Pratt's new seven story academic and studio building at 524 Myrtle Avenue is moving along at a steady clip. When we checked in back in July, there were three stories on steel framing up and now all seven are up and there are some windows to boot. Sounds like a Fall 2010 opening is a lay-up.
Development Watch: Pratt Myrtle Rising [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: Rat at Pratt [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: Pratt Myrtle [Brownstoner] GMAP
Pratt Starts on New Myrtle Project [Brownstoner] P*Shark
Pratt Reveals Plans for Myrtle KFC Site [Brownstoner] DOB]]>
Boerum Hill
Clinton Hill
West Midwood
Stuyvesant Heights
There's been a lot of speculation (in a neighborhoody, chit-chatty sort of way) about the sports bar that's going to be opening soon on Fulton Street between Vanderbilt and Clinton Avenues in Clinton Hill, so we were interested to receive the photo at right yesterday of the new signage being installed. Just to make sure they we're only going to 11, we rode by this morning to regard the handiwork ourselves and, sure enough, the name's "Chance 11"—anyone have any ideas what that might be a reference to? The sign might be a little flashy for our taste but at this point we're 100% rooting for any business that can generate foot traffic and stimulate the local economy in this part of town. On a related note, this block as a whole has really come a long way in the last few years, hasn't it?
It may seem like there's not any affordable housing available, but, reports The Brooklyn Eagle, there are 700 units currently up for grabs through one non-profit development company alone in Brooklyn. The Housing Partnership Development Corp. which has created 30,000 units of affordable housing over its 25-year history, is currently offering "moderate-income" apartments at the newly-developed Bergen Street Co-ops at 1509 Bergen Street in Crown Heights (at right). The Partnership is also involved in other projects like 320 Sterling Street, which is about three-quarters done, and Atlantic Terrace next to the Atlantic Center (at top), which just started making applications available.
Sheepshead Bay doesn't get a lot of attention around here but this new condo at 1702 Avenue Z caught our eye. We don't think of the area being known for Richard Meier-wannabe designs. Given the alternative though (like this place we wrote about last year), we'll take it. The ten three-bedroom units range in price from $799,000 to $899,000. At less than $500 a foot, we bet these'll sell. GMAP]]>
Another reason we wish our programmer would finish the updated version ye olde widget: This one-bedroom at 60 South Oxford Street in Fort Greene was listed for $399,000. 58 readers weighed in on the price via the widget, with an average vote of $306,250. Once again the widget (and the seller) have the last laugh: The co-op just sold for $375,000. We're definitely a little surprised at how high a price this one fetched. You? GMAP]]>
Park Slope
Bedford Stuyvesant
Crown Heights
Greenwood Heights
How sweet would this be? Yesterday Curbed picked up on an unusual listing that just hit the market in Greenpoint. A former church and adjacent Sunday School building at 145-147 Kent Street just hit the market for a cool $3,700,000. For this modest tithe, y ou get over 8,000 square feet of existing interior space plus another few thousand square feet of buildable rights. Evidently the owner has already received permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the residential conversion and associated cosmetic changes. Start passing that collection plate!
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Yesterday The Brooklyn Ink published a sad story about the plight of the tenants at the small three-story apartment building at 274 Malcom X Boulevard in Bed Stuy. Last winter the 16 residents went without electricity, and last summer they had to do without water for two months. The problem was not a negligent landlord, but a dead one. And a deadbeat family member who wanted to collect rent but not perform any repairs. The building residents didn't realize for months that the landlord had died last year; when they finally figured it out and one of them tried to navigate the bureaucracy involved with getting services restored when you are not the owner, they hit a wall. It took a protest by a local with political aspirations to draw enough attention to the problem for HPD to step in a make basic repairs. Positively Kafkaesque.
The second new coffee spot on Franklin Avenue opened in as many weeks on Saturday, reports I Love Franklin Avenue. The newest spot at 805 Franklin is called The Pulp and The Bean, and even Marty Markowitz stopped by the kick-off party on Saturday night to wish the new owners well. Eight days earlier, the organic Breukelen Coffee House opened at 764A Franklin. GMAP]]>
Good riddance! The Brooklyn developer Mendel Brach (of Finger Building fame) was barred by New York State from selling condos after he was found to have illegally taken advantage a loophole which allowed him to build an outsized building, reports The New York Times. As you may recall, Brach claimed back in 2002 that he was building faculty housing for a local yeshiva at a new development at 191, 195, 197 and 201 Spencer Street in Bed Stuy and received a zoning variance that allowed him to build nine stories instead of five. The only problem was that he turned around and sold all 72 units in the building as condos. While the state's attorney general office, unaware of the variance, initially approved the condo sales, the city ultimately refused to grant a permanent C of O, plunging the buyers into a kind of housing purgatory in which they were unable to sell, rent or refinance their apartments. In addition to the ban (which Brach can apply to have lifted after five years), the developer was ordered to pay a financial settlement to the occupants of $10.9 million.