Village project lofts at 250 Mercer Street sell at $925/ft with too many walls

did I miss the photo opportunity?
The surviving listing on StreetEasy for the “1,500 sq ft” Manhattan lofts #C514 and #C515 at 250 Mercer Street promises “more info to follow shortly… [and] pix next week”, but that was from 14 months ago, so any people holding their breath in anticipation have long since expired. As it, the single exterior photo and 3 floor plans told buyers what they needed to know: there’s nothing to keep if you buy and combine these two units, other than the 5 western windows and the flowers to the north.

The to-be-combined floor plan suggests that there is a large kitchen to be built out of the stacks for the existing back-to-back kitchens, perhaps with a dining area to be created to the north that would leave room for a second bedroom at that north window. The thing is almost square, with plumbing in the middle and along the (dark) north wall, so an architect should be able to make something out of it. The current lofted areas probably don’t survive a rational re-design as a combined space, but there is likely to be storage added somewhere the 13 foot ceilings are not needed (over the bathrooms, at least).

The potential is there, but not at the prices asked. They came out like a furniture discounter, at $1,599,999 on December 2, 2011 and bumped twice to get to contract by August 9. Evidently the closing process was rather complicated (perhaps they had to file for a new Certificate of Occupancy?), as they did not close until January 7. You need to do some extra clicking on StreetEasy too see that the two pieces closed at $777,000 and $610,000, which are oddly proportioned for spaces said to be commonly owned and “900 sq ft” and “600 sq ft”. That comes to $1.387mm, of course, or $925/ft.

caution: upside may be closer than it appears
You’d expect there to be some upside for the new owner for taking the risk of combining two units, but the last 2-bedroom sized loft here to sell was the “1,200 sq ft” #B906 on November 15 at $1.5mm, or $1,250/ft, so you hope the new owner can get nice work done inexpensively. That one was said to be in a coveted corner of the building and has more windows, so started with an advantage. The Market got to weigh the advantages of #B906 against the opportunities for #C514-515, as they competed directly after #B906 came out at $1.549mm on July 26 and the combo did not go to contract until August 9 while asking $1.449mm.

January was a busy month for project lofts on Manhattan Loft Guy, with the 6 posts below about lofts that need some love beyond TLC after they sold recently. Compared to the #C514-515 combo at $925/ft, these are all over the map (though one map pin will stick on top of #C514-515). I added the closing value on a $/ft basis to the one that is not evident from the title:

• January 3, walking up is hard to do: primitive loft at 37 Walker Street sells with 4 flights of stairs down 5% since 2006, sorta (closed at the awkward level of $735/ft)
• January 14, when bad things happen to high ceilings: 250 Mercer Street loft sells at $650/ft
• January 18, working artist loft at 121 Mercer Street sells just under $1,000/ft
• January 22, West Village loft that needs a total build-out sells at 59 Barrow Street for $1,190/ft
• January 24, second floor loft empire at 66 Crosby Street increases at $946/ft
• January 31, prime Soho loft needs imagination, but only $1,091/ft to buy

That is quite a range of values for lofts on which still more renovation dollars were to be added.

Good luck to the new owners of #C514-515. At least they didn’t have to pay the “mansion tax”.

© Sandy Mattingly 2013