that the sellers slept in the open part of the loft, in an ‘area’ separated only by curtains. Is that a (wood-burning?) stove on the wall opposite the kitchen? As I said … funky.

As I also said, this closed sale adds a useful comp for any nearby loft sellers 😉

great back story … this is embarrassing
When I wrote at the start "I am not aware of many true lofts on the Lower East Side", I was actuality thinking I didn’t realize even that this building is a true loft building. In doing a little research on this building I found this link as the very first organic response to Googling the address: loft pioneering as late as 1998 / 62 Orchard St NY Times ‘Habitats’ feature, a nearly three year old (July 29, 2007) Manhattan Loft Guy riff on a NY Times article that — without revealing the address — provided the entire wonderful story of how this building was converted to a residential loft in 1998.

I must say that the entire blog post is a good read (and the linked NY Times article is, as well, with before and after pix), but here’s one money quote:

To repeat: they paid their share of the brand-new coop for rights to the 3rd floor, then gave the rest of their money to a dirt-bag contractor with a passport and a one-way ticket. How’d that work out?

the value of sweat equity
Depending on how their 3rd floor compares to the condition of the just sold 5th floor, that $275,000 plus the wasted $35,000 plus all that work from 7 until midnight equals $2.2mm (more or less). God bless the pioneering spirit!

other LES lofts?
What other true (old) lofts are in the (true) Lower East Side? Chinatown doesn’t count. 7 Essex Street doesn’t count (a new building). Those machinery and warehouse buildings around the old police headquarters don’t count.

that (failed) pun
I didn’t find a way to (subtly) work my title pun into this post, so here’s the deal. The business of that guy who owned the building, and who became an original cooperator, was "G & G Shirt Co.", which I suspect uses the DBA of the current first floor tenant, Global International Men’s Clothing. (That business has at last one Yelp fan.) Yes, an explained pun is a failed pun. Waddya gonna do … sue me??

© Sandy Mattingly 2010