REAL ESTATE BLOG SAPO

T  H  E  N    &    N  O  W  : 
Park Avenue

Once upon a time, a NYC buyer acquired15 floors, 131 apartments and a prime New York City address – for $100,000.

The property was the ‘white glove’ Beekman Hotel at 63rd and Park, the setting was a New York City real estate foreclosure and the year was 1935. Offered at auction, 575 Park Avenue attracted a handful of would-be buyers; those who could muster such an enormous sum during the Great Depression.

Original article published on January 10, 1935

The winner was Charles Buhl, whose $100,000 investment secured an eight-year-old terra cotta gem replete with original brass touches, a marquee entranceway, and a posh lobby. The Beekman’s lush interiors and fine design elements would later attract politicians and name entertainers. But on that day in 1935 – the year FDR created the Works Progress Administration - it was just another distressed New York City building seeking a buyer.  Among the other offerings in the New York Times real estate page were a three-story 97^th street dwelling listed for $10,000 and a Central Park West building available for a mere $1,000.

Today, there are no such Manhattan fairy tales.

Despite the troubled economy and an uncertain future jobs outlook, prime NYC real estate almost never reaches the foreclosure stage, and rarely hits a rock-bottom price. Manhattan property is too valuable, too scarce and too coveted to reach the open market. Instead, I routinely see ‘distressed’ coops and condos hungrily snapped up by friends, family or through word of mouth, despite its current condition. You can always repair a structure, but you can’t add more land.

In this Great Recession (or whatever we call it these days) NYC housing prices are “holding steady” and their volume is increasing, according to the Times.  A single Beekman room is now worth more than the $100,000 Buhl paid for the entire building in 1935, and a one-bedroom coop starts at five times the original purchase price.

Such ‘extras’ as daily maid service, a concierge, a valet, a state of the art fitness center, abundant storage space, a roof deck, and a chic address – all of which describe the Beekman – differentiate the best buildings from the merely ordinary.

If Charles Buhl had had a crystal ball on that January day in 1935 – along with an ability to hang around for a few more decades – he would have been mightily pleased by the brilliance of his buy. Ten years after his purchase, American was poised for prosperity, and a decade after that, the Baby Boom was in full swing. Had he been able to foresee that, he may well have those two Upper West Side properties to his portfolio that day.