Jul. 18, 2009 - another big drop that worked / 69 Wooster Street closes under $1,000/ft after $850k drop
but only 15% off
A Manhattan loft on the 5th floor at 69 Wooster Street closed in April under $1,000/ft, despite the fact that it was "newly renovated in a classic but modern style" and a ridiculously low maintenance ($0.42/ft). These sellers also bit a pretty big bullet in facing up to the beast that is The Market: they cut the asking price by $850k before negotiating another $275k off the price two months later.
size matters
I suspect that this loft, like the museum quality loft at 644 Broadway discussed April 27 (price of 'museum quality' in Noho = $1,000/ft / 644 Broadway closes quickly) was penalized for selling in a very thin slice of a pretty thin market. At "5,000 sq ft", even selling at $980/ft was a $4.625mm clearing price. As the marketing said, this space "defines living large"; with only 3 bedrooms in "5,000 sq ft", that is a very modest statement indeed. (In addition to the bedrooms, there is a very large media room and the master suite includes a dressing room equal in size to many Manhattan loft bedrooms; the combined living / dining / kitchen area takes up well over half the loft.)
Even in prime Soho, this scale commanded less than $1,000/ft.
why talk about an old closing?
This closing has been sitting in my Ideas / Draft pile for about 10 weeks, which would customarily exceed a freshness date for blog posting purposes. But this loft transaction intrigues me. There are just not that many lofts on this scale, and I have certainly been attuned to looking for Big Price Drops. Inabsolute terms, a price drop of $850,000 is large, though less than some I have hit (only most recently, I hit a $2mm drop for a sale at 175 Sullivan Street on July 16 and a 45% original-ask-to-close discount at 50 Warren Street on July 11), while negotiating from $4.9mm to $4.625mm is hardly a major (additional) cut.
slice, then slice again
But the scale! This loft was probably penalized, as I said above, for seeking "a very thin slice of a pretty thin market", but it is probably more than that. It probably suffered for taking two very thin slices of a very thin market: first, the thin-oxygen market around $5mm; second, the (thinner?) market of people for whom 5,000 sq ft is appealing.
I have found in Soho in the last five months only two sales above this one at $4.625mm. One was never publicly marketed and was bought by an LLC, so I am not sure what it may mean (285 Lafayette Street #7A, recorded at $6mm for an unknown amount of space in a 1999 uber-condo conversion). The other was in a brand new development, #7B at 151 Wooster Street, "3,007 sq ft" that cleared at $5.35mm with monthly charges and taxes of $5,732 (pretty uber, that condo). So not much changed hands in these rarefied price levels, and neither was more than 60% the size of the loft at 69 Wooster.
© Sandy Mattingly 2009
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View more entries tagged with: Wooster, Soho, Uber, Large, 5000 Sq Ft, Thin Market, Discount, Price Drop, 1000ft
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Jul. 18, 2009 - RE: another big drop that worked / 69 Wooster Street closes under $1,000/ft after $850k drop |
| Posted by jess |
there's another listing i've been watching, chelsea-ish - a full (high) floor loft in a resi/com building - raw space, on my fave street (you know which one sandy) - curious to see what it will go for as it qualifies as big space. My guess is that it will go for under $600/SF. Four very thin slices? $, space, raw condition, mixed use? |
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Jul. 19, 2009 - RE: another big drop that worked / 69 Wooster Street closes under $1,000/ft after $850k drop |
| Posted by Anonymous |
JESS -- Is that the one where the building number matches the street number, and where the incomparable maintenance in the listing text is different from that given up top?? Since they are now asking $673/ft, I'd say you are right about clearing under $600.
I keep collecting (then not blogging about) listings-needing-renovation, and their asking prices. That is a very big way to thinly slice The Market. On this one, however, I don't see the mixed-use aspect as significant, given how gritty (mixed-use) that block already is. Anyone comfortable on the block at all seems likely to be comfortable in that mixed-use building.
Did I guess right?
Sandy |
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Jul. 19, 2009 - RE: another big drop that worked / 69 Wooster Street closes under $1,000/ft after $850k drop |
| Posted by jess |
you got it sandy! what will be interesting is what the closing price will be versus the 2005 purchase price. what are the chances this will clear for under $500/sf?
Since we are playing guessing games, there is another interesting one, 12 blocks up, one block west, same floor #, but $100K less for 1400 more SF. Can't wait till you blog about THAT one. |
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Jul. 20, 2009 - RE: another big drop that worked / 69 Wooster Street closes under $1,000/ft after $850k drop |
| Posted by Sandy Mattingly |
Not my thing (commercial space) and not comparable ("live / work" is one thing; this is another). But THX for playing! |
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Jul. 21, 2009 - RE: another big drop that worked / 69 Wooster Street closes under $1,000/ft after $850k drop |
| Posted by Sandy Mattingly |
to clarify, Jess: I recall that with the one you first mentioned on Sunday there was an active process in place to convert the space to residential, in a building that already had some legal residential lofts; the one 12 blocks up looks like it will remain commercial. |
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Nov. 11, 2009 - RE: another big drop that worked / 69 Wooster Street closes under $1,000/ft after $850k drop |
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