Condos still unsold after Solaria auction debacle

It was on Nov.22, 2009 that the developer of Riverdale’s 20-story Solaria sought to unload 54 of the new development’s unsold apartments  at an auction that drew hundreds of hopefuls and plenty of press.

The results were not pretty, and Joseph Korff of ARC Development subsequently tried and tried to get rid of orphaned units that failed to find buyers.  I recently got to wondering whether he has succeeded after so much time.

The answer years later is,

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Solaria’s auctioneer tapped for Montauk property

The folks who produced the dismal auction of the Solaria in Riverdale are now offering online bidders the chance to purchase a 3,000-sf house with pool in Montauk.

Conducting the auction, which starts at 12:30 a.m. Sept. 7 and ends at an unspecified time on Sept. 11, is Real Estate Disposition Corp. (REDC).

Providing no end time suggests that sort of flexibility that REDC (and many other auctioneers) crave.

Until you read the fine print in the terms and conditions, you won’t discover

Selling multi-million-dollar Bronx homes ain’t easy

If you think Joe Korff has had trouble unloading the condos he developed at the Solaria in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, check out the Wall Street Journal’s piece today on Villanova Heights and the unsold multi-million properties there.

The 15 estates being developed on a 16-acre parcel were designed by Robert A. M. Stern.  According to the Journal:

If you just can’t get enough of m127, read this

This poorly illuminated photo may give you some idea of the crowd.

In the event you want to see the official press release from Paramount Realty USA on yesterday’s auction of six condos at the building called 127m, at 127 Madison Ave., I figured I’d make available the first nearly two and a half pages of the eight-page document issued by its public relations firm (the remainder being even more fluff).

But first, I’d like to point out that I’m always tempted to say an auction can be the best determinant of market value.  Unfortunately, there are so many anomalies to such sales–e.g. auction fever, number of bidders, terms–that I have my doubts.

One example of a different sort of anomaly at the m127 auction was the winning bid for the first of the two units yet to be sold.

Although the otherwise identical sixth-floor condo went for $1.234 million (including buyer’s premium), the fifth-floor unit was hammered down for more money: $1.244 million. Then, the last apartment reverted to the pattern established by the three previously sold units on higher floors, which went for progressively lower prices; the winning bid was $1.229 million.

Now, for the press release, reproduced verbatim:

m127 auction enjoys brisk bidding, modest prices

Hiding in the dark at the left is the auctioneer (thanks to my limited flash).

An estimated 250 individuals filled the room in which six new condos listed for a total of $12.25 million in a building called m127 went up for auction today.

In bidding that accelerated in mere seconds before nearly reaching the final price, the units at 127 Madison Ave. sold for $8,431,500 including a 5 percent buyer’s premium.  The total represented a discount of 31 percent.

Excluding the penthouse, the price per square foot averaged $821, which strikes me as rather low for a condo in that area, but the building’s does have its drawbacks. (Because the penthouse sale is unconfirmed, I’m pretty much leaving it out in this post.)

In fact, comparing condo sales in the building’s zip code (10016), the average for two-bedroom apartments, of which only two traded in the last month, is $1,216 per square foot, according to the Online Residential (OLR) database. But I’m not positive whether that is a contract or asking price (and there’s a big difference, as you know).

For all condos in 10016, the average per square foot is $1,116 versus two bedrooms in the whole borough: $1,223.

According to the Miller Samuel appraisal firm, the average price per square foot for all Manhattan condos was $1,154 in the first quarter.  And the median sale price of two-bedroom condos was $1.330 million.

For the five two-bedroom condos sold at the auction, the median was $1.244 million; the average was $1,276,800.

Five of the units were offered without a reserve.  They were hammered down at prices ranging in descending order of $1.417 million for the 1,554-sf two-bedroom, two-bath apartment on the eighth floor to $1.229 million for the approximately same-size unit on the second floor.  (Prices include the buyer’s premium.)

The 2,255-sf  penthouse, which has three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a 338-sf terrace, went for only $2,049,500, subject to the developer’s approval; its listed price was $3.4 million, and the discount amounts to 40 percent.

Joe Korff tries another way to sell out the Solaria

After the embarrassing auction of 54 condos of the Riverdale’s Solaria in the Bronx last November, Joe Korff and his ARC Development are trying a tactic they have dubbed “Spring Bid and Buy.”

Huh?  If a double meaning is meant, the grammar is elusive.  And if Korff thinks the idea will work better than simply lowering prices, he’s whistling Dixie.

More than half the building reportedly still is empty.  A total of 35 apartments in the sleek glass tower on Henry Hudson Parkway remain on the market, according to the Riverdale Press.  Only 10 of the development’s 64 units had found buyers prior to the auction.

Poor Mr. Korff seems to think that an inconveniently situated development ought to be priced competitively with other New York City projects. 

62 condos sold in Miami weekend auction–maybe

The San Lorenzo Tower

Individual buyers bid an average of $121 per square foot – nearly double the minimum asking price but 44 percent below the original construction loan amount – on 65 unsold units in the first auction of a new Miami condo tower in more than three years, says blogger Peter Zalewski, a broker in the upscale Bal Harbour section of Miami.

More than 300 people showed up at the Hyatt Regency Miami Hotel in downtown Miami (and an unknown number of additional investors went online) to participate in the April 10 auction of the units in the San Lorenzo condominium.  The building is a few miles west of the Little Havana neighborhood.

It is unclear how many of the units will actually go to closing

City to auction off four co-ops and a condo

392 Central Park West is one of several buildings in Park West Village on the Upper West Side.

On March 11, as mentioned in my previous post immediately below, the Office of the Manhattan Public Administrator will dispose at an auction of co-ops and condos situated between Washington Heights and Chinatown.

The apartments are:

Riverdale’s Solaria development offers news

Although I’m certainly on the Solaria’s blacklist after continually writing truthfully about the dismal auction of 54 condos last November, I nonetheless was the recipient today of an e-mail blast to real estate brokers.

With a photo of developer Joseph Korff in front of the sleek building in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, the press release proclaims: “SOLARIA IS FHA APPROVED.”  It goes on to say: