House of the Day: 280 Washington Avenue
As close watchers of the market will remember, this mansion at 280 Washington Avenue, one of a pair built by the Pfizers in 1888, was listed at $3.595 million in January 2005 before disappearing a couple months later. Now it has resurfaced, again with Corcoran, at the asking price of $3.995 million, which is a…
As close watchers of the market will remember, this mansion at 280 Washington Avenue, one of a pair built by the Pfizers in 1888, was listed at $3.595 million in January 2005 before disappearing a couple months later. Now it has resurfaced, again with Corcoran, at the asking price of $3.995 million, which is a smaller percentage increase than the overall Clinton Hill market in the past year. The house is mind-blowing in its detail, grandeur and condition. The real constraining factor is whether there are any people wealthy enough to buy it who are cool enough to be down with Clinton Hill!
280 Washington Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Pfizer Mansion Hitting Market [Brownstoner]
Some ideas for the use of extra rooms:
The wife’s wardrobe
Library
Guest rooms
Gymnasium
Painting studio
Fetish playroom
Darts, billards and ping-pong
Model railroad
Storage for kayaks, bicycles, skis, etc.
Bowling alley
Pistol range
Wine cellar
An acquaintance of mine purchased the sister house over a year ago; it’s slightly less grand than 280, and doesn’t have an elevator. It is absolutely HUGE with wonderful details throughout, including front and back staircases. It had been part of a school or convent during its last major renovation, so they had to remove some of the institutional touches.
280 has been restored and maintained by its very quirky owner; he has put it on the market and taken it off more than a few times in the last 2-3 years.
I agree that a thoughtful condo conversion could be really sweet; the house is kind of unfathomable as a 1 or 2 family.
Another potential drawback of 280 is that it IS very quirky; the owner painstakingly applied gold leaf throughout the parlor floor, but how many people want that? And I don’t think the place currently has a decent kitchen.
To get his price, I think the owner needs to find someone who totally appreciates his vibe.
That West 92nd listing you’re pointing to has been on the market for 2 years. Way overpriced and not in a good school district to boot. BTW, the “best” private on the UWS is Trinity and it’s well nigh impossible to get in – only 2 or 3 spots per year for new families (non-siblings & non-connected).
Not enough good schools in Bk? Heck, there aren’t enough on the UWS. The privates (even if you could afford them) are impossible to get into these days with everyone procreating like mad. There are only 2 decent publics on UWS + the G&T programs & Anderson. Not enough for all the procreating yuppies around here. That is the single biggest reason that people move to the ‘burbs for.
If my kids don’t get into good privates, Scarsdale here we come.
Anon 7:56am. Nothing to be sorry about. You’re simply expressing your opinion and it’s solidly based on the facts. CH is getting there but certainly not there yet (but close). However, some people are just more forward looking then others, e.g., Charles Davis, and are thus willing to make longer term bets. The property is obviously priced way too high at the “present moment”. In the end, the property will command whatever price the market is willing to bear. If it sells, it will probably go close to $3mm.
On another note, the one thing I hate about some of these “grand homes” is that the layout sucks. They simply have way too many bedrooms/storage rooms and as a result most of them are too small for modern day living. go underutilized or simply eat up way too much valuable square footage. 10 bedrooms? Not practical.
Lastly, with all of the growth that is occurring in the Brownstone Belt – with such a large influx of well heeled professionals – are more schools being built (public or private)? With all of the strollers scurrying around the place, I sometimes wonder where people plan to send their kids in 5 years. Everyone is paying sky high prices for homes in these nouveau neighborhoods but the public school system is atrocious and there are not enough private schools or even good public magnet schools to accommodate the increase demand. Ultimately, the lack of quality education in Brooklyn might be the pin the pops the downtown real estate bubble….
This is an upper west side steal. Almost $5 mil for a 3.5 story narrow row house in what is essentially the suburbs — and will become more suburban as less and less boomers want to leave the city and move to Jersey/CT as they once used to. So our generation (I’m 27) has to look for the urban part of New York elsewhere. I’m glad that mansion is cheap and I do hope they let it be sold as floorthrough apartments. Beats fedders.
http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=711865
And the reason I live in FG is so that I don’t have to trip over your kids (I assume you meant kids) every day on my way to Rice or BAM. To each his own.
We can afford 4m, but would not buy in FG/CH for that $. At that price, you can get a crappier brownstone in the village or one on the UWS. Hard to come by at that price point, but they exist. I can roll out of bed and go to Zabar’s/Fairway, send my kides to a zillion + 1 activities by walking. Sorry…
I love details and a lot of it but this is just too much! It looks like something Donald Trump would be interested in! And for all of you who say that people with money don’t want to live in CH, it just isn’t true. I know some seriously wealthy people in the neighborhood. Some of them already own a lot of property in the area and may be interested in something like that…