Didn’t think you could get a deal on a 2,100-square-foot brand-spanking-new condo right off Union Square? Actually, if you don’t mind living on the ground floor, have we got a deal for you. Union Square Lofts is a factory conversion with entrances on University Place and 13
th and 14
th Streets; one sale closed there at $1,344 per square foot, and there are offers on all its other apartments. Except one — recently listed by Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Lisa Maysonet at a shockingly low $701 per square foot. With an asking price of $1.495 million, it’s a ground-level duplex currently configured as a two-bedroom with one and a half baths. So why the bargain-basement price? Because it’s in, well, the basement. Ground- and-basement-floor apartments like this one are always cheaper. But this is a bigger discount than usual. Developer Josh Guberman says he could afford to cut the price drastically because “it’s the least attractive unit. We really didn’t market it yet; we thought it was kind of a no-brainer.” Plus, the layout makes the loft less lofty: There are only windows on the south side and no full bedroom downstairs. But so what. You still get a private, keyed elevator entrance — one on each floor! — a “pre-mounted plasma-screen
TV,” and the satisfaction of knowing you scored a
bargain.
— Alec Appelbaum
