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Bidding Wars Erupt for Still-Unbuilt DUMBO Apartments

By Janet Upadhye | February 18, 2015 12:32pm
 Fifty percent of the units at 51 Jay Street sold within the first month.
51 Jay St.
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DUMBO — Bidding wars have erupted at DUMBO's latest industrial warehouse conversion — a year before construction is even complete, sales staff said.

More than 30 percent of units at the former silverware factory — with studio prices starting at $835,000 and penthouses starting at $3.595 million — were sold within the first 30 days starting Jan. 5. As of Feb. 18, nearly 40 percent were sold.

Bidding wars took place in 50 percent of those units, according to the sales teams at Slate Property Group and Adam America Real Estate.

Aggressive offers for some units, located at 51 Jay St., forced the team to increase the pricing of some of the units up to four times.

“The pace of sales is unlike anything we have experienced before," Dvir Cohen Hoshen, co-founder and principal of Adam America Real Estate, said in a statement. "The combined value of the building design, DUMBO location and unit size is not matched by any other property in New York City.”

A spokeswoman for the building said that most buyers are families or couples, 50 percent are from Manhattan and the other 50 percent are from Brooklyn and many paid in cash.

51 Jay St. belonged to Ben Forman & Sons — a company that made silverware and other utensils — for more than 50 years.

Designed by ODA Architecture, the building is in the process of being converted into 74 units with amenities that include a private courtyard with outdoor showers, a children’s playroom, fitness room, rooftop fireplace, sundeck and pet grooming facilities.

Units feature oak flooring, oversized casement windows, high ceilings and some with private terraces.

The conversion is expected to be complete in spring of 2016.