Once again, as we wrote last September when listed for $2,950,000:
A few months after Laughing Squid launched their blog from Albion Castle in early 2005 the Hunter’s Point property at 881 Innes Avenue was auctioned off at the Palace Hotel in front of a thousand spectators and sold for $2,090,000 (purchased for $400,000 in 1999).
The mortgage banker buyer had planned to resurrect the Albion Porter & Ale Brewery for which the castle was originally constructed and open a restaurant on-site as well. And while the restaurant and re-brewery plans never materialized, the interior of the San Francisco Historic Landmark was renovated and restored.
Reduced to $2,400,000 in March and then to $1,900,000 in April, yesterday the asking price for Albion Castle was reduced to $1,799,000. “Seller financing” still available.
What’s the old saying? Three most important things about real estate?
That place is in a bad area. BAD Area.
Nuff said.
400K + inflation = 540K. Not one penny more. The renovation has some value but they forgot the necessary reinforcements to sustain the weight of heavy artillery in the watchtower.
We are fulfilling a long cycle …few today were alive the last time deflation ruled. Deflation, a far worse beast then inflation…God help those who have not read history…”bad area” or not.
Looks like some squid was laughing all the way to the bank. From $400k to $2 mil in 6 years…sweet!
I love this place! The location is like a de-militarized zone of course, but it’s one of my favorite places in SF (the dolores park church being the top).
If it goes sub $750k I’d buy it. How much does it cost to put in a moat to protect from the neighbors?
“How much does it cost to put in a moat to protect from the neighbors?”
Well the property does have water rights to a 10,000 gallon/day underground spring according to one of the prior SS posts. So maybe not as much as you’d think?
Even the greater fool theory does not apply. Why would anyone with $1.8 want to live in this neighborhood?
The question, NelsonW, is whether there can be less than zero location. Kids can now have greater than 4.0 GPA, and there are a number of places in SF that have more than three “location” such the Melvin Belli house, so I think one can give this property a minus three “location.”
“How much does it cost to put in a moat to protect from the neighbors?”
Easier still, just buy one of the parcels that are offshore in the bay and then build up on piers : your moat already exists courtesy of the SF Bay. If you zoom up close in google maps you’ll see some fragments of those standard 25×100 parcels along the shoreline. The rest is underwater, literally.
But seriously, this little niche in the city is not as bad as commenters here make it out to be. Anyone who thinks that this place is dangerous should go out and visit to see for themselves. It is a little remote and feels like a hamlet somewhere out off of the Carquinez Strait, like Port Costa.
I’m not sure how remote or dangerous it is, but your nearest neighbors separating you from the rest of the city are housing projects. You’re almost surrounded by Westbrook Apts, Hunters Point, Hunters View, and the units on Jerrold, and then further to the southeast is the naval yard.
The “spring” is one of the historic creeks, right?