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]
me and my morrocan party people will come in and take over the whole damn place!
we’ll rip out the bathroom and put in a turkish hammam.
there will be hookahs smoking night and day!
plus some kind of funky self-replenishing olive dispenser ($1 for Kalamata, 50 cents for california)
i don’t even want to tell you about the fun with the harem upstairs!!!
I don’t think the price is outlandish – this place is 2 times the size of a large brownstone, is full of period detail and has historical provenance. The 1.25pm comment is from someone who clearly does not know the area well. Normal brownstones that have been restored in this area go for $2MM plus, so double the size plus provenance would seem to justify the asking price.
HOWEVER, I do agree that it will be difficult to find a buyer who will actually need close to 10,000 square feet of living space. Also, what is the deal with it being used as a two family now if it is legally a single family? Is there a tenant who won’t leave?
Annon 01:28 Regular brownstones on this street, 19/100, lot 5 story (this block has mostly tall ones) with good detail will sell 1.6 to 2 millions depend on the Reno.
So double lot 24 wide, with parking and with all this detail can be way over 3M.
So i think you should understand this nabe better before making such comment.
I do agree that it is difficult to picture living in this so overwhelming.
Oh, and by the way. Anonymous 1:37, you are also wrong. The house has had the same owner since 1989 – he has been living in it and renovating it since then. His name is Charles Davis. Here’s an article in the Times on him and the house:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/nyregion/27brow.html?ex=1141275600&en=9b48fc22b6f90a5b&ei=5070
Sheesh.
anon, 1:28: making totally unjustified accusations is what’s really unbecoming. Maybe this property is overpriced, but regardless I don’t think ‘Stoner was justifying it – he was merely pointing out the property, and pointing out that the percentage increase in price over the last year was less than the nabe average. 75% of what ‘Stoner posts re pricing and 90% of what commenters post is disagreeing with pricing – that hardly qualifies as “puffing up prices” in his own hood. And don’t think I’m just defending the ‘Stoner. I also happen to agree with you re pricing. The difference being that I’m going to back that up rather than making baseless accusations. Check back later – after wasting my breath on you, I gotta get back to work, but will post more later.
Meanwhile, check out this listing for a rental in the next-door-neighbor, mirror-image Pfizer mansion:
http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&listingid=852610
lets buy it and turn it into a social club for cool people with square glasses who can’t afford the whole thing…
Parents almost bought this in 89 for a million. Nobody has lived in it for years — it just keeps getting flipped between speculators.
total white elephant — the fuel bill alone will kill you.
brownstoner, puffing up prices in your hood is really unbecoming. way too expensive at 4M. at 2.5 maybe someone will bite. reminds me of the 4m house in victorian flatbush. great house, wrong nabe
Agree with the above–not something I’d want to live in at all. Perfect for an office, nonprofit, or something. But it could be made into condos without too much disruption to the house. Reminds me of my old school, Woodward, which was down the block in a building that is now coops. That was a grand space!