2006 Pricing Continues at Battery Park's Millenium Tower

After we first wrote about the lowest sale ever at Battery Park's Ritzy get it? Millenium Tower, where a 1BR sold in June for 22% less than it's mid-2007 sale price, we started watching this building for further discounts. We now have a brand new sale, a high-floor "C" line 1,150 sq ft. 2 bedroom, 2 bath which sold at the end of July for just $987,000, or almost 20% off of the most recent ask of $1.225 million and about 18% off of the Q1 2007 sales price. The earliest "C" line sale occurred in December of 2006, with #7C (a lower floor unit) selling for $975,000.

To us, this apartment really brings home what every broker has been telling us for months, "just make an offer" people - you never know what's going to stick.

Battery Park's Ritzy Millenium Tower Sees It's Lowest Sale Price....Ever.

Although we ran through a couple of units at Battery Park City new construction beauty 30 West Street (aka "Millenium Tower") back in May, we never wrote about our visit since it was a) brief and b) boring. Today, we decided to check back in with 30 West Street, a 100% sold Millenium Partners development (which also brought you the BPC Ritz-Carlton) that welcomed it's first residents back in 2006.

The unit that we decided to look back on is #32D, an 875 sq ft 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath that sold for just $699,000 about a month ago. Considering that the apartment was most recently listed for $775,000 and was purchased at the height of the market in May, 2007 for $900,000, we thought that $699k was a pretty good price. When we looked at other sales in the building however (which started closing in December 2006), we were even more surprised that not only is $699k a great price, it's also the lowest sales price that this building has ever seen on ANY UNIT .

The prior record holder was also a "D" line apartment on a much lower floor - #5D - that sold in 2006 for $710,000. So did we like this building when we saw it? Actually, yeah - it has nice common areas and the apartments that we saw (which both happened to be high-floor "D" lines) were very well laid-out, with attractive finishes, well-appointed large open kitchens, and a W/D in the unit. Oh, in case you're wondering about those seemingly low common charges (remember, this building is still in Battery Park), the common charges at 30 West St are sponsor-abated (good idea, good idea) for about 5 years. Currently the abatement is on Year 2, so the common charges on the apartment are actually just 40% of what they would be in Year 5 (they increment 20% per year).
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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.