building at 250 Mercer Street

It has a huge mortgage on the building at a very high interest rate with a restrictive refinancing penalty. I've been told that they have been trying unsuccessfully to get out from underneath the mortgage for several months, if not years. Also, the building needed a lot of facade work in the last 2-3 years, which caused increases in the maintenance. The building is thinking about kicking Think coffee out and converting the space to a parking garage to make more money. Presumably, that will mean construction under the building for several months and an initial outlay of money. For what you get (basicallly only a doorman), the maintenance is staggering.

Thanks. Do you know why such a large mortgage as this is a very old building? I would have thought that the mortgage is paid down by now. I guess no reason to buy in this building as the maintenance costs are fast approaching 65-75% of rental prices for similar place.

The building's old, but it was only converted from rental into a cond-op in 1986. They started out saddled with a big mortgage, and have added to that from time to time to pay for things, as wvresident said.

It's now up to $23,000,000 or so, at 7-something-percent, due 2017.

Thanks NWT. Do you know if the mortgage is interest only or part amortizing?

The $18,900,000 2002-2017 at 7.1% is interest-only. The agreement for the other $5,000,000 due 2017 either doesn't say or I missed it.

Anyone who lives here have any updated info, regarding this building and the issues raised in the posts (mortgage burden, maintenance increases, potential garage)? I was considering taking a look, but I wante dto narrow my search to financial sound building with little uncertainty. Thanks.

Look for low to reasonable maintenance as a proxy for financially sound. When the maintenance is high, many maintenance projects get postponed which eventually come back to cost more. This building should be trading at least 25% below the comps.

There is a ton of turnover here too. It looks like there were almost 20 sales on record last year, which is so many that I have to believe there is some sort of error in the data reporting. Even so, I get email alerts for new listings and 250 Mercer comes up far more than any other building I follow.

I'd steer clear.

^ I'd much rather see 20 sales on record, than 20 apartments listed with no sales. It's possible that it's nothing more than a cyclic turnover of a particular demographic.

And no, I don't live there, nor do I know anybody who lives there. :)

"k.g. here.. resident broker on premesis for over 20 years...

don't have the time right now, but i will straighten out all the various misconceptions,

& mis-information being tossed around about 250 mercer street in coming days/weeks

suffice it to say that we are in far better shape than the current "discussions" are assuming

stay tuned!! i can be reached at 212-253-5353 if anyone has specific questions.

respectfully,

ken garretson a/k/a "k.g."

"current discussions"? Surely not this one, which hasn't had a comment in 14 months.

Do you prefer K.G. or Musicman?

Great! Finally some comments! That should freshen up this old thread.

Gk's been the resident broker for 20 yrs, where was he 14 months ago? Way to be on top of things GK

Not an expert whatsoever, but I've noticed that any building that was originally built as commercial and later converted to residential always has high maintenance.

GK's got all the answers. hope he doesn't get busy again and keep us waiting for 14 months. but looking at the buiilding prints this looks more like a rental. does sponsor still own a lot of units?

Thanks for the spam "KG". the suspense is killing us

Any updates here? A few interesting spaces but maintenance is soooo high.....I guess the reason the purchase prices are low for the area.

Anyone have any new updates on this building? Thanks.

Very high maintenance in the building. Area is overrun with NYU students. Going to be tons of construction in the area with NYU expanding on both the west and north sides of the building.

Thanks soho42.

Thanks soho42.