Fitzgerald Condo Decor Will Blow Your Mind
Cheryl and I stopped by Sunday's Fitzgerald open house. The 47 individually considered residences, as the website says, are for those who "see the unknown and want to know it."
Walking into the model apartment, we saw what is know to us: the spacious floorplans that are common above 96th Street, high-end appliances including a Liebherr refrigerator and Bosh cooktop, range, hood and dishwasher, dark hardwood floors, quartz countertops, and a washer and dryer for each apartment.
Well, as Donald Rumsfeld always says, "there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know." Join us after the jump as we come to know unknown unknowns.
Please note that Cheryl and I actually really liked the layouts, and the Halstead broker showing us the apartments was courteous and helpful. However, the decor was probably designed to be a conversation piece, so converse we will.
First we have the dining room. Whatever people will be sitting down to eat here, be it space-aged pill food, marijuana brownies, or something grandma made 40 years ago, I am sure a Moog synthesizer will provide the dinner music. Click here for wallpaper detail.
Next up we have the bedroom. Does the round bed in a room with bird and leaf wall paper make you randy baby?
Finally, we have the furniture in the study. It may be a little hard to tell, but the structures seem to be made of cut corrugated cardboard with a lacquer finish, which is actually quite cool.
To get an idea of what is outside of the apartments, here is a view past neighboring buildings already built to height, with St. John the Divine peeking out in the background.
Comments
From the site it looks like around $600/sq'. Considering the finishings & location, there are a lot of other new condos in Harlem not a well located, like Savoy West, etc. From their site it looks like they're offering 90% financing, wow, that's a major plus in a mortgage market where 20% down is expected. There is a lot of new condo inventory popping up in Harlem, it is a total buyer's market. Not all of this inventory is not Natefind either.
At what point can we characterize Harlem condo inventory as a "glut"? This may sound crazy but an argument can be made that Harlem is overbuilt in the context of the prices these developer want for their condos. Anyone notice the Lenox Grand is dying on the vine? Go by there and look at the windows, the insulation is literally falling from the frames.
A high % of the Kalahari is set aside earmarked with special pricing for people of certain incomes. But of the market rate units, what % is sold? Be it the Rhapsody, 5th on Mad, SoHa118, people are not exactly snapping up this inventory.
Example? The Fitzgerald. In this disaster mortgage market offering 90% financing is a major incentive, broadens and expands the pool of potential buyers enormously. If Harlem has solid or strong demand, any reason for this small number of spacious well appointed units with good location to Subways, CU, UWS not be snapped up pretty quickly? IMO much of Harlem is overpriced, however in an overpriced market, the Fitz seems to be the best offering around, all things considered. It's hard to find SOHA inventory at this price per square foot.
Posted by: Mside | August 20, 2007 09:56 AM
If the projects were destroyed you would see that inventory at the Kalahari reduced in a second... I don't know how they could expect people to pay so much to face these cursed structures.
Posted by: getridoftheprojects | August 22, 2007 02:46 PM
I noticed that soup man on Lenox closed. Do you have any information? thanks Lynn
Posted by: lynn | August 26, 2007 05:24 PM
Where are the residents of the "cursed structures" (aka projects) supposed to go if the projects are destroyed? Working class, long-time Harlem residents from complexes such as the Esplanade Gardens, Savoy Park (formerly known as Delano Village), Riverton, and Lenox Terrace have hardly heard any response as to what options are available to us in the grand scheme of urban renewal and mass displacement--or the famous "G-word."
If developers had taken into account the conditions of the existing neighborhoods they try to transform overnight, and if they had any idea of the resistance that they would encounter, maybe they wouldn't have been so quick to build luxury apartments right smack in the middle of areas with projects and other things that some call unsightly.
Posted by: HarlemBorn | September 7, 2007 08:24 PM