By Juliet Linderman
Special to DNAinfo
Open House Insider visited two West Village apartments on the same floor, one with a huge backyard.
815 Greenwich St., 1A
Studio, 1 bathroom
$800,000
Maintenance: $ 1,119
815 Greenwich St., 1D
1-bedroom, 1-bathroom,
$695,000
Maintenance: $914
For a buyer with a vision, a $1 million-plus budget and a green thumb, the two ground-floor apartments available in 815 Greenwich St., on a leafy block between Jane and Horatio streets, could be the perfect canvas.
Apartment 1A, which has been on the market for less than a week and is listed for $800,000, is only 500 square feet, but it has a big draw: a 1,500-square-foot outdoor space.
"Anyone buying this apartment is buying it for the backyard. It's very special," said broker Howard Mash, of Corcoran, who spent the afternoon walking a dozen or so onlookers through the expansive garden.
The interior had a strip of original appliances against one side of the apartment in a combined living room and kitchen area, with a 5-foot sectional wall erected in the middle to suggest a bedroom on the other side.
"I look for closet space, bathroom and kitchen," said one "30-something" woman shopping with her buyer boyfriend. "We went to an apartment earlier today with a mini fridge. A mini fridge! I said: 'Hell no.'"
Her boyfriend was enamored with 815 — and its superb suburban-style yard — describing it as "small, but fantastic." His girlfriend suggested they keep looking.
Across the hall, an open house was underway for apartment 1D, a bright, sunny comparably sized but less expensive — $695,000 — one-bedroom with windows facing the street. But it had no backyard.
"You’re in an incredible location, the center of the West Village!" said the broker Ed Freiberg, of Town Real Estate, who admitted that the smartest thing to do would be to buy both 1A and 1D and combine them.
"You could knock out the adjoining wall and make a beautiful two-bedroom with an enormous backyard," he suggested.
A father stopped by 1A with his 24-year-old, born-and-raised-in-Manhattan daughter, who is looking for her first apartment. With a budget of $600,000, 1A was out of their price range, but upon entering the backyard, she fell in love. Her father: not so much.
"My daughter thinks it’s all about neighborhood — she’ll only live below 14th Street in Manhattan," he said.
He wanted her to have a bigger kitchen, more cabinets and a grander living space.
"He’s the money," she shrugged, "so I guess we’ll have to agree."
