Cocoa Exchange loft at 82 Beaver Street sells for 3rd time in narrow range

odd numbers, for being so similar

The “928 sq ft” Manhattan loft #1309 at 82 Beaver Street (the Cocoa Exchange, aka 1 Wall Street Court, ugh) recently sold for $905,000, which is both a tiny bit more than it sold for in July 2010 ($880,000) and a tiny bit less than the original purchaser paid when it was a new development in April 2007 ($915,406, which no doubt included the New York City and New York State transfer taxes that the sponsor would otherwise have had to pay). I have to wonder if there is something going on at this 2007-era new development that scares purchasers, or else this loft is evidence of a remarkably consistent hyper-local market just below (not touching) Wall Street.

With 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, there is a lot of utility crammed in to not-very-spacious space, an efficiency not ameliorated by ceiling height (under 10 feet) or by the “five enormous windows”, as there’s not much to see except brick and stone, even at this height down in the canyons. The loft sits at the wide west edge of the wedge shaped (er … “flat iron”) building, with a floor plan that just goes to show how narrow even the widest part of this building is. I suppose it can be described as “cookie cutter” even with the angled exterior wall and angled wall between living room and master.

a different vibe from classic loft nabes
This is the typical product in near-Peak new developments of converted office buildings in the Financial District, appealing to a different buyer pool than are interested in classic (spacious) lofts. These buyers have to have 2-bedrooms and prefer to spend 6-figures. Owners no doubt expand their living space by using the “living room like amenities” on the roof (“sky terrace / roof lounge bring the indoors out with continuous hardwood flooring, moving glass panels, outdoor shower, flat screen TV and wet bar”). (See the 6th and 8th listing photos.) The light’s much better up there (only 3 floors above loft #1309), with no roof over the outside decks.

I don’t pay much attention to sales in this kind of building, even though they are definitely lofts. (So many lofts … so little time!) Manhattan loft snob that I am, these units are just not as interesting to me. But this sale caught my eye because of the sequence of sales prices. So it is no surprise that I have not posted before about a loft sale in this building. Recent history tells me, however, that the folks downstairs in #309 did a little better when they sold December 21, 2012. It cost them only $809,508 in November 2006 and sold for $840,000 5 months ago.
 

The tiny (“367 sq ft”) “loft downstairs at #406 did even better on resale, having been bought at $336,384 in October 2006 and just sold for $425,000 a month ago. I am going to guess that the sponsor was able to set increased prices at higher floors that the market is not willing to sustain. The high floor (little additional light, no better view) #1309 sold at 1% less recently than was paid in the new development; the two lower floor units #309 and #406 sold at slight premiums to their new development purchases (4% and 10%). Maybe the gap between #1309’s history and those of the other pair is simple market noise, maybe it is a sign that the developer was smarter than The Market.

Regardless, these numbers for #1309 are odd.

© Sandy Mattingly 2013