Saturday, November 26, 2011

The East Houston Street Mystery Lot is now for sale

Wanted to mention this news... we've long been curious about the Mystery Lot of East Houston Street ... the empty parcel on the south side of the street between Attorney and Ridge ... The Lo-Down had the scoop on Wednesday...


The lot is now on the market for $9.5 million ... it's part of the portfolio that belonged to reclusive real-estate baron William Gottlieb ...





The lot has been empty for seemingly eons ... According to the Lo-Down, Gottlieb acquired the property via public auction in 1999 for $300,000.

The mind reels with thoughts of what will show up here some day...

6 comments:

Lux Living said...

Which is the more attractive piece of property? The Mystery Lot, which has had dead bodies dumped in it, or the "notorious crack house" across the street? WHAT a conundrum!

Anonymous said...

i vote for the mystery lot. just cause of all the interesting mystery creatures inhabiting it.

Anonymous said...

Amazinnng!!!

Anonymous said...

so, the "public" sold this land that WE all owned to this guy, he does NOTHING with it for 12 years and now he gets to make over 9million in profit off of re-selling it? there's something very wrong about this equation.

chris flash said...

Anonymous 8:06:

I agree that the city has no business selling off properties held in the name of the public to people who do try to flip them for quick profits, but this is not the case with Gottlieb.

Gottlieb was an eccentric guy who practically lived out of his car, not bathing or changing his clothes. He had a knack for scoping out and buying properties on the East and West side fairly cheaply and then doing nothing with them. Thanks to him, a lot of gentrification demolition was forestalled, esp. in the West Village.

Unfortunately, about ten years ago, Gottlieb passed away. His sisters spent the following years fighting over his estate and divvying up his holdings. Judging by the sign on this lot and on the house Gottlieb owned on East Tenth Street, it looks like the sisters are looking for their big payday.

Anonymous said...

FYI Bill Gottlieb bathed, changed his clothes and he wasn't so eccentric. He was a brilliant investor and was kind and generous to many people.