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