Two mid-rise residential condominium buildings are recent successes, according to two articles in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal.

"Buyers have snapped up all but one of the units in a new luxury condo at 41 Bond street in just a few weeks and the project is even fetching boom-time prices," according to an article by Laura Kusisto.

DDG Partners LLC began marketing 41 Bond Street on June 9, and all of the units except the townhouse are in contract and the penthouse is in contract for a total price including transfer taxes of $8.4 million, or more than $3,100 a square foot, the article said.

"We've sold the majority of the units in the building at pricing comparable to 40 Bond in '08,' Joe McMillan, chief executive of DDG, said, the article added.

The Chelsea Carriage House at 159 West 24th Street went on the market earlier and was hit hard by the financial crisis.

"Not long after the Chelsea Carriage House went on the market in autumn 2008, the flowers in the window flower boxes began to wilt, sales shriveled and bills to contractors went unpaid," according to the article by Josh Barbanel, which added that "the lender eventually moved to foreclose, and the keys were handled over to a receiver."

"Now, two years after the court-appointed received took over, the 24 condos at Chelsea Carriage House are back on the market, with an unusual twist: The same three young developers are in change, and they are working with the same bank, most of the same contractors and even the same model apartments."

"The return of the Chelsea carriage house, a converted former horse stable and automobile garage on West 24th street near Seventh Avenue, shows how sometimes a bit of luck, a turn in the market, passionate enthusiasm and perhaps even a sense of fair play can save a project," the article said.

The developer, Broad Mill Development Group, of which Eamon Roche, Joshua Sachs and Eric Gray are principals, had completed, with the help of a $14.6 million mortgage from MidFirst Bank, about 85 percent of the project by Labor Day 2008 and had added two stories to the six-story building and created a hydraulic lift at the base of the building for a garage, the article said.

The market deteriorated and in June 2009 MidFirst filed a foreclosure action and the developers complained that the bank was trying to "steal the building," the article continuing, adding, however, that both the bank and developers agreed to work together again.

"It was important to get everyone out alive, as much as possible," Mr. Roche told the Journal, and Doug Rutley, a senior vice president of the bank, said that "common sense" helped bring the parties together, the article said.

Sales were launched in mid-June and offers have been accepted on four apartments, the article noted, adding that "the building is across the street form a Whole Foods" and "the team stuck with its original showrooms and marketing plan, with one exception: this time, wilt-proof plastic flowers were put on the upper flowers of the building."