Yesterday during our lunch break at the Inman Real Estate Connect, my New York blog buddie Mitchell Hall invited Kristal Kraft and I to a broker’s Open House with lunch being served at a real Soho loft.

Now I have to tease Mitch a little bit.  He did manage to get us on the right subway.  But we got off at the wrong stop!  Fortunately, Kristal’s I-Phone had a nice little mapping system that we used to find the building

So, we climbed out of the subway to a neighborhood in the lower part of Manhattan.  When I lived in New York a bunch of years ago, it was an area full of run down walk-up tenements and industrial style lofts that were occupied by artists gutsy enough to live there.   You didn’t walk the side streets in daylight without risking life and limb - or at least your hand bag.

Not any more!  We saw one of his office’s listings that was being offered for a cool $6.25 million!   And it was an amazing use of about 5000 square feet of space. 

The neighborhood is full of buildings built in the early 19th century, and I think Mitchell said the one we saw was constructed in 1808!  The loft home certainly had a 21st century look to it, though!

The elevator went right to the front door of the unit.  Once inside, there were soaring windows – two stories tall – that let in lots of light.  The floors were light hardwood, and the support pillars had ornamentation that was typical of the by-gone era. 

I’ve seen a lot of amazing kitchens, but this place took my breath away.  The counters were like a patchwork quilt of different types of granite, stainless and silestone. 

This was a 10 WOW! 

Sadly, I missed another open at the Ansonia, a wonderfully ornate building on the upper west side that Mitchell has blogged about.  I didn’t want to miss the fabulous standing-room-only session back at the Inman Real Estate Connect!  More about that session later!

So, thank you so much, Mitchell!  You really helped us to enjoy your city!