building at 25 Fifth Avenue

Hey Jen,

your apt's real purty, but I think it should be $900 for 1700 SF.
"aggressive" you say? Do you mean the price or your chutzpah?

this building is just a joke in terms of pricing. they have the advantage of being the only prewar condo on 5th avenue in the village. but the apartments are tiny and oddly laid out and the psf is out of control.

Yes, a joke. And love the 900 SF 2 BR. My, that's spacious. Put up a wall & a mattress in the bathtub, ya could make it into a 4 BR.

a few months ago curbed had a story about a guy trying to rent out his bathroom--called it a bedroom with the toilet, sink, and shower in the same room.

plus - isn't this that weird landlease building? with cru on the ground floor?

no this one is across the street.

ooh. looking at actualy listing, looks like they just adjusted to $1,595,000 . more reasonable $1,614 / SF.

also just noticed in similar listings section on right of the screen...

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/239167-coop-30-fifth-avenue-greenwich-village-new-york

$1,795,000 for a real three bed with 1,550 sq feet, $1158 psf.

gonna be tough to compete.

25 Fifth is a nice building. A-1 location--prime as it gets, an island of calm and elegance surrounded by fantastic GV neighborhoods and a renovated Wash. Sq. Park. That said, many layouts are poor in the building and prices per sq/ft are outrageous. This layout is nice, though even if the rooms are small. It is the price that is killer. For just one bath, no less. At $1.4 in todays market it might garner interest, but day by day the market worsens even for such a prime location and good building. I don't think $1.6MM is realistic. If it had two baths and larger livingroom or separate dining room, maybe.

As for 30 Fifth Ave, it is a better building in my view because maintenance is low, finances extremely stable, very well maintained coop. The listing jenny refers to is 2 apartments that can be combined: a one bedroom and a one-bedroom that was made into a two-bedrm apt (with a ridiculously small unworkable 2nd bedroom). Even taken seperately, they both need work. The now-two-bedrm unit needs 100% gut renovation that I estimate would run about $150,000+ for highend work. The smaller unit needs about $50,000--no more unless you choose to reconfigure it. To combine them I'd say you are looking at $300,000 minimum including architectural fees.

Both units are owned by same people, but the smaller is unoccupied. The family appears to be busting out at the seams and carrying the empty unit must be financially killing them, so I imagine they are very motivated to sell. Board is strict and 110% solid financials would be required.

P.S. Views from the 30 fifth apts are great: 5th ave on one side and church with churchyard on the other side. Charming bells on sundays = very old world and romantic IMO. Low street noise levels.

kyle,

25 west is clearly in an amazing location--i actually live a few buildings up on 5th, and i agree, it is basically as good as it gets. but the building itself cannot compare to the established coops around it. it is a rental building in the midst of a condo conversion. condo adds something compared with the neighboring coops, but we are talking about some of the best buildings in the city right around it, selling at prices far below 1700 psf right now. it's not going to happen. when you say if it had two baths and a larger living room, you basically mean that it could sell for 1.6 if it were a completely different apartment.

happyrenter: you are 100% right. agree with all you just said.

kyle,

i considered the apartment at 30 5th a while back and i agree that for the right person it could be had for a very good price. the problem is that there is no way to combine it and have a decent living space. 20/12 for a combined living room dining room is just not big enough for a 1550 square foot apartment. i even brought in an architect but there is just no way to create a big enough living space to make it anything other than a warreny, awkwardly combined apartment. it'f too bad, because the building is perfect and the views are great.

as for your renovation totals--are you saying at 300k would pay to combine AND renovate? or that the 300k is on top of the 50k and 150k you listed for doing the units separately? because i think 300k for the whole job is optimistic.

Re: 30 5th renovation. I said $300K minimum--that's bare bones to combine with low-medium fixtures, not add/move any plumbing, and not the highest end work quality. I agree to do it properly for such a building could be significantly more, and you still get a dubious layout. What'll no doubt cost a fortune would be to put in a bathroom where the Apt 7H pullman kitchen is now--if that's even permitted. Then you have to update the kitchen completely and the existing bathrooms. The bathroom in 7G remains an obstacle to good layout in a combination plan because it would be plop in the middle of the living area. The only way to make this work even reasonably well is to make a large one-bedroom with a den combination maybe. whatever the answer, it isn't for the cost-conscious consumer.

how do people like living in this building? Do you hear the traffic?

No sure if you are asking about 25 Fifth or 30 Fifth. Either way, traffic is not a major issue. Obviously the lower the floor the more even a single car or bus will be heard. But lower Fifth is not heavily trafficked at night and most people turn off the avenue before getting as low as the park. I still say 25 Fifth is insanely priced and the units I've seen unrenovated were daunting in what they would involve--I mean 110% gutting with nothing being saved. Elevator is also extremely claustrophobic if I recall right...like a vertical coffin.

And FWIW, take a look at this listing that reportedly just entered contract:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/364474-condo-25-fifth-avenue-greenwich-village-new-york

It was put on market at about $1.9MM!!! Last offer price was $1.350MM. The place was in need of 100% gut job that would cost not a penny less than $250,000 and could easily run to $400,000 for top-end. It was rented out for a long time and is beaten to crap. It needed new wiring, plumbing work in kitchen (who knows what lurks in bathroom walls), plaster walls were a complete wreck, I think the ceiling even needed skim coating, kitchen had to be reconfigured, bath was old, closets were disgusting, there were 50 layers of paint on everything. Maybe the floor could be salvaged if deemed to have sufficient charm but it was in pretty rough shape. Can't wait to see what someone paid. When done, this will be something like a $1.7MM one-bath, two bed apt. That money will not be recovered anytime soon. One bath for that much??? I mean it is a nice building and great location and can be a terrific pre-war if reno'd well, but come one...that's A LOT of money.

a

kylewest - thanks for the insight, perhaps the board would allow adding another bathroom to the 2 bed, most high end total renovations are closer to $800k to $1m, still you won't get the cost benefit for a long time

j1w, the overall size of this place would make it pretty hard to spend $800K on a reno. There are only so many Samuel Heath knobs and sub zeros the place can hold. Seriously, I think you'd top out at half that, but still, the point remains it is overpriced even for 2007. And nix the second bath. No building like this is going to allow wet over current dry. Plus there isn't much space to carve out a powder room. Very curious what the unit sold for.