Another One Bites the Dust?
When 59 Orient Avenue, a 6,000-square-foot shingled house in Greenpoint, was for sale in the spring of 2007, we feared that the unlandmarked beauty would be the victim of its own large lot. After all, the $2,500,000 asking price was such that only a developer looking to take advantage of the 13,000 square feet of…
When 59 Orient Avenue, a 6,000-square-foot shingled house in Greenpoint, was for sale in the spring of 2007, we feared that the unlandmarked beauty would be the victim of its own large lot. After all, the $2,500,000 asking price was such that only a developer looking to take advantage of the 13,000 square feet of unused FAR could afford it. The house ended up selling for just $1,725,000 in August of last year. Based on the photo, at right, from last month on Flickr, the damage has begun. It’s unclear what the new owner’s plans are for it, though, since the only application on file with DOB is one to remove and close up existing windows from last winter. Anyone heard any chatter about what lies in store for this place?
House of the Day: Endangered on Orient Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
Left photo from Property Shark; right photo by markamav
did they raze this place? I walked past what I *thought* was the lot last night, and it’s empty.
Dittoburg Said:
Sarcasm never works well on the internet, I should have learned that. Your conclusion that “Obviously, no one thought the building was worth anything” based on no-one buying it at the huge price tag completely ignores what all those in the community who couldn’t afford it, yet value it, have to say. So your conclusion is not “obvious” or logical, unless the finacially dismepowered don’t even get into the “no one” category in your scheme.
I say:
If 288 a square foot would have bought this place and no one who “values” it bought it, then I have to question your use of the word “value”. If “value” never has to translate into monetary value, what meaning can it have on the open market? Seriously, this place sold for dirt cheap to someone who will treat it like dirt. If you feel otherwise, well then, pony up bucko. Otherwise, keep your “value” talk where it belongs… in the bargain bin.
benson…it was a joke.
DIBS;
You and all the other Brownstoners can comment all you wish about any church out there. What I called for is the decency not to publicly accuse, without any show of evidence, the priest/pastor/rabbi/minister of a major crime – fraud – if they don’t act on your wishes.
Listen, I really don’t have time to discuss how or why property rights are a major, if not the major, reason why some countries are successful and most are not. I also don’t have the time to discuss basic supply and demand economics.
My point is the owner of this property had the thing on the market for quite a while and it ultimately sold for what amounts to land value.
Typically dittoburg, I dismiss marxist rhetoric such as your own. To me, it is either banal chatter or if the mob is roused, a call to arms. You seem to think it was either in the best interest of society as a whole, or a specific subset, to renovate this home rather than demolish it. If this is merely a commiseration, where people bemoan the fact the house is no longer habitable, so be it. My participation is done. If however things could have been done differently, let’s hear your plan.
The “zoning” comment was in reference to your idea of a free-for-all regarding “If you don’t respect freedom and property rights”, and your kind invitation for me to leave the country. I can see how you got confused and thought it was related to my financially disempowered jibe becuase they were in different posts. Easy mistake.
Your idea about global property rights is laughable though. Perhaps you should actually live in other countires rather than travel to them via the internet, and you will find that after removing your standard bogeymen-countries you’ll find landmarking, zoning, height limits, etc etc just don’t exist. You can do whatever the hell you want.
So what happens to the intellect when one sticks to the one-track pony hi-density mantra? Not that I don’t admire your steadfastness.
Yes babs…from now on we are precluded from discussing anything to do with a church and we are not allowed to comment on homes that are not our own.
Babs,
Within the context of the law, the only person whose opinion matters here is the property owner. You can obviously dream sweet dreams all night long if you so choose.
This is not a philosophical discussion of aesthetic value, it IS a financial discussion. Renovating a wreck like this, if it is even possible, requires a variety of products and a lot of labor. How do YOU propose the work gets done?
So basically Polemicisit, if I can’t afford to buy something I am not permitted to have any opinion about it? And I can’t “value” something in any way other than monetarily? I think dittoburg was talking about how most of us, as feeling human beings, value the things around us that are a part of our life. There is more to life than money and more to a house than a financial investment. Sorry you can’t feel anything else — your life must indeed be impoverished (and not necessarily monetarily).