Taking the Edge Off of the Edge? Nope, It Turns Out
Is Jeff Levine rethinking the wisdom of his staunch no-price-cuts policy? As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, Levine, the developer of Williamsburg’s Edge building, told the Times “We have not reduced prices at all,” indicating that lower price tags weren’t part of his strategy for dealing with a slow market. (He also told the…
Is Jeff Levine rethinking the wisdom of his staunch no-price-cuts policy? As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, Levine, the developer of Williamsburg’s Edge building, told the Times “We have not reduced prices at all,” indicating that lower price tags weren’t part of his strategy for dealing with a slow market. (He also told the Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable last spring that he had the wherewithal to wait for the market to rebound instead of jumping on the price-cut bandwagon.) But, according to StreetEasy, prices were cut on at least four units at The Edge at the very end of July; one such unit was a three-bedroom condo that went from $1,145,000 to $949,000. You buyin’? Update: We just heard from the broker for the Edge who attributes the illusion of price cuts to StreetEasy mismatching old listings and new ones. The four units that came up on StreetEasy as having been reduced on July 31 were, the broker says, new listings that StreetEasy misidentified as old listings. The official page for The Edge on StreetEasy does show not a single price cut; the http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/393818-condo-135-kent-avenue-williamsburg-brooklyn, which we were referencing, is where the confusion stems from.
135 Kent Ave. in Williamsburg [StreetEasy] GMAP
Jeff Levine: ‘Cockeyed Optimist’ [Brownstoner]
Jeff Levine Interview [NY Times]
Photo by Jonathan Scheff/Brownstoner
It’s not in the Times interview, but I thought what Levine had said (maybe in another recent interview?) is that he didn’t need to drop prices *at that point* – the buildings were still under construction, and his financing was comfortable enough that he could wait until a point in time closer to completion to decide whether or not to drop prices to meet Northside.
Sounds like that point in time might be about now.
Levine owned the land pre-upzoning.
> How much are the studios with a price cut?
Not as cheap as they’ll be in six months.
How much are the studios with a price cut?
hypothetical:
if levine bought the land 20 years ago, sat on it, watched the rezoning occur, then borrowed some money from a bank to build and then tried unsuccessfully to sell his ultra high end properties, is he an idiot?
Possibly.
But it’s also possible (not probable) that he can afford to make his interest payments and ride out the Williamsburg glut. If his construction loan LTV is low enough and he’s liquid, then he can afford to make the bet (that he can wait out the market). Would that make him an idiot?
By the way, it’s also completely feasible that he is totally upside down. That he paid peak price for the land, post re-zoning and took out a massive construction loan. In which case, I would argue then it is the bank that is calling the shots and not mr developer. so in this case, the loose slur would be misplaced.
If he wants to sell out quickly he needs to chop more, but that is clearly not the plan!
my point is whatever he/developer does will be wrong, not enough, stupid move, blah, blah, blah. And that commenters here sound off like all of the developing, pricing, marketing is something any armchair critic knows intuitively. Yet these are the people that put money where mouth is, and in end are quite successful in what they do.
Not every project works or makes as much money as they might have year or so ago…but people here just say failure, failure, dope, idiot. And somehow I think that most of those commenters probably could not afford to buy a studio in this building.
Point, ditto.
antidope, you’re all mixed up. The original article cited Levine saying “we’re not cutting prices”. Many of us thought this was completely daft and said so. Pete came in with the above quote suggesting we genuflect to Levine’s authority and experience. Now we see that price cuts were going on at the time Levine said no price cuts. Plus you think the prices should be cut too apparently…
These need to come down 50%.