Love’s labor: loft in Chinatown
Entering the condo at 5 Hudson St. in Chinatown is kind of like entering an optical illusion: The inside is nothing like the outside.
Located just beyond the Chinatown Gate, the place is accessed through a door beside the New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, one of those neighborhood joints that advertises itself with huge red letters and Chinese characters. Walk through the door, and at first you'll think you accidentally turned into a hallway to the Chinese restaurant's bathrooms. But after venturing up some stairs, you're suddenly inside what feels like a huge, sunny artist's loft in New York City.
“It's the way lofts used to be,” said Lawrence Shevick, the real estate agent handling the $1.1-million condo's sale.
At nearly 2,000 square feet, the two-bedroom home is as spacious as many suburban houses, but there's no mistaking this is in the middle of downtown. And with its open layout, wall-sized windows, wall of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and painting studio, the home feels urban, arty and cerebral — which makes sense, because the current owner is a former neurologist turned painter.
Dr. Tom Walshe, a former Brigham & Women's doctor, bought the place nearly 20 years ago, and had the entire condo gutted and renovated. He put in wood floors, two modern bathrooms, a master bedroom with 12-foot ceilings and a bright kitchen with stainless steel cabinets and appliances that he purchased from a restaurant supply store, making it truly a chef's kitchen.
But the condo — covered in artwork including lithographs by Joan Miro — wasn't always this cool, clean and contemporary, Walshe said.
“When I moved in here … you could look down and see the restaurant below through (holes in) the floor,” Walshe said. “It was raw space.”
Then, he pulled out several photos showing how the home, located inside a 12-unit building, looked when he first moved in: dark, cavernous and dilapidated.
“I remember what it was like when I sold it to him (before it) was gutted down to the studs,” said Shevick, who was Walshe's agent during the purchase, which was for a small fraction of the current list price. Then, with a playful smile, Shevick jokingly said to Walshe: “I can't believe you bought this! I'm a good salesman.”