The Orion - 350 West 42nd Street - Condo - by Cetra/Ruddy

[Drexel]

what is the status of the problem at the Orion? Are owners going back to their units or are they still in hotels?

[Dryeyes]

if everything is fine back home?

[orchid]

power is back and people have returned to their units. will be interesting to see how reimbursement works..

[BrooklynRider]

Make sure they don't throw all of that into your common charges, which cover operating expenses. Since the building is still under construction, the hotel accommodations should have been covered by Extell's construction wrap around insurance. It should have a contingency for events like this.

[eddhead]

Make sure they don't throw all of that into your common charges, which cover operating expenses. Since the building is still under construction, the hotel accommodations should have been covered by Extell's construction wrap around insurance. It should have a contingency for events like this.

Thanks again for the head's up. You truly are a wealth of knowledge.

[ichibans]

I have an A unit in the lower block of the building. When I bought the unit I was impressed by the unobstructed glass corner of this unit. Now I find that the unit has a massive beam in the corner which was not on the original floor plan.

They later amended the floor plan but even in the amendment it is only a slim round column, not a heavy square one.

Have other A owners the same issue and what did you do to resolve it?

I seriously doubt that a developer can massively change an apartment and still except the same amount of money.

Of course the beam cannot be removed.

I am an owner of the A line, and there is nothing we can do about it. this is their (the building's) stand, if you dont like your apt, you can give it back and they can sell it for 200k higher.

[ichibans]

The Dakota has a pretty nasty looking service area on the west side of the property and visible from the sidewalk along W. 72nd -- completely utilitarian, nothing grand like the rest of the building.

Hard to find a picture (of course, no one wants to take a pic of such an unattractive sight) but it's down a ramp on the side seen at the left in the pic below:



http://www.beatles-tribute.co.uk/nyc.htm

good point looks pretty nasty to me.

[deuce4321]

I am an owner of the A line, and there is nothing we can do about it. this is their (the building's) stand, if you dont like your apt, you can give it back and they can sell it for 200k higher.

The A line Beam below the 27th floor are relatively slender supporting beams. On the 27th floor there is a larger more square beam and then in my apartment on the 28th floor there is a hidden double beam. This change in the 27th and 28th floors is to support the backdrop of the building as it goes up. This is the info given to me when I went to look at the building last week.

[stn104]

For those living in the Orion currently....how are the walls and ceilings inside your apt in regards to the noise coming from neighboring apts?

[nycadm]

I'm closing tomorrow afternoon - received the breakdown of checks I'll need today. It looks like I'm being charged twice for the mortgage recording tax - once to reimburse the sponsor for the credit due and seperately as a fee to the title insurance company.

Is this right? Closing costs are about $8k higher than I expected. (which oddly is the same as the tax doublecounted above).

[BrooklynRider]

I am an owner of the A line, and there is nothing we can do about it. this is their (the building's) stand, if you dont like your apt, you can give it back and they can sell it for 200k higher.

Depends on how good your lawyer is. Read your contract and find out what items were subject to change. I would think a floor plan, finish and appliance listing have some legal weight. I know with finishes and appliance the law stipulates that the units would have to have what was advertised and/or promised OR BETTER. Seems if the column is eating up the square footage and your contract or offering plans state square feet or price per square foot ANYWHERE - you could chalenge this. The question is how many square feet did you lose?

[Alvarez]

Depends on how good your lawyer is. Read your contract and find out what items were subject to change. I would think a floor plan, finish and appliance listing have some legal weight. I know with finishes and appliance the law stipulates that the units would have to have what was advertised and/or promised OR BETTER. Seems if the column is eating up the square footage and your contract or offering plans state square feet or price per square foot ANYWHERE - you could chalenge this. The question is how many square feet did you lose?

The twelfth amendment shows a rather large beam and 741 SqFt for the A units on the 27th & 28th floors so it may be, in fact, unique to those two floors. I don't know if previous amendments showed the same. I am on the 31st Floor and it shows a smaller beam.

[Peteynyc1]

August 2006
Born in boom, what these condos sell for now

By Jonathan Scheff

Vesta 24 at 231 10th Avenue

Back in the days when developers needed only to announce a New York condo project in a hot neighborhood or a design by a celebrity architect, buyers snapped up fresh units amid the city's real estate boom.

As the go-go days recede into pricey memory, these developments, which transformed both the housing market and the geography of many neighborhoods, have, in fact, stood the test of (a short) time, and are still fetching healthy resale prices. The Real Deal investigated the fates of six boom-time condo developments and found that after the buzz faded, re-sales still boomed, according to figures provided by the brokerages that marketed them.


Lion's Head Condominium
121 West 19th Street, Chelsea
The 67 units at Lion's Head sold out within two months of opening in March 2005, says Joel Breitkopf of developer Alchemy Properties, which marketed the units in-house. Condos sold for $500,000 to $2.75 million and range from 765 to 3,950 square feet. He says 78 percent of the units are now occupied. Those looking to resell are asking 20 to 30 percent higher than the purchase price, Breitkopf said. An 800-square-foot one-bedroom that originally sold for $750,000 was resold recently at $825,000, for a 10 percent profit. A 2,300-square-foot three-bedroom that originally sold for approximately $1.75 million was put on the market for $2.9 million, a 66 percent increase if sold at the asking price.

Vesta 24
231 10th Avenue, Chelsea
The 22-unit condo sold out in October 2004 in a day-and-a-half, according to the New York Times. Two- and three-bedroom units range from 1,420 to 2,500 square feet, and initially sold for $1.1 million to $3 million, according to the Corcoran Group. Re-sales in 2006 averaged 44 percent, or $802,000, higher than their buying price, Corcoran said.

505 Greenwich Street
505 Greenwich Street, Hudson Square
Opening prices in March 2004 ranged from $495,000 to $3.3 million for the building's 104 units, ranging from 720 to 2,400 square feet. Re-sales in 2006 have averaged 66 percent, or $660,000, more than the original purchase prices, according to the Corcoran Group.

Clinton West
516 West 47th Street, Midtown West
The project by GPG Equities sold its 148 units within eight days of opening. The development features studios, one- and two-bedrooms with bamboo flooring and energy-efficient air conditioning and heating systems. The $80 million condo opened in June 2005, with prices ranging from $320,000 to $775,000, according to the Corcoran Group. Re-sales have averaged 23 percent, or $120,000, higher than their buying price, according to Corcoran.

The Gretsch
60 Broadway, Williamsburg
Converted from a 10-story musical-instrument factory, the Gretsch contains 130 lofts ranging from studios to three-bedrooms. At its opening in July 2003, prices ranged from $239,000 to $2.37 million. In 2006, re-sales have averaged 45 percent, or $345,000, higher than the buying price, according to the Corcoran Group.

The Orion
350 West 42nd Street, Midtown
The 61-story condo tower by Extell Development was the first in a spate of condo towers built on far West 42nd Street. Opening sales in February 2005 ranged from $409,000 to $1.5 million, according to Corcoran. Re-sales in 2006 have averaged 38 percent, or $205,000, higher than buying prices.

[Wangta01]

Crap - I love these apts but am just now entering the real estate market. Could I time it any worse?? High prices and high rates, wahoo!

Perhaps prices will change once Mr. Bernanke cranks interest rates once again on August 8th.

Congrats to everyone who bought apts in this building - I walked by it on Saturday and it looks like a winner to me.

[alibrot]

how many amendments did the building go through? 10? the prices listed in the article are the starting prices...first time buyers are paying much more than those listed.