We love press releases. And we love them even more when they're dishing news on the Lower East Side's most important building of our lifetime, BLUE. A fresh missive in our inbox doesn't give exact sales figures ("many of the building’s luxury one- and two-bedroom apartments have been spoken for"), but does offer something more special: a profile of those who are making the move to BLUE:
Typical Blue buyers so far can be described as an eclectic ‘edgy’ mix of young professionals, who are financially able to spend between $800,000 and $3,500,000, for one- and two-bedroom luxury homes, some with private terraces.The difference between edgy and 'edgy'? $1 million for the down payment, of course. BLUE now pokes eight floors into the sky; topping-off is set for May. Meantime, 'edgy' buyers may want to listen up. After the jump, special Curbed correspondent Miss Representation reports on a hot LES Fraud Alert. His missive includes the chilling line, "I'm here to claim my stake as the first to announce the specter of electricity slamming." Read on...
Reports Miss Rep:
I was visited by a nice young man from IDT Energy. If you aren't a public services wonk, they you probably aren't aware that wholesale energy in New York State is deregulated -- meaning you can change suppliers, but it still comes to you via ConEd, very similar to long distance deregulation back in the nineties. You might also remember the practice of 'phone slamming' where you somehow ended up with a new, weird, high-priced long distance service because you said 'banana' on the phone. Or coughed. Well, I'm here to claim my stake as the first to announce the specter of electricity slamming. My young man wasn't Glengarry Glen Ross slick, but he represented the 'information' I gave him as non-binding, when in fact it was a contract (but you have a right to stop it, and cancel at any time).
Because I'm not writing on the home territory and feel the need to be concise, I'll just say this: DON'T DO IT. That might be a little strident, but he didn't quote me a rate, the IDT site doesn't quote rates, and their call center tries one's patience. After 45 minutes on the phone today in phone tree hell, I finally found a (very nice and helpful) rep who told me the January rate was $0.21/kWH, versus $0.14/kWH for ConEd (the summer rate for ConEd was $0.11/kWH). The only savings they can guarantee is no sales tax on delivery (which, if you look, is about 10% of your bill -- you still are taxed on the supply portion). This month, their rate is a hair under ConEd ($0.03/kWH). So if you want to sail the exciting market rate seas of wholesale electric supply, have at it. But they look a little choppy from my little skiff.
· The Selling of BLUE [Curbed]