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Co-op of the Day: 40 Prospect Park West, #6C
The sixth-floor co-op unit at 40 Prospect Park West just hit the market for $749,000 three years after selling for $650,000. It’s a nice, solid prewar apartment with nice views over the tree tops of the Prospect Park. The second bedroom looks more like an annexed breakfast nook but has good windows and is big enough for a small child. The kitchen looks newly renovated but not extravagantly so.
40 Prospect Park West, #6C [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
05/15/2012 12:58 PM
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House of the Day: 397 3rd Street, Again
397 3rd Street is back with hopes that the red-hot townhouse market will translate into sales success this go-round. As you may recall, four-story house hit the market in September of 2010 with Brown Harris Stevens asking $3,695,000 and was reduced to $3,495,000 before calling it quits; in May 2011, it was back with Corcoran at the same price before the price was trimmed again to $3,295,000. It was taken off the market a year ago, where it stayed until last week when it made its triumphant return with an asking price of $3,795,000. We were in love with this place the first time around and continue to be. The big question is whether the market has bounced back enough to handle this price. It’s possible.
397 3rd Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
05/14/2012 1:25 PM
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Condo of the Day: 166 Montague Street, #5C
166 Montague Street, aka the Franklin Trust Tower, is one of the most architecturally impressive buildings in Brooklyn Heights. The building was converted to condos back in 2008 just as the market was heading south so the sponsor ended up renting out a number of the units. This fifth-floor two-bedroom is one of them. While perfectly attractive and with nice amenities and fixtures, the interiors of the 1,218-square-foot pad are a bit of a disappointment to us compared to the exterior. Nonetheless, the location, light, views, pedigree, etc. all make this a pretty nice catch. Asking price is $1,499,000, up from $1,260,000 back in 2008. Sound about right?
166 Montague Street, #5C [Halstead] GMAP P*Shark
05/14/2012 12:54 PM
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Usher Visits The Flea
What do you do when you’re a world-famous pop star in New York for the weekend to play Saturday Night Live? Go to the Brooklyn Flea, of course!
05/14/2012 12:00 PM
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Open House Picks
Park Slope
33 Montgomery Place
Corcoran
Sunday, 1:00-3:00
$3,650,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
92 Garfield Place
Warren Lewis
Sunday, 11:30-1:00
$2,650,000
GMAP P*Shark
Boerum Hill
200 Wyckoff Street
Halstead
Saturday, 11:00-1:00
$1,600,000
GMAP P*Shark
Ditmas Park
241 Stratford Road
Brooklyn Hearth
Saturday, 12:00-1:30
$1,275,000
GMAP P*Shark
05/11/2012 1:05 PM
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Open House Picks: Six Months Later
Comment: Strong in the Slope, weak in Ditmas.
Open House Picks: 11/11/2011 [Brownstoner]
05/11/2012 12:35 PM
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Lefferts Hotel Forced to Remove Illegal Signage
The Lefferts Hotel at 127 Lefferts Place in Clinton Hill has been a blight on the neighborhood ever since we arrived in 2005 so any news about the owners being forced to play by the rules is good news as far as we’re concerned. There’ve been numerous DOB violations (9) and complaints (47) over the years (not to mention drug and prostitution-related shutdowns by the police) so it was nice to see the Buildings Department react so swiftly when it received a certified letter recently from someone in the community requesting that the signage violations, which had been ignored by the owners for years, be enforced. As the photo above shows, both signs, including the one on the roof that was deemed unsafe, were removed.
05/11/2012 10:00 AM
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House of the Day: 204 Dean Street
This new listing at 204 Dean Street has great bones (moldings, floors, etc.), nice width (over 22 feet) and a location (prime Boerum Hill) that’s sure to please. The big question is whether $2,450,000 is the right price for a townhouse that, in the broker’s words, is “Oh so ready for a makeover.” Waddya think?
204 Dean Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
05/10/2012 1:28 PM
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Co-op of the Day: 18 Cranberry Street, #1
This new listing at 18 Cranberry Street raises the old “Would you rather have half a house in Brooklyn Heights or a whole house in Fort Greene?” question. This lower-duplex in a 25-foot-wide townhouse has a lovely parlor floor complete with high ceilings and original architectural detail combined with a garden-level floor that is perfectly nice but feels a little dated design-wise, like it was last renovated in the 1980s. Is it worth $2,450,000? Only time will tell.
18 Cranberry Street, #1 [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
05/10/2012 12:56 PM
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Getting Porked on Parking at Atlantic Yards
We’d missed this post on Atlantic Yards Watch last week until Atlantic Yards Report linked to it yesterday. Anyone who lives anywhere near the Barclays Arena will want to pay close attention. 2009′s Modified General Project Plan called for 1,100 parking spaces in block 1129 (Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt) to accommodate people driving to arena events. There’s just one problem: They’ll be lucky to fit even half that number. Last week ESDC head Ken Adams admitted that the actual number would be “south” of 550 and Atlantic Yards Watch’s own calculations (or those by a consulting architect) come out to between 465 and 482 spaces. That’s an extra 600-odd cars that could be cruising the streets of Fort Greene and Prospect Heights looking for a free spot. What’s particularly galling to AYW is that ESDC still has not responded to last year’s court order to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to address the issue. “ESDC has not yet stated when or if it plans to comply with the court order for an SEIS that is now almost three years late. In the meantime, plans for parking continue to shift, reducing the parking for arena patrons by half with no formal study released to the public of the impact to traffic and on-street parking in local neighborhoods. Nor has it assessed the long term environmental impacts on the community of a lot that does not meet NYC’s own guidelines for the landscaping of surface parking lots.” UPDATE: Some commenters point out that this doomsday scenario is mere speculation on our part, which by definition it is. They point out that there is plenty of evidence from other cities that if there are fewer spaces, fewer arena visitors will drive. We suppose this is possible and hope it’ll be the case but remain skeptical that folks coming from South Brooklyn, Long Island and New Jersey will give up their cars. When that game or concert lets out at 11:00, those in cars are going to be home in bed before the mass transit takers. ANOTHER UPDATE: And one more thing…Even if reducing parking is the right thing to do incentive-wise (which plenty of smart people seem to be making the case for), surely a unilateral decision without any public input or explanation isn’t the right way to get there.
What Are the Consequences of a Change in Parking? [AY Watch]
05/10/2012 9:45 AM
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House of the Day: 68 Midwood Street
Here’s another big-ticket listing in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. The single-family house at 68 Midwood Street looks like absolute perfection. The historic detail is impressive (original floors, moldings and mantels are particularly sweet) and everything appears to be in good shape. How do you think the asking price of $1,795,000 will fly?
68 Midwood Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
05/09/2012 1:29 PM
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Co-op of the Day: 25 Plaza Street West, #2H
This two-bedroom at 25 Plaza Street West in Park Slope may only be on the second floor, but it’s tree-level views are actually quite pleasant. At least at this time of year. As for the apartment itself, it’s quite big at 1,300 square feet and has two good-sized bedrooms and bathrooms to boot. And there’s a sunken living room if that’s your bag. Price: $1,080,000.
25 Plaza Street West, #2H [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
05/09/2012 12:56 PM
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Ridgewood Asserting Its Independence from Bushwick?
Back in 2010, Bushwick and its neighbor-over-the-Queens-border Ridgewood were close enough in the popular imagination to spark some creative neighborhood naming wordplay: The term “Bushwood” even slipped into local parlance, an expression of the close ties between the two hipster havens. (Where was Hakeem Jeffries when we needed him?) Now that Bushwick can no longer be considered an emerging neighborhood or art scene, though, Ridgewood may be looking to spread its wings. That’s the gist of this post on the art blog Hyperallergic. Witness the text of a recent invitation from the Queens Museum of Art to the inaugural Ridgewood Art Crawl: “You know that part of town you thought was Bushwick…well, actually, it’s Ridgewood. Help us set the record straight by celebrating Queens’ newest art community with a little bit of history, a lot art, and the perfect amount of drink.”
05/09/2012 10:00 AM
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125 Court Tenants Sue Two Trees and Withhold Rent
All is not well on Court Street. According to a press release yesterday, tenants of 125 Court Street, the large rental building at the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue, are on rent strike and have initiated a lawsuit against landlord Two Trees Management. The suit alleges that the landlord has run afoul of the 421a law (which gave the project a 25-year tax abatement) “due to fraudulent misrepresentation of the Housing Preservation Development (HPD) approved rents for each unit and fraudulent lease renewal increases that used a deceptive base rent and did not adhere to the Rent Guidelines Board’s increases.” Jack Lester, the lawyer on the case, told us that rent was typically 20 to 30 percent higher than what was allowed by the 421a law when tenants tried to renew their leases. The tenants stopped paying rent this fall and winter, due to the rent dispute and complaints about water damage to the building, specifically mold. There will be a trial at the NY Supreme Court concerning the non-payment of rent in a suit filed by Two Trees Management. Two Trees emailed in a terse rebuttal to Curbed: “These allegations are completely baseless and have absolutely no merit. Beyond that, our focus has been providing the highest quality of service to our tenants and we will continue to do exactly that.”
Brooklyn Tenants Sue Landlord Two Trees, Begin Rent Strike [Curbed] GMAP
05/09/2012 9:00 AM
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MetroTech Gets Its First Actual Tech Company
MakerBot, the red-hot start-up that has been producing consumer-grade 3-D printers on 3rd Avenue and Dean Street for the past couple of years, made headlines today by signing a lease for a big new office space in Downtown Brooklyn. What’s so surprising is where the tech company signed its full-floor lease: One MetroTech. It’s hard to imagine a less hip spot, but at the end of the day it was all about space. Dumbo’s basically full at this point–there certainly isn’t enough room to handle MakerBot’s 125-person workforce–and Sunset Park is too inconvenient. (And 1000 Dean‘s not ready yet!) So MetroTech it is. It’ll be interesting to see if the decision can help rebrand the cluster of commercial buildings into something cooler than back-office space stocked with mid-level suits. The folks behind the recently branded Brooklyn Tech Triangle Initiative certainly are hoping so.
Putting the Tech in Metrotech [Wall Street Journal]
MakerBot Picks Up Stakes and Heads for Downtown Brooklyn [BetaBeat]
05/08/2012 2:01 PM
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House of the Day: 75A Willow Street
The eventual buyer of this new listing at 75A Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights will probably end up spending some dough reconfiguring the triplex-over-duplex configuration but at least they’ll have some great raw material to work with. The five-story brownstone may be on the skinny side (16 feet) but there’s lots of historic detail and the proportions are otherwise quite generous. The ask? $3,350,000.
75A Willow Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
05/08/2012 1:29 PM
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Condo of the Day: 384 Warren Street, #3R
Given the high ceilings and outdoor space, this 800-square-foot one-bedroom would seem like a pretty good deal at $519,000 were it not for the proximity to the Gowanus Houses. Still, it’s a nice place with lots of light and, even though it officially be called a two-bedroom, plenty of room for a second sleeping area. We suspect it’ll fare pretty well on the open market.
384 Warren Street, #3R [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
05/08/2012 12:58 PM
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Gallerist Gal Pays Record Price in Red Hook
When 17 Dikeman Street was a House of the Day back in December we had this to say: “$1,695,000 is a lot of dough for a house in Red Hook, especially when it’s less than 2,000 square feet, but this new listing at 17 Dikeman Street is so beautifully done that it might have a shot.” Turns out it did have a pretty good shot: The Real Deal reported yesterday that Mirabelle Marden, gallerist and daughter of art-world heavy Brice Marden, paid $1,550,000 for the two-story carriage house. The seller, an architect, had paid $760,000 for the home in 1989 2008 and proceeded to execute a beautiful renovation.
House of the Day: 17 Dikeman Street [Brownstoner]
Art world it-girl buys carriage house in Red Hook [TRD] GMAP
Photographer Sets Price Per Square Foot Record in Red Hook [Curbed]
05/08/2012 12:01 PM
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Public Review Begins for Bed Stuy North Rezoning
The southern portion of Bedford Stuyvesant was rezoned back in 2007 in an effort to preserve the historic area’s low-rise character and now the city is moving ahead with similar plans for a northern portion of the neighborhood. “The proposed rezoning would protect the existing historic neighborhood character and scale on the mid-blocks, while allowing for modest growth with incentives for permanently-affordable housing and requirements for active, engaging retail along major corridors,” says the press release. As per the map above, the area in question is bounded by Lafayette Avenue and Quincy Street to the south, Classon and Franklin Avenues to the west, Broadway to the east, and Flushing Avenue to the north. “The proposed rezoning would protect the existing historic neighborhood character and scale on the mid-blocks, while allowing for modest growth with incentives for permanently-affordable housing and requirements for active, engaging retail along major corridors.” The first step in the public review is for Community Board 3 to review and vote on after which it goes to the Borough President’s office. We’ve reproduced the entire press release on the jump for area residents and zoning geeks who want to drill a little deeper into the details.
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05/08/2012 9:30 AM
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panyl
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM