all feet at 108 Wooster are square but not equal : Manhattan Loft Guy

Manhattan Loft Guy

Oct. 16, 2007 - all feet at 108 Wooster are square but not equal

a tale of two footprints

My jaw dropped when I clicked on the floor plan for the new loft listing #5E at 108 Wooster Street. Celine Coudert of Corcoran is representing the sale for $1.275mm and $926/mo for "1,140 sq ft" of the least efficient small space I can recall. Simply staggering in its wastefulness!

So I was curious to see how that asking price per foot of $1,118/ft compares to other offerings in the building.

not looking far for a good data match

As it happens, #5A at 108 Wooster Street is in contract since May (why hasn't it closed yet??), "1,200 sq ft" and $925/mo, asking $1.3mm - only $1,083/ft.

It is difficult to overstate the degree to which the foot print for #5A is as efficient for a small loft space and #5E is inefficient. #5B has a funky raised platform area (is that structural? seems not), but otherwise each square foot contributes.

#5E, on the other hand, is essentially one box of 26.5 x 23.5 ft plus a 100 sq ft kitchen plus hallways and foyer. Maybe 750 sq ft of very usable, efficient space. The rest consists mostly of entry hallway (30 x 4 ft?) linked to the foyer (6' 8" x 23 ft). Foot for foot, there is no way that this space is equal in value to #5B. No way.

By the way, the agent offering #5B for sale is the very same Celine Coudert of Corcoran, so the #5E seller knows the contract price for #5B. Either that seller knows that #5B will close at a significant premium to the asking price, or that seller has a fanciful notion of value that The Market is unlikely to appreciate.

(scratching head)

[this just in ... meant to check city records before hitting Add Entry and - sure enough - #5B closed in July above asking. But not enough above asking ($1.36mm) to really change the analysis here; more head scratching]

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View more entries tagged with: Wooster, Corcoran, Square Feet, Contract, Small Loft

Jan. 19, 2008 - RE: all feet at 108 Wooster are square but not equal

Posted by nyckid

The reason units in this building have a problem closing that it's neither a co-op nor a condo. . . 108 Wooster is being run as an S-corp, making it a hard building to finance.

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Jan. 19, 2008 - RE: all feet at 108 Wooster are square but not equal

Posted by Sandy Mattingly

I hadn’t thought about the S Corp consequences for “coops” like this with 80/20 problems before. I have the vague recollection that the S Corp status permits some kind of pass throughs of deductions that would otherwise be at the corporate level (RE taxes, most significantly in this case, I would think).

But I see the financing difficulty – you can’t get a “mortgage” for shares in a corporation that is not a “coop”, so have to do some other form of borrowing, probably at higher then conventional rates and with a higher down payment required.

This is exactly the scenario that the change in the 80/20 rules should help. (See December 31 holy coop Batman! 80/20 hurdle falls down.) I wonder if this S Corp will take the trouble to convert to a real coop. With six stories, it looks as though this building would qualify as a “coop” under the new 80/20 Square Footage test. It may depend on what the transaction costs are; I would think the shareholders would have a pretty strong appetite to be able to get conventional financing, at least as a way to increase marketability when they sell (value).

The Times has a piece on this in tomorrow’s RE section (Coops Reap Unexpected Bonanza) that, unfortunately, does not get into the question of the costs of turning a (formerly) non-compliant coop structure into one that passes muster. (Maybe there aren’t any costs??)

THX for stopping by, kid.

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Manhattan Loft Guy

Oct. 16, 2007 - all feet at 108 Wooster are square but not equal

Jan. 19, 2008 - RE: all feet at 108 Wooster are square but not equal

Jan. 19, 2008 - RE: all feet at 108 Wooster are square but not equal

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