Condos of the Day: 4 South Portland Avenue
It’s hard to argue with the location of this brownstone condo conversion at 4 South Portland Avenue. Just steps from Fort Greene Park and located on the quintessential brownstone block, the five-unit project just hit the market at the beginning of the month with prices ranging from $700,000 for a 1,012-square-foot floor-through to $890,000 for…
It’s hard to argue with the location of this brownstone condo conversion at 4 South Portland Avenue. Just steps from Fort Greene Park and located on the quintessential brownstone block, the five-unit project just hit the market at the beginning of the month with prices ranging from $700,000 for a 1,012-square-foot floor-through to $890,000 for a 1,543-square-foot duplex. We’re not digging the kitchen cabinets (big mistake) but the bathroom looks okay if a bit glitzy and they’ve otherwise left well enough alone when it comes to crown moldings, fireplaces and the like.
4 South Portland Avenue Listings [StreetEasy] GMAP P*Shark
There aren’t fire escapes on the back wall? Yikes …
I wonder how these sorts of conversions are even legal. There is only means of ingress/egress. One stair (probably wood) and no fire escapes. If there is a fire in a lower apartment and smoke fills the stairway, you’re cooked. Sprinklers don’t help with smoke.
Yuu would have to wait for the firemen to put up a ladder, or maybe go to the roof and try to jump over to an adjacent building. Most older tenements in flammable buildings have fire escapes.
Those layouts may be “tight” but they’re still all substantially larger than the 2BR pre-war that I currently rent in Park Slope for $2600/month. Granted, Park Slope’s a pricier rental market.
The lack of at least a half bath is a problem though at this price, and yes, the kitchen cabinets are hideous. Don’t care that it’s a walkup, don’t care that it’s a condo (you’re not getting a full building for $700k anywhere in this neighborhood). Don’t really care about the facade either although I can see it being a problem for resale.
I agree they’re way overpriced right now, but at $550k (a 20% drop that’ll probably never happen), I’d start looking fairly seriously at the cheapest of the 2 BR’s.
I will be REALLY surprised to see these apartments go for the asking prices… this rings of early 2007 pricing as if nothing happened to the economy… kind of like the house that sits for $3.45M on S. Elliot around the corner (ha!). My guess is they will be on the rental market by spring.
1 bathroom? Those kitchen cabinets? Ugh.
buyer beware, these are inflated square footages. Perhaps they are counting the common stair/hall?
These layouts are tight, and there is no sense in buying a two-bedroom with just one bath at this price. Plus its a walkup, plus its a condo, so who knows who will be coming and going from the other 3 apartments?
Way too expensive, the locaion cannot makeup for those shortcomings.
plus the facade has been messed up, the stoop and the cornice have been amputated.
Also, this is a perfect example of the disconnect between rental prices and purchasing… what would these units rent for, $3K at the most? (And that’s generous, I think.)
It seems like brownstone conversions shouldn’t be this expensive, or if they are, they should have absurdly expensive fixtures, which this one does not.
They should have spent more money on the kitchens and a lot less on the bathrooms (where do you spend most of your time?). Yes, those cabinets are a BIG mistake.
I’ll be putting in an “ugly, moldy” curtain around my tub in my newly renovated bathroom b/c I have to bathe my kids and dammit if leaning over a metal track doesn’t hurt your elbows and other sensitive body parts.