Auction of two Harlem buildings nets $6 million

Auctioneer Chuck Scheifer swivels and spots a bidder in packed room.

In a highly successful auction Wednesday of two Manhattan buildings that the state has declared surplus, taxpayers benefited with winning bids totaling $5.97 million.

An estimated 300 individuals jammed into the auction room on the eighth floor of the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on 125th Street to witness or participate in the sale.  There were 107 registered bidders, according to one official.

“Our goal is to get property on the tax rolls,” said the official, James P. Sproat, director of Real Estate Planning & Development in the Office of General Services.  “We’re satisfied that we’ve done the best for the taxpayers.”

Auctioneer Chuck Scheifer was less restrained: “I’m incredibly pleased and thrilled,” he allowed. “Fantastic.”

Immediately after bidding successfully on 364 W. 119 St., the buyer (in blue shirt) and auctioneer converse.

First on the block was

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View from terrace of a West Harlem penthouse to be auctioned off July 31 at a Harrison, N.Y. law office

A West Harlem penthouse with unobstructed views of Central Park and the surrounding skyline is headed for a bankruptcy auction at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 31.

Public records show that the two-bedroom, two-bath condo with 1,000-sf wraparound terrace at 125 Central Park North was purchased for $1.4 million earlier this year, and the starting bid is $950,000. According to the announcement, the value is $1.9 million.

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Tribeca loft goes for $3.15 million in city auction

The Ice House, 27 N. Moore St. in Tribeca.

With only a single competitor, a Long Island man won a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 27 N. Moore St. for the favorable price of $3.15 million at the city’s auction of nine apartments in Manhattan today.

Public Administrator Ethel J. Griffin had set the minimum price at $3 million for the more than 2,000-sf loft, which had been owned by one Veronica Lee in a building called the Ice House.  According to Curbed.com, Lee paid $774,000 for the unit in 1999 and died owing JP Morgan Chase $1.9 million left on her mortgage.

“I feel good,” successful bidder Mario Montoya told me after the auction, adding that he had been prepared to offer “a little more.”

City to auction off $3 million condo, 8 other units

Condominium called the Ice House at 27 North Moore St. in Tribeca

The sale of a condo with a minimum bid of $3 million is the highlight of a new estate auction scheduled for June 28 by Public Administrator Ethel J. Griffin.

Among the eight other apartments to go on the block starting at 11:30 a.m. are three income-limited units, a co-op in the Kips Bay neighborhood and one on the Upper West Side in the Lincoln Towers complex.

The $3 million unit is in the Ice House, at 27 North Moore St., in Tribeca.  It was owned by one Veronica Lee, but I have been unable to find verifiable information about her.

What I know is that

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Apartment in search of a buyer

Hardly a week goes by that I don’t come across advice about staging.

Although this post doesn’t include any advice, I think the essentially before-and-after photos show why it’s normally harder to tempt a buyer with a vacant apartment than one that has been staged.

The condo shown in the photo is in a new development in West Harlem.  It is on the fifth floor of the building, which is across from Morningside Park, and prospective buyers could not be faulted for failing to envision its possibilities.

But show them the same apartment

Buyer is found for bankrupt Harlem church

227 Lenox Avenue

That Harlem church in a brownstone building on Lenox Avenue has found a buyer prior to its scheduled auction.

Vice President Richard Maltz of the David R. Maltz & Co. auction firm told me in a telephone interview that a purchaser offered $1.166 million, including a 6 percent buyer’s premium, on Jan. 18, the first day that the property was available for inspection.  He declined to identify the buyer in what he described as company policy.