An Apthorp Penthouse Sold for $228,900???!!!

Did you actually READ the article?

"UPDATE: The Apthorp folks reiterate that the "penthouses" are not the building's glamour pads: "These are rooftop units that were built as servants' quarters. The price reflects their condition, size and overall stature. They are not remotely representative of the grand, spacious and completely renovated residences that are currently for sale.""

Here's a rental listing, after the owner had tarted it up in cheapo-landlord style: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/rental/758732-condo-390-west-end-avenue-upper-west-side-new-york

The buyer might've been the previous tenant at an insider price, or the sponsor might've been going to contract with friends in order to get the offering plan through.

I've got the 2006 rent roll at home, so will check whether tenant matches buyer.

These spaces are not unlike the former servants quarters at the Dakota that have been turned into apartments.

Sorry, forgot to add that the one's at the Dakota go for very high prices. No surprise.

"...built as servants' quarters."

For slaves?

In 1885?.....kinda.

@jason10006: Yes. I did read the article, but still don't believe the px is justified (at the Apthorpe, that is)...

ok

In earlier stories about the Apthorp, these penthouses were described as being right next to huge A/C rooftop units. These things blast noise and heat around the clock, apparently.

The PH apartments vary a lot. Some at the WEA end and the B'way corners were originally guest rooms, so good to begin with if not as good as downstairs.

The middle of the B'way end was a huge laundry room and ironing room. At some point those were turned into apartments too, and the cooling towers are right above them.

The original maids' rooms ran along the 78th and 79th sides. Sometime since the 1930s they were combined into additional PH apartments. Most of them can only be gotten to from the service lobbies, and a couple only by going outside.

See http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/dlo?obj=ldpd_YR_4080_MH_011_001&size=large from before the conversion of maids' rooms and laundry rooms. The apartments on that plan (from the 1930s, I think) had already been put together from guest rooms, and match the condo plans.

> I've got the 2006 rent roll at home, so will check whether tenant matches buyer.

?? where do you get the rent roll from?

The buyer in 2007, after paying $426,000,000 for it, sued the seller. Something about rusted steel on the roof not being disclosed. The judge threw it out, saying it was there for all to see.

Anyway, there's a 900-page exhibit that seems to be all the documentation the seller gave the buyer. Rent roll, salaries, proof of money spent during the early-2000s electrical upgrade, structure of the seller's LLC, and on and on.

If it's PH-Q we're talking about, it was deregulated and vacant as of 2006, so it wasn't the tenant who bought it.

"For slaves? ... In 1885?.....kinda."

That's the dirty little secret of that bygone era of prewar "gracious" living; not just rich people, but upper middle class and even middle class people could have at least one or two live-in servants because they were essentially "free". The bulk of their remuneration was in room and board ... aside from a small stipend, all you really had to do was provide them a room, a bed, and a place to wash up and evacuate their bowels.

And those accommodations were stingy, as we've all seen from original floorplans; often just 6x9 rooms (and even then, often it was two to a room).

It wasn't until those pesky minimum wage laws took effect that servants became so "unaffordable".

That big exhibit is at https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=yLYtWPymB9pXFJFgbjXZjQ==&system=prod

Lots of interesting detail on the running of a rental building.

Crazy..maybe it's haunted!

"And those accommodations were stingy, as we've all seen from original floorplans; often just 6x9 rooms (and even then, often it was two to a room).

It wasn't until those pesky minimum wage laws took effect that servants became so "unaffordable". "

Can today's world be seen as better? A month of full-time minimum wage labor brings in $1200, before taxes. In Manhattan, that would rent... one of the tiny 6x9 rooms which you describe. And then you still have to feed yourself!

*And* a century ago you could be a servant with only an eighth-grade education (perhaps less) and zero student debt to pay off.

Perhaps the servant system should be brought back. My tongue is only half in cheek here: domestic duties for a rich person are probably much lighter than what is demanded of you at a minimum-wage "real world" job, and the home you live in and the food you eat will presumably be of high quality.

Fresh college graduates who can't find jobs and want to live in the city might do well to "serve" a rich person for room and board (tax free) plus a small stipend while they look for something better. They're actually better off than the wage slaves.

> Fresh college graduates who can't find jobs and want to live in the city might do well to "serve" a rich person for room and board (tax free) plus a small stipend while they look for something better. They're actually better off than the wage slaves.

very few have the luxury of not being wage-slaves in NYC. that's the paradox.

it's a great city to live in for those with the time to enjoy it, but few have that time aside from the weekends where everything worthwhile is overcrowded because they need to work long hours to be able to afford the choice of living in this city.