Million Dollar Monique Loft GUTTED
Once upon a time unit #201 at Monique Lofts was a million dollar loft wrangling for HGTV and glossy mag features. Today unit #201 is a gutted shell. In fact the listing doesn’t even have any photos of the interior. Instead they advertise, “This is your opportunity to create an original on blank canvas”.
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What happened!?
Back in 2006 just as the market was peaking this unit was purchased on 05/24/2006 for $501,500. The owner then apparently put $300,000 worth of renovations into it and put it on the market in November 2007 just as the market was starting its slide down. We toured the place in 2007 and it looked awesome! They had sandblasted the west wall creating an exposed concrete wall, sandblasted the ceiling and re-stained it, put in floating VG fir stairs, re-did the floors an industrial white epoxy, new chic Poliform Varenna kitchen, Antionio Lupi bath fixtures, Waterworks bathtub, custom steel stairs, and more.
After sitting on the market for almost a year it was delisted. Rumor has it they received an offer for a little over $900k but turned it down. I don’t know if it was ever even lived in. It certainly didn’t look like it when it hit the market.
I started to hear rumors a few months ago that the place had been gutted and sure enough it has been. I toured it last night and almost everything has been ripped out except the staircases, one light fixture and the sliding glass doors in the bedroom. Even plain old electrical outlets have been ripped out. So if you buy this place you’re going to need to put in basically everything. The nice thing is that the wall is still sandblasted and the ceiling redone :). Those are two very labor and mess intensive projects… At $325,000 for a 1,366 square foot unit it is a good deal. But you have the hassles of dealing with a short sale and it is going to be tough to finance. You’re either going to have to pay cash or use a 203K rehab loan.
I think this is a great unit though. At the time, while the interiors were awesome, I didn’t think anyone would pay a million bucks for a unit with not much of a view and so few windows. Today, for $325k plus a kitchen + baths, I think you’re looking at a pretty good deal if you’re handy.
If you go tour it, go during the day, with no lights it is dark! If you go at night bring your headlamp :).
Here’s a virtual tour from a few years ago and here is what it looks like now.
