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Food and Drink
Prospect Heights
03/06/14 2:00pm

Prospect Heights Restaurant Prepping Takeout and Grocery Spot R&D Foods

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Signage has gone up in the windows of 602 Vanderbilt Avenue, where restaurant 606 R&D is preparing to expand with takeout and groceries. The spinoff, to be called R&D Foods, will have a counter with seating, according to the website. Offerings will include prepared foods, vegetables, sandwiches, deli items, breads, pastry, donuts, and coffee. There will also be catering.

“Opening Winter 2014″ says the site, and the hours will be 8 am to 8 pm seven days a week. The space was previously home to salon Wink Eco Beauty Bar. Thanks to Cara Greenberg for the tip and photo. GMAP

HOTD
Bedford Stuyvesant
03/06/14 1:30pm

House of the Day: 196 Hancock Street

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The first thing you notice about the red brick and brownstone Queen Anne at 196 Hancock is the exceptional exterior. Designed by architect Gilbert Alphonse Schellenger, the house was built in the early 1880s, according to Save Bedford Stuyvesant. Inside there are plenty of original details, including parquet floors, elaborate fretwork screens, mantels, a pier mirror, shutters and pocket doors.

It is set up as two floor-through rental apartments over an owner’s duplex. It’s located between Marcy and Nostrand, an architecturally distinguished block that is has been the focus of the Bed Stuy house tour for several years. This is agent Ban Leow’s first exclusive since joining Halstead. There will be an open house Sunday from 1 to 3 pm.

Click through to the jump for more photos, including ones not on the listing. What do you think of it and the $1,850,000 ask?

196 Hancock Street [Halstead] GMAP
Photos by Halstead (more…)

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Development
Park Slope
03/06/14 10:00am

Conversion or Tear Down for Troubled Park Slope Senior Home?

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After years of lawsuits and changing ownership, the assisted living facility at 1 Prospect Park West that was a Building of the Day has announced it will shut down in 90 days, NBC reported. The owners said they cannot afford an increased tax bill.

If the current owner, which appears to be real estate firm The Copper Group, decides to sell, we’re sure developers will leap at the chance to bid on the extra-prime property, located in Park Slope across the street from Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Public Library. It last traded for $40,097,437 in 2006.

As property values in Brooklyn rise dramatically, churches, businesses and homes — anywhere a double wide or bigger plot can be assembled — are quickly giving way to apartment towers. This 1925 Classical Revival building is not landmarked; the recently expanded Park Slope Historic District ends right at the nursing home’s property line.

As for the current residents, a reader told us, “residents and their families and caretakers are terribly upset at the abruptness of it all.”

Photo by Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark

Development
Williamsburg
03/06/14 9:00am

City Planning Approves Domino

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The City Planning Commission yesterday greenlighted Two Trees’ proposal for development of the Domino complex in Williamsburg, The New York Daily News reported. While there were no additional changes beyond what the Mayor and Two Trees negotiated earlier this week, it was no rubber-stamp step in the land use review process either.

If the City Planning Commission disapproves something, that can kill the proposal. Sometimes a yes vote from City Planning is enough to finalize a project. In this case, the development proposal will go to the City Council for review.

Now The New York Post is speculating the City Council could kill the deal if it pressures Two Trees to agree to new demands from labor that every worker on the site be unionized.

Rendering by SHoP Architects

Daily Links
03/06/14 8:30am

Thursday Links

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The Hunt: A Penchant for Privacy in Williamsburg [NY Times]
Two Arrested at Brooklyn Bank With A.T.M. Fraud Device [NY Times]
Slain Brooklyn Landlord Took Nearly $3.6M From Business to Pay Personal Debts [NY Daily News]
“Girls” Bus Tour in Works Featuring Cafe Grumpy [NY Daily News]
Apartment Tower Headed to Site of Eyesore 153 Remsen Street [Brooklyn Eagle]
Investment Firm Receives CIBC Loan for Brooklyn Heights Rental Acquisition [NY Observer]
Boaz Gilad Adds 328 Central Avenue to His Development Oeuvre [BuzzBuzzHome]
ND Architecture Puts Stamp on 212 Spencer Street in Bed Stuy [BuzzBuzzHome]
Artists Plan to Convert Crown Heights Auto Body Shop Into Concert Venue [DNAinfo]
With Easter Weeks Away, Christmas Trees Still Litter Park Slope Sidewalks [DNAinfo]
East New York Residents in Run-Down Building Fed up With Living Conditions [NY 1]

HOTD
Clinton Hill
03/05/14 1:30pm

House of the Day: 115 St. James Place

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It looks like a very high end renovation of 115 St. James Place is in the works, and the listing promises it will be completed “shortly.” Could this be the same renovation we wrote about in 2008?

There’s a kitchen with carrara marble and walls of windows, custom cherry cabinets in the dining room, and more walls of windows in the master bedroom. It could be cold, though, and the split level parlor floor with a column in the middle looks awkward to us.

It’s set up as an owner’s duplex (the “triplex” mentioned in the listing includes the cellar) with two large, potentially high-income rental units above, including a duplex whose top floor is set back and not visible from the street.

In 2007, the owner filed to convert the house from an SRO to a four-family; the permit was issued in December. We could not find a new C of O, but perhaps it’s coming.

What do you think of it for  $3,600,000?

115 St. James Place [Halstead] GMAP

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Gardening
Coney Island Area
03/05/14 11:30am

Coney Island Gardeners Sue City Over Destruction of Garden for Amphitheater

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Coney Island gardeners outraged over the razing of their garden to make way for the redevelopment of the landmarked Childs restaurant filed a lawsuit against the city today, according to a press release they sent us. The 16-year-old community garden on West 22nd Street was legally a park and Parks Department property, according to the statement.

A consultant for the city told The New York Post the garden was “decommissioned” as a park in 2004.

The Boardwalk Community Garden, Coney Island and the New York City Community Garden Coalition filed an Article 78 petition challenging the environmental review and approval of the outdoor amphitheater project, which was championed by former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. They plan a press conference on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall at noon today to announce the lawsuit.

Coney Islanders Want to Protect Their Garden From Marty’s Theater [Brownstoner]
Photo via Inhabitat

Featured
Crown Heights
03/05/14 9:30am

Crown Heights Tenants Form Union to Fight Displacement, Rising Rents

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Tenants of about a dozen buildings in Crown Heights have formed a group to fight gentrification, landlord abuse and rising rents called Crown Heights Tenant Union, Brooklyn Bureau reported. Formed in October, the group recently held a rally outside 1059 Union Street, above, to protest landlords who try to force out longtime tenants to deregulate apartments and raise rents.

“When long term tenants move out, landlords have been gutting the apartments to deregulate the rents,” said the story. “At the same time the long term residents are not getting repairs in their units.”

The group was created with the assistance of the Pratt Area Community Council and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, or UHAB. The union has a list of demands, “including a five-year rent freeze, timely repairs, a right to organize and a right to fair leases.”

“They’re beautifying the neighborhood,” the story quoted a long-term resident as saying. “I’ve been here for 36 years. I want to enjoy that also.”

Crown Heights Tenants Form Union to Fight Gentrification [Brooklyn Bureau]
Rapidly Rising Rents Drive out Recent Arrivals in Crown Heights [Brownstoner]
Photo by Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark

Brooklyn
03/05/14 9:00am

Report: Brooklyn Still Not Recovered From Hurricane Sandy

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The Brooklyn Recovery Fund has issued an impressive report on the state of Brooklyn more than a year after Hurricane Sandy. The report, issued a little over a month ago, found:

“While systems are back online and homes are mucked out, coastal communities continue to struggle. Home and business owners have spent down their life savings and built up debt. Many are barely making mortgage payments, and live in fear of foreclosure. Tenants face new and increasing landlord issues, including ongoing repair needs and rent hikes, and many have been forced to start over in unfamiliar neighborhoods. Storm drains remain clogged, temporary boilers create the random loss of heat, and mold persists in homes — threatening the health of our families. These needs require the utmost attention and commitment from local and city-wide decision-makers and government agencies, and beg the cooperation of all those involved to ensure that our communities recover to be better and stronger than ever before.”

The report has specific recommendations for each neighborhood in the five areas of housing, health, business and jobs, immigrant and undocumented communities and infrastructure. All the recommendations are backed up with studies and data. Some of the findings: (more…)

Daily Links
03/05/14 8:30am

Wednesday Links

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Viral Post Draws Attention to Plight at a Brooklyn School [NY Times]
A Scientist Reads the Layers of Snow in Prospect Park [NY Times]
Brooklyn Borough President Probed Over Alleged Fundraising Fraud [NY Post]
De Blasio Backers Sue to Block More Charters [NY Post]
Unions Demand All Domino Sugar Site Construction Workers Be Organized [NY Daily News]
DOB Issues Demolition Order for Hideous Homecrest House [Curbed]
Someone Just Bought the “Pinkstone” (Now Brown) for $4.5 Million [Curbed]
Toll Brothers, Sloan Kettering Could Bid for LICH [TRD]

Architecture
03/04/14 4:00pm

Closing Bell: Adaptive Reuse in Brooklyn

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adaptive-reuse-030414A distinguished  panel of architects and designers will discuss the virtues and challenges of adaptive reuse at the Brooklyn Historical Society on Thursday, March 6.

Panelists include Morris Adjmi, architect of the Wythe Hotel; Joseph Vance of Joseph Vance Architecture; Daniella Romano, Vice President of Programs, Research, and Archive at Brooklyn Navy Yard’s BLDG 92; Bill Hilgendorf of Uhuru Design; and photographer and co-author of “Design Brooklyn” Michel Arnaud.

“Design Brooklyn” co-author Anne Hellman will moderate. A book signing and beer for sale will follow the discussion.

“Adaptive Reuse in Brooklyn: Buildings, Rooms, and Objects” takes place at 128 Pierrepont Street from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased here.

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