Brownstoner: Brooklyn Real Estate and Renovation

Wednesday Blogwrap

Temporary ‘Photoville’ Village Coming To BBP Pier 3 This Summer [BHB]
More Building Brooklyn Award Winners [Eagle]
From Philly, With Love: The Divine Lorraine [AVFTTF]
Jay And Lloyd’s: Baby Potato Pancakes [SB]
Future Brooklyn: The Dadvorcé Mancave [The Awl]
Photo by 12th Street David

Categories: Blogwrap

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 4:30 PM | Comment

Building of the Day: 2307 Beverley Road

(All photos by Christopher D. Brazee, for Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2012)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Sears, Roebuck & Company Department Store
Address: 2307 Beverley Road
Cross Streets: Corner Bedford Avenue
Neighborhood: Flatbush
Year Built: 1932
Architectural Style: Late Art Deco
Architect: Nimmons, Carr & Wright, with Alton Craft
Other Buildings by Architect: NC & W – across country, various Sears stores and private homes for Sears execs.
Landmarked: Yes, Individual landmark, designated last week! (2012)

The story: It’s hard to believe, but this store has been here for over 80 years. Sears started out in the 1890’s as a mail order catalog, selling a huge variety of goods to customers in rural areas who had little or no access to stores and shops. Their first retail store was built in 1925. Based in Chicago, Sears & Roebuck expanded all across the country, and because of Manhattan’s garment center, was a presence in NYC long before their bricks and mortar stores were in place. When they sought to expand their retail presence in the New York City area, Flatbush was seen as an ideal location. (more…)

Categories: BOTD, Flatbush

By Montrose Morris | 05/16/2012 3:30 PM | Comment

New Mural Going Up at Sands Street Gate

There’s an large mural going up now on the Sands Street Gate, courtesy of the Groundswell Community Mural Project. (Here’s our interview with the founder of Groundswell, Amy Sananman.) The organization brings together kids, artists, and volunteers to paint artwork around NYC. This particular mural is the work of 4th and 5th Graders from PS 307. It’s in celebration of the history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and will be unveiled June 3rd. The Navy Yard’s Andrew Kimball, who brought the mural to our attention at a Community Board 2 meeting last week, also mentioned that the restoration of the Sands Street Gate, which has been ongoing for quite some time now, should wrap soon.

Categories: Arts, Navy Yard

By Emily | 05/16/2012 2:40 PM | Comment

Film Retrospective Showcases Old Vox Pop Owner

Brooklyn filmmakers Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley will screen their film Horns and Halos tomorrow at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema. The documentary film follows the controversial Lower East Side publishing company Soft Skull, the owner of which later ran the Cortelyou Road Vox Pop (a saga in itself). This is part of the RUMUR Retrospective, a Brooklyn-based production studio screening its films at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema every Thursday in May.

Categories: Arts

By Emily | 05/16/2012 2:15 PM | Comment

Jazz Club Coming to 960 Atlantic Avenue

Last week Community Board Eight approved a full liquor licence for a nightclub coming to 960 Atlantic Avenue, between Washington and Grand avenues. It will be two floors with a capacity of 175 people. On the first floor, the owner plans to host blue note jazz acts. The second floor will only be used for private events. “This will bring life to an otherwise desolate strip,” one community board member told the rest of CB8. There will be no bottle service, no outdoor space, and there will be security service outside. For now, the biz is going by the name Milk River. GMAP

Categories: Crown Heights, Nightlife, Streetlevel

By Emily | 05/16/2012 2:00 PM | Comment

House of the Day: 488 13th Street

This two-family house at 488 13th Street just hit the market with an asking price of $2,695,000. The interiors are in great shape with lots of original detail and custom built-ins that will appeal to a traditionalist; there’s also a nice rear deck and modern bathroom. And the location on a park block ain’t too shabby either. The only question is whether, at just three stories, the house is big enough to pull off its asking price.
488 13th Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark

Categories: HOTD, Park Slope

By Brownstoner | 05/16/2012 1:25 PM | Comment

Co-op of the Day: 140 8th Avenue, #6E

This new co-op listing at 140 8th Avenue in Park Slope has great prewar bones and lots of natural light. Combined with its central Park Slope location and family size (three bedrooms), it’s bound to attract a lot of interest from buyers. We’re a little less jazzed by the recent renovation that created kind of an awkward foyer/dining/kitchen configuration, but we don’t think that’ll hurt the apartment’s chances. The asking price is $1,395,000.
140 8th Avenue, #6E [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark

Categories: Co-ops, Park Slope

By Brownstoner | 05/16/2012 12:57 PM | Comment

Categories: Advertisement

By Emily | 05/16/2012 12:55 PM | Comment

Rental of the Day: 179 Monroe Street

This is a three bed/two bath rental in a new Bed Stuy build, 179 Monroe Street. (The apartment is listed in Clinton Hill, but if it’s east of Bedford, c’mon!) The unit has all the perks of a newer build: shiny amenities, washer/dryer unit, big windows. It’s listed at 1,400-square-feet but the pictures don’t give a good sense of its size. The monthly rent: $2,945, no fee.
179 Monroe Street [Nevo Realty Corp.] GMAP P*Shark

Categories: Bedford Stuyvesant, Rentals

By Emily | 05/16/2012 12:30 PM | Comment

Commercial Klutch: May Edition

What follows is our latest dispatch from a person who works in Brooklyn commercial real estate:
Tech tenants are the torrid topic today. Our BK Tech Triangle includes two areas almost fully leased, the Navy Yard and Dumbo, leaving downtown Brooklyn to take the heat. Recent DTB successes include NYU’s buyout of 370 Jay Street and the Makerbot lease at One MetroTech. Forest City Ratner making a strong effort to recruit more of these tenants, on the heels of the huge NYU-Poly deal on campus, and the City’s Department of Information and Technology lease last year.

Court and Montague Streets are not yet favored by most tech and creative tenants, and many of the buildings and landlords are unprepared for and ill-adapted to these tenants. Only now are some buildings, which sport the small offices favored by the tech and creative sector, getting wired up with FiOS and Time Warner cable. Copper is for pennies. Or used to be. Certainly some owners are trying, such as 32 Court, which has eleven creative tenants, the highest percentage in the sub-market. 16 Court has attracted a few, but costs and lease strictures make that address challenging. More owners need to step up.

DUMBO flourished due to short term leases, flexible credit requirements and speedy leases. None of these factors are active on Court and Montague.

Owners are often inflexible and/or old fashioned, out of touch with the business sector under discussion – the fastest growing sector in Brooklyn, predicted to double in the next few years. Where will these tenants go? Will tenants just bypass DTB and and go to Sunset Park and Crown Heights? If it is not working, change what you are doing.
Photo above: 32 Court Street

Categories: Commercial Real Estate

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 12:00 PM | Comment

Barclays Center Signage Now Underground

A reader sent in the photo above, as well as the following note: “I noticed this on my commute in this morning — It looks as if some of the new “Barclays Center” signs are up and uncovered — at least at the far end of the Q/B platform at Atlantic Avenue (or I guess I should say Atlantic Ave / Barclays Center). It looks as if the signs are up for the length of the platform, but the rest are covered.”

Categories: Transportation

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 11:51 AM | Comment

Squadron Honors MCA

From the press release: “State Senator Daniel Squadron honored Beastie Boys founder Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch with a resolution on the Senate floor. The resolution, which recognizes Yauch’s and the Beastie Boys’ major contributions to music, as well as Yauch’s political activism, passed the Senate yesterday afternoon. Yauch grew up in Brooklyn Heights and the Beastie Boys grew to prominence via the East Village and Lower East Side music scene. The Squadron resolution reads in part: ‘Whereas, The music and message of the Beastie Boys evolved over the years, but they can’t, won’t, don’t stop changing the face of hip-hop, of music, and of our culture. Whereas, The Beastie Boys exemplified New York through a period in which grassroots creativity and a community of iconoclastic artists helped redefine and rejuvenate a city on the ropes, with iconic imagery from Brooklyn to Ludlow Street.’

Categories: Brooklyn

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 11:30 AM | Comment

Open and Shut

Park Slope
We spotted a fashion boutique open this week in the ground-floor space of condo-turned-rental 9 St. Johns. Here’s Park Slope shares a few details: “There’s no visible name to speak of and no online presence yet (and they weren’t open yesterday at 5), but with an advertised rent of $8K/month, it’s nice to see that it didn’t end up becoming a real estate office or Pearle Vision.” HPS also notes a few openings ’round the neighborhood: sandwich/salad/wrap joint Pure Bistro opened opened on 5th Avenue, near Warren, A Shoe Grows in Brooklyn is open on 7th, fro-yo joint Yogurberry will open this Friday at the corner of 5th and Prospect, and Aarpan Cuisine opened its doors at the old Mezcal’s space on 5th Avenue.

Williamsburg
An “artisanal snocone and sweets shop” going by the name of Handsome Dan’s Stand opened in the Williamsburg Mini Mall at 218 Bedford Avenue. Some flavor samples: thyme dream, rose pomegranate, and chili passion fruit. Grubstreet reports that Sweetleaf Coffee, a popular cafe in Long Island City, opened Monday at Kent Avenue and North 6th Street. The owners of the “Bukowski-homage whiskey den Post Office” will open a restaurant/bar at 141 Broadway in the South Burg. The menu will lean toward seafood. And finally the Brooklyn Paper sketches the scene at new bar Tender Trap, 245 South 1st Street between Roebling and Havemeyer streets. Over in Greenpoint, the Pie Corps will sell pie out of a store on Driggs Avenue at the beginning of June.

Elsewhere
Eater digs up all the details about the Littleneck expansion in Gowanus. The new place, which will have a more land-based menu that its clam shack counterpart, is called The Pines. It should open early July. Also in Gowanus, GYFA notes that the sports bar 383 Bar and Grill and record store Sector Records have closed. The Irish Pub moving into 139 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights will be called Custom House, says BHB. The tapas bar planned for awhile now by Vanderbilt Avenue’s Plan B, now named Cork will open next month in Prospect Heights.

Categories: Commercial Real Estate, Food and Drink, Streetlevel

By Emily | 05/16/2012 11:30 AM | Comment

Opening Day for Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitors Center!

Last week there was a sneak peek for media of the new Brooklyn Botanic Visitors Center, and today it opens to the public. The project was designed by the firm Weiss/Manfredi. According to a rep for the institution, the mayor will be on hand to cut the ribbon today. Contractors were sprucing up the grounds this morning, and hopefully the slight drizzle that may attend the ceremony will bolster its verdant roof.
BBG’s New Visitor Center About to Open! [Brownstoner]

Categories: Brooklyn, Crown Heights, Gardening, News, Prospect Heights

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 11:00 AM | Comment

Sunset Park’s Hotel BPM Will Soon Open its Doors

Hotel BPM, the tricked-out lodging house on 33rd Street in Sunset Park, will begin accepting guests on August 1st. At the moment, the hotel is offering a special rate for advance bookings via its website. A quote from a press release: “‘The website offers a sophisticated, user-friendly approach to learning about our hotel and planning for an upcoming trip to the world’s greatest city,’ says Hotel BPM Founder and Visionary, DJ BIJAL. ‘We are thrilled to launch the site along with the opening of our online booking engine, and can’t wait to welcome guests to BPM in August.’”
Touring Sunset Park’s Soon-to-Open DJ Hotel [Brownstoner]
Sunset Park DJ Hotel Scheduled to Open in January [Brownstoner]
Hotel BPM Opening Still TBD [Brownstoner] GMAP
Will Noise From a DJ’s Hotel Annoy Sunset Park? [Brownstoner]
A DJ-Driven Boutique Hotel for Sunset Park [Brownstoner]
Progress on Sunset Park’s Hip-Hop Hotel [Brownstoner]

Categories: Brooklyn, Hotels, Sunset Park

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 10:30 AM | Comment

Realty Collective Opening New, Shared Office on Van Brunt

Via a post on the real estate firm Realty Collective’s blog, we learn the following:

Realty Collective announced it will be opening its third office May 19th at 351 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In keeping with its mission of promoting local business and sustainable practices, the residential and commercial real estate brokerage will engage in a shared space model with Gallery Brooklyn, designed to add value to the community, increase street traffic and showcase artists from Brooklyn. The 351 Van Brunt Street gallery and business space, Gallery Brooklyn and RC Red Hook will open with group exhibition “Lightness, Being,” curated by Trong Nguyen, showcasing three NYC-based artists – painter Jon Elliot, photographer Rebecca Reeve and sculptor Judith Braun – that will run May 19th through June 30th. “We are passionate about Red Hook. I live here, and Realty Collective works with many clients looking to buy, sell and rent homes and business spaces in Red Hook. We’ve been looking for a storefront location that would meet both our goals of easy accessibility to those in the area, and would fit our business model of community engagement and sustainability,” said Victoria Hagman, Founder, Realty Collective.

The storefront in question used to be home to Everbrite Mercantile Co., a gift shop that closed its bricks-and-mortar operation after being in business for a little more than a year.
Realty Collective to Open Red Hook “Shared Space” Office [Realty Collective]
Gift Shop Everbrite Mercantile Closing on Van Brunt [Brownstoner] GMAP
Photo by Realty Collective

Categories: Real Estate, Red Hook

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 10:00 AM | Comment

Development Instead of Proposed Columbia St. Garden

It’s been a bad week for public gardens in Brooklyn. Following the news of the demise of the Crow Hill Community Garden, the initiator of the South Brooklyn Children’s Garden (slated for construction on Columbia Street soon) shared this news:

HPD has retracted their agreement to lease us the vacant lots. Despite me being in communication with HPD about access to this lot for over 4 months now, I was told for the first time today that previously (before our proposal to lease the lot) an RFP for the lots was issued and the vacant lots were awarded to a contractor. The contractor just confirmed they have the financing for the building and is now being scheduled for the coming year.

After Columbia Street resident Shannon Mulholland presented a proposal for a children’s garden on the corner of Columbia and Sackett to Community Board 6, HPD told her there were no plans for the lot in the coming two to three years and that the agency would lease it on an annual basis. The South Brooklyn Children’s Garden is now looking for new places and will even consider leasing a rooftop. If you have any ideas for them, be in touch at info.sbcg@gmail.com.
Construction to Begin Soon on Columbia Street Garden [Brownstoner]
Columbia Street Residents Looks to Transform Lot [Brownstoner] GMAP

Categories: Columbia Street Waterfront, Development, Gardening

By Emily | 05/16/2012 9:30 AM | Comment

‘No Impact Man’ Lives in Brooklyn

The guy who had the “No Impact Man” documentary made about his environmental crusade, Colin Beavan, now lives in Brooklyn after having moved from Manhattan, according to a story in today’s New York Times, and intends to run for congress on the Green Party ticket. Some more color from the article: “A resident of Brooklyn, Mr. Beavan is careful to turn off the lights when he leaves a room, but he again uses a refrigerator. He will not buy an air-conditioner, but his windows are lined with fans. He still composts, but instead of feeding trash to worms in his apartment, he puts the garbage in his freezer until he can take it to a nearby community garden. He refused to discuss his use of a sensitive product eschewed during the project: toilet paper. All told, however, his daily environmental activities look far less eccentric, and much more like the habits of a familiar, if very committed, Brooklyn type who commutes by bike and buys local food. …Mr. Beavan says his real estate aspirations are for a communal-living situation in Brooklyn, or perhaps on a piece of land upstate dotted with yurts.” The aspiring politician currently lives in a Clinton Hill rental, according to the article.
An Environmental Crusader’s Newest Goal: Congress [NY Times]
Photo via

Categories: Brooklyn, Clinton Hill, Environmental

By Gabby | 05/16/2012 9:00 AM | Comment