interesting loft sale at 260 Fifth Avenue, but Observer gets it wrong

why do they do that?
The New York Observer reported yesterday that the Manhattan loft on the 8th floor at 260 Fifth Avenue sold for $3.95mm but, as you will see in a minute, it didn’t. It was a newsworthy event for the Observer (and for The Real Deal, which linked to it at the end of the day yesterday, which is where I saw it) because of the identity of the buyers. The Observer’s lede:

Former CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Wenda Harris Millard, and husband William John Millard III have just purchased a mammoth apartment near Herald Square. Mr. Millard and Ms. Harris Millard, now the president of PR giant MediaLink, bought the 3,800-square-foot co-op at 260 Fifth Avenue for $3.95 million.

I could care less about these buyers, but I appreciate it when anyone calls attention to a Manhattan loft sale, especially as this one is pretty interesting. But first let’s look at the facts.

There is no attribution to The Observer item. I did not find a deed record on StreetEasy last night, but lo and behold StreetEasy shows this morning that a deed was filed, and the links to ACRIS show that it was filed yesterday at 11:28:15 AM. So The Observer was  quick enough to find the deed within four hours that StreetEasy could not find until the next morning, but why did they get the price wrong? If they had the names of the parties and the address from the deed …?

In fact, the deed price is $3.8mm, not $3.95mm, and the sale was on June 27. $3.95mm was the last asking price (as noted by The Observer) and all the details about the loft are taken from the listing. I only see Observer links on-line second-hand and I don’t know if I have ever even had the dead-tree version in my hands, so I know very little about The Observer. But I have observed that it is often wrong about the facts in a real estate transaction.

Before today, the most recent instance as similar, which I hit in my June 17, 19 Warren Street loft sold by minor celebrity at major profit. Again, The Observer reported the deed filing before StreetEasy had it, but in that deal got two prices wrong:

they got two prices not quite right in reporting that the MC paid “$1.43 million in November 2002 [and] has now sold his lofty triplex for $3.19 million, according to city records”. The actual numbers on the deeds are $1,425,679 on the entry and $3.185mm on the exit.

Small errors of fact, perhaps, but errors of fact nonetheless. In a friggin’ newspaper. About the data actually reported “according to city records”. Why do they do that?

good writing, though
There is a lovely locution in The Observer’s summary of the broker babble (sometimes a difficult thing to summarize), with my bold on the thing that made me smile:

The home has a veritable atlas of amenities, with French doors in the living room, Brazilian cherry wood floors, and Jerusalem gold marble countertops in the master bath.

They need a fact-checker, however, unless they run it as:

Former CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Wenda Harris Millard, and husband William John Millard III have just purchased a mammoth apartment near Herald Square. Mr. Millard and Ms. Harris Millard, now the president of PR giant MediaLink, bought the 3,800-square-foot co-op at 260 Fifth Avenue [that was last offered] for $3.95 million.

where was I??
Sheesh … this far into a post, and I still have not mentioned why this loft deal is interesting to me. Now that I have strained your attention span, let’s keep doing that a little while. The interesting thing about the 8th floor is what happened in that long period between contract and closing:

You can’t see what I am talking about by looking at the 8th floor listing, but you can on the 5th floor listing history:

the most fraternal of twins
The two units have the same footprint (“approximately 3,800 sq ft” in the 8th floor babble, but “4,000 sq ft” in our data-base), but very different floor plans and (apparently) finishes. I will try to put this delicately: the babble on the 5th floor is rather less enthusiastic about the babble on the 8th floor (with that “veritable atlas of amenities”). The pictures tell the story, and no pair tells it better than the two kitchen photos. These are very different lofts, in the same shape, with plumbing stacks in the same places, and different investments already made in each.

Yet after the 9th floor went into contract at $3.8mm, the 5th floor seller began asking $3.9mm. Yet after asking $3.9mm, the 5th floor seller found a buyer in five weeks and cashed out within seven weeks. Not only was that very quick work, but it all took place while the 8th floor seller was waiting to close.

Weird. Very, very weird.

I don’t know if I have noticed another loft sale with a quick contract at 12% off the asking price recently. It is as if the 5th floor seller did not know the 8th floor seller took a (small) haircut off the $3.95mm asking price (like The Observer, in fact). And was not convinced that the 5th floor loft was in materially different condition.

in need of a bigger spread
Look at the master suite on the 5th floor, for an example of the upgrades (renovation? gutting??) that would be needed to bring the 5th floor up to the standard of the 8th floor. On the 5th floor, the masters must traverse the public gallery almost to the elevator landing to enter the largest bathroom on the floor; the 8th floor master is on the opposite side and the walk is almost as long to the ‘facilities’ but the walk is entirely private. (Oddly, the toilet in the 8th floor master is really close to the bedroom, and far from the rest of the plumbing, but I digress….)

In fact, the 5th floor seller had to know all about the 8th floor details, because both lofts were represented by the same agent. An agent with Bachmann-like choot-spa to ask a premium over the 8th floor, but it worked to get the 5th floor a very quick very good deal.

The $380,000 difference in clearing prices for these two lofts is either exactly or approximately $100/ft. Given the difference in the two kitchens and the fact that only one of them has “a veritable atlas of amenities”, I would be shocked if it would take only $1,00/ft to make the 5th floor as nice as the 8th floor. And the 8th floor has more windows and better views.

On the one hand, the 5th floor seller struck a comparatively great deal. On the other hand, Martha Stewart’s former colleague struck a comparatively great deal in buying the 8th floor.

The reactions of the 5th floor buyer and the 8th floor seller were not available as this post went to print … err … post. So sue me.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011