Earlier this week, agent Brad Eaton of Select Real Estate was kind enough to set aside some time to give me a private tour of newly-offered 979 Willoughby: Bushwick’s first Scarano!

My first question was: why this location? I almost can’t think of a worse corner in Bushwick to put a luxury condo. Diagonally across the street is a huge, gravely empty lot where truck parts are stored. Beyond that, only a few hundred feet away, is the elevated M. (While I have to admit that the sound of the train is kind of cool — more white noise than nuisance — it’s still not terribly glamorous.) Around the corner is a rehabilitation center. Amenities are nonexistent for the kind of person who would pay $668K for a home. Unfortunately, Brad doesn’t know why the developer chose that site.

Before having seen the units, I was skeptical about the sizes. I have seen other Scarano buildings in East Williamsburg, and the mezzanines — extremely low-ceilinged jobs of dubious utility (we’re talkin’ crab-scuttle your way across the space) — are included in the square footage. Here, refreshingly, the mezzanines are full-height and of a generous size, and there would be no problem setting one up as a bedroom. That said, the living rooms and boxed bedrooms feel extremely small — in the two-bedroom units, I would take a wall down and incorporate a bedroom into the living room.

The kitchens and bathrooms are of high quality — at least from the progress made, it seems they will be. The floors are an attractive blonde wide wood plank. I found the radiators to be particularly cool, with a very solid, almost gothic-industrial look. Glass abounds in these units, and there is no shortage of light and air.


inside unit

toward kitchen

2nd level of penthouse

from mezzanine

bathroom

radiator

toward M tracks

view from the top

I let Brad know that advertising the condo as 7 blocks from the DeKalb L was making the place seem farther out than it really is, and that the Morgan stop — two stations nearer to the City — was actually closer. The Myrtle JMZ, a block and a half.

There’s no denying that these are pretty fabulous apartments. My quarrel isn’t even with the location — any place will fly at the right price.

But the pricing is totally screwy: 2B and 3B are the same price, but 3B has a mezzanine and huge ceilings. The corner units with basements and extra half bath are $499K while the one-bedrooms plus bedroom-sized mezzanines — on a higher floor — are only $465K. These kinks need to be worked out. I’m only happy to be proven wrong, but an at least 25% price cut is what’s needed across the board. Unit 2A might go at $250K — forget $400K. Just get ‘em sold.

Email Brad or call him at 917-502-6881.

Price list:

unit sqft beds/bath price
2A 896 0/1.5 $499,000
2B 882 0/1 $399,000
2C 1322 0/1.5 $499,000
3A 1151 1/1/mezz/balc $465,000
3B 834 0/1/mezz $399,000
3C 1136 1/1/mezz/balc $465,000
4A 1729 2/3/balc $668,000
4B 1883 2/3/balc $668,000

(I’m almost certain the square footage is not right on a couple of these, and the garages are included in the total.)

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