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Long Waits, Lost Hopes at 25 Murray Street
“Picture yourself here soon,” teased a colorful ad for Tribeca Space in the September 2006 Trib. But “soon” has long passed. The developers, Brad and Harold Thurman of Thurcon Properties, have yet (as of May 1) to obtain a temporary certificate of occupancy, enabling buyers to close on their apartments. After more than seven years of construction, the building was completed six months ago. “We are anticipating to start closings with buyers by the end of May,” Brad Thurman told the Trib in an April 30 e-mail. The 12-story condo conversion, with its 74 finished apartments and handsomely furnished lobby, runs a full block of Church Street, between Warren and Murray. It is an assemblage of five buildings, topped by a massive addition, that all together makes up an imposing complex. Corcoran first began marketing the apartments in spring 2006. Since then, buyers in contract have been left waiting and wondering when they might move in. Many could wait no longer and pulled out of their contracts. One of them, a 29-year-old lawyer who asked not to be identified, said in an interview she was excited about settling into her new one-bedroom, with its 11-foot ceilings and low maintenance costs, when she signed on in June 2006. Fifteen months later, still unable to move in, she rescinded her contract. “It was just a really nice setup,” said the former buyer, who expected to move in by December, 2006. Come January there was still no word on when she could close. “All I wanted was someone to explain to me what the issue was but it was impossible to get a straight answer.” The Corcoran agent, Jim Brawders, “put it on the developer,” she recalled. “He said, ‘We can’t get all the answers.’” The unexplained delays led to a flurry of angry, anonymous postings on the real estate Web site Streeteasy.com and a blog set up by one of the buyers. A typical message was like this one, posted in June 2007, and aimed at Corcoran and Brawders. “You promised me that i’d be living in tribeca space by the end of last year!!!!!!! what do you have to say for yourself??????? you’re making my life miserable!!!!” Responding to a request for comment, Brawders wrote in an e-mail that Corcoran provided whatever information the developer gave the agency. “After all,” Brawders wrote, “[the developer] is the person that is responsible for delivering the building. After so much time went by, we had to stop giving out time frames for closings. We have never encountered a situation like this before.” At the end of June 2007, the postings finally brought a response from Thurman, who sought to clear up “unfounded rumors.” “We have been diligently preparing for closing,” stated the letter, posted on the Streeteasy Web site. He attributed the delays, in part, to an easement issue with a neighboring building that had been settled six months before. The letter anticipated closing “shortly” but gave no date because “there are so many different entities and processes involved…” About a dozen disgruntled buyers decided to organize. They met for drinks at the Soho Grand Hotel to map out a strategy. One of them was Nicole Douillet, 29, an investment banker who along with her girlfriend had signed a contract in August 2006, with the expectation of celebrating Thanksgiving in their new apartment. “We were hoping that our numbers would give us some sort of leverage,” Douillet said. “They were really great people and we were all saying we hoped we’d be toasting each other on someone’s roof deck at the end of summer. Of course, that didn’t happen.” The group hired a lawyer, and a letter to the state Attorney General brought action. Buyers were given 15 days to cancel their contracts. All but two of them did, Douillet said. In all, 30 contracts were rescinded. “The recision was a bit of a relief valve,” said Brawders, “because all of the people that were really angry were able to pull out and buy elsewhere.” Douillet said she would have been willing to wait up to a year to move in, so long as she knew why she was waiting. “But the fact that we didn’t get any information made me uneasy,” she said, adding that she believes Corcoran agents communicated as much as they knew. What also made her uneasy, Douillet said, was Thurcon’s management role when the building finally opens. “Who knows what’s going to go wrong once we move in if he’s made mistakes and cut corners here and there,” she said. “I’m going to allow him to fix them?” But another buyer, who has remained in contract since last June, said he is not troubled by the building’s problems, though he had expected to move to Tribeca Space with his family “in a couple of months.” “We’re realistic and we know this stuff happens,” said the buyer, who did not want to be named. “This really hasn’t been a huge issue for us.” Brad Thurman said 48 of the 74 units are in contract and they are selling well “despite the delays.” Asked to explain those lengthy delays, he gave this written response: “The main reason for the majority of delays in getting the TCO have been amending architectural, plumbing, sprinkler and boiler plans & filing documents and schedules to reflect as built conditions. In addition many field inspections were undertaken for the various trades over a period of time.” Only a plan examination and a boiler reinspection, early this month, remain before a TCO can be granted, Thurman wrote. “It goes without saying that these delays have been costly to sponsor and purchasers alike,” Thurman noted in his e-mail. “It makes no sense to look back and seek blame and it benefits no one. Finally the end is in sight.”
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