nforth

There was another thread on nforth recently that didn't get many responses. Here's a Curbed post on the building. I'm not posting it to draw attention to the criticisms in the comments (actually, some think it's one of Karl Fisher's more attractive buildings). Maybe there's some info here that helps.

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/03/25/checking_in_driggs_ave_karl_fischer_is_nforth.php

Any one have any thoughts on this? It doesn't look too bad, although it looks like they recently dropped one unit by $75K! Sales seem pretty brisk though so I wonder why they would do that.

What are you basing sales on? StreetEasy has nothing in contract, just four 1st floor listings that were pulled on 5/29 and 6 that are still up, one with the price chop you mentioned. All were listed on 5/10.

Well if you go to the developers group site, you'll see more information here:

http://www.thedevelopersgroup.com/buildings/building.aspx?buildingid=1150&

According to their site, there are 6 contracts signed and and another 8 out and there are 30-odd units in the place.Not that I totally trust a brokers site, but I've found StreetEasy's data to sometimes be very outdated.

Gotcha. The closed sales/ACRIS data are dependable, the rest is up to the brokers to update (though there may be some auto-updating at the bigger brokerages?). You'd think they'd want the good news to be reflected here.

Tenemental, you're assuming TDG knows what they're doing =). I guess no else has any thoughts on the building?

i like the first floor apts, but im afraid they will be 2 noisey or i'll have a brick thrown in my window..anyone have any comments? the back ones are nice, but a little small.

lit, the only way to test the noise for sure would be to check out the street at various times of the day. It seems to me though it's a quiet side street. As for bricks through the window, all I can say is that I'm currently in a first floor apt and haven't had a brick through my window yet! I mean if you think about it, any window that isn't too high up could have a brick thrown through it.

yeah i went there last night and the bar across the street was very noisy.

A duplex apt on the 1st floor is still available. Compared to other apts in the building and considering the sqfootage you get (900), it doesn't seem to be a bad deal. Why isn't duplex so popular? Risk of flooding so high?

Clare, 1st floor apartments tend to sell last in these new devs, mostly because being on the ground floor really only offers you a view of the sidewalk. When you have floor to ceiling windows, this isn't what you would call a particularly private home. Having the extra space from a duplex is nice, but the cellar floor "rec rooms" almost never have windows, and cannot be legally used as bedrooms. I wouldn't mind having it, but I wouldn't pay as much for that space, and I think a lot of people feel that way. The other problem with being on the ground floor in an elevator building is that you're paying those common fees for an elevator you don't use. The costs of running an elevator are quite high, which I think surprises some people.

bjw - helpful post, didn't think about the elevator/common charge angle before

The first floor apts facing the street here don't have floor-to-ceiling windows. It's south-facing windows are actually pretty good at striking a balance btw privacy and sunlight. nForth has a great location and low maintenance compared to other new devs in the area. I'm surprised it hasn't done better than, say, Urban Green, which has similar location, common outdoor area and is nearby but not nearly as far along. Sales have been slow there since I first looked at it in June.

djradon, sorry, didn't mean to imply that nForth has floor-to-ceiling windows, though they are good-sized windows and you can look directly into the apartments. I agree that the location is pretty good - there are better spots, but this is close to the subway, on the "right" side of the BQE, close to Bedford and North 6th, and most importantly, close to the cheap deliciousness of San Loco. Urban Green had the advantage of coming on-line earlier, as it was pretty much sold out pre-construction. That's unheard of in the current market, and nForth suffered because of this I think. Urban Green has a slightly better location as well.

djradon, I've never checked out Urban Green but isn't that the building that had a series of major construction delays? And didn't it go on sale before the current meltdown (around April 07)? Comparing apples to apples nforth seems to have done pretty well seeing how I believe it went on sale around May of this year and is over half sold. Other similar building that starting selling around the same time such as NV and the Rialto don't seem to be moving as much relatively. Although the PSF at Urban Green seems much lower than any of the current crop of new buildings.

bjw, thanks for the helpful info. I didn't know that you cannot use the basement as a bedroom... I still like the building, and the location is great, I wonder if the overall price will still go down if I wait a little more.

You can use the basement for whatever you'd like, you just can't call it a bedroom when listing the apartment.

Clare, no problem. You can't legally use the basement as a bedroom, but that sure won't stop people from doing it, so if that's your goal, I wouldn't worry about that. If you're renting it out, that's a different story. I would definitely sit tight if you're shooting for a ground-floor apartment. They will take a while to sell, so you can negotiate the sponsor's pants off if you play it right. There are really only ground-floor units left in my building, and I've heard from other owners that they're possibly throwing in a rooftop cabana for buyers to take them off their hands.

Does anyone know how negotiable the prices are?

meaning: not just on ground-floor units, but for this building in general.

which unit do you like? i think anything is negotiable in this market, but some units will do better then others.

is it just me or is the square footage screwy?

look at the 390K studio. the square footage is listed at 497 sq ft, but if you look at the floorplans of the 480 sq ft studios already taken, they have larger spaces. seems like the 497 offers thicker external walls which they calculate in, lol.

also... the duplex is still available because unlike the other duplexes you don't have stairwell access. you'd have to leave your apt, take the elevator down a floor and if you forgot your keys go back and get it. very poorly planned imo.