Zohray

I have to say that all of the places in Brooklyn and Manhattan that I considered moving to, I did not consider Greenpoint at first.  Then I saw the posting for the 305 McGuinness Lofts in early February. I am a huge sucker for apartment porn, as I call it, and the new condo-turned-rental developments are great for that.  This was a Craigslist listing for a brand new triplex: 3 BRs, 2 BAs, brand new appliances, loft like ceilings, on-site parking and a gym. Shane and I quickly agreed: Yep, going to see that. Per the broker, Baris, these had just hit the market and so far they had curious locals coming to see the building.

Apparently this post has annoyed Miss Heather @ NY Shitty.com.  Click here to read more.

So we went on a cloudy Sunday. Getting off of the G train at the Greenpoint Ave stop and seeing the Starbucks warmed the cockles of my heart. We had a lot of time so we went to see the open house that was posted on Craigslist for 110 Green St.  The road itself was desolate but on the right-hand side there was this huge building. It had no sign (later discovered it had been called the Viridian, and was very famous for having Magic Johnson as an investor, and even more famous for going bankrupt last month) and it was very clearly still under construction. We checked out the model apartment, which was extraordinarily tiny. They were, and still are, charging $2,900 for a 2 BR and $3,600 for a 3 BR, so I was curious to check them out. There were many potential tenants and only 1 sales rep. He took us to see the area where there supposedly will be a huge, olympic sized swimming pool (suuuuuure), and then this enormous atrium, which was supposed to have had a fountain, but then explained that the original plans had already been downgraded to now include a simple lounge area instead. At that point, we ran out of time, so we left unimpressed, thinking they needed a reality check.  With those prices and 138 new units to rent, each with limited space, it seems to be a daunting task, indeed.

After that disappointment, we headed off to 305 McGuinness Lofts. McGuinness Blvd, for those who don’t know (and I didn’t) is a very noisy, busy road with traffic gunning to and from Brooklyn and Queens via the Pulaski bridge. The apartment building was under heavy construction (and still is), with wires dangling and walls unfinished. We were shown the triplexes and duplexes. The triplexes were cool: 1200+ sq feet in each, with 2 entrances, 2 bedrooms & 1 bathroom on the bottom floor, kitchen with huge windows and decent living/dining space on the 2nd floor and then the third floor mezzanine with another room that will (one day, in theory) have sliding glass doors overlooking the living/dining area, and another bathroom. W/D comes with every unit, as does central air, lovely new appliances and huge windows. I wasn’t crazy about the bedrooms, which were small, and the limited amount of closet space in each, but overall, it was a nice place for a relatively decent price.

But nice floors, beautiful appliances, kitchen, huge windows and only $3,000 with a free month thrown in. Add in on-site parking and the gym? Awesome! Duplexes with 2 bedrooms plus an area for an office space, had a nicer view but the 2nd floor/mezzanine had a ridiculously low ceiling, barely clearing Shane’s head, and they only had 1 bathroom. Additionally, the mezzanine/2nd bedroom shared a huge window with the master suite, and the two rooms were not completely shutoff from each other due to that window, so we figured, if we lived here, it’d be the triplex.

The next day I called the broker, Baris, back and negotiated with him: We’d take the triplex if they would take 2 months deposit (vs 3) and throw in parking. After some discussions with the owners in Israel and the sales director Clarence, they said they couldn’t do it. We said we’d revisit in April. However, the same week he called me back to then say they could do it, which got us excited!  We went back to make absolutely sure this was our place, bringing the $1,000 deposit and applications. We walked through the triplexes (there are 5 of them – the building has 38 units total and they are NOT renting out very quickly) and took some pictures before our camera battery died (see below). They are spacious, and we felt we could work around the negatives since the positives outweighed them in our case: near the subway, near the Starbucks, zoned for an excellent school (P.S. 31), gym, parking plus we could see ourselves there. Sold.

But, as is so often the case with real estate brokers, when we sat down and really started the conversation, that’s when things went south. Basically, they reneged. They said that the 3rd month deposit would be due before the move-in date (only two weeks away). We were going to have to break our leases and we felt this was warranted considering their concessions.  Now there were no concessions, so we walked out. They’re still available – we’re just going to wait until post April 1st and see how much more the price drops. Seems like our patience has actually worked in our favor.  More and more luxury buildings in the area are being finished, and the market just isn’t supporting their pricing. The Front Lofts, for example, have just hit the market. We will continue to monitor their availability.  Here are some more pictures.

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