Remember that controversial condo conversion, the Newswalk? The Daily News printing plant turned apartments near the Atlantic Yards development became semi-scandalous when developer Shaya Boymelgreen got sued by buyers for faulty construction; his detractors even set up a multilingual "Shame on Shaya" website. It's now defunct, and perhaps the same could be said for Newswalk's problems. A quick perusal of a summer's worth of resales in phase 3 of the development leads to the conclusion that folks who bought in towards the beginning, around 2006 or so, are selling their loft-ish units for some meaty profits?and, in almost all but one case, getting above their asking prices. Casting exec and talent scout Geoffrey Soffer and his husband Joaquin Esteva closed on a 966-square-foot 1BR/1BA (#125, pictured above) in 2007 for $535,599, and just put it on the market for $739K.
Lets crunch some numbers. In June, a slightly bigger unit, #412, sold for $796,000?14.5 percent above its ask of $695K. And it was only on the market for 16 days before it entered contract. Another unit of about 1,000 square feet sold for almost $1 million in July, having been procured in 2008 for around $800K. Also this summer, #118 sold for 4.8 percent above ask and $200K more than the sellers paid in 2007, while #506 went for 8.7 percent above ask. Last but not least, #612 wanted $695,000 when it listed but ended up selling for $800K even, which amounts to more than 15 percent above ask. So you could say there's a trend here.
As for a unit that just entered contract this week, the 2BR/1BA at #507 was bought in 2007 for $649,000, and was on the market less than a month this fall with an $825,000 ask before getting snapped up (closing price TBD). The only other apartment on the market, a 1BR/1BA, is asking $695,000; meanwhile, the owners nabbed #132 back in 2007 for $505K. It's not flip-tastic or anything, but those are some solid returns.
Maybe it was the sweet new roof deck? Or, more likely, it's because Barclays is done and actually deemed a success, rather than a work-in-progress with an unknown future. So yeah, we're pretty sure the prospects for Soffer and Esteva, and whichever other sellers follow in their footsteps, look pretty bright.
· Newswalk: 535 Dean Street [StreetEasy]
· All Newswalk coverage [Curbed]
Loading comments...