Does anyone have recent experience with townhouses shells in central Harlem, so that they could opine on the current value of shells in the "better" (e.g., below 125 & west of 5th) areas? (sorry in advance - don't want to create a debate on what makes a particular area better)

What does a 16-footer go for? How about a 23- or 25-foot wide shell?

Any thoughts would be apprecited.

caonima is such a fucking liar, I hate him/her in every thread. You can buy FULLY FINISHED re-done townhouses in harlem for those prices. Shells are more like 800k-1MM. Sorry no examples but you are on a site where you can search for such things. See the "sales" tab above and include things in contract and closed.

A good website to check out is beatingupwind.com, which is a blog by the owner of a Harlem brownstone that chronicles his experience of buying a shell and doing the full gut renovation. A fairly recent post lamented that while a couple of years ago you could get a shell in the area for $500K-$600K, the range now seems to center around $800K-$900K. He listed a few comps with some analysis, which is listed below:

Here are the class C4 & C5 buildings that sold for less then $900K in the past 6 months south of 125th

319 West 112th $875K, 2/10/12
53 West 119th $250K, 2/13/12 Too low to be a real sale, probably a partial interest
254 West 121th $895K, 4/2/12
326 West 113th $720K, 4/24/12 This seems to have gone through a recent foreclosure. A shell a few doors down is listed at $1.4M and has multiple offers, so I think this sale is a bit out of the ordinary and not a true comp either.
133 West 119th $830K, 4/27/12
164 West 123th $618,400, 6/25/12 Two doors down from me. The owner knew it was worth more. Last I knew he either wanted to bring in someone to help fund the development or he wanted to sell it. I suspect the new LLC is a combination of the old owner and a new investor who is funding redevelopment, so it is not a true sale either.

Thanks guys. Do you think houses off of Lenox are more or less value able than houses west of FDB? The lenox houses seem much larger and have better architecure, but some of the 16 and 17 foot wides houses west of FCB have sold at high values.

Long term I think off of Lenox. The west of FDB ones benefit from current proximaty to Columbia and the FDB corridor mini-boom of the past decade. So I think their is less room for appreciation.

Good points. I'm a big fan of the lenox area - better values, nicer houses, great transportation, nice people. I think values are headed up - ~$2.0-$3.0 million for a nice, finished house near lenox. That is approx 1/2 to 1/3 of the cost of decent places in the 90s and 100s.

Did anyone look at 240 Lenox or 246 Lenox? Big places in poor condition. 240 sold for $1.9 million, but needed a ton of work. Amazing property, but I can't figure out how a developer got comfortable with that value for a shell.

I found Harlem Shell on west 139TH Street.
I picked it up and held it to my ear.
I heard sirens.