A millennial spent $1 million converting a Tribeca loft into a swanky bachelor pad — and just sold it for $6.9 million
Alfonso Cobo paid $4.6 million for a three-bed New York loft and turned it into a one-bed bachelor pad with features including a 16ft olive tree.
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Tim Lenz
- Alfonso Cobo, 32, bought a three-bedroom apartment in an old Tribeca warehouse for $4.6 million in 2022.
- The tech entrepreneur, who studied architecture, spent $1 million making it a bachelor pad.
- Cobo sold his loft to pursue a bicoastal lifestyle and more renovation projects worldwide.
In 2022, Alfonso Cobo was on the hunt for new digs in Manhattan when he decided to look at listings in Tribeca.
Cobo, originally from Spain's Canary Islands, lived in a handful of New York City neighborhoods over the course of eight years.
"I've done this thing of moving a lot from Brooklyn to Manhattan," Cobo, a 32-year-old serial tech entrepreneur and the founder of social media platform Hypelist, told Business Insider. "Tribeca was a neighborhood I had never tried."
Eventually, he came across a listing for a three-bedroom apartment in The Fairchild, a seven-storey converted warehouse built in the 1880s.
"It was very, very dated. Everything was super white, dark floors, glossy white kitchen cabinets," Cobo said. "It just wasn't me at all. It didn't have the level of warmth I wanted. It didn't have any personality."
But Cobo isn't one to shy away from a project — so he took a leap and bought the 2,000-square-foot apartment for $4.6 million.
Tim Lenz
Three years before buying the Tribeca loft, Cobo sold a social media app he created to Squarespace for $50 million.
As much as he might fit the bill of a tech entrepreneur, he says he feels like a designer first and foremost.
"Even though I didn't love architecture as an industry as a whole when I used to like work there," Cobo added, "I did really miss that physicality of designing spaces."
That itch to create is partly why he felt he could take on a real estate project as extensive as this — and was willing to pay 8% above the asking price.
"I do love putting all my passion and love into designing my own spaces."
Tim Lenz
Cobo, who has an architecture degree from a British university, credits Ross with encouraging him to work in "unconventional" design choices that took his home "to the next level."
"We put a lot of effort in doing a really high-end renovation," he said.
The process ended up costing Cobo $1 million as it involved spending on a number of custom-designed features.
Tim Lenz
From the sofas and curved windows to the lamp in the dining room that spirals down from the 21-foot ceiling and the metal-clad library, almost every inch of the apartment was tailor-made to suit Cobo's personality and style, including nods to his Mediterranean heritage.
One of his favorite features is the dark gray kitchen island, which he said and Ross spent "weeks and weeks" picking out.
Cobo's priority was sourcing unique and high-quality materials, which meant the space turned out far from the "sad beige" aesthetic often associated with millennials.
"Even though I'm quite minimal when it comes to design, there's a lot of layering and a lot of texture," he said.
Tim Lenz
Having found success at a relatively young age, Cobo said he didn't feel the need to have an additional two bedrooms.
"I don't have a family, I'm still single, so I really created a space that fulfilled my needs at the time."
What eventually turned into his bachelor pad was an oasis within the hustle and bustle of NYC where Cobo could work, be social with friends, work, and disconnect. "I really wanted to adapt the space to those needs."
Not having a guest room wasn't an issue, Cobo added. If his parents visited, for example, they got the bedroom while he set up camp on the couch.
Tim Lenz
Given the apartment's modern design, Cobo wanted to add a more earthy element to his home.
The result was a huge 16-foot olive tree, which sits on the first floor and was no small feat to install.
"To bring that in, we actually had to close the traffic in the street, bring in a crane, crane the tree up, and then fit it through a really small window," he said.
It was "a whole thing," Cobo said. And for a moment, he had real doubts the tree would ever get into the loft.
But when it finally did, he said "it changed the space completely and brought that added missing piece of nature."
Tim Lenz
Working with Jessica Markowski, an agent from NYC real estate firm Serhant, Cobo said it took about three months to find the right buyer.
This week the loft sold for $6.9 million — making it one of the most expensive one-bedroom sales in Manhattan this year, he said.
Cobo wouldn't be drawn on the new owner, but said the individual shares a similar lifestyle and aesthetic.
And while he's renovated a handful of residences before, letting go of his Tribeca apartment wasn't easy. "I was quite emotional because I put so much of myself in it."
Nurselle
Cobo's decision to sell the loft was prompted by increasingly dividing his time between New York and California.
As well as working on his latest tech venture, he's also looking ahead to future renovations through his real estate company, Olivar.
Creating beautiful homes is one of his "passion projects," Cobo said, adding that he has projects underway in the US, Bali, and Spain.
"I'm always thinking about what the next thing is, what I can build next, what I can renovate."
