Minerva Condos Pulled Off Market. Rentals Coming?
More bad news for condo sales in Greenwood Heights: On Friday, listings for 352 21st Street aka the Minerva, where prices were recently cut after only one out of eight units found a buyer, were yanked from the Corcoran website. The development’s description is still up though. One theory: The building will shortly reemerge as…
More bad news for condo sales in Greenwood Heights: On Friday, listings for 352 21st Street aka the Minerva, where prices were recently cut after only one out of eight units found a buyer, were yanked from the Corcoran website. The development’s description is still up though. One theory: The building will shortly reemerge as rentals. Any inside dope on the situation?
352 21st Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
352 21st Street [StreetEasy]
Condo Buyers Not Biting in Greenwood Heights [Brownstoner]
Anonymous at August 7, 2007 1:40 PM
18th and what?
nice 1:28 I just bought in 18th street. all the units are spoken for except a 2nd floor unit. The “A&H” sale was actually a fillmore sale the sponsor brought in himself, I should know. Sour grapes from a&h?
These have been on the market for ever. It’s a case of horrible marketing(there isn’t even a banner or logo to distinguish this from any other building nor did I ever see any ads, I heard about this from a competing broker) bad finishes, and really just ignorance in the market. The same broker who represented these also is doing another on 18th Street which is even worse in it’s marketing folly’s and the only sale there is a co-brok from A&H. Where do developers find these clowns?
Yep, price is always the big downfall when a real estate market that was overheated begins to slow.
At some price, these will sell. The big question is whether that price will be enough to cover the developer’s expenses.
In NYC, developers are lucky that the rental market is hot — they may be able to save themselves despite the slowdown if rental income covers their expenses. In the rest of the country, developers haven’t been able to sell or rent their McMansions at a level that will cover expenses… which is why the big national housing developers are in serious financial trouble.
I saw these units and would have to say their biggest downfall is price. Clearly being so close to the cemetery and a number of blocks from transportation and shopping doesn’t help, plus they are all under 900 feet and 2 bedrooms so quite cramped. But, if they were priced reasonably they would have been bought, plain and simple. Young couples looking for their first place would like it, especially as the second bedroom creates the potential to grow a little, but what young couple can afford $550K. They need to lower the prices to a little around $400K, then you’ll see them move quickly. Another example of greedy developers wanting an unrealistic profit and passing on those pipe dreams to purchaser.
Maybe this isn’t a case of a condo gone rental but I certainly think this will be a trend if sale transactions don’t pick up.
Either apartment prices will drop to meet softening demand (less qualified buyers as we have a credit crisis) or the apartments will be dumped on the rental market pushing rental amounts down. A flow chart, if you will, for buyers on the fence. No?
We looked at a really beautiful condo on 21st in a converted school building and although we loved it, we decided against it because it seemed the whole neighborhood was one big construction site. It seemed there were an endless number of small houses that could go the way of the wrecking ball. Plus, all the new building seemed to be of these types of not very nice condo buildings that created a pretty unpleasant contrast with the mostly small houses that make up the neighborhood.
Did anyone actually see any of the units in the (gafaw) “Minerva?”
The building overview is still on Corcoran but all the listings have disappeared, which suggests to us that they’re repositioning the building rather than just pulling the listings to change brokers.