Less of a deal on Mott St

262 Mott is an old-style loft building, converted to condos in the 90's. The building is wonderful, across from St Patrick and in Nolita proper. The other building is a Chinese-built Fedders, at the edge of Little Italy and Chinatown. I haven't seen the apartments, so I can't tell for sure, but expect the one on Mulberry to be a Home Depot special, since it was built very recently and probably not renovated or improved.
On the positive side, it's on the 5th floor, probably has pretty open and sunny exposures, while 262 is on the second floor with bedrooms on the street. Mulberry is a better deal if you can live with San Gennaro and all the hoky Italian restaurants.

$1450/sq foot on the 2nd floor, why would anyone bother to look?

listing says this is a condo, but only lists common charges, no re taxes.

I saw one of the units on Mulberry when it was up for rent. maly is correct.

maly, thanks for the input. Pretty much what I feared about the Mulberry apartment. Sounds absolutely charmless. I didn't mind San Gennaro when I lived on Elizabeth (though living on Mulberry is obviously a pretty different proposition in this case). This just confirms my theory that finding a quality, well-priced 2BR in this area is a rarity. Best I saw was late 07 on Mulberry/Spring, but that thing went quickly and way over ask. Helps explain the ambitious asks at 211 Elizabeth (as lovely as those units are).

If they were both listed at the same price, I'd pick 262 Mott. Beams, columns, original floors and big windows on St Patrick vs. Home Depot construction, it would be a no-brainer.

I must be missing something here, but does anyone here really consider an 8"6" X 8'6" space a ROOM? A BEDROOM? At this kind of money? Or anywhere NEAR this kind of money?

ph41, nope, it's definitely not an acceptable bedroom size in my experience (though I think it just makes the legal cutoff). If it were larger (and the apartment as a whole, therefore), I think you might have something; hence my complaint above about the lack of good apartments in the area.

bjw - The whole problem is that the area was old-style tenement buildings - awful to start out with, and judging by what they're trying to do with them, not much better now (yes, cleaned up, new bathrooms, etc. but still, tenements in fancy outfits).

The other issue with the Mulberry listing is that even though I couldn't find the floor plan, I know it's not 1,500 square feet. The building is 25' x 55', so the place is at best 1,260 gross (including the elevator shaft and the stairs).
My guess is that there isn't much of a difference between the usable square footage of these 2 apartments.

ph41, I agree to a certain extent, but it's actually worse than that. I would take a dressed-up walkup in Nolita in a heartbeat (assuming a reasonable price of course), but they just don't come along very often. Those that do tend to have major faults in them (ie: a tiny second bedroom, poor layout, etc.) or are snatched up very quickly, often at pretty high prices (though I haven't seen one come on the market in a LONG time, so not sure how buyers would respond in this environment).

Ph41, neither are tenement buildings. One is new cheap construction, the other is a former loft building (19th century light manufacturing.)
Tenements are much more common in that area, and I agree come their own set of downsides (walk up, cramped layouts.)

262 Mott is fairly unique for this area. It has gone thru many incarnations, including a slaughterhouse. It was converted from an IMD building, however, with a fairly contentious relationship with the Sponsor (and more: there was even a lawsuit brought by by one faction of owners after they won the Board election and the sitting Board refused to give up their seats). You also have multiple uses in the building, such as recording/rehearsal studios. Take a look at the elevator: ever seen so many buttons BELOW "1"?

Make up of units is all over the place, as are ceiling heights. Also lots of issue with people re-constructing their units (some taking several years doing is, bothering neighbors) and C of O issues as a result.

Lot's of issues here, look very carefully at EVERYTHING. (and say hello to Moby for me).

30yrs, not seriously considering buying here, was just curious about it. That said, do you have any insight on 214 Mulberry (sometimes goes by 45 Spring)?