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Moscot Opens First Brooklyn Outpost on Court Street
Earlier this week the well-known Manhattan eyewear shop Moscot opened its first Brooklyn location on Court Street between Pacific and Dean. Here’s the official line on the store: “Our new shop incorporates the same unexpected blend of elements that make our Manhattan shops so fun, eclectic, and inviting, including period details from our original MOSCOT shop on the Lower East Side (circa 1930), and vintage pieces sourced from around the world that ensure an authentic historical customer experience.” Click through for a shot of the interior. GMAP (more…)
02/03/2012 12:00 PM
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Controversial Manhattan Beach McMansion Approved
Yesterday Sheepshead Bites reported on a Manhattan Beach property owner’s proposal to turn a 2,599-square-foot rectory into a 7,848-square-foot McMansion, a plan that was approved by the Community Board but which some in the neighborhood are against. The rectory, at 215 Exeter Street, was built in 1920 and sold off a couple of years ago by the church that used to own it. The new owner is seeking a zoning variance because the law only allows him to build out to 4,000 square feet in the spot. While the community board voted 26 to 5 to approve the plan, it’s opposed by the Manhattan Beach Community Group, and the Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association president also spoke out the enlargement. The Manhattan Beach Community Group says the case being made for the giant house rests on incorrect data that was used to approve another super-sizing last year: “the evidence of similar sized structures (based on a Floor-Area-Ratio – or FAR – calculation) was based on faulty city data. The group cited an email a Department of City Planning official confirming that the data was inaccurate.” Meanwhile, Alan Ditchek, the president of the Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association said the McMansion would be out of character: “Knowing the house as it is now, a former rectory, knowing the other houses on the block, if it was enlarged it wouldn’t conform with the other houses as they appear. …The zoning is being changed, without it being changed. People are building bigger houses than are permitted without our zoning being changed.” It sounds like the proposal still needs the blessing of the Board of Standards and Appeals before it can move forward.
92-Year-Old Manhattan Beach Rectory To Become McMansion [Sheepshead Bites] GMAP
Image from Sheepshead Bites
02/03/2012 9:00 AM
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Friday Links
Albany Is Urged to Let Churches Keep Using Schools [NY Times]
Retail Limits in Zoning Plan for the Upper West Side [NY Times]
No Bail for Suspect in Police Shooting in Brooklyn [City Room]
Coney Biz Owner To Move Entire Building From Boardwalk [NY1]
‘Cash for Gold’ is Too Brash for Some Slopers [BK Paper]
Eateries Cross the Bridge to Williamsburg [WSJ]
02/03/2012 8:30 AM
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Plans Filed for Red Hook Community Garden Replacement
Over the summer a Red Hook resident got in touch to tell us there was speculation in the neighborhood that a new condo was going to rise at the corner of Van Brunt and King streets, taking the place of an unofficial community garden in the spot. The lot’s owner abruptly changed the locks on the garden one evening in August and poured sand over all the plots. Now permits filed with the city give an indication of what’s planned at 307-309 Van Brunt: A couple of three-story buildings, each with two residential units and ground-floor commercial space. The same developer, listed in permits as “VB Equities,” also filed plans to build a three-story development on a vacant lot across the street, at 346 Van Brunt. The DOB didn’t approve the initial permit applications, so who knows whether these will be built anytime soon.
Condo Build Dooming King Street Community Garden? [Brownstoner] GMAP
02/02/2012 12:00 PM
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End of a (Short) Era: Morton’s Closes in Downtown BK
Yesterday afternoon several readers got in touch to let us know that the Downtown Brooklyn location of Morton’s the Steakhouse had shut down, and the news was confirmed by a woman who answered the phone at the restaurant. As the Brooklyn Paper notes, the chain was recently purchased by the Texas-based company Landry’s Inc.. The firm has abruptly closed a few other Morton’s locations, including restaurants in Boston and Atlanta. Here’s what a Landry’s spokeswoman had to say about the Brooklyn shuttering (emphasis ours): “Over time, demographics shift and so do the areas in which businesses thrive and it’s because of this that we must close the Morton’s location in Brooklyn. We will continue to operate Morton’s The Steakhouse in Manhattan on 5th Ave. and White Plains on Maple Ave and look forward to serving our guests at these locations.” Morton’s opened to a great deal of fanfare on Adams Street in late 2008. Does the closing cast a pall on the retail renaissance in Downtown? Not according to a statement from the disinterested parties at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership: “While it is a sad day for Downtown Brooklyn, there is a still a strong appetite for dining options in the district. A dozen restaurants opened in the area in 2011, nine more coming this year, and Downtown Brooklyn property owners get calls daily from eateries interested in space.” Exhibit A: The thriving Shake Shake steps away from the Morton’s location.
Over, Done: Morton’s Closes [BK Paper] GMAP
Photo by Yogma
02/02/2012 9:00 AM
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Thursday Links
Data Backs Smaller High Schools, and Larger Ones Fret Over Their Fate [NY Times]
With Jobs Already Lost in Trenton, Now They’ve Taken the Porcelain [NY Times]
Merchants Seek Pedestrian Mall For Bay Ridge [Eagle]
Downtown Skyscrapers Are Now Landmarks [BK Paper]
McDonald’s Coming to 4th Ave Will be ‘Chic’ [BK Paper]
Singles in NYC Work Hard for Their Money [NY Daily News]
A Brooklyn Poet’s $100,000 Poem [McBrooklyn]
DeKalb Market to Get Booze [The Local]
02/02/2012 8:30 AM
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Wednesday Blogwrap
February 14: A Day of Reckoning for Forest City Ratner? [AY Report]
1874 Maps of Old Farmland In Brooklyn [McBrooklyn]
Henry Street Garbage Dump Swept Clean [BHB]
Profile of a Park Slope Single Chick [FIPS]
WTD?? [A Year in the Park]
Photo by ekonon
02/01/2012 4:30 PM
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Bringing a New Eatery to Life in Old Abistro Space
The folks who are opening a restaurant called Lulu & Po in the old Abistro space on Carlton Avenue are blogging about their renovation. Some neat details from the work done so far: “At this stage Gerrett and I have most of all of the inside gutted. We took the sheet rock off the walls and brought the place back to the 1990′s. It was a little socal club from what we are told. There are some calendars and postings on the walls made out of cardboard and old newspapers all in Spanish. The names and dates on the calendar are either birthdays or deaths. We think both.” The small restaurant will feature local ingredients but focus on European rather than American fare, according to reports.
Lulu & Po Renovation Blog [Official Site]
Original Abistro Location Now Up for Rent [Brownstoner] GMAP
02/01/2012 2:00 PM
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Inside the Belly of the Beast
Via @NYCParks: “A look inside #McCarren Pool. This is how we filter the water needed to turn the pool on again after all these years!” The renovation of the WPA pool is supposed to be finished in time for swimsuit season this year.
02/01/2012 12:00 PM
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Settlement in Lawsuit Over Defects at 50 Bridge Street
This morning a press release went out about how condo owners at 50 Bridge Street, also known as Bridge No. 50, have reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought against the building’s developer “and certain of its affiliates.” (The developer in question is the notorious Joshua Guttman.) The suit dates back to 2007 and, according to the release, concerned how the building “suffered from a number of construction defects including a defective roof and other waterproofing issues.” Representatives from the condo board declined to tell us exactly how much the settlement was for except to say that it’s “a significant dollar amount that combined with some special assessments within the building, will allow the building to fix the construction issues.” Repairs are supposed to begin later this year. The building was converted into a condo in 2004. GMAP
02/01/2012 11:00 AM
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Marty to Address High-Tech Manufacturing, Preservation
It’s unclear whether anything newsy will come out of Marty Markowitz’s state of the borough address tonight since the borough president has already leaked details of the speech to several media outlets. According to the articles, Markowitz’s address will touch on bringing high-tech manufacturing to East New York or Brownsville as well as preserving and renovating a couple of high-profile buildings. The Daily News reports that Markowitz will propose a contest a la the one that’s bringing Cornell to Roosevelt Island that would result in a “high-tech manufacturing zone” in an area with a lot of unemployment, such as East New York or Brownsville: “His first choice would be Apple, a company the beep has courted for years with no success. …But even if Apple continues to snub the borough, Markowitz said a contest similar to the one for an applied sciences grad school with city land and cash available could help lure another high-tech company, perhaps Samsung, LG, or Hewlett Packard.” Meanwhile, Markowitz will announce that a dilapidated building from 1786 on the Erasmus Hall High School campus in Flatbush will be preserved and renovated so that the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry can operate out of it, according to NY1. Part of the building will also become a museum. Markowitz will also announce that he’s going to earmark $1 million for the renovation of the Crown Heights armory at Union and Bedford, according to the Post. The borough president made headlines last year for riding a tricycle into his state of the borough address in order to criticize the proliferation of bike lanes in the city.
Markowitz to Propose Contest for High-Tech Manufacturing in Brownsville, East New York [NY Daily News]
Historic Erasmus High School Building To Be Preserved Under New Plan [NY 1]
Markowitz Donating $1M Towards Reviving Crown Heights Armory [NY Post]
Photo by myrtle_avenue_brooklyn
02/01/2012 9:00 AM
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Wednesday Links
Officer Shot in Head in Brooklyn; Full Recovery Is Expected [NY Times]
Testing the Ice Where Hockey Was an Afterthought [NY Times]
In Atlanta, Housing Woes Reflect Nation’s Pain [NY Times]
2 Construction Workers Injured by Falling Rubble at Smith-9th [NY Post]
The Ebb of Racial Segregation Is Slower in New York [WSJ]
Change Comes to Williamsburg, Slowly [Eagle]
02/01/2012 8:30 AM
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Envisioning a New Park by the Navy Yard
Architect’s Newspaper has an update on the plans to turn a former cemetery at the Navy Yard into a 1.7-acre park. The project, which has been dubbed the Navy Yard Hospital Memorial Landscape, is being built out by the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative at Williamsburg Street West and Kent Avenue. Here’s the description of how it’s supposed to turn out: “the site will be accessible to the public through a series of raised wooden walkways that will lead visitors around cement mooring blocks, stones, and native plantings that tie into the historical and material language of the waterfront, according to Vince Lee, project manager at [Rogers Marvel Architects]. Stone gabion ‘mattresses’ serve as footings for the walkway, which circumvents the location of former graves located in the center of the site. In honor of those formerly buried beside the hospital, steel frames proportionate to the size of burial plots will be constructed and elevated a few feet off the existing grade.” The space, which is being designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and Rogers Marvel Architects, might be finished by summer 2013. On the jump, another rendering and a plot diagram for the project.
Brooklyn Navy Yard Design Honors Former Cemetery [Architect's Newspaper]
All images courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (more…)
01/31/2012 11:00 AM
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First Few New-Old Listings Trickle in for 20 Bayard
The problem-plagued Williamsburg development 20 Bayard got a second shot at life when an investment firm purchased 37 unsold units in the building last fall for $25 million. Now the first few listings of condos acquired in the sale have made it online. All three of the units currently for sale are one-bedrooms. One of them is a 670-square-foot condo asking $535,000 that was originally on the market for $625,000 in 2007 and was last going for $499,000 in 2009, before the listing was pulled. Another is an 812-square-foot pad asking $635,000 that was first listed for $615,000 in 2008. According to the Real Deal, the original developers sold 25 units in the building between 2007 and 2009 before defaulting on debt.
20 Bayard Listings [StreetEasy]
Unsold Units at Williamsburg’s 20 Bayard Change Hands [Brownstoner]
Less Money, Mo Problems for 20 Bayard Developer [Brownstoner]
20 Bayard Goes Belly Up [Brownstoner] GMAP
01/31/2012 10:01 AM
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What Price Admirals Row? $2 Million
The deed for Admirals Row was recorded in pubic records yesterday, and it reveals that the city paid $2 million to “The United States of America” for the 6-acre site, which has an official address of 2 Wallabout Street. The deed also contained a couple other interesting tidbits. For one, it documents that one of the buildings on the site, #198, was demolished in December 2010 (it’s pictured above) and that some soil with high levels of PCB had to be removed from where the building stood; it also says that construction debris containing asbestos was removed from the area north of the Timber Shed last May. Not surprising, but the two pieces of information bring to mind that the developing the site will involve a not-inconsiderable level of environmental remediation. The other noteworthy thing included in the deed is a diagram of all the Admiral’s Row buildings; click through to see it.
Shedding a Final Tear for Admirals Row [Brownstoner]
Transfer of Admirals Row to City a Done Deal [Brownstoner] (more…)
01/31/2012 9:00 AM
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Tuesday Links
Susan Sarandon Bought a Clinton Hill Condo [NY Observer]
Mother Abandons Kids on Canarsie Sidewalk [NY Daily News]
Looking for That Midnight Train to Jamaica? [City Room]
The Year of the Dragon in Sunset Park [Eagle]
New Construction Slid 31% in 2011 [WSJ]
Marty’s Goal: Hockey in Brooklyn [Brooklyn Daily]
A view from Brooklyn Bridge Park, by Robert Sand
01/31/2012 8:30 AM
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Monday Blogwrap
How Much to Rent Commercial Space on Montague Street? [BHB]
A Dunkin’ Donuts Next to the Navy Yard Might be Popular [The Local]
Can a Native Brooklynite Still Be an ‘Invading Hipster’? [L Mag]
Getting a Towed Car Back: A Horror Story [FIPS]
Big Bird Hanging Out in Carroll Gardens [PMFA]
Photo by jillysp
01/30/2012 4:30 PM
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Closing Bell: ‘The G Train’s a Jerk’
Does the “G” stand for “gross”? Some compelling evidence at the 1-minute mark here suggests that the answer is “yes.”
The G Train’s a Jerk [Romio/Youtube]
01/30/2012 4:00 PM
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Triangle Sports Building for Sale
The Journal reports that the Triangle Sports building on Flatbush and 5th Avenue, right across the street from Barclays Center, is for sale. The family-owned store has been in business for nearly 100 years. Its owners cite the economy and “pressure from big-box stores” as reasons for calling it quits, and they’re looking to capitalize on demand for space near the arena. Brokers and other business owners in the area, meanwhile, are talking up how much demand the arena is supposedly generating for commercial space. Here’s what’s going away: “The Flatbush Avenue location of Triangle Sports was an anomaly among small business in the rapidly gentrifying area. It often kept erratic hours and shoppers had to climb a narrow staircase to reach top floors of the shop. But it also had a devoted following of shoppers who liked the customer service and selection of apparel that included Levi’s and Red Wing boots.” And here’s what’s coming: “The retail landscape has been altered throughout the past decade as national chains such as Target and Applebee’s have moved into the Atlantic Center mall along with upscale boutiques on the side streets off Flatbush Avenue. ‘This trend is going to accelerate in a monumental way as we get closer to the arena opening,’ said Timothy King, managing partner with CPEX Real Estate.”
Bowing to Change [WSJ] GMAP
Photo by PropertyShark
01/30/2012 2:40 PM
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House of D Open for Tours This Coming Weekend
This weekend the public is being given a chance to get inside the House of Detention without going through central booking first. Here are the details, via Cobble Hill Blog: “The open house in being held in advance of the phased re-opening of the House of Detention. Approximately 100 inmates per week will be transferred to the facility beginning in February. This will be an opportunity to meet Warden Walter Nin, ask questions and tour the facility.” The jail will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., this Saturday, February 4th. You can get on the list by RSVPing to Delilah Ortega in the DOC Department of Public Information: Delilah.Ortega@doc.nyc.gov.
Come See Inside Brooklyn’s “Big House” [Cobble Hill Blog]
01/30/2012 12:00 PM
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jennytabassum
Feb 06, 2012 | 12:32 PM