Image courtesy of Curbed.com

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the 70 Washington Street building is 80% sold out. Last month, the largest sale at 70 Washington was the purchase of two penthouses (my guess is the combination of an E and F line, based on the total square footage) by someone who plans to combine the two units for a total square footage of 2,720. I can’t confirm that the purchaser is Busta Rhymes or any other celebrity, but one of the units is the clock face duplex apartment that was featured on Curbed back in April, 2006. The total value of the duplex penthouse with two terraces and corner views of Brooklyn Bridge, Lower Manhattan, and the Statue of Liberty is $3.42 million (that’s $1261/sq.ft.).

Compare this to the article from the NY Times in June, 2006 on the former executives at Goldman Sachs and J. P. Morgan Chase paid $5.8 million ($1211/sq.ft.) for two adjoining apartments at 1 Main Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The two units, with a combined 4,790 square feet, have views of the East River and Manhattan. In 1998 when 1 Main Street went on sale, the two apartments sold to separate buyers for a total of $1.55 million (only $324/sq.ft. for both units).

Not a bad return, but it isn’t likely that we’ll see the same ROI 8 years from now in 2014, which would make the 70 Washington Street combined penthouse at $12.8 million or over $4700/sq.ft.