Head to Head: $829,000 in Williamsburg
If you had $829,000 to drop on a condo in Williamsburg which of these would you prefer? A 2-bedroom, 1-bath in the Manhattan Park Condos overlooking McCarren Park or a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit on the 8th floor of Shaeffer Landing? 297 Driggs Avenue [NY Times] GMAP Shaeffer Landing 2 BR [NY Times] GMAP
If you had $829,000 to drop on a condo in Williamsburg which of these would you prefer? A 2-bedroom, 1-bath in the Manhattan Park Condos overlooking McCarren Park or a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit on the 8th floor of Shaeffer Landing?
297 Driggs Avenue [NY Times] GMAP
Shaeffer Landing 2 BR [NY Times] GMAP
I would defintiely choose Manhattan Park over Schaefer. The Manhattan Park building is beutiful and the Scahefer building is a completely unoriginal high rise. Manhattan Park has floor to ceiling windows and an elevator that opens up into each apartment. Plus, I think there are only 14 apartments in the entire building. Interiors are way more stylish, too. Without a doubt–Manhattan Park!
The Manhattan Park website is HOT. Too bad you had a hard time getting on, cmu.
Very beside the point, but when I clicked the first link: Manhattan Park Condos, it maximized my browser screen,a total no-no in my book. If the website worked (I could get no further) I would’ve sent a nasty note to the braind-dead webmaster.
its difficult to take the water taxi there seriously. Its a nice idea, but people earning incomes sufficient to pay 830K have variable, often late, hours, and the water taxi doesn’t cut it. Despite the taxi name, the service isn’t that convenient at all unless your office is also on the river. The upside is that if you can pay 829k for an apt, you can afford the water taxi rates.
Overall the views are prob. better from schaeffer (depends which way you face, becuase the skyline is much further away at McCarren. However, for shops and restaurants. McCarren clearly has better stuff nearby, despite the recent NYTimes article. My advice would be wait 6 mons and save a pile of cash.
its difficult to take the water taxi there seriously. Its a nice idea, but people earning incomes sufficient to pay 830K have variable, often late, hours, and the water taxi doesn’t cut it. Despite the taxi name, the service isn’t that convenient at all unless your office is also on the river. The upside is that if you can pay 829k for an apt, you can afford the water taxi rates.
Actually, Schaeffer Landing has a ferry service to Manhattan. Not quite the same as a kayak, but the same idea. Shaeffer Landing is also closer to the JMZ than the L train anyway, and the JMZ isn’t quite as crowded.
The problem with Shaeffer Landing is that you are on the fringe of Hipster Williamsburg, pretty far from most of the restaurants, shops, and galleries that most trustifarians like to patron. Some are moving in on Broadway, which should help.
The main reason I would pick Shaeffer Landing over MPC is that I really prefer to have two bathrooms.
I wouldn’t spend that cash on either one. Schaefffer has sold about as much as it can, its exhausted its niche market. The place on McCarren has too much competition with the glut of condos coming on to the market on the other side of the park. And theres the stalled housing market to consider. There’s only so many people in the area prepared to pay that much, and the sardines-in-a-can L-train is maxed out, so forget about many more Manhattan professionals emigrating to the hood unless they have their own kayaks to cross the East river.
Considering that work on MPC has been sitting idle for at least 6, if not 12, months, I think I’d go with Schaeffer. At least you can live there…
Too bad, since MPC could be an interesting design, if they ever get around to finishing it. At this point, I’d be afraid of the effects of the buildings not being fully weather tight for so long.
To be fair in the comparison, what are the views in each unit?