Condos of the Day: 424 Lafayette Avenue
Last we checked in with 424 Lafayette Avenue, the developer was trying to flip the site before starting construction. Now look at it: It’s all grown up into a Scarano wannabe. The seven-unit building is described in the listings as being located in “the heart of Historic Clinton Hill,” which is a bit of a…
Last we checked in with 424 Lafayette Avenue, the developer was trying to flip the site before starting construction. Now look at it: It’s all grown up into a Scarano wannabe. The seven-unit building is described in the listings as being located in “the heart of Historic Clinton Hill,” which is a bit of a stretch, given that it’s east of Classon. (It is conveniently located across the street from the projects, though.) The interiors look fine in a mid-2005-Developers-Group kinda way. As for pricing, there are three smaller units priced between $272,000 and $359,000 and three 932-square-foot units priced between $615,000 and $625,000. Not crazy dough for the units themselves, but this location ain’t exactly scenic. There’s an open house this Sunday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
424 Lafayette Avenue, Multiple Listings [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Development Opp: Midstream on Lafayette [Brownstoner]
I also went to the open house today. The bldg is hardly hideous. Hideous is all those cheapo Fedders monstrosities sprinkled liberally east of there. I find this design interesting on a block with lots of mixed architecture. It will also be interesting to see what goes up next door.
As for the 2 bedrooms, I agree that they’re overpriced, but the other problem is they’re marketing them as 2 bedrooms. If they billed them as “floorthru lofts +1” or something with the large bedroom as a living/loft space and the front room as a bedroom or office, it would make more sense.
I went by the open house for this building today. the exterior of this building is absolutely hideous!!! the design is severe and out of place (and the industrial gray paint doesnt help matters). the interior of the one-bedrooms are okay but small. the layout for the two-bedrooms are ludicrous! gigantic master bedroom in the back with another tiny bedroom in the front, and no living room! i can not believe the asking price for the two bedrooms are in the mid $600 range. these units will not sell at this asking price, which puts the buyers for the 1 bedrooms at considerable risk.
Thank you 11:32! I was wonder if I was missing something, with all this kvetching re ‘craptastic’ new construction.
For the small sf that it is, the 1brs were reasonably laid out, imho. And the storage room that comes with the units saves a few bucks on what you’d shell out in storage rental, good for all the stuff you have you don’t want to look at all the time, (a real killjoy in a small space), and a nice place to stash your bike. A real functional perk in this price range, vs. the horizontal shower jets, which are perhaps a bit over the top.
I went by again this evening, and the block feels ok to me. Nowhere near as sketchy my first apt in NYC in the early 90’s, where they found a woman’s body hacked up in pieces and packed into 2 hefty bags on the steps of my subway stop, and shut down the local bodega for illegal cockfighting in the basement. That apt was on the corner of Fulton & S. Oxford, and look at that corner now. Aaah…good times.
I also saw the condos and agree with 4:09, construction and finishes are definitely above average. They are small and I’m not wild about the window AC units, but overall pretty nice. I bet the 1BRs sell but the 2BRs need a price chop before they get any action.
Regarding the lot next door, according to Property Shark the former building was a medical office but the current owner is listed as “Lafson Housing LLC”, so it will likely be housing of some sort.
Does anyone know what’s going on with the lot next to 424 Lafayette St?
I saw the apts at 424, and thought the 1 br’s, though small, were pretty decent for the price, especially the ones facing the back. Not as shoddy as some new constructions, and the finishes are definitely a few notches above the typical renovations you’d find in a prewar in this price range. So yes…I’m thinking about it!
But my main concerns were with safety on that particular block, and with what they were putting up next door. Right now it’s a huge pit, with a few girders sticking up. It’s a big lot, at least 5 brownstones wide. If it’s condos, great, that could really change the dynamic on that block. But the broker thought it was zoned for something commercial ???
There’s a fair amount of drug traffic in the projects directly across the street from this building, and the fact that the 88th Precinct is around the corner on Classon hasn’t done much to diminish that (there was once a gun battle in the projects in which most of the windows of the 88th were shot out). Granted, that kind of activity is a lot less frequent in 2008, and there are now pricey lofts on Taffe Place about a block away. But having lived in Clinton Hill for a couple decades, I would absolutely not move myself or my family into this location, whether new construction or a brownstone. There are plenty of safer areas in both Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy.
What about the tiny bedroom? If you look at the floorplans and pics, you’ll see that the bed is practically backed up agains the air conditioner. Now that’s planning.
kuroko and mittens–
Yeah, I have some funhouse floors and slightly wacky stairs and all sorts of the travails you allude to. But my house is a 142 years old and doing amazingly well under the circumstances. Do you think these crap apartments will get better with age, like my house has? Of course not!
And as my good friend architect tells me, anything bad that’s gonna happen to my house has happened already. It’s settled, lookin’ good, and ready for another hundred years!
I think that second small bedroom is legally a bedroom (this discussion came up recently re: another property). However, I also agree with others that the layout is absurd given that the master bedroom looks like there’s some wasted space and really no living room – I mean, it’s not even if they try to *pretend* there’s a living room my including a living room “area” in the floorplan – there’s just nothing there, nada.