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Open House Agenda: 3 Apartments to See This Weekend

By Donna M. Airoldi | May 22, 2015 7:45am | Updated on May 22, 2015 5:27pm
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NEW YORK CITY — Few buyers set out to find the perfect cookie-cutter apartment when looking for a new home. Instead, they hope to find something special — whatever that might mean for them. Here are three apartments with open houses this Memorial Day weekend that we feel qualify.

796 Dekalb Ave., Apt. B2, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Studio/3 Baths
Condo
Approximately 1,838 square feet
$895,000
Common Charges: $516 per month
Real Estate Taxes: $50 per month (abated)
Open House: Friday, May 22, 4-4:30 p.m.

Lowdown: If you look at the floorplan, you might be fooled into thinking there are just two terraces for this Bed-Stuy duplex loft, but there’s a third sandwiched between two rooms on the upper level.

“It’s really a giant apartment," said Nadine Adamson of Brown Harris Stevens, explaining that the three outdoor spaces offer "a lot of options."

"We’ve had people come through and say, ‘This one will be the herb garden, this one will be the flower garden,’” she said.

The sellers purchased from the sponsor five years ago and kept the loft open, making the below-grade lower level into a bedroom and office space. Because of that, the unit is officially a studio even though it’s close to 2,000 square feet in size and has three bathrooms.

They also built in a significant amount of storage space and created giant his-and-her closets, Adamson noted, adding that the lower level has heated floor tiles.

The two larger terraces are off the kitchen on the upper level and the lower sleeping area. The unit has a washer/dryer and its own boiler.

Location: This eastern side of Bed-Stuy is seeing more activity in the area, from a loft conversion around the corner, to a new backyard beer garden opening this month. Herbert Von King Park is two blocks away, and a Home Depot is three blocks down on Dekalb Avenue.

The Myrtle-Willoughby G train station is the closest subway at about half a mile; the J/M/Z Myrtle station is just under a mile away. Several new CitiBike stations are being added to the neighborhood by the end of 2015.

Why put it on your open house calendar? “Based on a per square feet basis, it’s one of the best values in Bed-Stuy,” Adamson said. “And it has three outdoor spaces. It’s a luxury to be able to spread out.”

NOTE: This open house is for Friday evening.

874 Broadway, Apt. 807, Flatiron
Studio/1 Bathroom
Co-op
Approximately 1,000 square feet
$1.75 million
Maintenance: $2,091 per month
Open House: Sunday, May 24, noon to 1:30 p.m.

Lowdown: This unit, too, though listed as studio, has enough room to convert the space into a one- or even two-bedroom apartment. The current owner took down the walls and made it an open space when he purchased it nearly 12 years ago, said Win Brown of Core.

“It’s really a unique loft. It’s in the back of a L-shaped building and really has no neighbors,” Brown said of the eighth-floor unit. “There are 13 windows facing east, north and west, and 12-foot ceilings. You don’t really see open spaces like that anymore.”

Formerly an office space, the MacIntyre Building has its original black-and-white mosaic tile floor throughout the common hallways, and for this unit it runs all the way into the apartment to the kitchen. The hardwood floors are also original.

The prior owner updated the kitchen and bathroom before selling.

The maintenance of this elevator building — which has a full-time super but no doorman — is on the high side because the building does not own the commercial space, so it doesn’t have that revenue coming in, Brown noted.

Location: The building, at the corner of 18th Street, is convenient to Chelsea, just a block west. Union Square, with its famous farmers’ market, is steps away. Design-lovers’ favorite ABC Carpet & Home — with Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen — is on the block. An AMC Loews is at 19th Street.

The 4/5/6/l/N/Q/R trains are at 17th and Broadway.

Why put it on your open house calendar? “If you’re looking for an authentic loft in the Flatiron District, this is it,” Brown said. “The challenge is to find someone who appreciates the open space.”

250 103rd St., Apt. 2C, Upper West Side
3 Bedrooms/2 Baths
Co-op
Approximately 1,250 square feet
$1.795 million
Maintenance: $1,753 per month
Open House: Sunday, May 24, 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Lowdown: The terrace for this three-bedroom is large enough to feel “like an outdoor living room,” said Greg Kammerer of Corcoran Group.

“It’s really the pièce de résistance,” he said of the 260-square-foot space that gets good southern light and has a pergola. “The apartment has a brownstone feel, so someone looking for that with a garden might be interested. But what [differentiates it from brownstones] is it’s on the second floor, so it’s brighter, you get three bedrooms instead of the usual two, and it’s a doorman building.”

The seller did light updates to the kitchen and bath, “where they were already in good shape” when purchasing seven years ago. The washer/dryer is new and vented. The building recently installed new windows.

The 75-unit Alexandria House also has a common roof deck and basement storage.

Location: There are nearly half a dozen new restaurants under construction nearby, said Kammerer, who lives in the neighborhood. The 1 train at 103rd Street is half a block from the building.

Why put it on your open house calendar? “There are only a few apartments with appreciable outdoor space that’s more than a balcony, and the penthouse units are pricey,” Kammerer said. “Because you’re on the second floor, you can get a really nice outdoor space without paying multiple millions of dollars.”