bring architect + ton o’ money to 543 Bway (sound familiar?) : Manhattan Loft Guy

Manhattan Loft Guy

Oct. 11, 2007 - bring architect + ton o’ money to 543 Bway (sound familiar?)

The 4^th floor at 543 Broadway is new to the market today, with an exceptionally long history revealed in our data-base.

On the one hand, they are asking (through Benjamin Dayette of the boutique Luxe Group) only $2.45mm and $1,500 sq ft for "2,600 sq ft" with a fireplace and (perhaps) "13 foot" vaulted ceilings for authentic SoHo loft space.

On the other hand, this seems to have been used as an artist's live/work studio with one bathroom and only the 4 windows east in a space that might be 25 x 105 feet. (The floor plan is a trove of contradiction: the dimensions are given as 20'2" x 105' 8" but 2,430 sq ft, and notes there are 11 foot ceilings rather than the numbers claimed in the listing text.)

multiplying value over 10 years

Our inter-firm database has an unusually long history for this unit, tracking not only sales since 1997 but Dayette's career. Dayette was with PruDE in 1997 when this loft was offered for sale for $495k, then with William B. May when it was offered for sale in 2002-03 for prices starting at $1.2mm and dropping to $920k.

what a difference 25 feet makes (maybe, maybe not)

There is some very relevant recent history in this building, suggesting that $2.45mm is a stretch for gut-and-build space. The 2d floor - about 25 feet closer to the Broadway sidewalk - is on contract as of 3 weeks ago off an asking price of $1.895mm, having started in April at $2.275mm in much better than the primitive (high renovation cost) state of the 4^th floor (in broker-babble, the 2d floor has "[s]exiness, charm, and luxury" with "Italian marble bathroom countertops, renovated kitchen with Viking and Sub zero appliances, and surround sound wiring").

I hit the 2d floor listing when new (wondering about the 1 Bed Wonder at 543 Broadway - how much for how big?), and after a $250k price drop in August (getting very serious about price at 543 Broadway). Despite all that sex, charm and marble, that unit took 5 months and two price drops to find a contract off a price $550k lower than the new price for a primitive 4^th floor.

The August post addressed the real size of the unit and a dialogue I had with that listing agent, Greg Leveridge of JC DeNiro.

My email dialogue with Greg was about whether or not the space is "really" "2,500 sq ft" [compared to the dimensions on the floor plan, which he then removed from the web]. Here's what he said about how the building derived that number:

"If you also look closer within propertyshark.com you'll see the residential square footage of the building as a total of 50,000sf. Divide that among the 20 apartments within the coop which are all of identical size and you get the 2500 square feet which the building offers its approximate square footage as."

We also have a long past sales history on the 2d floor unit, showing a 1998 asking price of $450k, a fanciful June 2001 asking price of $3.185mm (after the sex, charm and marble were added, presumably), a post-Sept 11 asking price of $1.4mm - all without sales being recorded.

It is hard to see how being two floors higher is going on the 4^th floor is going to generate a significant price premium over the 2d floor.

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Oct. 11, 2007 - bring architect + ton o’ money to 543 Bway (sound familiar?)

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