Gee Whiz, Not Even Foreclosure Can Stop a TCO - More 45 John Antics

Boy were we surprised today that despite a $51 million foreclosure lawsuit that surprises no one , FiDi building 45 John still managed to squeak in a TCO right under the July 1, 2009 deadline given to buyers. According to the document, floors 4 - 10 (a total of 49 units) are now certified for occupancy.

We're not really sure how that's possible given that the building is covered in more brown paper than your Macy's gifts during the holidays and the lobby consists of wood, exposed wires and a bored looking security guard off of the super gross Dutch Street. But hey, what do we know? Guess those buyers are going to have a touch more of an uphill battle in getting those deposits back than originally thought.

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Interested in more Financial District new construction coverage? Check out our posts on 20 Pine.

So Long 45 John and Thanks for All the Fish

You can probably already tell from the subject that we're feeling a little punchy tonight (and actually we hate The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but we digress).

Anywho, after we first reported last Thursday that 45 John seemed to magically disappear overnight, The Real Deal (which apparently has real writers, some kind of a budget, and - just a guess here folks - probably makes a wee bit more than Downtowny's $0.32 AdSense cents per day), reports today that the dark development that we never thought would sell anyway faces a $51 million foreclosure proceeding duh. Fortunately, the organized and quite friendly buyers should get their deposits back per that super duper Attorney General.

Will we see 45 John in another galaxy? Possibly, but something tells us that unruly talking dolphins are more likely.

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400 Chambers Street - Tribeca Park

If you've been looking at all to rent in Battery Park then you have no doubt discovered by now that there are two very distinct "neighborhoods" in BPC, one that is south of the World Financial Center and one that is north.

The north section has just a handful of buildings (almost all of them rental except for the celebrity-infested 75% sold wonderland Riverhouse). These buildings have all been built in the past 10 years, are directly on the water and are just across the highway from Tribeca, which is the neighborhood that is directly to the east. In contrast, the buildings south of the WFC (which look to be nearby but are really about a 10-20 minute walk) are directly to the east of FiDi and typically older.

One of the most distinctive buildings in north BPC is Tribeca Park, a newer building managed by Related (of 225 Rector fame please don't rent there and countless other developments around Manhattan). Of the buildings that do not offer in-unit W/Ds, Tribeca Park along with Tribeca Green (the other Related building in the 'hood) are the only ones in north BPC that have them on each floor, a big plus in our opinion. There is also a pretty cool driveway, which allows for much easier car unloading etc.

Inside, there is a useless standard lap pool, an average gym and a nice landscaped roof deck (albeit not on a high floor). The apartments are generally well-maintained but not particularly modern (think parquet floors, combo heat/AC units and galley kitchens). The leasing office is easy to deal with, although deals are hard to come by. This summer, we've seen several 1BRs priced in the $3500 range where the building was willing to negotiate only one month free on a 13 month lease. Even though this is a good building, you can get a much better deal in a nicer apartment down the street at the Verdesian or even across the street at 41 River Terrace.

Of course, if you're willing to wait a couple of months, Related notoriously offers heavy discounts in the rental "off-season" (October - March) so if you can wait, you can get a significant discount (we're talking 25% or more) to summer prices.

One other thing we will say about this building is that the website advertises the location as "the heart of Tribeca" ha ha ha ha. This building is squarely in BPC (although the heart of Tribeca isn't too far - maybe a 5-10 minute walk).

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Exactly What Does the New York Times Mean by a Residential "Sale"?

Like many New Yorkers, we get just a little bit excited every Saturday (or Sunday morning if you're buying at the newsstand) to read the New York Times Real Estate section, long the guilty pleasure of owners and renters alike who enjoy reading the timely cover stories (including this week's article about rental scam artists) and following people just like you and me in columns like "The Hunt".

Although we devour the Real Estate Section, one weekly column that we usually only glance at is called "Residential Sales Around the Region" which features four columns of price ranges and apartments/houses that "sold" in each of those ranges in various areas around New York City and surrouding suburbs. Based on the language in this section, we had always assumed that the residences featured here were actually "sold" (e.g. there was deed transfer) and that the sales price was actually the amount that the buyer paid the seller at closing.

Normally, we don't recognize the properties featured in this column, which usually sell for around the asking price (starting to smell fishy already in this market) and have sometimes been on the market for as little as 2 weeks (ditto). Today however, we did recognize a property: 60 Beach Street in Tribeca, where according to the New York Times, a 3BR, 2BA just "sold" for $3.75 million which also happened to be the listing price (yeah, right).

Although this condo conversion is seriously out of our price range, we're still vaguely familiar with the development and are almost 100% certain that nothing has started closing there yet. When we poked on over to Streeteasy/ACRIS, it turns out that we are right. There have been no deeds filed at this building, so whatever the NYT considers to be "sold" is either "In Contract" (which is not sold New York Times, hello) or (best case) this $3.75 million apartment is the very first closing at 60 Beach Street and the paperwork is on it's way to City Hall.

Either way, we're certainly a touch annoyed. Come on NYT...we've occasionally defended you against naysayers that claim that you are industry lackeys but this is a tad egregious. Did this unit really sell? If so, who the heck is paying the asking price for a $3.75 million unit, a price range that we all know is severely distressed and would never generate this type of sale.

Truffles Tribeca (Blogger Review)

Oh we just couldn't help ourselves from stopping by this uber-weirdly marketed all rental new construction building on the West Side Highway in Tribeca. In case you haven't been in a cab in this area in awhile, Truffles Tribeca is the boxy slate gray building (thanks to Curbed for the pic) with the intensely creepy mannequins (sometimes dressed in tuxes, sometimes wearing nothing but scarves) hanging out on some of the upstairs balconies and downstairs terraces.

Although the current slogan "Repent...and Rent" is a serious upgrade from the previous "You Have to Have Swine to Show You Where the Truffles Are" (I mean seriously, what?), the building itself is far from upgraded, with a truly surprising level of on-going construction activity and almost nothing to show for it except the Sherlock Holmes-esque den "exclusive club" known as Trufflesprive (didn't we stop adding "prive" on to the end of shit in like 2007?).

When we popped by on a Sunday to check out some rental apartments, we walked over an astroturf construction zone (complete with retaining walls and an ugly path) to the doorman-manned front door. The lobby is small and unimpressive although the doorman was nice to us while we waited for our rental agent, whom I will call Gonzalo (because that's sort of how I think of him) whose real name I learned and forgot in 30 seconds while being distracted by his perfectly fitted pants and pointy gangster shoes. Gonzalo did not ask our price range (weird) but did manage to figure out that we were interested in a 1BR. He took us to the "model unit" (which is not surprising given that the entire building is still basically under construction).

The "model" 1BR is anything but. At a tiny 615 sq ft (what?) with a boring bathroom, an impossibly small living room, exactly one coat-size closet in the bedroom and a second (smaller) closet in the living room, we immediately asked how much the asking price was for a unit of this size. Gonzalo (leaning on the granite countertops in the 45 John-like kitchen, which was basically a wall of appliances in the entryway, no island) very calmly said $3015. "Do we look stupid?" we wanted to blurt out, but instead said "really? interesting" as we squeezed over to the living room window to take a look at the view (buildings, duh).

After we saw the model 1BR, Gonzalo showed us Trufflesprive ha ha ha ha. This "exclusive club" is really just a residents' lounge with some leather saddles, backgammon and a WII. There is a bar, which supposedly has a bartender (although we've walked by at night several times and never seen anyone in there) but you bring the booze and put it into your own cute little clubby locker. There is also a cheap juice machine (which you can use for breakfast in the morning) and the requisite stylish hipsters scattered around the rambling space. Oh, and normally there is an annual membership fee for Trufflesprive of $850 (come on) although the building will "waive it" for the first year.

Gonzalo claimed that Truffles Tribeca is 73% rented (whatevs) and that despite being a total construction zone with only about 4 windows lit up at night (seriously, drive by there), only one line of units is still to be built (whatevs). Even though this building is located in a great area of Tribeca, across the street from the charming "everything souffle, oui oui" Capsuoto Freres, Truffles Tribeca is basically on the West Side Highway, far from the subway, and seems to be attracting a well-heeled youthful clientele that we surmise primarily works for the US government at Citi, which is located just down the street. Additionally, we were surprised that Gonzalo would not negotiate with us on rent (huh?) but perhaps we were not swine enough for his tastes (oui, oui).

We're Going Rental!

Continuing a trend that we're seeing everywhere duh, Downtowny is going to join the ranks of such flagship developments as 75 Wall Street and 225 Rector by going rental, although we're going to try to avoid the whole foreclosure thing along the way.

Since we've been getting a lot of emails about rental properties downtown, we thought we'd weigh in on our thoughts on some popular rental buildings, as well as some general tips on renting apartments in Manhattan. Mostly though, we're kind of dying to write about the creepy all-rental Truffles Tribeca (which we popped into and then quickly out of last weekend) - are those mannequins waterproof? Stay tuned...

Hello, 45 John? Is anybody home?

We must admit that we have a fair bit of nostalgia for 45 John, the pitch-black-in-the-middle-of-a-sunny-day building that was one of the first places we visited when we started our downtown apartment search several months ago. Back then, we entered a busy building, filled with construction workers and clearly looking as though it might get finished.

Heck, we even believed the creepy lonesome broker (who turned out to be Jim Brawders of troubled Tribeca Space fame) that 45 John, despite having only model units in a finished state with no TCO in sight, was actually "just under" 50% sold and would be "ready for occupancy in July". Well, here we are, a stone's throw from July and we found ourselves asking, what the heck ever happened to 45 John?

When we went to the building's website (pictured above), we discovered that all of the cool renderings and flash were gone, replaced only by tiny ominous gray text reading "www.45john.com" on a white background. Corcoran Sunshine, supposedly the broker representing 45 John, has also apparently wandered off of the scene. When we tried to go to that website, we got a "Page Not Found" error. And finally, after cruising by the building at around 1PM today, we noted that the banners with the Sales Office phone number are still up (you get sent to voicemail if you call), but otherwise, there is absolutely no activity, with brown paper covering all surfaces that might allow you to look into the building (believe us, we tried).
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Sale/Leasebacks at William Beaver House

So, if you caught this article in the Real Deal yesterday about the latest scheme to try and get anyone to buy anything at the William Beaver House, you may be applauding the level of creativity employed by broker Prodigy (I mean, this is what the sponsor had in mind when they booted CORE isn't it?).

This type of transaction (which we guess is called a "master lease") is really just a plain old "sale/leaseback" where the sponsor sells us an insanely overpriced apartment and then guarantees rental income for some period of time (in this case "up to" 3 years). The example in the article discusses a $1.4 million ha ha ha ha 1 bedrom ha ha ha ha which the sponsor will gladly leaseback for $3500 per month (which is an unsustainable number anyway once that building starts pouring units on to the market). So...$1.4 million sales price and $3500 a month (if even) in rent....we don't even have to do the math on that one to declare this to be a bad deal all around, although we guess it's better than simply paying the $1.4 mil without the income stream ha ha ha ha.

"What's Happening at 20 Pine?"

There are several different ways that readers find Downtowny, but one of the most entertaining ways (to us anyway) are the various Google searches that lead people to our blog. Believe it or not, we get several hits everyday from people wondering what the "black and yellow building downtown is" (thanks again William Beaver House) and the "price of pine" (we're pretty sure they're looking for real pine, not 20 Pine, but thanks for reading anyway folks, we have absolutely no idea how much pine costs.

Anywho, we've recently been getting a few hits from the phrase "What's Happening at 20 Pine?", for which we have a bunch of posts that kind of answer that question, but nothing that puts it all together... So, what the heck is happening at 20 Pine?

Well, as anyone who reads snarky downtown blogs or is working with a broker knows, 20 Pine is a SHVO marketed building with Armani designed interiors located on Pine and Nassau in a decent area of the Financial District. 20 Pine closed it's first unit back in March, 2008, allowing the enormous 400+unit building to sell a substantial number of units (probably around 70% although estimates vary) pre-financial crisis, but not enough to be in the position of some of it's luckier earlier to market neighbors such as 15 Broad St, 56 Pine, and even 90 William (which was later to market but benefitted from being small). Meanwhile, 20 Pine also managed to escape the fate of later to market mega buildings such as severely undersold neighbor the William Beaver House as well as 75 Wall Street, which had to go rental to survive.

Plagued by rumors that the common areas would never be finished (to this day, the heavily advertised pool and Turkish Hammam are NOT operational and generally not even available for viewing), the building famously tried to sell 80 or so units to venture capitalists back in January 2009. After 20 Pine's attempt to sell the units at $652 per sq ft failed (listen up, if VCs aren't buying at $652 per sq ft, that means they don't think they can sell for more, which means you shouldn't think you could either), 20 Pine decided to employ a different strategy. From what we can tell, in addition to tossing out large numbers of units to various brokers around Manhattan (we haven't met a broker in months that doesn't have at least one listing at 20 Pine), the sponsors are accepting offers that are huge discounts off of their insane "list prices" (you won't see any official discounts) leading to an offer-driven free-for-all, with buyers trying anything to see what sticks. And boy are offers sticking.

Although the building was closing units for more than $1000 per sq ft back in 2008, things have changed dramatically in recent months, particularly over the last few weeks. A smattering of sales over the last month include:

#1907, a 926 sq ft studio with a large terrace, listed at almost $1.2 million and sold for $776k, 35% off of the ask.

#510, an 1100 sq ft studio with home office that sold for $730k (or $663 per sq ft).

and #2110, a 607 sq ft studio that was the building's first real sale under $500k.

To be sure, if you check out Streeteasy records for the building, you can also see some 2007 overpricing as well. In particular, check out the April sale of #PH50 for almost $2.9 million and the $1.4 million sale just two weeks ago of #408, a low floor 1200 sq ft 1 bed, 1.5 bath unit. What are these sales, you might ask? Well, we did too. It turns out that unless "20 Pine LLC" is in as a last name these days, the buyer of these overpriced units is a corporation (two actually) set up by the sponsor to make purchases from the sponsor (insert right hand left hand joke here). Why would the sponsor do this? Well, it sure makes the building appear to be more sold (listen up banks!) and also creates a very high cost basis for buyers that don't search the Internet for blogs like Downtowny. The broker can now somewhat legitimately claim, "hey, look at this deal, we're offering 20% lower than what it sold for last week". Ummm...if you're buying in this building, keep an eye out duh.

50 Franklin Street

After procrastinating for at least two months, we finally made it out to 50 Franklin, the brand spanking new Civic Center Tribeca building brought to you by the architects that also designed the Thompson LES Hotel. You can see this clean gray and blue building with balconies from several blocks away on Franklin as you walk up one of Tribeca's grittier streets, littered with old loft buildings, bodegas and a "closed on the weekends" deli on the corner. Walk a couple of blocks west however, and you start to hit a decent area of Tribeca (well, if you fancy the overpriced Centrico or the bachelor-party infested Churrascaria). Overall though, this building's location is MUCH better than many rants say ("it's not Tribeca because it's east of Broadway blah blah blah"). So is this building in Tribeca? Nope. But it's close enough in our opinion.

We do have to mention however, that the building's one main tie to Tribeca (the coveted zoning for the uber coveted PS 234) no longer exists according to the broker. This building is zoned for "another school" whose number "escaped" the broker when we asked.

At any rate, we began our journey at this 72 unit building in the creepy sales office across the street. Even though there was a huge sign that said "50 Franklin Sales Office" hanging over the door, we couldn't believe that anyone was running an operation out of what looked like a 6-story 1850s brownstone (and not the kind where Blair Waldorf hangs out) with an old creeky elevator and a buzzer outside the door. Anywho, once we got to the sales office (which was medium full on a Sunday - maybe 3 groups there) the agent handed us some hardhats (cute touch, I think mine said "Lily") and told us that 50 Franklin is 15-20% sold. It's a low enough number to actually be believable, however the agent's claim that they are "selling fast" and that reaching 50% sold will be "no problem at all" had us accidentally spitting up our Diet Coke (good thing we were already on our way to the condos across the street).

Once in 50 Franklin, which is mostly complete with the exception of the roof deck (ummm...we seriously cannot even imagine how they are going to turn that tiny A/C unit covered space into the grand lounge area pictured in the brochure) we ran through several 1BRs and a couple of 2BRs. Probably the most interesting thing about this building is that despite the myriad of brochure photos with happy models looking at the Empire State Building and expansive views of Manhattan, only the Penthouse units (gosh, where have we seen that trick before?) actually have a view of anything other than the office building across the street (north) or the even worse (we couldn't believe it) gross graffiti covered neighboring building (south). Of course, if you stand on your 42 sq ft balcony (which most units have) and turn your head to the left, you can see a small sliver of that Civic Center park whose name we can never remember.

The units themselves are fairly well laid-out and not obnoxiously (not reasonably either) priced. 1BRs float mostly around the $800,000 range which does not include the sponsor's offer of 5% cash back at closing. The 2BRs are all around $1.2 million, although we did see a unit under $1 million that unfortunately had a tiny second bedroom and a view of the aforementioned graffiti-covered building.

Inside, the apartments have very bright finishes - light wood floors and white countertops, which we personally don't like but lots of people do. The floor-to-ceiling windows are quite nice (except for the aforementioned view issue) as are the stackable washers and dryers in each unit. The 1BR units mostly have a deep soaking tub/shower combo (we've always loathed loved the idea of climbing into these) while the 2BRs have separate showers and tubs. Another interesting feature of this building is that each unit comes with it's own HVAC system in a closet - so you can literally open one of your interior doors and see it.

Overall, we thought the maintenance in this 421-a tax abated building was still a tad high (at $1.30 per sq ft) given that there are few amenities (although there is a doorman).

We're taking a pass on this building (at least for now) however it's not a bad deal if you'd like to be near Tribeca and don't have an issue with dark building views.

Oh, come on! Yet ANOTHER unit is in contract at 111 Fourth Avenue

We just don't get it. It was only one week ago that we looked back at some of our most interesting apartment visits and noted that 111 Fourth Avenue (those East Village lofts we hate) were selling units like hotcakes in a market where even great buildings are struggling to sell just one unit.

So now, we look on with raised eyebrows (and a detached curiosity about whether we are the only people in Manhattan who would rather NOT climb a ladder to the bedroom) at the "In Contract" notification for the final Franken-loft, #10C. We can't imagine anybody is even thinking about paying the $839,000 asking price for this 1BR carved out of a 600 sq ft studio that most recently sold in 2005 for $690,000. However, we also didn't think that kitchens with 6 foot ceilings and a spiral staircase narrower than the escape tunnel in the "Fugitive" were "in" either. Just goes to show you that when it comes to real estate, potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto...

New York Times, Is Gary Shteyngart's Apartment Really a "Good Deal" ?

We read with curiosity today the headline article from the New York Times Real Estate Section advising readers on "How to Spot a Good Deal". Although the article is certainly umm...sorry! simplistic (basing whether an apartment is a good deal primarily on average asking prices in the neighborhood and ignoring oh say, comps from prior years), it does advocate the position that The Russian Debutante's Handbook author Gary Shteyngart's co-op village 1 bedroom is a "Good Deal". Is it?

When we saw this unit back in April (it's #E607 at 575 Grand Street, the East Village Co-op Building), we thought it was an "ok" deal. Priced at just $425,000 for 800 sq ft (not including a good-sized balcony), the well-maintained unit certainly seems reasonably priced, especially when compared with similar units on sale at any of the four Co-op Village buildings and certainly when compared with the rest of lower Manhattan. If you poke around a little though, you may notice that Gary purchased his 1BR unit in 2004 for just $350,000, a price that does not seem unreasonable today given that housing prices on average in the US are at mid-2003 levels. Add to that the recent discussion on Streeteasy regarding the impending financial problems at the Co-op Village boards, including the recent decision to raise the "rental tax" (the amount apartment owners must pay to the board if they sublet their units), to a shocking 150% of maintenance per month. Still a deal? Looks less so, no?

The Cheesy Broker Trick at 2 South End Ave #5B - $799,000$749,000 - 1,087 sq ft

We've seen several units at 2 South End Avenue (The Cove Club), perhaps the most southern of Battery Park's 1980s era condo buildings which are all scattered in and around South End Ave.

Although we were procrastinating planning on writing about multiple units at 2 South End Avenue, we just had to pop in here with a post about #5B since we hate, hate, hate the rather distasteful trick that Elliman is using to try to sell this apartment.

#5B is a very pretty true 2BR, 2BA with an ideal layout - the living room is in the middle, creating good distance between the two bedrooms. There is a nice-sized terrace off of the living room, which features far away but still nice water views. There is no W/D in this unit, which makes the family friendly two bedroom a little less family friendly, however the other appliances are updated and the apartment is overall nicely renovated.

As many BPC buyers know, the biggest issue with BPC apartments is often unwieldy taxes and common charges resulting from the monthly payment that owners must make toward the landlease held by their building. $2-$2.50 per sq ft of carrying costs in BPC is pretty typical (so a 750 sq ft apartment will have monthlies in the $2000 range). Those carrying costs typically result in lower sales prices in BPC, however the $2000 or more per month that you're plowing into carrying costs could be used to build equity instead in a different area where monthlies are more reasonable.

How common charges (including the landlease) are allocated between apartments in a given building is up to the condo. At 2 South End Ave, owners pretty much pay around $3 per sq foot, with 2BRs paying slightly more and 1BRs paying slightly less. We therefore were quite annoyed to see the common charges for #5B listed at around $1600 per month on a 1,087 sq ft apartment, quite a steal in BPC. It turns out (buried in the text of the broker's description) that the seller is offering a two year $1500 per month "abatement" on the common charges. The real common charges on this unit are over $3100 per month, a whopping total for which you could rent an entire other large 1BR or small 2BR in the same area.

Ring, Ring, Ring! $420 per sq ft Sale in the Financial District - 3 Hanover Square #3A

Gosh, are we ever psyched that an 860 sq ft 2-level studio in a co-op building in the Financial District just sold for the bargain basement price of $360,000, almost 20% off of its most recent ask and a mere $420 per sq ft . The co-op building at 3 Hanover Square which houses this studio is one of the older buildings in FiDi (and a rare co-op) and has almost no amenities (except for a doorman and some seriously overcrowded "public" storage space which the residents are quite vocal about on their very informative building blog) .

#3A has beautiful high ceilings (not quite high enough in our opinion, to add the square footage enhancing loft, but we digress) although could use some updating like new floors and new appliances. The light in this unit actually isn't too terrible (many units in 3 Hanover Sq face neighboring buildings and can therefore be very dark) and the high ceilings add to the feeling of space. This unit was purchased around 20 years ago (we believe) by the current (now former) owners. This may explain the reasonable sales price since these older owners don't have the seriously annoying duh, if you bought in 2007, there's only so low you can go on your price before foreclosure becomes more attractive"cost basis" issue preventing many transactions from going forward at "corrected" prices.

We're not sure we like the kind of "oldish" vibe of 3 Hanover Sq (dark hallways, W/D every three floors and can't put them in the units), but we sure do like the sound of a sale under $500 per sq ft in a building located within spitting distance no sexual pun intended, really of the William "$1.2M is totally reasonable for a 1 bedroom" Beaver House and 20 "of course the amenities are done" Pine.

311 Greenwich #6G finally gets a (teeny) price chop

We can't seem to stop ourselves from continuing to write about the strangely overpriced units in the group of indistinguishable Tribeca buildings that we call the "311 Greenwiches". Even though all of the buildings (295, 311 and 303) have their own unique address on Greenwich St (near Chambers), we can never remember which one is which and we've usually forgotten about any apartment that we've seen before we even get past the doorman.

This "forgettability factor" (which we actually think is a huge disadvantage in trying to sell anything in this market) apparently did not stop any of the sellers in these buildings from pricing their units at $1100 per sq foot or more, a tactic that has thus far resulted in a bunch of inventory sitting on the market forever. In fact, these buildings, which collectively have 9 units for sale, have not seen a sale since September 2008, almost one year ago.

We are kind of happy to report therefore, that #6G at 311 Greenwich St, perhaps the most overpriced of them all at $825,000 for 650 tiny sq ft has reduced it's price by an inconsequential $26,000 to $799,000. We think the primary outcome of this will be that a new group of potential buyers (previously searching for units under $800,000) will now pop by the open house and be shocked by the audacity of it all.

Where Are They Now? A Look Back at the Current State of Some of Our Favorite Apartments

Since starting Downtowny just 3 months ago, we've written about more than 40 apartments (and seen countless more) and were inspired by yesterday's "In Contract!" declaration by Josh, the seller of the PH unit at 55 Liberty Street (one of our favorite listings), to take a walk down recent memory lane and check out where these apartments are today.

Not so surprisingly, it turns out that of the apartments that we've written about, zero have sold. Seven are currently in contract, including an eye-popping three units at 111 Fourth Avenue, the Franken-loft building in the East Village which apparently, everyone loves but us. Of the remaining 35 or so apartments, most are still sitting on the market and approximately half have declined in price since we've seen them.

We sometimes wonder if some of the units that we love to hate, such as the $849,000 6th floor walkup on Avenue B, the William Beaver House (thanks for all of the good times), and the oh-so-consistently overpriced mess at 295 311 303 oh who cares, they're all the same Greenwich Street will ever sell.

Heck even beautiful units that we thought were offered at very decent prices, such as those at One Rector Park and the quite pretty unit at #6F on 15 Jones St. have failed to move.

Meanwhile, some of our most favorite units (like #2F at 99 Avenue B, which has outdoor space that you probably last saw in the horror movie "The Ring"), have been pulled from the market.

What has all of this taught us, you might ask? As we look back at 3 months of apartment searching, we've learned about BPC ground rents (too high), the complexities of 20 Pine (too dark), the nooks and crannies of Streeteasy (too awesome) and the many wonders of ACRIS (too much like a DMV form). But our biggest takeaway is to be patient. In this market, you can afford to wait, and we think we will...

Overheard in a Midwestern City

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of visiting our mid-sized mid-Western hometown, where houses routinely sell for around $150 per sq ft or less. On this visit, we stopped by the going away party of one of our friends (who is moving to San Diego) and has recently sold his 1600 sq ft home.

Us: How many square feet do you have here?
Friend: Around 1600.
Us: Really? It seems so much bigger.
Friend: Well, 1600 is the "liveable space". It doesn't include the unfinished basement, the attic storage, the front patio or the backyard.
Us: Huh. That's fascinating. In Manhattan, you can build a shelf in a closet and landlords would include that in the square footage.
Friend (standing in 500 sq ft living room): Really? Gosh, I bet our house would fetch like $500k in Manhattan.
Us: Yeah...the room we're standing in would fetch $500k.

Financial District Foreclosure Pipeline Includes a Whopping 26 Units, Surprised?

After reading this very interesting article from the Battery Park Broadsheet detailing 8 condos in a state of "pre-foreclosure" in Battery Park City, we decided to see what was going on in the Financial District, an area that we love to blog about and that we were anticipating would have some freshly minted pre-foreclosures due to the frenzied 2007 sales prices of many new construction units.

When we consulted RealtyTrac (the national foreclosure database), we discovered kind of a mixed bag of data. In all of FiDi, there are a total of 26 foreclosures in the pipeline, several at some very popular buildings including 56 Pine, 15 Broad, 80 John, 88 Greenwich (the Greenwich Club Residences) and 1 Wall Street Court (aka the Cocoa Exchange) . Of these pre-foreclosures, 13 were filed in the last 5 months, with the most recent notice going out on May 26 to an unfortunate condo owner at 56 Pine.

We were most surprised by the three pre-foreclosures on file at the Greenwich Club (88 Greenwich), a relatively new FiDi building. One unit in pre-foreclosure, purchased for the seemingly reasonable price of $530,000, was bought in the fall of 2007, not even two years ago.

Of course, not all of these units will end up in foreclosure. As RealtyTrac notes, "pre-foreclosure" or "lis pendens" simply indicates that a bank has filed initial documents indicating that a borrower is not making payments. Should the borrower start paying the bank again (or sell the unit), the loan will no longer be in a "lis pendens" state.

Will we see 15 Broad St. Starchitecture units at auction? Who knows, but it's definitely a trend to keep an eye on.

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[Palm Tribeca Host Fears Foreclosure in BPC]

To Buy at 20 Pine, Subtract 35% from the Sponsor's Ask. Rinse. Repeat.

After seeing yet another sale at 20 Pine go through today (this time it was #1907, a 926 sq ft studio with a large terrace) which looks like it was actually sold to a person and not an LLC (oooh), we found ourselves wondering (yet again) whether now is the time to buy at this troubled FiDi conversion that seems to be doing a phenomenal job of blowing out it's unsold inventory of around 70 units to picky buyers. In fact, 20 Pine has sold a recession-busting 5 units in the past 5 weeks, almost half of what the building sold in all of 2009.

How are they doing it? Just take a look at the previously mentioned #1907. This unit was most recently on the market (from the sponsor) at $1.195 million and sold yesterday for exactly $776,750. That's 35% off of the asking price. Exactly 35% off. Not 34.8%. Not 35.1%. 35% exactly. We can already imagine the quick calculator negotiation that the buyer used (who by the way, may have been all cash), chopping 35% off of the ask and flashing the number to the sponsor. We're starting to think now that maybe 20 Pine will get through this after all...

[Keep Reading About 20 Pine]
[Keep Reading About Other Financial District Buildings]

Liberty Luxe Keeps Getting Bigger and Bigger, Racing Toward Completion for No Apparent Reason

As recently as March, the latest BPC Millstein development Liberty Luxe, was rumored to be in a pile of doo doo with construction workers balking at a 30% concession request from the sponsor. Fears were rampant that the charming patch of rental-free grass condo towers would never be built, somewhat of an exciting thought for an area filled with cookie-cutter rental units.

Fast forward to today, where alas it appears as though this development is in full swing and gets more complete every day. What's the hurry, we wonder? As this is obviously no time to be completing condos, maybe Millstein wants to get in on the action in the lucrative Battery Park North rental market, where apartments rent for 10-20% more than in Battery Park South, home to Millstein's "hidden" rental units conveniently buried in condo buildings such as 200 Rector Place. We're not sure if Liberty Luxe is going rental just yet, but with just 20 sales in all of Battery Park in the last 60 days (most of them at the Visionaire, which we suspect is clearing out contracts signed in a different life), we think more rentals are in the cards.

65 Nassau St, #10B - $760,000 - 950 sq ft

It feels like forever since we actually posted about a visit to a listing (is that Cyndi Lauper humming 'Time after Time' in the background?) so we decided to actually write a new review, following this reader exchange:

Reader: How come you don't post reviews of listings anymore?
Downtowny: We are lazy as sh*t. There just isn't enough time with all of the great deals out there!

The un lucky apartment is 65 Nassau, #10B a studio makeshift two bedroom (yep, you've heard this one before) in a co-op building on Nassau and John in the Financial District.

Take a look at the picture of the apartment above. Can you actually make anything out amidst the clutter of French mansion furniture, chandeliers, ginormous dining room table and awkward partition? We couldn't either. Even while standing in this unit, it's difficult to figure out exactly what you are looking at in this strange, yet oddly appealing space, due to just the amazing volume of stuff in there combined with some extensive partitioning.

If you can get past the decor, what you basically have is a pretty cool corner loft, with nice large windows, good light and attractive city views. The "bedrooms" are actually both the result of clever partitioning. The master bedroom doesn't have a door (basically, it has two real walls, a closet and then shares a wall with the living room partition), but it feels substantial and removed from the rest of the apartment, has closets and is a decent size. The second "bedroom" is a bit of a joke - basically, the divas people who live here have partitioned the living room in half, building an awkward set of translucent sliding doors right in the middle of the living area, creating a second seating area. Why do you need two whole seating areas in 950 sq ft of space? We don't know either.

A tiny, but well renovated kitchen, one and a half baths (although the half bath is uncomfortably tiled and has a weird circular shower) plus a pretty high maintenance of $1951, complete the rather confusing picture at this apartment that has been on the market for around four months.

The sellers bought this place for $740,000 in July of 2006 and listed it originally at $865,000 just three short months ago in February. At the current listing price of $765,000, this apartment is not even close to priced at our 2003 target, but heading in the right direction.

Sales under $700/sq ft continue at 20 Pine - #510

We have to say that although we shamelessly poke fun of 20 Pine, we do think that the troubled FiDi conversion with the sexy marketing campaign (really, what exactly IS a Turkish Hammam anyway?) is actually doing something right, by blowing out units at lower prices, helping this overpriced market to finally start on it's way toward a correction.

We turn your attention to unit #510, an 1100 sq ft studio with a home office that sold for just $730,000 or $663 per square foot on June 1. Although this apartment was bought by investors (just guessing, unless "LLC" is in as a last name these days), we're excited that units seem to be trading in this building.

Apparently, the $1 million all-cash "starter apartment" is back! (whatevs)

"Honk if you think it's over!" screams the headline from this week's front page Sunday New York Times Real Estate Section article, which profiles buyer Luke Sager, a "recent Harvard graduate and co-captain of the college soccer team", who apparently has been involved in an all-cash bidding war over this 1BR listing at 225 Fifth Avenue in Midtown South. Although Bond New York conveniently left off the unit #, we believe that this is #2D, which sold for a whopping $1.35 million back in August of 2007 . Now, 22-year old Luke's parents is/are purchasing the unit for $925,000, all in cash, a discount of almost 32% from the Q3 2007 purchase price.

Are we honking? Maybe a little peep for this unit and some of the other ultra high-end units mentioned in this seriously biased article, that interviews only brokers and focuses predominantly on townhouses and other ultra-expensive properties that have seen price cuts of 50% or more. Can deals happen at 50% off of 2007 prices? Of course they can, but these types of deals are not representative of the state of the overall market, an issue that the article glosses over.

Perhaps Josh Barbanel should change the title of this article to "Brokers Say Market is Picking Up (duh, brokers always say that) for Properties Trading at 30-50% off of 2007 Prices (double duh)".

This "Deal" at 75 Wall Street is the Reason that "Rent to Buy" Blows

We were curious today when we received an email pointing us to this new "for sale" listing at 75 Wall Street, a building that we thought had converted it's copious unsold units to rentals about a month ago.

The listing that we received is for unit #30G, a 675 sq ft 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment on the market for $875,000 ha ha ha ha. "Wow, that's overpriced" we said, as we pondered the more than $1200 per square foot ask, which is high even in an amenity rich building like 75 Wall St (which shares hotel-like features with the Hyatt suites downstairs). But wait, it gets even better. As we continued to read the ad, we noted with some amusement that this apartment is in fact part of 75 Wall's infamous rent-to-own deal. In fact, #30G, a 675 sq foot apartment, can also be yours for the low, low price of $3295 per month (huh?!). If you've got that much money to spend on a one bedroom, you should head over to just about any other new construction building in FiDi, including 20 Pine, 56 Pine and 15 Broad. Heck even the incredibly overpriced William Beaver House will give you a more spacious 1BR with a view and a bathtub that will hold four small strippers people for less money per month.

But wait, it gets better. After you've overpaid for rent for just 9 short months at 75 Wall, you will then qualify for their "rent-to-own" sucker punch deal. If you decide to buy, they will credit you 1 year of rent plus take another 5% off of the purchase price, bringing your net purchase price to just $875,000 (huh?). Want to know what the "gross" (no pun intended...ok, maybe just a little) purchase price is? Yep, it's $970,000, the exact price at which Corcoran originally listed the sponsor unit for back in May of 2008. Anyone ready to sign up? We've got a bridge and an apartment at the Beaver House to sell to you too.

"20 Pine $3.9M Penthouse for Sale!" says Elliman Postcard, Free Eggroll with Every Purchase

In the continuing saga of 20 Pine, we were quite amused yesterday to receive a postcard (pictured here) from Elliman advertising the resale of the stop yelling "REAL PENTHOUSE" at 20 Pine, where apparently we can take a "private elevator to your own full floor 2172 SF NSEW exposure home featuring your own 1318 SF Private Terrace". Sounds pretty sweet, especially since we'll "enjoy living in the most prestigious address downtown steps away from Hermes and Tiffany's" (isn't that like, so 2007?).

Anywho, after poking around, it turns out that the Elliman unit, which is none other than the full-floor PH#50 - listed at $3.9M we're trying to stop laughing too - was sold by the sponsor just over one month ago for $2.86M. The sponsor, "20 Pine Street LLC" sold PH#50 to an entity called "20 Pine LLC" (we are not making this up, peeps), who we are assuming is probably also the sponsor. Because the shell corporation the new owner(s) have listed this unit for more than $1 million more than it's sale price 30 days ago (huh?), we doubt very much Elliman's claim that this unit is "offered below the original pre-construction price!". Perhaps they mean before there was a building there?

Palm Tribeca Host In Danger of Foreclosure at 30 West St.

In an article that makes us all think twice about reaching (financially) in this economy for a great apartment, the Wall Street Journal has profiled Carlos Araya, a former Wall Street trader who was laid off from the New York Merc and is now a host at the Palm Tribeca, just down the street from his old job and his 2 bedroom apartment in Battery Park City.

After a little snooping around, we discovered that Mr. Araya bought unit #7G, an 1190 sq ft 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo at 30 West St (The Millennium Tower) in 2006 for $942,500. This is a touch lower than the price quoted in the WSJ. The unit currently has carrying costs of around $2000 per month - not bad at all for BPC, however we believe that 30 West St. is one of those buildings that has sponsor-assisted common charges, so the $2000 might actually tick up in a couple of years as the sponsor abatement comes down.

#7G is currently on the market for $945,000, a tiny premium to the 2006 purchase price but a much larger discount to the most comparable unit (#5G) that is also for sale for $995,000. Will this apartment be a rare Manhattan foreclosure? We really don't think so, but considering that the Araya's financed more than 90% of the purchase price (yes, the WSJ article is wrong according to ACRIS), we don't think they have much room on the price, so perhaps we're looking at a short sale here, folks. Good luck to the couple - hopefully they'll be back on their feet soon.

Sonia Sotomayor's Apartment at 3 Bedford St. #5B - 999 sq ft

In a cool post on a blog devoted to Manhattan Kids (cute, but why are you guys following Sonia Sotomayor around?), we discovered that the future Supreme Court justice and former Bronx dweller, owns her own pad at 3 Bedford St, #5B, a tiny 12 unit condo building riiiiight on the border between the West Village and the Central Village. Judge Sotomayor bought the 999 sq ft apartment back in 1998 for the choke on our milk price of $360,000. Although the judge has paid off her original mortgage of $324,000, freeing her up to sell at a huge profit (a similar unit sold in that building for $1.2 million in 2006) and move on out to DC, for some reason the judge has been mortgaging her apartment repeatedly since 2007 and now looks to be carrying a fresh $533k in loans on #5B.

According to Streeteasy, there are no units currently on the market at 3 Bedford Street (we guess the judge isn't counting her chickens yet) and there have only been three sales in the building (two of them for the same unit) since 2004. There is one apartment for rent at 3 Bedford, a $1750 per month the living room is a walk-in closet"3 room railroad" apartment, however we're thinking that Judge Sotomayor is in a different unit.

20 Pine Price Chops Continue as #2110 Breaks New Ground, Selling for Less than $500,000

When we last reported on 20 Pine, we noted with some excitement that #1505, an 1100 sq ft studio with an alcove had sold for just $600 per sq ft, continuing some anecdotal rumors that the sponsor was offering great deals in order to sell the 70 or so remaining unsold units in this downtown conversion.

We now report that #2110, which we think is a 607 sq ft studio, sold for just $495,000 a little less than two weeks ago. Although this isn't the $600 per sq ft bonanza of #1505, the $815 per sq ft sale at #2110 (and the < $500k sales price) continues to be an encouraging sign in a building that needs to sell 70 units FAST. #2010, which we think is a comparable unit, sold for $685,000 a little less than a year ago, which makes the sale at #2110 a whopping 28% lower than the comparable price in 2008.

Although there have been a couple of units (we can think of two actually) that sold for unusual prices in this building back in 2008 (both around $250k), we think that those were NOT arms-length transactions and do not represent reasonable comps. This $495k sale at #2010 however, most likely is a real sale south of $500k, and one that all buyers should be excited about.