Do Renters and Buyers Not Want 'Shiny and Modern'?
There’s an odd article in the Journal today headlined “Brooklyn Is Set for a Building Boom” arguing that Brooklyn renters and buyers aren’t as interested in modern luxury housing as Manhattanites. The story says “14,000 new residential units” are “in the early planning stages” in Brooklyn—the article doesn’t specify developments, but we’re guessing that the…
There’s an odd article in the Journal today headlined “Brooklyn Is Set for a Building Boom” arguing that Brooklyn renters and buyers aren’t as interested in modern luxury housing as Manhattanites. The story says “14,000 new residential units” are “in the early planning stages” in Brooklyn—the article doesn’t specify developments, but we’re guessing that the vast majority of those are supposed to be delivered via Atlantic Yards and Domino, so the “boom” has been imminent for quite some time—and that because Brooklyn has a higher proportion of “tech and creative workers” than Manhattan, developers should focus on building the sort of projects that appeal to people in those professions. According to Nancy Packes, who consults developers, techies and creatives “are likely to gravitate toward simple, tasteful new construction at lower price points and away from modern towers loaded with amenities.” And: “Brokers and developers agree that they are seeing demand in the borough for brownstones or new construction with classic touches, and less interest in shiny modern construction.” It’s not clear how this plays out in practice with new construction though—how do the big new developments planned from, say, AvalonBay in Downtown, or the tower Douglaston is going to build on the Williamsburg waterfront (rendered above), eschew shiny and modern?
“Brooklyn Is Set for a Building Boom” [WSJ]
My favorite part of the article:
“according to Jeff Baum, a 30-year-old paralegal who recently moved with his wife from Union Square to a neighborhood near Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill.”
Sorry ENY no offense meant – Consulting is an honest a way to make a living as almost all others – in fact more so then the in-house people paid a fortune to hire outside consultants 🙂
I’m kinda fascinated by this idea of “simple, tasteful new construction at low price points.”
There is no such thing. But there ought to be.
The article is ridiculous. They take On-sites metric that creative people tend to spend a lower portion of their income on housing than other types of renters and then because NINE % more Brooklyn renters are “creative types” the article extrapolates that luxury housing is “finished”
Another example of how ‘Consultants’ are the biggest rip off in American Business.
I will cite the incredible success of 80 Deklab, 111 Lawrence St, Avalon and Arias to demonstrate how stupid this article (and these consultants) are
Williamsburg becoming Condoburg – and not in a good way
I toured one of the condos that tried to fit in with the neighborhood – they even built condo “townhouses”
Overall from the outside the buildings pale in comparison to the old factory buildings that were there before and pale in comparison to a real townhouse (to me)
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