1327 Lexington Ave.

condo, but the building is for sale again. So if your waiting for the offering it's going to be awhile more.

How do you know that it's for sale again?

Through a friend. Apparently, The Cheshire Group turned down an offer for 125 Mil for the building. They want 150 Mil or they are sticking with the original plan which is NOT a conversion as everyone thought- including myself, but rather to empty the building through not renewing and buying out RC RS tenants and then starting work. Presently, there are 25 empty units, out of 93.

And after they do the work, then what?

How could this work? It would take years to get everyone out.

Sell the apartments. If the building is empty they can do whatever they want. If there are Tenants in place in order to start selling units they would have to file a conversion plan, which is obviously not their intent since you would need a percentage of exiting tenants to buy the units for the plan to be approved.

So what do you think is the timing? Also, do you know if they're sticking with the original floor plans or if they're reconfiguring them?

Do you live in the building?

I agree about it taking years to get everyone out, but for whatever reason that seems to be the course they are on. When I first heard that I thought it made no sense, but it does explain the explain why the vacancy rate is more than double what would be allowed on a conversion plan and why they paid cash. Obviously, they feel that they can buy the remaining tenants out. At the end of the day if you look at the group's portfolio they have never undertaken a project of this size so they might just out of their league and unrealistic about what the project entails.

They paid $106,000,000 cash in July, but then in September they borrowed $70,000,000 against it from JP Morgan.

The mortgage refers to condominiumizing, a red herring, etc., which sounds like a conversion.

wow that is interesting. So maybe this is all speculation. I live in the building and would love to buy my place so that is great. So what are your thoughts on the high vacancy rates?

i still don't see how this could work. the remaining RC/RS tenants could ask any amount they wanted. kind of like being the last piece of land left when a developer is trying to assemble a parcel.

Don't live in the building, but am one of the therapists on the ground floor. They are not renewing our lease, but since it's a professional lease we have no real recourse.

I know that they are not renewing. We are market rate so they are not renewing our lease as well. They only parties which are entitled to a renewal are RC & RS.

I think that all the shrinks in the lobby are vacating by Jan 1, so there should be five more empty apartments.

what will happen to all the crazies?

Maybe someone on the board can answer this, but do commercial units count against the vacancy rate for the conversion?

Are they renovating yet? In any part of the building? What I don't get is why they don't give us short term leases-e.g., 6 months since they don't seem to be doing any work and the units will remain empty.

seems like a lot of misinformation here. based on their website, the new owners here also did devonshire house which appears to be a building that is at least as valuable.

http://www.devonshirehousenyc.com/

No idea, apparently they are having a difficult time locating plumbing etc , which is why they want to go through apts tomorrow. The lease issue makes no sense to me either

Go through apartments? Are they starting at the top or bottom? The risers in my apt. were just changed and it is a pain. Kitchen walls and bathroom walls were torn. If they have to actually do that kind of work it's a big deal. Let me know what you know about what work they plan to do when.

Thank you for pointing out the Devonshire- I don't think they are that comparable. I live in 1327 Lexington and it is on not a chic part of lex. With that said I 'm going to assume if they turned down 125 and want 150 , which would bring them to about 936 a sq ft unrenovated I'm going to assume that they are going to want south of 1k sq ft.

i pointed it out because of your comment about the size of the project not the location. You have not cited a source for the information that they turned down another offer which doesn't seem any more reasonable than the theory that they are going to empty the building.

I am curious if you asked for a short term lease. If so, did the owner specify any reason for declining?

They had a n engineer who wanted to know if the bathrooms were tiled or not. Does anyone know whats going on with the conversion. I seem to get the sense that they would prefer for all of the fm tenants to move out so they can combine units, but won't there be issues with warehousing etc?

Some people's leases won't run out for years, so are they really going to sit on empty apartments for that long?

huh? this only applies to RS/RC tenants. presumably the sponsor will enter into negotiations with that group and make price/amenity concessions in return for purchases.

Source for turning down the offer was through a friend who is close with the group which was turned down. I agree emptying the building sounds weird, but presently there are about 30 empty units. So far they have made offers to RC/RS I'm not sure if anyone has taken them up on it. We have not asked for a short term lease and instead am focussed on finding another apartment.

why not go month to month until you find a new place? a lot less pressure then.

small children and we need to find something more concrete- starting to look at buying since rents are so crazy. Also, they are not offering month to month.

marye-I was walking in the lobby today and saw a group of people talking about the plans for the demolition, and possible new units-said that first work will be done on 4th & 5th floor-do you know if those floors are largely emptied out?

what is your agenda here?

>columbiacounty
why not go month to month until you find a new place? a lot less pressure then

Wonderful. Advice from a guy who lives 90 minutes north of Manhattan, and who on his last visit to NYC freaked out because the apartment he was taken to had a window in the shower.

I take it back ... 2 1/2 hours away from Manhattan.

More lying

Seriously how are these comments at all helpful? I appreciate that people like to banter, but looking for real info on a situation.

so columbiacounty says that Columbia County isn't 2.5 hours from Manhattan. How far is it? 2:15?

So marye, do you have any real information about whether they are going co=op, condo, and when? If you want to buy, wouldn't you ultimately be interested in this building?

the only real information (from NWT above) is that the cheshire group bought this building for $106 million and recently took out a mortgage of $70 million. based on their work at devonshire house, it certainly seems like the cheshire group has the experience and knowledge to do this again. they are obviously aware of the warehousing issue so they presumably have a strategy (unknown at this time) of how to deal with it.

the thought that they will somehow empty the building is not reasonable due to the large number of RC/RS tenants. financially impractical to buy them out and unlikely that some form of harassment would be successful.

an alternate theory is that the cheshire group will bring in new market rate tenants on short term leases to avoid the warehousing issue.

Going condo. We would be interested in buying in the building but, it doesn't seem that an option since no offering plan is in the works. So we have begun looking around.Right now there are 25 RC/RS tenants in the building and presently there are 30 + empty apartments so they are way above the vacancy rate. You can't bring in new mt since the formula is based on vacancy rates over the last 24 mos- I may be a bit rusty. Have no idea what they are doing- just tons of work, which is why people are breaking leases to move out. I do know that they are offering extensions on leases as well as letting people out early. Getting very empty around here.

So columbiacounty, your value add on this discussion is to reiterate what someone else said just above, then to engage in misleading speculation based on your knowledge of absolutely of nothing of this building, developer, or any other related party.

Recently on a discussion about Devonshire you made the absolute statement about market rate tenants purchasing in the building, only to be told by someone with actual experience in that actual building that you were 100% wrong.

Thanks for the valueless, misleading contributions.

Thanks Marye- do you have any name or # of anyone in management to talk to? Not sure what you mean that they are way above the vacancy rate-does that mean that they have the necessary # of empty apartments to go condo? If it's ok with you, I will leave my card in an envelope labeled Ms. Mary E with the doorman. Perhaps we can talk directly.

I believed you had said you had an office on the first floor. The tend to have the contact names on it. Tech. for a conversion they should only have about 12 empty apartments.

i've asked you before. what is your agenda here?

So they could do the conversion fairly soon, right? Do you know whether they will keep the same apartment configurations?

columbiacounty
21 minutes ago
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>i've asked you before. what is your agenda here?

What puts you in the position to be able to ask marye7308 that question?

you'll never know.

Very suspenseful.

what do you know about this building?

I know nothing about the building.

You know nothing about the buiding.

The only difference, I never said I knew anything about the building. You make things up about the building.

i know everything about this building.

Including the plumbing?

of course not. who gives a shit about plumbing?

so you know everything except for the plumbing.
Funny how I picked the one and only topic about the building you don't know anything about.

funny?

no.

relevant?

no.

Honestly I don't know and frankly at this point we are just looking to move out. It's becoming obvious that there is no real info to be gleaned here. As far as an agenda- seriously I actually live in the building so I would like to know what is going on.

My understanding is that apartments will be combined and that they have shown floor plans to high end buyers. That may have changed in the last month but I've recognized well known athletes in our lobby and elevators. We were hoping to buy as well but it seems they are going high luxury starting around 8mm.

Please let them steam clean the exterior. What is up with buildings letting layers of NYC grime and dirt accumulate? 5th avenue in the 70's has the most examples from what I have noticed...

Honestly, I had not planned on adding to this thread but the thought of an 8mm apt on Lex, especially in this stretch is laughable. All I've seen in the building and I'm a SAHM are engineers looking for pipes. Just curious what floor and tower are you in?

Not sure how you've missed the suits and the Yankees but as hard as it is to believe they are already shopping floorplans, duplexes even, that start at 8mm.

did you get the mailing from the elliman broker?

Any news?

ok...the red herring is out --- welcome to The Philip.

Are they letting the RS/RC buy-in?

TE1-What exactly do you mean? The Philip? mailing from elliman broker? I already moved out of the building, but am curious. Even if it's being shown to well known folks, it's hard to believe that they would pay 8 mm for Lex & 89. In the Village or on Fifth, maybe, but not on Lex. I've lived on the UES for over 20 yrs., but it's not THE cool place at the moment. Don't see the stars flocking in.

Assuming that a really high end renovation is done, the question is how much less is an apt there vs. one a block over?

Stribling is the broker. As is, un-renovated the ask for existing tenants regardless of whether fm etc is about $1750 a sq ft. The most expensive apt is 7 mil for the penthouse.

you're high on the ask for existing tenants and lets remember this is the first iteration. these prices will come down, the only question is by how much.

Sales in this building have been progressing well. Looks like only a few large units are left, which seems to be common in many of these conversions. Does anyone know if the prices have fallen?

MYM: Buyers are paying $8mm for apartments at 79th and Third (200 East 79th http://streeteasy.com/nyc/building/200-east-79th-street--new_york), so I think that people would definitely be willing to go past LEx and pay premium prices ($1,180 - $2,200 psf based on asking prices in The Philip).

Also, 1327 Lex is now 141 East 81st, presumably because either they want to obscure the fact that it's on Lex or because they don't want people to see the old floorplans.

It was always 141 e 88.