Monday, July 19, 2010

☞ DWELL: 1990 Madison Avenue in Contract


After being on the market for slightly over a year, the empty SRO brownstone at 1990 Madison Avenue is finally in contract with the reduced asking price of $875K. The 21 foot wide building close to the corner of East 127th Street has great bones but will need a lot of work done to get it back in shape.We were informed by the broker that the original Certificate of Non Harassment was in place in 2003 and that these expire every three years so it should not be difficult to file for a new one. With that big hurdle out of the way, it seems that the new buyer did not mind having building 1992 Madison Avenue at the right hand as a neighbor. Folks might remember that this corner building was an unsold condo conversion that ended up with a squatter-house-on-fire situation and had to be boarded up. It will be interesting to see what the final sale price will land at once the contract finishes up in the next month or so. Read more on 1990 Madison in our past post: LINK. Facade photo by Ulysses

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful home in a great location regardless of what the naysayers have to say.

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  2. I'm with you Anonymous 2:28. All it takes is one house on the block to be converted and the others will follow suit.

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  3. I'm happy for the previous owners that they found a buyer. I'm not sure about the facts, though. Having seriously considered purchasing this house, there were 2 things that stood in the way. The certificate of non harrassment, and the situation next door. When we did our due diligence there was no mention or record of a previous certificate of non harrassment. And as for the house next door, I believe they sunk $2M into it, and then abandoned it. So to Greg, I have to say, that one house renovation that should have changed the block happened at 1992, and despite the success and quality of the renovation, it takes more than just one house to raise a village. Call me a naysayer. I love this house, but the circumstances makes its restoration very expensive.

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  4. One swallow does not a summer make but let's hope this brownstone makes the block. Pity about its neighbour.

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  5. I know that there is a major "addicts rehabilitation center" just a few doors down at Madison and 129th street. It is run by a Harlem church, no idea how well or badly.

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  6. The ARC place is fine. This is a really nice neighborhood and I'm puzzled by all the negative chatter.

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  7. $25K/year in taxes and no certificate of harassment means over $2K/mo in taxes for the next 3-4 years and no way to renovate it in the meantime - all you can do is repairs and maintenance.

    An expired certificate of no harassment means nothing when you're talking about an occupied building (different on a true shell). If you don't have the signatures, you don't have the signatures and you have to wait 3 years and then go through a 6-9 month application process.

    Then there's the difficulties with the house next door...

    I'm VERY curious to know what they were able to sell the place for.

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  8. Again, there is NOTHING wrong with the block. It's a nice, friendly, say-hello-to-everyone-on-the-way-to-the-subway-in-the-morning block. The corner building is a non-event.

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  9. I wouldn't say the house next door is a non-event. When we were considering purchasing it, squatters were living in the house next door. In their attempts to steal the copper plumbing, they flooded the three houses next to each other, including 1990. Because of the flood, the squatters were using the backyard as the toilet.
    In the week between looking at it the first time, and the second, the squatters had stolen the new windows out of the building. I believe the building next door now has bricked up windows. I have pictures of the roof, with the shells of what were the air conditioning units strewn all over the roof. We were very concerned about the fire hazard, given that this is a row house. The police were notified of the questionable activity next door, but the owners were absent, so the police could do nothing.
    Anonymous 10:05, it doesn't help anyone to pretend that everything is fine, when it is not. It is a very pleasant block. But that corner building is a concern.

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