West Village townhouse owners scrap RFP, list for $15M

“Substantial” demand was expected but did not pan out

70 Bank Street (center)
70 Bank Street (center)

The owners of a prewar West Village townhouse, having failed to sell the multi-family property through a request for proposal process last year, have relisted the 7,000-square-foot building in a more conventional fashion, asking $14.65 million.

The four-story, nine-unit townhouse at 70 Bank Street was built in 1837 and is 25 feet wide, StreetEasy shows. James Nelson and Mitchell Levine of Massey Knakal Realty Services have the listing. Neither was immediately available for comment.

The townhouse, located in the West Village landmark district, is primed for conversion. If converted, the home could be worth around $30 million and would have room for a rooftop deck with panoramic views of the Village, the listing says.

In June 2012, Chris Havens, the director of commercial property at aptsandlofts.com, listed the building for $17 million and launched a dedicated website to sell it through a request for proposal process for potential purchasers. The owner subsequently dropped the price to $14.9 million in July 2012 and delisted it for unspecified reasons in October 2012, StreetEasy shows.

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The sellers opted to use a RFP procedure “to simplify the sale, minimize impact on the building and the seller and to provide an orderly and transparent process,” documents on the website said. “Demand is expected to be substantial.” The sellers offered a 2 percent commission to the buyer’s broker, documents said.

The RFP deadline at the time was Sept. 30, 2012, and the seller planned to close the sale that year, the website says. Havens declined to comment on the RFP process or the new listing.

A Rye, N.Y., couple has owned the building since 1991, city property records show, though the property has been in the same family for four generations, the RFP site said. The owners have been renting out the units, with the most current rental listings averaging $3,500 per month, StreetEasy shows.