Is District Ditching Brown Harris Stevens?

We were tipped off by a reader that District, the sexily marketed FiDi building on Fulton Street seems to have pulled all Streeteasy listings on Friday. Are they going to pull a 45 John we wondered, complete with sponsor foreclosure and an elimination of their web presence?

Nah. It just looks like the only thing they're pulling is their relationship with Brown Harris Stevens, the most recent broker attempting to sell anything at the new development. We're not certain that District is changing brokers yet again, however BHS no longer has listings for the building either, which is a major clue. Are we surprised at the outcome? No, not really. Even though BHS gave it the ol' college try, District has sold only 6 units this Spring, not even close to the nearby and significantly more overpriced William Beaver House, which sold 26 units between March and May.

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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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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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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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45 John Street

We visited 45 John Street a couple of weeks ago. They still have the "model" 7th floor, where you can walk around and see apartments with a variety of floorplans that will (one day) become available on higher floors.

Overall, we thought this building was daaaark. Dark. Dark. There was only one layout (the tiny 589sq ft corner "A" line) that we saw that had any natural light at all. Believe it or not, this was our favorite unit on the 7th floor (because of the light). Unfortunately, the kitchen was in the tiny living room (pasta sauce spatter on the couch anyone?) and the bedroom was a prison cell at 10'x8'. The other apartments definitely had larger bedrooms at the expense of the living room (not our ideal) and were basically pitch black at 1PM on a sunny day.

Combine that with <50% sold and we're thinking no way. If you want to take a financial risk in this area, 20 Pine has much nicer layouts and District is beautiful.