1) A reader lets us know about the real perks at Dumbo's 70
Washington: "I recently bought a studio in 70 Washington St. The sales
office called me on Wednesday to notify me that they are having a brunch for
all new owners on July 31st."
2) Regarding the East
Village townhouse that Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz bought, a Curbed
reader writes, "My mind is just boggling at the $3.4M they paid for this house.
I cannot figure out why. This is not a ritzy nabe. My friend lives next door,
and pays less than $1K a month rent for his apartment. There are routinely
prostitutes and johns on this block and on 12th St between the same 2nd
and 3rd Aves. Fast food places and NYU dorms on the avenues. This housing bubble
is nuts."
3) Regarding the froth
bubbling at Hell's Kitchen development Clinton West, a Curbed reader clarifies:
"I emailed Corcoran regarding Clinton West, and here's the 'procedure.' The
apartments haven't really already gone to contract based on the floorplans, but
people are purchasing options to go to contract on them well in advance.
Pretty heady for the developer, I'd say. It's almost like the real estate
equivalent of the personal seat license." [Whoa. ed.]

Two buildings mentioned on Curbed this week provoked debate. After the jump,
readers weigh in The Walden (Harlem's hot new "luxury" spot), and the $16m
building for sale at 401 West St. in the West Village.

Regarding The
Walden, the new development at 69 East 130th Street:
1) "When I
saw your post about the new Walden building, I recognized the address as the new
home of one of my coworkers. They just bought what I believe is one of the
penthouses for substantially less than $995,000, so I can't imagine
anyone is really paying that much. Sadly, I am not likely to view the interior,
but I did spot the floorplan, which was, I believe, a three-bedroom with a
spacious master suite."
2) "An amusing thing -- in their rendering,
on your website, they show trees and greenery, as though the building were
facing a park. Hah! It faces a lot full of garbage and, one block away, another
lot where all the can-collecting homeless people hang out and sell their cans.
Have you ever seen them with thousands of cans in carts, rolling north
through the city? This is where they are going."
3) "I could have
sworn I saw another 'The Walden' down in Alphabet City (does anyone call it that
anymore) a couple of weeks ago. If forced to guess I'd say on 6th or 5th Street
near Avenue C. It looked a lot like the one you show on 130th Street. Am I
seeing double, or did someone at Elliman decide that if it's worth doing
badly, it's worth doing badly twice?"

Regarding the walkup for sale for $16 million at 401 West Street in the West
Village:
1) "It was with great pleasure that I read the ostensibly
ludicrous listing at 165 Charles Street for $1327 per buildable foot. But on
examining the listing, your tipster seems to have miscalculated. The
building itself--no doubt a real peach--may be 22.25 x 90, but the lot is
plainly stated on the listing as 44.5 x 93.75 yielding a footprint of 4172 sf
multiplied by the 6.02 F.A.R. This allows a theoretical buildable of 25,115 and
therefore, a price per foot of about $637--certainly in line for the
neighborhood. There may be other considerations with respect to the building
height, but without examining it further, it seems a leap to assume that the
sliver law kicks in unaffected by anything else here. Just a thought..."

2) "Re: 401 West St: it s probably even worse than your writer
imagines, since the City Planning Commission is considering to down-zone the
area from 6.02 to 4.00 residential FAR. Of course, if they got their foundations
in before the new zoning went into effect (possibly as soon as this fall), they
could keep the 6.02."

Thanks, as always, to all that wrote. Got something to say? We're all ears.