Closings Begin at Oro
It’s official: the Oro has received its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy and now, let the closings, and the moving, begin. The building has 40 stories — the tallest residential building built in Brooklyn in 80 years — and the first TCO covers floors one through 30. The top ten floors should get their turn in…
It’s official: the Oro has received its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy and now, let the closings, and the moving, begin. The building has 40 stories — the tallest residential building built in Brooklyn in 80 years — and the first TCO covers floors one through 30. The top ten floors should get their turn in a matter of weeks. When we wrote about it a couple of weeks ago, roughly 45 percent of the building’s 303 units were spoken for.
Oro Closings Becoming a Reality [Brownstoner]
bklyn zooo from your last post can we to suggest you take a look @ Forte in FG. It has all what you seem to be looking for in a more established and architecturally interesting location.
We do realize the Forte’s styling is not for everyone..
The location was one of my first criteria when wanting to buy in Oro. I love nearby Fort Greene park, the restaurants on Dekalb, Lafayette, BAM, the proximity to the bridges when I need to drive into the city. It has great proximity to all of the growing neighborhoods in downtown brooklyn (dumbo, cobble hill, caroll gardens etc) and is very close to the city. Those are big pluses. But it is a personal choice, I have liked the neighborhood since the late 90’s when I went to school there and have always wanted to live there.
And now that that’s all settled, I can turn my comments to the other thread in this discussion: Clearly Oro’s location leaves something to be desired – it’s near the projects, no attractive retail around there and is kind of a long and boring walk to the subway. That being said, I can’t think of location in the City with more upside than downtown Brooklyn and people who are buying in Oro are clearly doing so on the assumption that the residential influx in downtown Brooklyn (scheduled for ealy 2010 when most of these buildings will be open)will bring about a transformation of the retail landscape. I think the pricing on Oro reflected the fact that the location is on the upswing, but not “there” yet.
Fine, it is obvious that you know what you’re talking about. However, I’m sure that not 100% of the buyers at Oro or any other pproject are on the “right client” category. So, the point that was made about closings slowing down is still valid. “The norm” was that there were no issues because all buildings were 99% sold out by closing time, people could get 100% financing, the appraisals were higher than the selling price, and people were not being laid off, etc. Today, even Goldman Sachs can’t get easy money – Warren had to come to the rescue.
Adam,
The fact that SOME people can still get loans at 80% or higher doesn’t change the fact that for MANY people the ground has shifted under their feet and the terms they are being shown now are very different than the ones they saw 9 months ago when they put down their deposits. The ORO developers can’t rely on only selling to people with credit scores above 750, since there are just enough of those people out there to buy up their hundreds of units..
They really need an edit button. I always see spelling mistakes and missed words after posting.
Brownstoner- Can you add an edit post feature?
I know about Fannie warrantabilty. I’ve been doing this quite a while and was an underwriter for years before originating. We have done appraisals and the values are inline with the purchase price. We are the bank and we have choosen to do a limited review on specific projects and and other new construction projects we approve the entire building. That said there are a few projects that are having issues but that is not the norm. There are banks that do not have to meet warrantabilty guidelines as well since they portfolio their loans. I know of a specific building that Citi will not do but Wells and Chase and another that Wells will not but Citi will do.
The point I am trying to make is that there is financing out there for the right clients. You just need to do you homework.
Adam,
“Make My Heights the P Heights” is not far from reality. I have been trying to close myself at another Brooklyn building and I can tell that I’m still trying to work things out with a few banks. I don’t doubt that you clients are approved for the Fannie Jumbo loan, as that is an option that has been offered for us. However, the banks needs to approve the building before your clients are able to close. Fannie/Freedie/FHA all require a new condo to be at least 51% sold, so your clients would need to wait until that happens, as I undestand that Fannie/Freedie/FHA don’t accept exceptions. I have exactly that problem right now and the bank said that I need to use a diferent type of loan.
Also, have you done an appraisal? That’s another risk for buyers that bought last year. First, some sponsors are cutting prices on remaining inventory and second, appraisers and banks are being more conservative.
Lastly, you have to factor about 5% closing costs in your calculation about the condo that people can afford.
Face it, the location sux — its squeezed in between the Metrotech office/educational complex to the west and the projects to the east. Neither will ever get their “feet under it” to become anything more or less than what they currently are — and neither is a place where you’d really want to stroll around (I’m not talking safety issues here, there just isn’t anything to do). The little island in between isn’t going to develop much, and its not even that close to Fulton St., which is the only potentially interesting place nearby in downtown.