elevator coming to 160 Chambers / NY Times On The Market : Manhattan Loft Guy

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Aug. 4, 2007 - elevator coming to 160 Chambers / NY Times On The Market

still a 1 + 1 with 3 flights of stairs

Tomorrow’s On The Market feature in the NY Times real estate section profiles #3 at 160 Chambers Street, which I have twice mentioned in open house reviews (on July 6 and March 23, when it was new to market at $1.635mm).

The traditional Pros vs. Cons array came out this way:

PROS: The sprawling living and dining space has three large windows and a working fireplace. The bathroom has a step-in whirlpool tub and a separate shower.

CONS: Residents will be displaced temporarily and maintenance may go up next summer when the co-op plans to install an elevator and a new staircase.

I would add to the “Cons” that it will remain a fourth floor walk-up until that disruptive (expensive?) elevator project promised for next summer, and that it does not seem so “easily” to convert from a one bedroom + one bath to a 2 + 2 (but maybe my imagination is limited).

(One of the interesting things about this weekly feature is that the Times generally has interesting and high quality photos that are – of course – different from the listing photos.)

Open House Aug 5 1 – 2:30

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Aug. 7, 2007 - re: elevator coming to 160 Chambers / NY Times On The Market

Posted by Sandy Mattingly

["VDH" had trouble posting, so asked me to post this in his/her name:]

I checked out #2 a few years ago which was (is I guess) a true 2BR with 1 bath with a similar large closet in front of the 2nd bedroom.

The problem with 160 Chambers, apart from it being a walk up (where will they carve out space for an elevator when the stairs start at the front door and the wine store takes up the rest of the ground floor frontage?) is that the kitchen is too far back making the living area far too large (Ok, it has a nice lofty feel but at too high a cost) the bedrooms far too small and the space for a 2nd bathroom non-existant.

#2 made the best of a bad layout by having two entrances to the tiny bathroom (expensively renovated along with the kitchen BTW); one from the hall and one from the "master" bedroom.

If the coop is going to spend the time and money to do substantial structural work, then they would do current and future owners a huge favor by allowing for re-routing of plumbing and gas lines to move the kitchen into the living area by 10 feet and using the freed up space for a 2nd bathroom and a bigger master bedroom.

Just look at any 25' wide loft conversion in tribeca and you will see the standard layout: 28' X 22' LR, kitchen parellel to stairwell and elevator shaft, 2nd bathroom behind kitchen (common plumbing stack), master bathroom behind 2nd bathroom, 16X11 master and 12X11 wnd BR at back.

That is for 1500/1600 sqft lofts, for the 2000 sqfters you can fit longer bedrooms and an office.

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Aug. 7, 2007 - re: elevator coming to 160 Chambers / NY Times On The Market

Posted by Sandy Mattingly

I totally agree with you, VDH, about where the kitchen is in this loft but I suspect that democracy will prevent the (sensible) solution you propose. Since everyone has renovated (or not) based on the existing plumbing risers, I bet they can’t get a majority interested in spending the money to move them if that would involve any significant disruption of the existing plumbing fixtures and locations in each loft. Even if the cost is relatively trivial.

But I bet the same result can be reached in #3 by someone motivated enough to slide the kitchen along that wall and adding the second bath where the refrigerator now is. (I assume that moving the gas and kitchen waste lines is not very complicated, and that the new bathroom can plug into the same risers the present bath uses; I may be wrong in this.)

The more complicated layout question that you raise is that elevator. I have to believe they know exactly where it is going, but it is pretty difficult to find a logical place for it in this unit that is not terribly disruptive – even without considering that the choices on the ground floor are probably very limited (as you say). Maybe they are buying space back from the wine store?

If so, the new elevator probably won’t fit in the living area between the stairwell and the fireplace, so I guess it will go where the “dressing area” is, after creation of a small foyer.

I don’t mean to soil anyone’s marketing, but I would not be surprised if this thing can’t sell at any reasonable price the seller would accept until the elevator is done. In fact, I see this as a candidate for having deals fall through, as people bid before really understanding what the elevator project means for their layout. (Not wishing, just predicting.)

With the elevator on the horizon, the seller is not pricing it as a true walk-up. But without the elevator until next Summer, it doesn’t have the same value as an elevator loft and it has the uncertainty about how that project will go. (Not to mention that it will shrink the usable space by 50 or so square feet.)

THX for making such an effort to post your comments VDH!

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Aug. 4, 2007 - elevator coming to 160 Chambers / NY Times On The Market

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Aug. 7, 2007 - re: elevator coming to 160 Chambers / NY Times On The Market

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