Monday, August 31, 2015

202 1st Avenue is for sale, 'a prime East Village asset'



The 6-story building between East 12th Street and East 13th Street is new to the market.

Here's part of the listing via Cushman & Wakefield:

The building consists of a ground floor retail unit, 17 free-market apartments and three rent stabilized apartments. A majority of the units are two-bedrooms and multiple apartment lines have the ability to be converted into three-bedrooms apartments. The average in-place rent is approximately $58 per square foot which is well below market.

The retail unit is currently leased to No Relation Vintage, which has a lease until March 2017. The building features recently renovated common areas, a new boiler, and new electrical systems. This is a rare opportunity to acquire a prime East Village asset with upside potential and over 39’ of frontage on 1st Avenue.

Price: $21.5 million.

Image via Cushman & Wakefield

Updated at noon with correct address.

Also, we posted about the building being for sale in 2013. At the time the asking price was $13 million./

20 comments:

Brian said...

Fascinating to look at the realtor fact sheet rent roll. They list 5 rent stabilized renters paying in the 300s 600s 700s 1400s & 1800s for 1&2brs. Then all 15 fair market 2&3br paying 2495 to 4950. Guess they got rid of 2 rs tenants since. Gross sq ft 16000, roughly $ 1million per apt and how big can each apt be, 600 sf avg? I am just guessing from the fact sheet and what i know from walk up that look like this from the outside.

Anonymous said...

Some ruthless carpetbagger will gobble this up and make life hell for those living here. sigh.....

Gojira said...

"...multiple apartment lines have the ability to be converted into three-bedrooms apartments" - hmmm, guess they're expecting a lot of families to move in, huh?

Anonymous said...

I've been shopping at no relation for years. I mistakenly thought I would continue doing so for years to come. Guess not.

NOTORIOUS said...

@Gojira By families you mean kidult group living right?

nygrump said...

Vintage clothing is the first victim of carpetbagging scum realtors

Anonymous said...

221 or 204 first ave?

EV Grieve said...

It's actually 202 First Ave., anon. I changed the headline

VH McKenzie said...

The 17 market-rate units ought to pool their resources and buy the place. Avg price would be 1.23 million per unit (higher for the 3BR and lower for the others, obvs). Recoup some expenses by continuing to rent to No Relation Vintage and also keep the rent-stablized units, which can stay in place.

Everybody wins.

Scuba Diva said...

That's the former location of Bloom & Krup…innit?

Atomic Man said...

In real estate speak, residential buildings are now "assets". Like shares of IBM, Apple, or Citicorp, to be traded up and down as the markets fall and rise. Pretty soon there will be options and short-selling, gotta squeeze every penny outta those assets.

Gojira said...

@Scuba Diva - yes. They were originally on 14th between A and B, in the space that was Bargain Bazaar when it closed to make way for - surprise! - luxury condos, then it moved to this space.

Brian said...

Ok. This is insane. This is due to insane number of students in the area. They pay outrageous sums to live in crappy housing and go to some fairly crappy schools. Better have a great internship.

Brian said...

I lived in a walkup like this in the late 90s. Not comfortable. The heat was not controlable. The noise from street and neighbors bothersome. Mice or rats or roaches always a possibility, I got the mice. Old. It was nice too. Nice location and charm, fireplace. But it was 75K, now it would be half a million and the there is no way i would live there for that. This is not Patti Smith's Village.

Anonymous said...

The idea of the 17 market rate tenants pooling their resources and buying this multi-million dollar building is far-fetched. A lot of people paying market rate can barely afford it, and a lot of them are young people splitting the rent.

Anonymous said...

What VH McKenzie said! Yup, if the current market rate tenants bought the place it would very much be a win-win for the building. I don't remember what the percentage of resident buyers it takes to convert to a coop but I _think_ it's a simple majority. So, if 10 of the market rate units pull together a proposal to buy the building and convert it, offering everyone else relative shares, etc. the building can switch to coop and, viola!, everyone owns _and_ everyone pays the same, or less, than they are (or will be) paying. The coop can continue to rent the apartments that are stabilized/controlled and when those tenants move out the units can be sold. It's a solid long term investment and it results in fairly stable expenses, and certainly a more stable building, over the long run. I'm always surprised that this does not happen more often. Even when the asking price is high and even given the headaches of running a business with your neighbors, the financial and quality of life advantages are enormous. Takes a lot of work, yes, but it pays off.

Brian said...

The current owner would have to agree to this proposal and that is highly unlikely in these times. An owner would much rather want to sell quickly than sell to a group of current tenants forming a coop. Do you realize how long that takes?. Or a current owner would prefer to convert and be the sponsor of the conversion.

Shawn said...

VH Mackenzie great idea - wish more people did this. Also as current tenants and combined with rent-stabilized tenants they could form a co-op and buy it outright. Smart move. Wish more people did this!

Anonymous said...

"current owner would have to agree to this proposal "
Um, yes, it can take a while but . . . with a little luck and some swift lawyering, it can happen fairly fast. Why would the owner disagree if the group offered the asking price or, I dunno, a few dollars more than the asking price? Yes, it's tricky and it's usually best to have some sort of sponsor but . . . in theory, it can happen. You don't need _everyone_ in the building to agree, you just need, if I remember correctly, a simple majority.

Anonymous said...


Whatever's to come, tenants should create a strong Tenants' Association if they don't already have one!