Sale at 170 East End Avenue #2B

Total joke
Watch this place sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and.....................................go unsold.

A second floor 1bedroom apartment? Why is it so expensive?

It's a 2-bedroom, so more understandable. The listing really talks up the building, not the apartment.

It's a 2/2.5. Guess the sponsor figures fraudster furnishings are worth big bucks.

Also, the sponsor has a few 3-bedrooms on the 2nd floor left to unload at north of $3M.

Then there's the allure of living in the convicted-felon aura of One Beacon Court, 133 E 64th, etc.

Ok, I finally got it, after reading the NYT article. This listing is horrible, no floorplan, not even a mention the place is sold furnished. Gee, can the broker be anymore obscure?
I wonder though, about the conflation of interest between the sponsor and the condo board. It smacks of a certain L'Etat, c'est moi mentality.

Ah, but the sponsor effectively *is* the board, for the time being. There're NYS rules for when a sponsor has to give up control, even when holding lots of apartments, but it's early days yet for 170EEA.

The first closing was in January 2008, almost 2 years ago. How long is the sponsor in charge?

I took a walk down East End Avenue a few months ago to take a look at the condo buildings on this street. My primary concern was that this street is very far from everything- transportation, shops, etc. I think that 170 East End is right after East 86th Street across from Carl Schurz Park next door to a few brownstones. Not the best location except if you really like being near the park.

The Bylaws say five years, or as long as sponsor holds Unsold Units. Lots of convoluted language there, though, so who knows.

My co-op's sponsor still holds two seats on a seven-member board, as they have the votes. Not control, just another voice.

I don't know if it's a good use of funds to bolster sales price as far as the other owners are concerned. Makes sense for Wilf, obviously.

It might also not bolster values, because who wants to buy in a building where your maintenance funds can be the play money of the sponsor. It's naked self-dealing. Besides, the transaction is still recorded at $1.3m as the market clearing price.
It's really questionable that the transaction serves anyone's interests.

The sponsor paid the $1.3M and took title to the unit. The bylaws say something about the condo "or its designee" having right of first refusal, and sponsor was apparently the designee.

Doesn't make sense either way, but at least it's not costing the other owners anything. Beyond what the market said about their spiffy new units.

This building has tons of amenities including a squash court and a 40 seat theatre according to the description. In person, it looks like a very new building put in the middle of an older area where people come and go from the building by taxi or car service. I've only seen the outside of the building and haven't seen any of the apartments, but I would imagine there's a limited market for these kinds of apartments right now.

It's odd, but the people over there seem to like it, and there're some great buildings, e.g. 120 EEA and 10 Gracie Square. Must be not train-oriented. I'm a whining martyr if I have to walk three long blocks to CPW for the B/C line, instead of one for the 1/2/3, while on EEA those three long blocks would put me only at Second Ave, with half again further to hike for the 4/5/6.

The CCs are killer and will keep going up. The layouts are well-thought out. I'm not a Yorkville person, but if my kids went to school in the area, I would consider moving there. My partner is totally against moving east of the park (even though his commute would be better).

NWT, it's true. I know a few people who live in the buildings in the low 90's/York near Asphalt Green and they love their neighborhood. They feel like it's a quiet, undiscovered part of Manhattan. As an alternative to the 6 train, there is the M31 bus which runs along York Avenue and then up 57th Street.

it is quiet, and "undiscovered" because it is fairly far from transportation.

Years ago, when the site was still the hospital Beth Isreal North, my hairdresser told me that a client, a physician's wife, had told him that if he ever had a medical emergency (not a life-threatening one) he should go to the emergency room at Beth Israel North, because so few people knew it was even there.

When my mother, again years ago, had a physical problem, she remembered the story I had told her about the hospital, and asked that I take her there for emergency care. Did that, one other person in the emergency room - incredibly prompt care, and she had a room overlooking Gracie Mansion with a very amzaing, friendly nursing staff
Considering that an emergency room in almost any other hospital in NY (and also in the suburbs) would be filled to overflowing it really did prove that the location was pretty far from most mass transit, leaving it a very tranquil area (sort of like Sutton Place - though even more isolated

the original listing

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/433759-condo-170-east-end-avenue-yorkville-new-york

As predicted... An almost half-million price drop!

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/483712-condo-170-east-end-avenue-yorkville-new-york