Category — Soho Co-ops and Co-op Apartments

Today’s WSJ has a great article on how Manhattan apartment prices — co-ops and condo prices alike — are “humming along” at strong prices


WSJ reporter Jeff Opdyke writes “SoHo, the Lower East Side, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Murray Hill, the Upper West Side and Harlem are all up in the past year,” citing DataQuick Zip Code analysis.

This blog recently noted that co-op Manhattan apartment prices remain largely unaffected by the current real estate debacle, because co-op apartment buyers must meet a stringent set of financial criteria established by the co-op board.

Co-op Boards have a fiduciary duty — a financial responsibility — to protect the financial interests of other shareholders (i.e., their neighbors) in the building. They can legally reject prospective apartment owners if they believe that a low sales price of an apartment would seriously reduce the value of other apartments in the building.

If you’re hoping to buy a Manhattan co-op at a fire sale price, fuggedaboutit!

Sue Hostetler (inset) and Jon Diamond just sold their amazing Soho loft co-op at 81 Wooster Street for the $4.75 million asking price, according to public records. They paid $3.75 million for the co-op in 2006, making a nice gain on their investment.

Hostetler is an accomplished author, editor, and television personality. Having written Hip Hollywood Homes, she knows more than a little about real estate, style, and fashion.

Diamond is a serial music business entrepreneur and current chairman of digital media entertainment company ARTISTdirect.com where he focuses on the company’s strategic initiatives.

The buyers are Virginia Lebermann and John Wotowicz (inset) who are moving from Texas to Manhattan.

Jill Roosevelt of Brown Harris Stevens had the exclusive for this spectacular loft.

It has 3,000 square feet (see below) with wonderful views overlooking cobblestone streets in Soho’s historic cast iron district. The loft has 6 rooms, including 2 bedrooms, a sprawling living area, an office and a library, and an amazing kitchen and dining area. Hostetler described the 4-month transformation of her family’s loft by interior designer Valerie Pasquiou in Metropolitan Home.

The immaculate renovation was also featured in Gotham, In Style, and Quest Magazines.

Monthly maintenance for this pet-friendly loft was listed as incredibly low — just $1,829.

Roosevelt described the loft as having “grand proportions” and “a library with exquisite Jojoba wood built-ins, maple floors, central air, in-wall, state-of the art stereo and security system, and custom-made over-size steel and glass doors.” In addition to having a washer and dyer in a laundry room, the loft has amazing closet and storage space.

The enormous Soho loft owned by acclaimed artists Bruce Nauman and Susan Rothenberg just sold for $2,675,000, according to New York City public records.

The loft sold for far less than the original asking price of $2.9 million listed by Brown Harris Stevens brokers Felise Gross and Diane Abrams.

A drop of $225,000 from the original ‘ask’ is considerable. It makes you wonder whether or not the brokers priced this co-op appropriately when it was originally listed, and whether there could be other factors involving the particular unit or the co-op that surfaced during the deal, resulting in the price drop. As in most co-op deals, we will probably never know the answers to these questions.

Broker Sandy Mattingly pontificated last fall about the marketing of this loft, and contrasted it with another in the same cooperative. One
anonymous commentator on Mattingly’s blog posted a scathing critique of building’s the co-op’s board.

The buyers were Scott W. Weber and Amalia Weber.

At 2400 square feet, the loft is big, particularly since this space is something of a ‘railroad’ loft: it’s long and thin like a brownstone railroad apartment.

Bauman was profiled on PBS as one of America’s “most innovative and provocative of America’s contemporary artists.” His neon works are legendary and enchanting.

Rothenberg is recognized for her contemporary paintings and drawings. In addition to showing her work at museums in the United States and abroad, she has earned numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant, a Cornell University Alumni Award, the Skowhegan Medal for Painting, and Sweden’s Rolf Schock Prize in 2003.

Bauman and Rothenberg are both represented by the Sperone Westwater gallery in New York.