Renovation of medical office back to livable space

We're looking into the possibility of purchasing a 1700 sq. ft. (roughly 25ft x 68ft eyeballing it) 1st floor co-op in Brooklyn that is currently a doctor's office but would need to be converted to a livable space. We're looking for a straightforward knock-down the walls, put up new ones, electric, plumbing, etc... with hardwood floors throughout, 2 baths, open kitchen/living/dining room, and 2 or... [more]

We're looking into the possibility of purchasing a 1700 sq. ft. (roughly 25ft x 68ft eyeballing it) 1st floor co-op in Brooklyn that is currently a doctor's office but would need to be converted to a livable space. We're looking for a straightforward knock-down the walls, put up new ones, electric, plumbing, etc... with hardwood floors throughout, 2 baths, open kitchen/living/dining room, and 2 or 3 bedrooms; no need to touch windows and not sure about the hvac. We have a limited budget so we're not aiming for high-end so no fancy molding or high-end fixtures needed, but we definitely don't want anything substandard either. I've been shopping around for quotes and have been getting some pretty expensive numbers at around $250K, which is half the cost of the apartment itself. Considering that an avg. kitchen gut is $40K and a bathroom is $20K and flooring around $40K for a total of $120K (kitchen + 2 bath + floors) then what is the rest of the money going to? Does it really cost $130K to knock down/put up some walls and run electric and plumbing? (note : basing myself off NYC estimates at http://blog.sweeten.com/resources/pricing-guides/) I have an absolute budget of max $100K so based on these estimates I won't be able to do this at all unless I get the absolute basic gut renovation, and even then it's probably a stretch to get it all under $100K. $100K seems like a lot of money to me but then again I know nothing about the business so I'm hoping others can enlighten me and tell me whether I'm living in fantasy land given my budget. Many thanks in advance and please excuse my ignorance on the subject. [less]