Condo of the Day: 505 Court Street
We’ve always been a little surprised at what a tough time 505 Court Street in Carroll Gardens has had in the market. Despite being the highest-profile loft conversion in a hot neighborhood, the building had a tough time moving units when it went condo back in 2005; a year later, in the summer of 2006,…
We’ve always been a little surprised at what a tough time 505 Court Street in Carroll Gardens has had in the market. Despite being the highest-profile loft conversion in a hot neighborhood, the building had a tough time moving units when it went condo back in 2005; a year later, in the summer of 2006, the building zigged to rentals before zagging back to condos that fall. Streeteasy shows ten units currently for sale, including this top-floor duplex asking $679,000, down from $715,000. Have some of the problems that initially caused problems been dealt with? Any current residents care to chime in about their experience in the building?
505 Court Street [Corcoranl] GMAP P*Shark
NsPx, I believe the ceilings are high; I just think, like Heather, they should have been shown in the pics.
I live in the building, moved in just over a year ago. I love my apt, on a high floor, great views, 8 foot windows, 12 foot ceilings, great lobby staff/porters/super. No neighbor noise at all due to thick concrete floors and I have no common walls with anyone.
I can see how people who expect new construction quality would be turned off, and a lot of the apartments we looked at either had strange floor plans or had obvious defects in workmanship and presentation that would turn people away. I was willing to overlook some of these workmanship flaws and think I got one of the better apartments in the building for the square-footage I wanted. (I will be replacing floors and cleaning up cosmetic issues at some point). No in-suite bath, no central air, no sub-zero fridge. I don’t need those.
I do not face the BQE which is not right across the street as some may think, so I do not hear it. I do hear the F train with my windows open. With windows closed, you can ever-so-slightly hear it if you have no radio or TV on and you’re trying to hear it. So would anyone living south of 4th place. It’s just background noise now, especially if I open windows slightly or in rooms I am not occupying. I sleep with windows open in other rooms and it’s not an issue at all.
This is a city, so if it’s not the F train, it’s a bus stop, or a highway, or a Fire House or a quiet tree lined block that becomes a shortcut to the highway for 3 hours during rush hour, or you’re paying an extra $150/sqft for that perfect perfect apartment.
I know this building is a favorite punching bag for curbed and
My office is quite nearby and about the same distance from the BQE.
The noise is bad, sure. But i guess people get used to the noise. Fine.
The real problem is the dust. It’s pretty horrific. I hardly ever keep my windows open and it just never ends.
My car can’t survive one day–not one day–after a car-wash without looking filthy. And god knows what’s in that dust.
Additionally, 9th street is a backdoor route to the BQE/battery tunnel entrance, and now that the Hamilton bridge is under neverending construction, it’s packed all day.
This is not a good location.
It was always the maintenance that kept us from looking at them- when you included that maintenance and tax and compared the total cost of owning to many of the other condos that were on the market- these were way higher for the same square footage, with no obvious upside from other conversions or new construction.
The asking price for these were usually around the same as other buildings for similar square footage, but at that time, lot of other buildings were offering abatements that brought carrying charges in at next to nothing- so it was like a $700 difference per month in charges! I would imagine they lost a lot of buyers to other buildings for that reason.
Quoting Brownstoner “We’ve always been a little surprised at what a tough time 505 Court Street in Carroll Gardens has had in the market”
I can only surmise that your ‘surprise’ is due to the fact you’ve never visited this area. As ‘Bowl of Dicks’, SnarkSlope, Fjorder and HappierMan and now I, state this area is ‘dreadful’.
It might only be four blocks from the CG Place streets but those four blocks may as well be four miles – it is just that different. And given the BQE, the Elevated F&G lines as well as the industrial areas around the southern end of Smith St, Hamilton Ave and so on I can’t see it getting better any time soon.
In this market you’d need your head examined to be buying in borderline neighborhoods.
This place has a long and troubled history. They tried to sell as coops in 1982 and could never sell enough for the plan to become effective so it went rental for 20 years. Then they tried to remodel and sell rental units as condos as they became available.
My wife and I toured some of the apartments a few weeks ago. They were fairly large (the ceilings really are extremely high), and maintained a nice, simple quasi-industrial feel. The views from the upper-floor apartments, espcially the one that looks out onto Manhattan, were stunning. The first-floor apartments were huge for the price, but the view into and out of them is is kind of awkward. If we had the money we would definitely think about buying there, but alas, the $1000+ maintenance puts us out of the running.
Living in the neighborhood, I would say this isn’t a terrible location. You have your choice of two F stations, it’s a few blocks from Frankie’s, and there’s a nice new wine store across the street.
As for noise, well, even my tiny block in CG gets a lot.
I’ve heard the area has a lot of problems with pollution because of the facilities by the BQE, as well as the car pollution. I don’t know how real or how much impact there actually is, but awhile ago it was all over the news when the nearby firehouse got shut down because of suspected toxins. and the house had to be professionally cleaned. Firefighters reported lots of health issues and elevated rates of cancer and other illnesses. I know they were investigating but again, i don’t know what the outcome was or if this is even a factor in why units aren’t selling. But 5000k for a 1 bedroom sounds daunting, then there’s maintenance. I’d love to see the vaulted ceiling but the kitchen looks small to me.
The biggest problem is the high common charges.