Downtown co-op lofts: no dog spas, but many can be had for under $1,000 per square foot.

As I’ve discussed earlier, there is a much greater difference between co-ops and condos downtown than there is in the rest of Manhattan.  At least on the inside.

Anywhere else in Manhattan, if you want to know if an apartment is a co-op or a condo, you have to ask somebody.

In Soho, Noho and Nolita, it's pretty obvious.  Nearly all the condos in these neighborhoods are either new conversions that retain their original facades but are completely gutted and reconstructed on the inside, or newly constructed from the ground up. 

The co-ops are a different matter.  They’re real artists’ lofts which were factories and warehouses made habitable by the pioneer artists who settled there forty or fifty years ago.

Because the condos are new and shiny and have such weird amenities (weird to the pioneers, at least) as doormen and exercise rooms and wine cellars and dog spas, their prices are much higher. 

Another reason for condos’ higher prices is their current popularity.  Suddenly, everybody wants a condo.  And there are far fewer condos than co-ops.  (A good case can be made for either, depending on your needs, but that’s a subject for another time.)

For the last twelve months, the average price per square foot for a co-op loft in Soho, Noho and Nolita has been $1,047, as opposed to about $1,750 for a condo.

The highest PPSF for a co-op loft was $1,623 for a 2400 s.f. high full floor at 458 Broadway, with 2.5 baths, in mint condition, with 24 windows spread along both a long wall and a short wall.

The lowest PPSF, $521, was for a second floor loft at 620 Broadway that faced east over Crosby Street. 

The foot print of the 620 Broadway loft is about 2400 square feet, but the typically high (15 feet in this case) ceilings of a second floor allow for another 700 square feet or so of mezzanine which brings the total square footage up to the listed 3146.  I didn’t see this one, but the condition was given as excellent.  

It's a gray area as to whether mezzanine square footage should be counted as the ceilings in the mezzanine areas are lower than the 8' required by the Department of Buildings, so the price per square foot here may be artificially reduced. 

The lack of light here would be a problem for many buyers.  Note that the indentations on the south wall are not windows. 

They used to be lot line windows--that is, windows in a wall that sits on the very edge of the lot--that looked over a gas station, but the gas station gave way to a big glass-curtain-walled commercial building with a huge Adidas store on the ground floor, and the windows are no more.  Thus the perils of lot-line windows.

The median price was $1,160, for a 2000 s.f. fifth floor loft at 325 Lafayette Street.  This was an extremely odd shape for a loft; it’s a trapezoid, and very narrow at one end.  It needed a complete gut renovation.

The clients I showed it to were put off by the configuration,  but it gets a huge amount of light and has windows on all sides except the really short wall where the elevator and the stairs are.  

Another huge advantage of this loft is that the maintenance is basically cab fare--$600 a month.  The building has no underlying mortgage, and the tenant share-holders derive income from the commercial space on the ground floor.

Here’s the spreadsheet:

SOHO NOHO NOLITA CLOSED CO-OP SALES, $1,000,000+  MAY 2011--MAY 2012
ADDRESS	APT	SF	S&C PRICE	$PSF	CLOSED	MAINT ENANCE
458 Broadway	7	2387	$3,875,000	$1,623	3/7/12	$2,800
117 Prince	3C	2300	$3,100,000	$1,348	3/22/12	$2,200
48 Great Jones	3F	2303	$3,100,000	$1,346	4/5/12	$2,250
458 Broadway	4FL	2387	$3,200,000	$1,341	1/5/12	$2,800
682 Broadway	3FL	3000	$4,000,000	$1,333	8/25/11	$4,270
45 Crosby	6N	1955	$2,600,000	$1,330	11/22/11	$1,850
114 Spring	4	1581	$2,100,000	$1,328	6/29/11	$2,500
114 Spring	3FLR	1662	$2,200,000	$1,324	3/19/12	$2,500
477 Broome	43	1111	$1,430,000	$1,287	9/14/11	$1,686
541 Broadway	4B	3200	$4,100,000	$1,281	5/23/11	$200
292 Lafayette	7W	1433	$1,820,000	$1,270	1/11/12	$2,235
66 Crosby	4B	1540	$1,950,000	$1,266	1/10/12	$1,593
45 Crosby	4N	1955	$2,475,000	$1,266	8/19/11	$1,850
22 Wooster	4C	3000	$3,750,000	$1,250	8/5/11	$3,911
652 Broadway	7R	1500	$1,850,000	$1,233	1/13/12	$603
431 W. Broadway	4FL	2000	$2,375,000	$1,188	7/21/11	$1,300
27 Howard	4TH	2000	$2,325,000	$1,163	7/28/11	$3,100
325 Lafayette	5FL	2000	$2,320,000	$1,160	4/21/12	$600
135 Greene	5S	2600	$2,950,000	$1,135	7/19/11	$2,100
424 Broome	5	2200	$2,449,000	$1,113	5/25/11	$1,680
468 W.Broadway	5D	1571	$1,700,000	$1,082	4/18/12	$2,005
101 Wooster	3F	1951	$2,060,000	$1,056	8/10/11	$2,094
712 Broadway	2	2600	$2,700,000	$1,038	7/14/11	$3,622
543 Broadway	4	2148	$2,225,000	$1,036	4/4/12	$0
113 Princ Street	5ER	1350	$1,390,000	$1,030	8/18/11	$1,333
307 W. Broadway	7FL	3200	$3,175,000	$992	4/23/12	$1,650
16 Crosby	3RN	2200	$2,180,000	$991	8/30/11	$83
135 Greene	4S	2650	$2,625,000	$991	5/23/12	$2,100
114 Mercer	4R	2250	$2,225,000	$989	4/13/12	$2,810
242 Lafayette	4S	1480	$1,412,500	$954	1/5/12	$2,215
561 Broadway	5A	2100	$2,000,000	$952	12/14/11	$3,400
16 Crosby	2F	2722	$2,375,000	$873	10/28/11	$67
565 Broadway	3	4184	$3,600,000	$860	1/26/12	$6,834
45 Crosby	5N	1955	$1,625,000	$831	4/26/12	$1,850
141 Wooster	3C	1760	$1,453,000	$826	10/11/11	$2,100
81 Grand	3FLR	1575	$1,200,000	$762	1/19/12	$2,000
307 W. Broadway	6FL	3300	$2,450,000	$742	5/15/12	$1,500
182 Grand	2E	2000	$1,420,000	$710	6/30/11	$1,897
48 Great Jones	2NDFL	4400	$3,100,000	$705	5/17/12	$4,500
710 Broadway	6TH	2283	$1,540,000	$675	3/21/12	$3,057
712 Broadway	3RD	2400	$1,600,000	$667	11/16/11	$3,622
100 Wooster	5TH	2875	$1,800,000	$626	7/11/11	$3,000
55 Great Jones	3RD	2100	$1,250,000	$595	1/5/12	$0
620 Broadway	2R	3146	$1,637,500	$521	11/19/11	$2,317
			AVERAGE	$1,047

 See related link    http://withconfidence.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-are-best-co-ops-in-soho.html

NYC’s race to the moon, and what’s up there.

[Links to articles cited in this post are at bottom.]

Last December I wrote here about new residential buildings in Manhattan getting taller and taller.  Well, now they’re getting taller still.

The Real Deal reports that a permit has been issued for a 1300' residential tower to be built at 440 Park Avenue.  The Girasole Tower, a currently stalled project on 11th Avenue, could rise even higher if and when it's completed.

The sliver building I live in.

 

Today’s Times reports that by 2016, New York could have 6 of the 10 tallest buildings in the country (with Chicago having the other 4), and 3 of the highest residential structures.

The Times writer, Alexei Barrionuevo, asks, “What is it that drives some people to live so high up?  And developers to keep building ever-taller edifices?”

The second question is easy.  Developers will build anything there’s a market for. 

And location (as you may have heard) is an important factor in real estate value.  Manhattan is a highly desirable location, but there’s only so much of it.  If you can’t build sideways, you have to build up.

Regarding the first question:  We could ask the fabulously wealthy person who just bought the penthouse on the 89^th and 90^th floors of 157 West 57^th Street for more than $90 million what appealed to him about the space, but nobody knows who he is

However, I can speak with a little authority, as I live on the 36^th floor of my building, which was a high floor for a residential building in 1986, when my husband and I bought our small apartment.

December sunset from my window.

And I took my first job in Manhattan partly because the office was on the 42^nd floor of what was then the General Motors building, at 59^th and Fifth. 

Lately I’ve been above the 60^th floor in buildings in midtown, and, as there is such a cluster of tall buildings there, in some of them all you can see from those floors is other buildings. 

The advantage is strictly one of location, although the elevator ride down can seem almost as long as a cab ride from some lesser area.

But in my downtown neighborhood, the light and views are incredible, even from the lowly 36^th floor. 

On a clear day, I swear I can see Chicago. 

(There are those who have claimed to see the Space Needle from my western windows, but it’s just the Willis Tower.)

The apartment is actually too bright on late summer afternoons.  I have to wear a hat with a wide brim while working at my computer to keep the sun out of my eyes. 

But I love, love, love watching thunder and lightning and heavy rain roll in from New Jersey.  And on a cloudy day I know whether the sun will be coming out any time soon. 



Storm en route from New Jersey, camera flash.



There are some disadvantages.  I had to climb up and then down all 35 flights once when a pipe broke, and once in the dark during a blackout. 

(The neighbors on lower floors kindly put chairs out in the hall so residents of higher floors could rest for a bit during the climb.  One offered me water.)   

The building is a sliver, with less than 3,500 square feet on a floor, and it’s designed to sway just a little in a heavy wind. 

This drove my cat crazy, until he got used to it.  He would hide among the sweaters in the closet closest to the center of the floor.

And speaking of wind, yes, it does get windy on my balcony, which is on the south side of the building.  There’s no obstruction to the wind that blows in from the west.  This is especially noticeable around sunset. 

But later on, the wind dies down, and it’s lovely to sit on the balcony with a glass of wine and watch the moon rise and the stars come out.

Here are links to articles cited above:

(http://www.withconfidence.blogspot.com/2011/12/welcome-to-stratosphere-new-buildings.html).

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/05/18/dob-issues-permit-for-citys-tallest-residential-tower/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/realestate/big-deal-new-yorks-race-to-the-top.html?_r=1&ref=realestate

(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/realestate/midtown-penthouse-at-one57-sells-for-new-york-record.html?_r=1 )