Ariel West Square Footage

So, I've been in the market to buy a place for a while and have checked out easily 100+ apartments on the UWS as well as other parts of the city. What has me flummoxed is the Livable (Net) Square Footage of Ariel West. which appears to be significantly less than the Reported Square Footage. And I gather that that's why the apartment price/sq ft in this building is much less than what one would... [more]

So, I've been in the market to buy a place for a while and have checked out easily 100+ apartments on the UWS as well as other parts of the city. What has me flummoxed is the Livable (Net) Square Footage of Ariel West. which appears to be significantly less than the Reported Square Footage. And I gather that that's why the apartment price/sq ft in this building is much less than what one would expect for such a building. My sense is that there's a lot of confusion among buyers regarding what they should pay. They may pay $1,600 per sq ft which appears on it's face to be a great deal but when one does a deep dive into the numbers, it no longer seems very attractive. For example, I looked at an apartment that had a Reported Square Footage of 2,350 sq ft. I then went thru the apartment layout and added up all the rooms as well as estimated sq ft of areas such as hallways, closets, etc. What I found was that the Actual Sq Ft was really AT MOST 1,700 sq ft or approximately 70% (or less) of the Reported Square Footage. For the city, I think this is definitely on the (very) low side. I should add that it's been reported in the past that the developer, Extell, for some reason added public space sq ft to each apartments sq ft. So, if one adjusts for the above numbers then you could argue that paying $1,600 per sq ft is really like paying $2,000+ sq ft if one adjusts for the exaggerated Reported Sq Ft. Thoughts? [less]