The Hudson Blue residential building at 423 West Street in the West Village was acquired by CapitalSource Bank, its mortgage holder, in a foreclosure yesterday, according to an article today by Craig Karmin at wsj.com
The bank, which held a $18.9 million lien on the property, had launched the foreclosure action more than two years ago, the article said, adding that "CapitalSource director George Lora said the firm plans to find a new buyer for the property."
The foreclosure sale of the 10-story tower that "once commanded a $25 million asking price" is "the latest example of a project born during the years of easy credit and surging demand for new condos that imploded when the boom ended," the article continued.
The article said that real estate brokers said that Leonardo DiCaprio, the article, had "signed a contract to buy at least two floors in the project..., but didn't close on the units because the property never sold enough units for its offering plan to be declared effective by the New York attorney general's office.
Horizen Global, the Hudson Blue developer, was formed in 2002 by Michael Yanko and Eran Conforty, and they began marketing the project in 2005 as part of the new "Gold Coast" on West Street, where the glass-facade building abutting the Hudson afforded spectacular water views and was a few doors just to the north of similar but larger towers designed by Richard Meier.
The developers used different kinds of glass for parts of the building, depending on the amount of sunlight, the article said, adding that Mr. Yanko told an interviewer at one point that they considered subsidizing a private chef for residents.
Apartments were offered as single-floor, one-bedroom units of 1,245 square feet but when that sales plan was not successful, the developers considered converting them to duplexes.
The developers, the article said, "switched gears again in March 2008, bringing in Sotheby's International Realty to find a buyer for the entire building, with an asking price of $25 million. The price was reduced to $21 million that same month....In the foreclosure auction, CapitalSource bid $6.8 million."
A November 15, 2007 article by Braden Keil in The New York Post noted that since it was first reported in 2005 that Mr. DiCaprio "was buying in the now nearly completed Hudson Blue condo building in the West Village, the price and the size of his penthouse apartment has decreased substantially," adding that "It isn't costing $10 million, or even $5 million, as previously reported. It's now under $3 million. And it's not the three apartments that he was supposedly buying with Bill Clinton crony Ron Burkle. It's a single one-bedroom, 11/2-bath condo of approximately 1,200 square feet. Included in the top-floor unit in the 10-story glass-encased building are a private 800-square-foot rooftop terrace with a hot tub, a fireplace in the living room, a gourmet kitchen with a skylight, high ceilings and lots of marble."
The building occupies the former site of The Pit Stop, a local repair garage.
Designed by Patrick Han, the very attractive building is notable for the thin diagonal pier on its mostly glass facade. The building, which is 23.5 feet wide and between Perry and West 11th Streets, has a setback at the ninth floor.
All apartments have fireplaces and the building has private storage areas and a wine cellar and at one point Mr. Yanko was quoted as saying the developers planned to have "as a private chef in the cellar with a common kitchen making food for the weekend, and I'm actually subsidizing the chef for the first year as part of the attraction."
The bank, which held a $18.9 million lien on the property, had launched the foreclosure action more than two years ago, the article said, adding that "CapitalSource director George Lora said the firm plans to find a new buyer for the property."
The foreclosure sale of the 10-story tower that "once commanded a $25 million asking price" is "the latest example of a project born during the years of easy credit and surging demand for new condos that imploded when the boom ended," the article continued.
The article said that real estate brokers said that Leonardo DiCaprio, the article, had "signed a contract to buy at least two floors in the project..., but didn't close on the units because the property never sold enough units for its offering plan to be declared effective by the New York attorney general's office.
Horizen Global, the Hudson Blue developer, was formed in 2002 by Michael Yanko and Eran Conforty, and they began marketing the project in 2005 as part of the new "Gold Coast" on West Street, where the glass-facade building abutting the Hudson afforded spectacular water views and was a few doors just to the north of similar but larger towers designed by Richard Meier.
The developers used different kinds of glass for parts of the building, depending on the amount of sunlight, the article said, adding that Mr. Yanko told an interviewer at one point that they considered subsidizing a private chef for residents.
Apartments were offered as single-floor, one-bedroom units of 1,245 square feet but when that sales plan was not successful, the developers considered converting them to duplexes.
The developers, the article said, "switched gears again in March 2008, bringing in Sotheby's International Realty to find a buyer for the entire building, with an asking price of $25 million. The price was reduced to $21 million that same month....In the foreclosure auction, CapitalSource bid $6.8 million."
A November 15, 2007 article by Braden Keil in The New York Post noted that since it was first reported in 2005 that Mr. DiCaprio "was buying in the now nearly completed Hudson Blue condo building in the West Village, the price and the size of his penthouse apartment has decreased substantially," adding that "It isn't costing $10 million, or even $5 million, as previously reported. It's now under $3 million. And it's not the three apartments that he was supposedly buying with Bill Clinton crony Ron Burkle. It's a single one-bedroom, 11/2-bath condo of approximately 1,200 square feet. Included in the top-floor unit in the 10-story glass-encased building are a private 800-square-foot rooftop terrace with a hot tub, a fireplace in the living room, a gourmet kitchen with a skylight, high ceilings and lots of marble."
The building occupies the former site of The Pit Stop, a local repair garage.
Designed by Patrick Han, the very attractive building is notable for the thin diagonal pier on its mostly glass facade. The building, which is 23.5 feet wide and between Perry and West 11th Streets, has a setback at the ninth floor.
All apartments have fireplaces and the building has private storage areas and a wine cellar and at one point Mr. Yanko was quoted as saying the developers planned to have "as a private chef in the cellar with a common kitchen making food for the weekend, and I'm actually subsidizing the chef for the first year as part of the attraction."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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