Building of the Day: 480 Van Brunt Street
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy. Address: 480 Van Brunt Street at Beard St. Name: Red Hook Stores/Fairway Market Neighborhood: Red Hook Year Built: 1869…
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.
Address: 480 Van Brunt Street at Beard St.
Name: Red Hook Stores/Fairway Market
Neighborhood: Red Hook
Year Built: 1869
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architects: Unknown, builder was William Beard
Landmarked: No, but should be
Why chosen: The group of warehouses called the Red Hook, Beard St. and Van Brunt Stores are among my favorite buildings in Brooklyn, and the Red Hook Pier is one of my favorite places, although I’m not able to get there often enough. William Beard built his Erie Basin empire here in the mid 1860’s. He was an Irish immigrant to became a millionaire through his building and railroad contracting businesses. By the end of the Civil War, there were so many goods coming into NY Harbor, that Manhattan’s smaller docks couldn’t handle it all. Brooklyn’s wide open waterfront was an obvious alternative, and warehouses and piers went up from Red Hook to Greenpoint. Beard built this massive warehouse complex to offload sugar, grain, cotton, hemp, jute, indigo, leather, fruits and vegetables, tobacco, cocoa beans and coffee, among other things. The building now housing Fairway Market and the apartments above, mostly stored coffee and other foodstuffs. The massive iron shutters, now purely ornamental, were crucial to protecting the goods from the elements. When shipping faded, and the BQE further isolated the neighborhood, these majestic buildings were almost lost and lay empty. Former police officer Greg O’Connell bought the buildings, developed them and now rents out space to artists, small manufacturers, performers, as well as to Fairway and the apartments above it.
As for the apartments, there is a waiting list that we try to stick to prior to giving it out to brokers. You can e-mail us at rentals@redhookwaterfront.com if you are interested. I’m glad people enjoy the building… I know my Dad went through a physical and emotional toll trying to get it to the point its at now so its certainly encouraging that it can appeal to Brooklynites without too many negative comments! Our organization values the preservation of these wonderful buildings because they are true monuments to Brooklyn’s historic industrial waterfront.
I wonder how much O’Connel paid. I used to love going down there before Fairway moved in. It was like you went from NY to some completely far away distant land that time forgot. Even loved taking old time jaded New Yorkers there even more. Now it’s been discovered oh, well. Anyhow I always loved this building and have many photos from before it was converted and thought someone should buy it. Kudos for O’Connel.
I went there Monday and it was mobbed…
I wish John McGettrick was in charge of what happened with this building, he has always known what is best for Red Hook.
one of the first places i went after to moving to brooklyn. love it.
Right you are ditto – The bigger problem is that no one with any vision controls enough real estate in Greenpoint or Williamsburg to make something like this happen. Walentas in DUMBO or O’Connell in Red Hook, both have enough weight to influence (and control) development over the long term – Greenpoint is too large to do something similar (or contrarily, the waterfront is too small to influence the rest of the neighborhood).
I love this building. Shame Greg O’Connell didn’t get the Greenpoint terminal warehouse (RIP), a Fairway’s there would be very successful. Unfortunately burn-em down Joshua Guttman got it instead.
sadly gemini10, they are live work spaces. You will come across them every now and again on CL, and sometimes Manzione or Galeano gets a listing. They are not cheap, as they were done really well- featuring original elements like the big wooden beams and arched brickwork. My friend looked at one when they first came on the market- it was huge and I think 3200 per mo.
The windows on the side elevations were all added by O’Connell – a travesty far beyond that perpetrated by Norah Jones. I can’t believe you all aren’t up in arms over this!
But seriously, these are a great collection of buildings. I recently came across a permit for another warehouse on the site dating to the 1880s, but it wasn’t clear exactly where it was (even which side of Van Brunt). I would love to find a photo of the buildings that were on the parking lot in their heyday.
The building on the east side of Van Brunt (in front of which the photographer is standing) is interesting because it was cut through – the schist rubble wall which is exposed at cut was historically an interior wall (and the wall leading into pier 41 to the south is of recent vintage).