House of the Day: 1216 Albemarle Road (Revisited)
When 1216 Albemarle Road came on the market with early last summer for $1,900,000, it didn’t take a genius to know that there was no chance in hell buyers would take the bait. After all, the botched project included a partially-finished structure and LPC-approved plans to return the house to its 1965 (rather than original)…
When 1216 Albemarle Road came on the market with early last summer for $1,900,000, it didn’t take a genius to know that there was no chance in hell buyers would take the bait. After all, the botched project included a partially-finished structure and LPC-approved plans to return the house to its 1965 (rather than original) design. Earlier this month, the listing moved from Mary Kay Gallagher to Corcoran, where it restarted its “time-on-market” clock with an asking price to $1,595,000. With the market still unimpressed, the price was axed another $395,000 last weekend to its current ask of $1,200,000. We gotta say we think the owners are still deluded. Do you agree?
1216 Albemarle Road [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 1216 Albemarle Road [Brownstoner]
Wood frame houses, I mean, when I say upstate has the superior Victorian and Edwardian houses.
This is what I hate about landmarking. What a big bore. If I had to build an all-new house, heck no would I want to attempt to recreate a Victorian. Might as well buy one of those horrid subdivision houses and have it built here in Brooklyn – you know how the latest thing in suburban subdivisions is the Victorian style and Craftsman style.
I’d want to build a completely modernist house. Make a statement about OUR time, to go along with the homes the people of the past built in Brooklyn. If you go into the wealthiest communities all around the country you see a very eclectic array of architectural styles and you’ll see an older house next door to an all glass modern house. It totally works, especially if it’s high quality and well designed. I’m not against requiring homeowners to submit designs for review, but the LPC would be so much better if it wasn’t so rigid and were so unimaginatively solely focused on preserving details that existed before. They should support changes and new ideas if they look good.
Besides, the big joke is most the Edwardian houses in that neighborhood are covered in vinyl siding and are aren’t at all interesting architecturally. There are so so many more significant houses from that era and Victorian era upstate, if we’re going to focus on New York State.
I purchased my home through Mary Kay and found her to be a class act as well. That is more than I can say for my experience with Corcoran who I reported to HUD for discriminatory practices. After an extensive investigation they were proven to indeed engage in discrimination. Perhaps listing this house at that price was a momentary lapse in judgementon her part.
howrealnyc: Given how well real estate brokers have done over the past ten years, perhaps it’s appropriate to decline a listing where the seller insists on an unreasonably high price. Perhaps such a declination actually helps credibility. I have no doubt that you believe MKG is a class act, and that she tried very hard to sell the house at $1.9 million, but there is a rule of reason here and (it probably is naive of me) it would be nice to think that brokers have ethical standards in connection with listings and prices.
2:49 PM:
I live a couple of blocks away, so not a neighbor, but I go by this corner daily. I don’t think anyone would resent someone for buying this trainwreck and finishing SOMETHING there. True, it would be great if LPC could use common sense and allow new construction that looks like and fits in with the 100 year old houses. But if that can’t happen, and it can’t be razed and annexed to extend the yard of a house next door, turning an abandoned lot into a home would be an improvement over the plywood walled eyesore that’s been there for what seems like forever. Seller just needs to drop the price to about 500K.
I feel bad for the original agent, who probably tried real hard to sell the house. I’m sure the SELLER set the original price, and then they pulled the listing and gave it to another broker, at a lower price. If MKG couldn’t sell it, it was overpriced. Seller should have relisted it with her, unless there was some otherwise undisclosed issues.
I’m an agent, and i HATE when this happens. MKG is a class act.
Howard
Wow, LPC is not only ineffective in general, they’re plain idiotic. This is a total embarrassment. I recently went to the lecture on brownstones by Charles Lockwood, and he was highly critical of LPC. Maybe someone could enlist his help?
It would be a shame if they were to build this house this way. So what if this house was put up in this style in the 60’s. The neighborhood is landmarked for the other victorian homes. And I believe that on this corner a victorian was either burned down or torn down and three houses were put in its’ place. So why can’t landmarks let the owner put up a victorian style home. it would definitely ruin the look of that block.
Maybe someone can call up the Corcoran broker and ask them to talk to the owner and have him try to get approval and plans for a victorian style home. This way he could sell the house with approved plans for a victorian. It would take some time, but he might be able to get rid of that property. He’s already sitting with that house forever and probably losing money. So why not try this. Someone might even want to build on their own a new victorian style house. Brownstoner, what do you think? Maybe you can get the ball rolling?
Anyone looking in that price range should explore more of Victorian Flatbush….Albemarle is not the end all be all of the neighborhoods.
Beautiful tree lined streets and well preserved facades dominate the Midwood Park area – I think it’s unfortunate that an already landmarked site will still result in someone’s horrible 60’s afterthought.