When Jim Cornell and Leslie Marshall decided to hike prices at the 14 Townhouses at the beginning of February in the face of reports of slow sales, it looked a little crazy to an outsider observer. After all, as far as anyone knew, there hadn’t been a sale in months. The hikes, in retrospect, were brilliantly timed. According to yesterday’s Brooklyn Eagle, February turned out to be a “record month” for the project, with the result that only one of the townhouses (the model house) remains unsold. Number 269, for example, one of the houses whose price was jacked from $2.75 to $2.9 million is now in contract.

The back-story is pretty interesting. When the houses hit the market early last year, there were three quick sales. Then, for eight months, nothing. Cornell and Marshall pulled the listings towards the end of 2006, rephotographed them, and then threw a big relaunch party in mid-January. They then proceeded to sell ten of them over the next couple months, three to Brooklynites, five to Manhattanites, one to a Greenwich family and one to Chicago family. Frankly, we’re glad to see that the market ultimately rewarded a developer for having some vision and cojones. It also shows that brokers are not a commodity product and that a good one can be worth the price.
269 State Street IN CONTRACT [Corcoran] GMAP
Price Hike At The 14 Townhouses [Brownstoner]
14 Townhouses Update: Slow Going, At Best [Brownstoner]