thrifty,

Thanks for the info.

Did you measure off that square footage: 560-750 for a 1 bedroom or is that "landlordese" square footage. Do you think the estimates are accurate for, as the Floridians call it "square footage under air," aka a place you could wwalk into or put a box in?

Could you make a guesstimate of what the taxes will rise to after the 5 year abatement period?

Just attended the open house. Here are some facts:

There are a total of ~72 units. Mix of one br and 2 br units. There are two 3 BR units.

No deeded parking. ~53 parking spaces in the garage. Rent for spaces TBD.

The Saffron consists of two buildings connected by a first floor walkway: "The Newark" and "The Maxwell". The outward-facing units in "The Newark" have windows overlooking Newark Ave while the out-ward facing units of "The Maxwell" have windows facing an alley.

There is a common enclosed courtyard between the two buildings. There is one rooftop common area on top of "the Newark" building (none on top of "the Maxwell"). The common area consists of a sun deck and a "clubhouse" with restroom, laundry hookup, sink, kitchen countertop and microwave.

All units have ~ 10 ft. ceilings. Units facing the outside of the structure have no balcony. Inward facing units (facing courtyard) have balconies.

Most 2 BR units have two bathrooms. Finishes are similar in all units. all units have an open living room/ kitchen layout where one wall of the living area includes kitchen couter, sink cabinets , stove and fridge. There are no separate kitchens or kitchen enclaves.


1 BR units range from ~ 560 sq ft to ~ 750 sq ft.
2 BR units range from ~ 800 sq ft to ~ 1040 sq ft.

Maintenance fees range from ~$150 - $270 per month.
Annual taxes (5 yr abatement) range from ~ $4,000 - $6,500.

Auction is November 8th at The Westin (Jersey City near Newport) at noon. 9 units will be sold that day regardless of price. 6 more may be sold on top of that at the seller's discretion.

Attendees must have $10,000 cashier's check to bid on 1 BR, $15,000 cashier's check to bid on 2 BR units.

After the auction, the rest of the units will go up for sale with list prices ranging from ~$360K - $415K for 1 BR units and $515K - $590K for the 2BR units.

Another article this time in the Real Deal:
http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articl ... -479-washington-boulevard

213, 215, and 217 Newark Avenue are now the same lot. It had different addresses depending on the developer at the time.

Some little want-to-be art star has tagged half of the buildings on Newark Avenue with an acid etching spray paint - not just new places but many older Mom & Pop places too - he/she tags with the word "Qweer" (spelled just like that with a "w")

I'm not sure who in town sells this kind of paint but they should have to pay for the damage -- it will never come off and ruins the window glass -- so this is a major crime.

http://ask.metafilter.com/16091/what- ... id-etch-graffiti-on-glass

Quote:

217 Newark - not 213

Check this out:

213 Newark Avenue Named "The Saffron"

"The Field's Development project on Newark Avenue just west of Jersey Avenue is set to auction several units, according to the NY Times..."

According to the NY Times:
"For the 53 two-bedroom and 2 three-bedroom units at the Saffron, prices will be set in the high $400,000s to low $500,000s."

In Jersey City, Jump-Starting Condo Sales

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: September 25, 2009
The New York Times


Some of the 76 units in the Saffron condo complex in Jersey City will be auctioned next month, before the grand opening in December.

GOING once, going twice, sold, to the buyer with her hand up five weeks before the building even opens!

At the Saffron, a nearly complete 76-unit condominium complex in the thick of this city?s downtown, the Fields Development Group is trying something new, to lend early momentum to the sales process. The first units ? a minimum of 9, a maximum of 15 ? will be auctioned off before the grand opening and the start of conventional marketing.

The auction will be on Nov. 8, and the grand opening on Dec. 12 ? by which date some winning bidders will already have moved into the five-story two-building complex at 217 Newark Avenue.

Ending sales with an auction ? after fair-market values for a building have already been well established ? is a tried-and true-technique, of course. But the auctioneers for the Saffron, at Sheldon Good & Company, say they have never conducted a ?jump-start? auction before.

George Filopoulos, the president of Metrovest Equities, which recently sold 32 condos at the Beacon in Jersey City in one day at an end-of-sale auction for the second building in that complex, was one of several rival developers in Hudson County to express appreciation for the ?boldness? of the Fields Group?s move. If it works, he says, he might copy it.

The Fields group also developed the Waldo Lofts building in the nearby Powerhouse Arts District, and the Saffron has a similar artsy look: clean lines, abundant windows, gallery space and a community room that opens to a rooftop terrace.

For the 53 two-bedroom and 2 three-bedroom units at the Saffron, prices will be set in the high $400,000s to low $500,000s. The 21 one-bedroom units will be priced in the high $200,000s to low $300,000s, said James Caulfield Jr., a partner in Fields Development.

Sheldon Good will start bidding at $250,000 for the larger units, and $175,000 for the one-bedrooms. A 2 percent discount will be given off the high bid price to those buyers who close within 15 days.

Those wanting to take advantage of the federal $8,000 tax-credit program for first-time home buyers, which is set to expire on Nov. 30, will be guaranteed a speedy closing, provided they attend an open house and become ?prequalified? for financing, the developer said.

Mr. Caulfield and his partners ? his brother Robert Caulfield, and Larry O?Rourke ? said they were confident that the bidding would reach levels not ?out of whack? with the units? true value, even while providing buyers with a discount.

The three men said they decided on the auction as an alternative to a traditional presale marketing program, in which those who buy before a building is complete, or perhaps before model apartments are even finished, are given price discounts of 10 to 15 percent.

?We anticipate the auction discounts will come in at around those same percentages for the buyer,? Mr. Caulfield said. ?For our part, we will get a group of homes sold quickly, people moved in quickly, and the building will be up and running when it grand-opens.?

A year ago, when a presales program would have started, said Mr. O?Rourke, Lehman Brothers had just folded, and the market in Jersey City ? 10 minutes from Wall Street by PATH train, and bearer of the nickname ?Wall Street West? ? was ?in disaster mode.?

The Fields partners decided to wait, and study the options while completing construction. Last June, when the Beacon became the first high-end complex in the Hudson River area to auction units, the Fields partners attended and began to study how an auction might work for them.

Nearly 1,000 people came through the open houses held on five weekends before the auction at the Beacon, they learned from Sheldon Good. ?We realized: This is an incredible marketing tool,? Mr. O?Rourke said.

There will be eight open houses before the Saffron auction, which will be held at noon at the Westin Jersey City Newport. The first one is on Sunday, Oct. 11, and the final one is on Saturday, Nov. 7, the day before the auction. Open houses will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The auction will be organized according to apartment size; the top bidder in the one-bedroom category, for instance, will get first pick of the one-bedroom units, the runner-up will get second choice, and so on, according to Jeff Hubbard, the marketing director of Sheldon Good. The process will be repeated for two- and three-bedroom units. To help bidders in each size category decide on their first choices ahead of time, all 76 units will be shown during the open houses, including two furnished models.

After the auction, Mr. Caulfield said, a brokerage company will handle sales at the Saffron the traditional way. ?The word will be out about our building,? he said. ?The auction will have served as our big marketing push.?

The Saffron has an underground parking garage for residents, a ground-floor fitness studio that overlooks a landscaped courtyard between its buildings, and a top-floor community room opening to a large deck with a view of Manhattan across the river.

Each unit is equipped with a washer and dryer, Mr. Caulfield said, but a laundry room for ?larger, weekend laundry that could be done while you?re enjoying yourself out on the deck? is built in behind the community space. Also, a shower room has been installed there, for residents? use after sunning on the roof.

?The idea is community-building,? said Mr. Caulfield, predicting that buyers would be younger people, some of them artists of one kind or another. He described Jersey City as having a large concentration of artists.

At Waldo Lofts, the Fields Group set up an art gallery, with revolving shows of works by the residents. There are niches and walls that would be perfect for such a set-up at the Saffron as well, the developer said.