Does anyone know anything about these lofts?

My wife and I looked at two of the lofts last week. We liked them and are considering buying one if we purchase rather than rent. The location seems great. We really like Old City and the green space along the expressway will be great for our dogs.

I have a few concerns though:
1) the cost of heating/cooling given the old brick walls and windows
2) the steepness of the stairs leading up to the 4th floor unit and the ability of my 10 year old dog to make it up and down + carrying my bike up and down without killing myself
3) there is a skylight and i'm worried about it leaking

Is there any chance of my bike still being there each morning if I locked it up down on the street?

Anyways, any comments or information would be greatly appreciated. We'll be moving up to Philadelphia in early August.

I have been in many of those lofts when it was named "tobacco". What I can tell you is yes the sky lights didleak. Those stairs are a pain in the ass. The heating/cooling is more than your average new building do to window a/c units and no storm windows. As far as your bike goes it could be stolen in one night or a year but there was a huge problem in that area last summer. I live a block away and six bikes were stolen in one week. My suggestion would be to rent for a year to see if you like it before you bought.

are all units lofts in that building? I used to live on 3rd and want to move back to that area, would love to back to 3rd st. any idea on prices for that building?

Mid $200.000 for the smaller units and mid $300,000 for the 1500 sq ft and up.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/rfs/697183697.html


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericp/11389348/sizes/o/

we looked at units A3 and A4 which are directly on the corner over looking what used to be the lite bite diner... from what i can tell, the building has 3 or 4 stairwells that feed 4 units directly from the street... i think that the 4 units that are fed by the A stairwell (the corner units) were sold... and the others may have been rentals, but i'm not really sure...

there is a little bit of extra information at www.havanaloftsphilly.com

also the units that are for sale all have "efficient" central air units... i took a pretty good look at the skylight in A4 and didn't really see any signs of leaking... but as an architect, i also know that skylights will almost always leak eventually...

The new owner(3 years ago) did some minor rehab work. The condo fee seems low too so it might be worth it.

I was in the process of begining to make an offer for one of those places and things got shady. The owner will not release certain information until he has his deposit which made it seem like he had something to hide. Also, i spoke with the people who purchased a unit last year and they had nothing but bad things to say. First, they said the owner lives in Israel and has no interest in negotiating with the offer price or fixing anything with the building. He is just looking to get rid of the place. Second, they said the day after they moved the water heater went out and it took them several weeks for the owner to replace it, it is on the roof and shared by all the units. Third, the walls are thin and you can hear everyone in the building. Finally, the building is really old and the structure needs to be tuck-pointed.

I live in one of the units and recently got a phone call from "management" stating they wanted to make us happy as they heard people are talking bad about them. Wasnt me who has talked bad about them but I wasnt surprised. Gave them a list of things that would make me happier including getting rid of the weeds growing up thru the sidewalk. Call was 3 weeks ago, was nice to hear from them, but have seen NO action.

why anyone would want to buy right now is beyond me but the building looks cheap and of poor quality. rent and save up more money so you can buy twice the space in 2 years.
anyway, i walk buy it frequently and it just seems like they are pawning the building off as newly refurbished but the only new thing on it is the paint. the windows looks old and leaky, if the building owner cared, he would have the side walk repaired and a retail tenant would already be in the lower level space.
i'd wait for more "price reductions".