More condos in the neighborhood

won't ub my nabor · August 2007

I love reading about all of the new development in the neighborhood. It is so interesting to see how communities grow, change, and stay the same over time. This condo complex on Dean (between New York and Brooklyn) was highlighted on Brownstoner recently: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/08/condos_of_the_d_15.php#more
Anyone have any thoughts?

Editted with new link. Hopefully this one works!

bojolais · August 2007

They are really nice but overpriced... Love the block.. They need to come down to $450 a square foot to sell.

capt. planet · August 2007

These are beautiful condos. Excellently built-out, far better than anything else in the vicinity. If they were on Washington Avenue, they'd have sold out a year ago.

Unfortunately the owners are based in Manhattan and apparently had no clue about the types of amenities to put in the units or the prevailing prices in the area. Initially they had some broker in Manhattan trying to sell them, then they switched to Fillmore.................

Now they've lowered the prices and still there appears to be little activity. Too bad they weren't priced better and marketed better. The market was much stronger when sales started a year ago.

By contrast the renovated condos on 273 Albany, bet. Sterling and St. Johns, came on the market in Jan. 2006 and were built with fewer amenities (no individual heat and a/c, no w/d, no granite counters) and were much smaller (a typical three bedroom unit was 680 sf) but three bedrooms sold for $335k. At the lower prices, these condos sold like hotcakes yet they are two blocks from the Albany projects and, at $463/sf, not that cheap on a sf basis.

The Dean St. three bedroom units are probably close to 950 sf (Fillmore doesn't disclose the sq. footage!!) and now are on the market for $475K. That's $500/sf but you're getting a lot more for the money than the Albany condos.

Sad to see a developer take a beating like that, but they should have done their homework.

won't ub my nabor · August 2007

I went to an open house for the place this weekend and posted my thoughts on Brownstoner. See below. P.S. the broker said that most of the units were about 1000 - 1100 sf.

So I just checked out the condo units offered in this building and thought they were pretty nice.

In particular I liked the third floor unit, which has eleven foot high ceilings, bay windows, a large living room space, generous sized bedrooms and a back deck.

The bathrooms in all the units were nicely done, although I thought the faucet fixtures were on the cheap side. It seems that indeed much of the architectural detail was obliterated, for instance I spotted many wall stubs where I suspect fireplaces once stood -- they even overlaid the garden in the "garden" unit, with concrete! But, on the other hand, almost all of the units have bay windows.

The broker informed me that there has been a lot of interest on the fifth floor unit, which has a skylight in the kitchen (I was unimpressed) and rooftop access (which provides a great view of the Manhattan skyline). However, for me, the architectual bonuses of the other floors, i.e. the high ceilings and the bay windows, were noticeably absent. It just felt like another new construction unit.

Overall, I think that when taking into account the quality of unit itself, the beauty of the block and its proximity to trains, this (the third floor unit in particular) is one of the nicer units that I have seen.

While I was there there were a number of folks who came in to peruse the place, but all of them identified themselves as neighbors just curious about the open house. If they knock $50K - $75K off of the asking, these places will move.

capt. planet · August 2007

Why is the square footage such a secret? These are condos and as such the square footage is printed in the offering plan. Why doesn't Fillmore put sf on their website? Why don't they show the sq. footage on their show sheets? How can we have a discussion about price per square foot unless we know what the square footage is?

ben · August 2007

This is from the previous broker's website: http://www.tajproperty.com/

5th Floor
- 794 with private roof deck
- 1 Bedroom- Master-Suite Style

4th Floor
- 766 sq ft
- 2 Bedrooms

3rd Floor
- 794 sq ft with private deck
- 2 Bedrooms

2nd Floor
- 1002 sq ft
- 2 Bedrooms

Garden
- 1003 sq ft Garden Apt with Private Cobble-Stone backyard
- 2 Bedrooms

capt. planet · August 2007

Given that all of the units except one (Fillmore doesn't bother posting apt. numbers either!) are the same price, $475,000, then the square footage price per unit is ranging from $475/sf for the garden and 2nd floor to $598/sf for the 3rd and 4th floors. There is a two story extension, so the lower two apartments are extra large. The third floor unit has a deck off the bedroom on the top of the extension and the top floor unit has a private roof deck with a private staircase to access it. If you assign a sf value to these outdoor spaces, which is fair, then the /sf price for these units would drop closer to $500/sf.
Bear in mind that the 273 Albany Avenue condos sold out a year at $463/sf, and didn't have nearly as good a location nor as many amenities as the Dean Street condos.

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