Get 5 Years of Free Taylor Gourmet Hoagies (But There’s a Catch)

Buyer incentives are nothing new in real estate transactions, but they usually take
the form of negotiable closing costs. Here’s one we haven’t come across before: five
years of free hoagies from Taylor Gourmet. That’s the deal offered by
Casey Patten, co-owner of Taylor, to the buyer of his Penn Quarter condo. The one-bedroom apartment,
on Seventh Street, Northwest, is listed at $489,000. In addition to the hoagies, there’s
an attractive kitchen with a breakfast bar (a good place to chow down on a hoagie)
and a private terrace, another good place for sandwich-scarfing.

We reached out to the condo’s listing agent,
Jay Bauer, with a few questions. For example, how many hoagies and how often? One a week, he
says, at any Taylor Gourmet. Whose idea was it? “I pitched it to Casey as a one-year
hoagie deal,” says Bauer, “but he said, ‘How about five years?’” The freebies come
in the form of a gift card worth $2,470, and the buyer can use it any way he or she
chooses—once a week, four a month, all at one time (though if choosing the last option,
Taylor asks to be notified 24 hours in advance).

While Bauer says he’s familiar with buyer incentives, this is a new one—“definitely
on the unique side.” Blushing only slightly, we asked if there’d been any “nibbles.”
Bauer says, “There’ve been shark attacks. I have people calling me already”—even before
the open house, which is this Sunday from 1 to 4 PM. If you are superstitious, consider
this, too: The apartment is on the seventh floor of 777 Seventh Street.

One last obvious question: Will there be hoagies at the open house? Bauer laughed.
“There will be plenty of Taylor Gourmet there for everybody.”

Carol Ross Joynt