Pencil Factory Back in Business
The Pencil Factory’s had a tough last year, what with the default by the owner and the work stoppage. All hope is not lost, though. Curbed notes that the condo listings popped back up on the radar screen late last month with a pricing makeover. For example, a 1,280-square-foot two-bedroom pad that used to be…
The Pencil Factory’s had a tough last year, what with the default by the owner and the work stoppage. All hope is not lost, though. Curbed notes that the condo listings popped back up on the radar screen late last month with a pricing makeover. For example, a 1,280-square-foot two-bedroom pad that used to be $732,000 is now $659,000. That’s approaching the $500 a foot mark. Not bad at all. These should sell at those levels, we’d think.
Pencil Factory Sharpened for Clearance Sale [Curbed]
Scaffolding Down at Greenpoint’s Pencil Factory [Brownstoner]
Singer Defaults on Pencil Factory Loan [Brownstoner] GMAP
Greenpoint’s Pencil Factory Shut Down [Brownstoner]
The whole inside story about my Pencil Factory Condo unit buying process and other people’s stories.
http://www.thepencilfactory.blogspot.com/
The whole inside story about my Pencil Factory Condo unit buying process and other people’s stories.
http://www.thepencilfactory.blogspot.com/
The sponsor will pay for the first year tax abatement. Buyer need to request it to be add on the contract by buyer’s attorney. If you don’t ask, you won’t get it. For my unit, seller will pay for the tax from June 30th 2010 to June 30th 2011.
I got the title search result back from my attorney yesterday. The search result for the Pencil Factory Condo is fine so I can get the title insurance from the insurance company, that means I will be fine even the sponsor is not going to offer a “marketable title”. I going to sign the contract at the end of this week! Happy! It took me one and half month to get to sign it…!
i also got the contract. It is bad for a buyer. there is a question of the tax abatement as well.
I got the contract of The Pencil Factory Condo and it looks bad for the buyer! The seller/sponsor force the buyers pay for seller’s lawyer fee ($2000) and the transfer tax either (1.04%). The worse part is he is NOT going to give the buyer MARKETABLE TITLE at closing. Developer is not allow my lawyer to write the request ( Seller will give Buyer the Marketable Title) on the contract at all!! I don’t know how other buyers feel about it but me and my lawyer feel very very fishy…..
We trying to do the title search now and make sure I can get the Title Insurance before I sign the contract. Of cause, the developer will NOT pay for any of the title search and insurance.
I hope I can find some people who are having the same issue as me….. Please feel free to email me!
mimiwang33@yahoo.com
http://mimiwang33.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
Mimi
dittob – The as of right building across the street (pre-sob story) was 30 or 35 stories. Developer was not allowed to build more, just 5 stories higher.
Everything across the street will be 30 to 40 stories (as of right) because in 2005 City Planning and the City Council approved a waterfront of 30 to 40 stories, over the objection of the community board.
Oh yes, I will have to agree, I do live in a 1925 co-op, I have separate rooms, all have big windows, and I love it.
I know why they are laid out like that….oh well, this is the rage now, but in about 10 years it will be something else…
WBer – the fabulously perfidious Community Board 1 approved a 40-story, yes 40, just up the street here after the developer came up with some sob story. This in a neighborhood of family houses with nothing over 6 storys at the time.
Stargazer – you are meant for a pre-war world. Or at least a pre-war apartment. Apartments are laid out this way because modern apartments are small! You could put a wall between the kitchen and the living room, but then both rooms would feel small and cramped, and people would wonder why exactly they’re paying $550 a foot. And this is what the market wants – loft-like living (emphasis on “like”) – it is what sells, and the marketing people control the design of new condos as much as (sometimes more than) architects do.
The building itself is a really nice design, even if it came at the expense of excluding two buildings from the Eberhard Faber landmark designation. And the apartments seem reasonably priced, though I have no idea what the market is in this area of Greenpoint.
Buyer beware, though – someday there will a big tower going up across West Street (actually, there will be big towers all up and down West Street). You’ll get a waterfront esplanade, but you’ll lose your view.