Co-op of the Day: 39 Plaza Street West
Granted ground-floor apartments have their drawbacks, but this one at 39 Plaza Street West looks interesting to us. The kitchen ain’t so hot, but the apartment has nice prewar charm and the maisonette entrance is kinda special too. On top of all that, the price of $339,000 for a 750-square-foot one-bedroom seems pretty compelling. Plus,…
Granted ground-floor apartments have their drawbacks, but this one at 39 Plaza Street West looks interesting to us. The kitchen ain’t so hot, but the apartment has nice prewar charm and the maisonette entrance is kinda special too. On top of all that, the price of $339,000 for a 750-square-foot one-bedroom seems pretty compelling. Plus, maybe you can get the broker to throw in a free neighborhood tour.
39 Plaza Street West [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
It used to be two offices when someone bought it and converted it to a single apartment.
Thats why it has the weird layout.
That building is still settling after 84 years.
Thats why the constant need for masonry work.
They like assesments to pay for higher oil costs instead of adding it into the maintenance
thats why the maintenance is only $1200
Bad choice, eh?
It was a doctor’s office (that’s why the street entrance) but the co-op voted to convert it to residential use.
5:21 made some good points about tax deduction, however many living in park slope suffer from AMT so may not get the write off altogether
Yes, obviously best as a professional office. Except not a lot of treatment rooms (just one small bedroom if you use the street entrance – that’d be your waiting room.) If you curtained off the street entrance, and used the foyer entrance only, you could use that room, too.
Wouldn’t want to live in an apartment with street entrance entering right into living room. Might have some usefulness if it entered into a foyer, but this? NOT homey.
Surprised is not marketed as professional office. To me this says either broker dumb, or, more likely, coop board won’t allow.
definitely NOT “hella cheap.” You HAVE to factor the maintenance into the price when you’re looking at co-ops and, to a lesser extent (hello, Forte), condos.
For most Brooklyn co-ops I look for maintenance of less than $1 per square foot. Consider that you can find 750 sqft apartments with maintenance around $600… the $600/month savings equates to about a $70k mortgage, which means the effective comparative price of this place is about $410k.
Plus, the interest on that $70k of mortgage debt is deductible… in the early years of a a 30 year loan about 90% of the payments are interest, so you’re looking at ~$540 deducted per month, or an extra ~$6,500 deduction for the year. Maintenance is generally about 50% deductible, so with the higher maintenance you only get a ~$3,600 deduction. The difference in most pockets is about $1k, so let’s call the final price (compared to a co-op with $600 maintenance) $411k.
Not so cheap for a ground-floor unit with a crappy kitchen.
Yup, a small professional space would make sense here–GAP on the other side seems to have many of these on the ground floors of buildings. But, looks like it would take some work to turn it a suitable therapist’s space.
But would the building allow it?
It’s perfect for an organic, holistic, vegan yoga studded acupuncturist.
This would be good for a small professional practice like a shrink, or better yet a chiropractor.
The high maintenance may reflect the fact that they expect a professional use there.
It does not make a very nice apartment.