Fifty Franklin?

That's a developer that does not sleep at night.
I wonder what bank will be selling these apartments eventually?

At their current listing they are excellent residences for persons who hate both money and space.

weensy room sizes--pricey

Overlooks NYS Family Court

I just got an email from them stating they have a 5% discount offer good until July 4th. What happens after that? lol Do they really think we are stupid? Same story here they will be at a 25% discount by the end of the year. Unbelievable!

Now nyc10013 will probably fall out of his chair to see me post this but this is not tribeca.
Very different feel and it is too far from the heart of tribeca. The website shows photos of cobblestone tribeca (Staple street) which is way too far away from 50 franklin.

I did say in this thread that it was currently zoned for ps234 which is a huge plus
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/7314-building-at-50-franklin-street
However also said that this was unlikely to continue. Rezoning is going to happen next year and it is likely that this will be zoned for the Spruce St school in the Ghery tower by PAce Uni.

I also checked out the floorplans just now. I agree The rooms certainly are tiny. They look more like the value engineered plans from a ground up rental.

Exterior looks cheap and uninspired (now that the street level boards and scaffolding is off you can see how garish this is so coupled with the stingy floorplans does not make for a desirable abode. At least with the Leonard and Worth st loft conversions previously discussed you get classic loft buildings. Plus the latter are priced much more reasonably on a ppsf basis. I am not endorsing them - just pointing out the differences.

i checked out the building. The apts are really really small, and definitely not worth the >1000 per sq. foot. Oh well.

a bunch of them "went into contract" on 6/25. seems strange.

We just visited this building - check out our review here:

http://downtowny.blogspot.com/2009/06/50-franklin-street.html

The "In Contract" notifications on 6/25 (I think) are residual units that have been in contract for awhile but they are just now listing them on Streeteasy as being In Contract (we think to grab some attention).

Overall, we thought the building was ok. Zero views, decent-sized units, ok location. The building is not, btw, zoned for PS 234 (which they freely admit) although I believe that they have claimed in the past that they were.

-DT

Hey DT, as much as I like your blog I think you may be confusing posts from me with posts from nyc10013 when talking about east TriBeCa. He has blabbed on about the eastern reaches of tribeca not being real TriBeCa and I have argued the case against that. However my post is the only one criticizing the location of fitty Franklin and I stand by it.

As I have argued with him in the past, once you are east of broadway the hood changes significantly. He complained of commercial traffic on worth st when he lived there but this all comes from broadway. Worth st west of broadway is devoid of most of that traffic because broadway is a major thoroughfare.

Btw, as I said in the thread I linked to fitty Franklin was indeed zoned for ps234 and still is until rezoning takes place later this year for the start of the 2010 school year. The building wasn't ready for 2009 school year start so that's a moot point.

Downtownster - thanks a lot. great review.

are people having trouble getting financing?
i wonder if it will be zoned for the chinatown schools.

Hey divvie - I assume you're referring to the portion of our review that discusses the "rants" about this building not being in Tribeca...I actually wasn't referring to anything specific although I do recall the heated discussion on this board about some of the more eastern areas of Tribeca. Readers who have emailed us about 50 Franklin pretty much all say the same thing about the location in terms of it being outside of Tribeca (which we agree it is) although I do agree with you that the eastern reaches of Tribeca are also "real" Tribeca.

The piece of our review that addresses the location issue was meant to convey (maybe our phrasing just sucks) that although 50 Franklin is technically outside of Tribeca, the building is close enough that it doesn't really matter in terms of being accessible to "prime" Tribeca. I might even argue that 50 Franklin is in a better location (if you define "better" by proximity to desirable establishments) than say the condos around 295 Greenwich, which are actually in "Tribeca" but so far south that you are basically spitting distance from FiDi and can only get to those kind of generic, underwhelming restaurants on Greenwich St with any ease.

On the school zone issue, is there a way that we can check what they are currently zoned for? We point blank asked the seller's agent whether the building was zoned for 234 and he said "no". They also formerly claimed(on the streeteasy listing site for the building) that they were zoned for 234 but have now taken that down.

ILoveMuayThai - thanks!

http://downtowny.blogspot.com

Thought you guys might enjoy this:

http://www.downtownyblog.com/2009/07/downtowny-to-sales-agents-you-never.html

We're hearing that 50 Franklin may try to close a few units and then (gasp) go rental.

What do you guys think is a reasonable percentage off to offer (taking into consideration the location and the risks associated with the building). Assume for instance unit is listed at around 1.3. thank you!

How noisy/safe is this area? Should we be worried about it being opposite the Family Court and how far is it from the NYU dorm?

are they still offering 5% back

What happened to downtownster and http://downtowny.blogspot.com?

does anybody knows if they are closing this year? haven't seen any activity for quite some time now..

No closings and there won't be any. Because of the terrorist trial which will basically be held within 200 yards of this development, this development will be ... Sessanta.

I was there for the open house last Sunday and they said they started closings in January and they already have people living in the building. The building looked complete. Concierge was at the front desk to greet us and the units looked pretty good. I really liked the ones with the northern midtown view on the higher floors; though the second bedroom is a little smaller, I'm thinking that we could use it as a home office and add a Murphy bed for when family visits.

has anyone closed in this building? if so, what concessions are you finding they are offering?

Look at the building page.you have some closings in the last couple months.
Looks like their selling at just over $1000 psft. Don't know what they are offering that's not visible if any but how much could those concessions add up to? $50 psft max?

Also considering this building - anyone know why the common charges are so high?

I looked at this last summer.. common charges are high because you are paying for silly amenities like a furnished ground floor guest apartment, pet spa, etc.

Thanks. The recorded closing have a reasonable $/PSF, but the high common charges might be a deal breaker. Anyone else have any feedback on the building? I'm gonna try and get there this weekend and see for myself.

Layouts and Northern views are quite nice, but the location is questionable. Not sure what type of activity there is during the week day with the courthouse across the street and the NY Detention Center less than a block away. If you look up 50 Franklin on Google Map ( satellite), you'll see that the lot directly behind it on White St is similar to the one in which 50 Franklin is on. That garage is definitely good for future development so may eventually block the nice Northern views?

Looks like prices have dropped in the building to a reasonable number. Any additional thoughts from anyone? Does anyone who lives in this building have any input?

I'm considering a 2bd 2ba on a high floor in here. For around $1000 sq/ft avg sales it seems like a pretty good deal. I would welcome any feedback.

Anyone have any other recommendations for $1000 sq/ft for a 2bd 2ba = $1MM budget? I've been scouring the entire 'downtown' area for the past few weeks, but there does not seem to be much on the market.

Please check stated square footage and school district. Even if you do not care about the school, market value does depend on it.

NYCApthunter Did you end up buying? I was going to purchase and put an offer in and they raised the prices during our negotiations but before we had a contract. shady....

this building was re-zoned into china town school district. Drops value by about 15-20% as no family will be interested.

Frustrated - same thing happen to me with this building but we were further down the line. they are screwing everyone they deal with and wasting everybody's time. this building is not worth it. lots of shady things going on is the word on the street.

The staff come across very nice and honest … they did mention to me, due to pick up in sales in the last few months, the prices will be going up. But as I see it, pricing in this building are still lower by 25% than any other new development in all of Tribeca...

If anyone could advise me of any other new building in the area that would be in comparable in price please let me know ..

Apt_Buster wrote: "But as I see it, pricing in this building are still lower by 25% than any other new development in all of Tribeca... "

Of course, it's not in TriBeCa, so that helps explain it.

jordyn: I wouldn’t say this building is not Tribeca,,,, I would say it’s on the border of Tribeca but closer to canal st. and all the action of Tribeca then lots of other buildings in Tribeca… still, at these discount pricing, this building is well worth its value….

It's east of Broadway so it's not in TriBeCa. How close it is to Canal Street has nothing to do with it. Do you think places half a block north of Houston are in SoHo, too?

It's very close to TriBeCa, and I wouldn't base my on decision whether to buy there or not on what precise neighborhood it was in, but if you look at comps of buildings further east you'll see that price drops pretty quickly in that direction.

Apt_Buster, do you live in Tribeca? If so, I'm not sure many of your neighbors would agree...Anything east of Broadway is Civic Center/China Town neighborhood, even though it may "technically" be Tribeca. Now that it's Chinatown school district, this location is even weaker.

While it may be walking distance to all that is wonderful in Tribeca, I bet if you take a toll of those who live down here, more would say that BPC North (River Terrace, North End Ave.) is more Tribeca than this is.

While it may be on the border, it's on the wrong border...If the location of this building were even a full block west (West Side of Broadway), it would have sold out already...

I saw 7E (779 sq ft) and 9E (listed as 816 sq ft). I am positive that 9E is NOT 816 sq ft - it is the exact same layout at 7E. Even the building's agent who showed the apartment could not tell the difference. I then checked the dimensions listed on the sheet - the bedrooms, living rooms, and all other parts had identical dimensions. I found the building to be a bit depressing. I don't like how the apartments I saw faced a boring grey municipal building. Not much of a view. Not crazy about the location either.

Positives: the appliances were great, the ceilings were high. Seemed well built, at least from my perspective. new construction.

The building is zoned in Tribeca.
Lafayette is The border of Tribeca and civic center on Franklin.
The neighborhood and the Franklin street (in front of the building) is becoming an art gallery seen. This building is a great value but it's price is already rising...

"Lafayette is The border of Tribeca"

No it's not.