Tuesday, April 13, 2010

☞ REVIVE: 148 West 121st Street Gets Dumpster

The brownstone shell on 148 West 121st Street is starting to get some action these days. The 3,960 square foot house is barely outside of the Mt. Morris Park Historic District and we had to refresh our memory on when this building was actually sold. Apparently on the market for over one year, the house's original asking price was at $1.2 million which changed to $895K sometimes in August 2009. The building sold for $750K in September and it has taken five months to get to the renovation stage. Does anyone know what the average hold-up times are about for a shell renovation?

7 comments:

  1. The address for that building is 148 West 121, not 128, and the square footage is more like 4500 sq. ft. - it's 18' x 50' x 5 stories. They didn't count basements back when a lot of these buildings were put in the system, now they do, so square footage is often wrong (by current standards).

    Looks like they'll be adding a story to the building and doing 6 floor through apartments. When we were searching we found there was a premium for townhouses that are 18+ feet wide because that's the width where there's enough width to have a stairwell, a public hallway, a hallway inside the apartment, and still have room left over for bathrooms, closets, etc. They paid $750K, we paid $530K despite the fact that we bought from the same previous owners and had the same amount of square footage - they had width, we had length...

    As far as delays - assuming you finance the renovation, the banks require that everything be pretty much fully spec'd before they issue the loan - that takes time since there are so many details that go into reconstructing a shell. We're planning 3 months for that but it could take longer, and I can see it taking 6 months if you don't rush...

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  2. Interesting. Thank you. Hope they don't add on top. . . hate that look!

    Good luck on your reno.

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  3. Ulyesses, I believe this is in the Mt. morris district. I think it goes from 5th-ACP (7th), from 118th-124th.

    http://welcometoharlem.com/page/87913/

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  4. @Anonymous - You're right and you're wrong. Ulysses is right as far as the City is concerned - the block is not landmarked (yet). However, you're right in that the National Park Service has defined Mt. Morris Historic District to go to 7th Ave. But the City's definition carries more weight and it just goes to 6th Avenue (both sides)...

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  5. Anon 1:28, we do get many inquiries on the MMPHD landmark extension which would go to ACP/7th Avenue. This was proposed many years ago but has not been made official by the city. Talks have recently started again with community groups but nothing concrete has happened. Check out historic district council map for more details:

    http://www.hdc.org/boundariesmmmap.htm

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  6. Very helpful - thanks. They should landmark these blocks as they are gorgeous!

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  7. hi - we hope to complete this as 6 condo's. available i suspect from october. hardwood floors, central air, granite kitchen and marble baths. tell your friends.

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