At least one reader was recently wondering about the going price per square foot over at The St. Regis (188 Minna). Well, unit #27C just hit the market (it’s a 1,670 square foot two bedroom/two and one half bath). They’re asking $2,750,000. And yes, that’s $1,646 per square foot.
∙ Listing: 188 Minna Street #27C (2/2.5) – $2,750,000 [MLS]
Wow, now this is truly high end SF condo porn. Though it makes you wonder that at $1650/sq ft, what the hell is Infinity (better location but no where near the luxury/service as the St. Regis) doing selling it’s upper floor bayview units for near $2000/sf ft (e.g. 31B (northwest corner and about 1,600 sq ft based on the website figure) is selling for $3.2 million). Can St.Regis actually be a value purchase even at these astronomical prices?!?! And you get Gore as your neighbor, though Dunleavy is long gone…
Awesome unit, but I think I’d lose the leopard skin rug.
I’m not a high class guy or anything, but man, that kitchen and bathrooms look pretty crappy. I think it’s the white cabinets that are throwing me off in the kitchen and the marble in the bathroom. Also, the mirror in the bathroom looks kinda motel-like.
And that leopard print rug isn’t high end SF condo porn–it’s just porn, period.
I think if a low class guy like me got into that place and Ikea’d it up a bit, I’d be doing the owner a favor.
I actually feel the price is close to reasonable on this one. Looking at the interior work, I’m very curious which industry the previous owner was in.
With Dunleavy gone, hopefully S. Jackson doesn’t move in.
If so, there goes the neighborhood…..
I was hoping for a new record for the HOA dues, but they seem to have demurely omitted them, and yes, I cannot afford it so I shouldn’t ask.
What I find is neat is how, if you leave out location, views, building amenities, and the high end finishes superficially layered over the original minimalist buildout (those white cabinets bravely bearing up under that STONE), you have a ‘right out of the condo plan book’ U-shaped kitchen overlooking a living/dining. Room for a couple stools at the counter, round dining table to seat four (if the ceiling is concrete slab – hope the fixture centers on the table), and basic living room furniture layout, two plain walls with natural light at one end only. Again, leaving out finishes, you could get this precise layout down to within 1 inch for $150,000 in Kansas City. If nothing else, this proves it is all location, location, location.
It’s the St. Regis and I can handle a condo priced at $1,664/sq.ft., but other than the master bath, the interior of this place looks like something you’d see over at the Beacon only with fewer windows. (No offense intended to the Beacon.) At best this is “new money” high end. At best.
Well at the infinity at least the HOA fees for that size unit won’t be something like $2,000/month. And that $2k is just the base and could easily double if a bunch of room service and maid service was used.
Oh Blah. People can take their heirloom Chippendale and silver anyplace they wish, be it The Beacon, The St Regis or 140 South Van Ness. Old money is trained not to point out that sort of thing. Maybe thats why a blue blood former Vice President has a residence there with the other hoi polloi.
http://sfnewsletter.wordpress.com/2007/02/23/sold-at-the-st-regis-188-minna-30a/
would be the most recent comp for you. 34f sold in 2006 for $1604/sf, at $2,450,000, was a 2 bed, 2.5 bath, 1527 square feet.
What makes this a reasonable buy?? The St Regis name maybe, but the unit lacks windows in the living area, the kitchen is nothing special, the cabinetry looks cheap in both the bath and kitchen, the leopard rug is disgusting (I hope it’s not part of the staging), and views are facing the wrong side of SF (translate – no water or landmark views). And 2 grand for HOA? Forget it!
I’d rather take my money to Infinity or Brannan at $1100/sqft, pay half the HOA, and put in my own luxurious touches.
At $1,646 per square foot, this unit barfs…
And oh yeah, the view faces SomaGrand!! Go figure…
I saw a 2 BR unit in the St Regis about a year ago, before they sold out. Same price and size as this but a much more interesting corner unit with a balcony, 2 walls of floor to ceiling windows in the LR/DR and floor to ceiling windows in the kitchen. It even had bay views from the second bedroom – which had windows on two sides.
I imagine this one cost the owner quite a bit less than he/she is now asking.
BTW the HOA dues were about $1,400 a month. But you had to pay extra to use the healthclub/spa. Dontcha hate that nickle/dime stuff?
My eyes hurt.
I realize this site is mostly about decorating but… with the mortage market rapidly melting down, I think these kind of SF prices are not going to be sustained much longer.
Can we agree if this unit sells at close to asking, there is no bubble and it’s a bull market in San Francisco? Nevermind the fact that the entire St. Regis is sold out for over $1,200/sqft a year or so ago.
“Can we agree if this unit sells at close to asking, there is no bubble and it’s a bull market in San Francisco?”
My only fear is that you’re actually serious, but to answer your question…no.
Maybe more relevant to the market outlook than the sales price of this porn palace: does anyone know what percentage of first time buyers in SF have been using zero down loans in the past year, who would be shut out if (when) these loans go away?
Also, will these large new buildings that have their own lenders need to crack down on buyer credit quality the way we are reading about in the news?
I don’t know. With the luxury image that the St. Regis name boasts and the $2.75M price tag, I would expect nothing less than grandeur.
After seeing the kitchen, bathroom and overall unit, this is SO … not grandiose.
Looks like another owner / listing agent on this one when you look at the tax record. Interesting!
Had dinner with friends at W last night and headed for to the St.Regis bar for drinks afterwards and was thouroughly impressed. I think what people here are forgetting is that you have a freakin’ 5 star hotel beneath your unit. Granted, you gotta pay the bucks for the extra amenities, but if I had the money to burn, the St.Regis (and Four Seasons) is in a class of its own. Remeber, you’re not just buying the unit itself, but also entry into this building.
These units are fantastic but at $1600 a square foot might its just too much. Looks like the listing agent is also the owner and she has had it only for a year. Didnt see the comment anywhere on the listing either that stated the owner is a licensed real estate agent. Perhaps its because that will drive half the traffic away.
Realtors are supposed to disclose when they are selling their own listings.
By the way, it should be noted that No. 25 B was withdrawn earlier in the year at $2.395 after being listed at $2.5 for two months. It was bigger and had a corner view, for $350,000 less!
I guess it just shows that even a real estate agent can have unrealistic expectations about price when selling her own home. Perhaps she thinks that since inventory for high-end condos is so low, she can just name her own price.
I would suggest that wealthy people didn’t become wealthy by being STUPID.
This is my first time getting a peak at the St. Regis residences, and I am completely disgusted and confused. I obviously had the dilusion that the beautiful design of the lobby would translate into the residences. Plus, the building is an SOM design – usually good at what they do. But all I’m seeing in these photos (leopard skin rugs will be removed bf move-in btw) are cheap cabinets, odd moldings, the smallest and worst kitchen layout (completely not high-class), and walls that interrupt windows (look at the little skew they needed to do in the living room to avoid a window). God, isn’t worth half that!
“Again, leaving out finishes, you could get this precise layout down to within 1 inch for $150,000 in Kansas City.”
For added comparison, my parents live in this same layout in upstate New York for $700/month rent. That would make it worth less than a $100k mortgage, right?
I can’t believe that the ST. REGIS has layouts like this?!?! I can’t stand it when the worse of Mission Bay developments have this tacky, open-kitchen layout. How are multi-millionaires suppose to entertain is such a cheap space?
A condo at the Four Seasons just sold rather quickly, listed at just under $2 mil. It was a little bit smaller — they had taken down the wall in the second bedroom to extend the living room.
http://sfcondo.org/2007/03/14/what-sold-fast-four-seasons/
Take some mushrooms, put Fantasia on the Plasma and walk around this crib and you might drop the $2,750,000 for it.
The Four Season’s condo is a WHOLE different class! The parquet floors are gorgeous, the moldings are rich looking (even to a stark modernist like me!), the kitchen is double the size, and most of all, the windows are huge and the walls are correctly placed so as not to interfere with them.
If that place went for $1.95, then I’ll give her $750k for the St. Regis.
worst staging ever. especially for that unit, which needs all the help it can get.
It’s in contract.
If it’s really in contract and if it got near the asking, then that’s great for places like Infinity, which is not as luxurious and without the Regis name, but still has a great location, some better views, and a price point that 30-40% less…
What a dufus, the real estate agent who bought this one (27C) owned it for 2.5 years and then put it on the market and where it has been sitting for more than a year. No doubt after the three years of free HOA ran out, the $2182.50 of HOA, plus $225 per parking space, started getting expensive.
Realty trac has an auction listed for one of this square footage, so you can see where this is heading. Mortgage by Countrywide. After a couple of price drops, it’s been listed at 250K under the last sales office asking price since January 2010, which is about where I’m guessing she paid. Asking Rent for 32C, 5 floors up, is $8395. That means they are asking $2182 (HOA) + $2500 (prop tax), plus $3713. That puts this at a value of $1.7M, more than $1M under its 2007 ask.
You can see this all over the city. This downfall has so much longer to run because of the thousands of units like this one that were initially cheap but now have become very expensive. Don’t worry about this owner, though, she’s a real estate professional (agent for Pac Union). Drank her own kool aid and now she’s soaking in it. And when this one sells for a half a million to a million dollar loss, imagine what the owners of the other units in the building will start to do. A long way to run indeed!
27C doesn’t appear to have ever sold. 32C never rented, but is now for a new lower rent at $7995.
UPDATE: Sub-2007 Pricing for a Luxury Two-Bedroom Pad