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20 Henry Street Condos Officially Hit the Market
The old the Peaks Mason Mints candy factory, aka 20 Henry Street, launched sales today after a five-year drumroll. There are 38 residences throughout the old factory building (pictured) and the addition next door on Poplar Street (pictured here). Units range from studios to four-bedrooms, priced from $450,000 to $2.595 million. There are also six penthouses, asking $2.1 to $2.55 million. It’s been a long road for this development: After getting approval from LPC in 2006, 20 Henry Street first launched sales in 2008, ran into some legal troubles, then finally got the reboot last year. How do you think it’ll do this time around?
20 Henry Street Hitting Market Next Month [Brownstoner]
20 Henry Addition Loses Scaffolding, Gets Bricked [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 20 Henry Street [Brownstoner]
Beams Rising at 20 Henry Addition [Brownstoner]
20 Henry Indeed Getting a Reboot! [Brownstoner] GMAP
02/09/2012 2:00 PM
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The Insider: Apartment into Loft in Brooklyn Heights
Welcome to The Insider, Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at interior design and renovation in the borough of Brooklyn. It’s written and produced by Cara Greenberg, a design journalist who blogs at casaCARA: Old Houses for Fun & Profit. Find it here every Thursday at 11:30AM.
IN THE MID-’80s, a developer chopped up a former YMCA building in Brooklyn Heights, creating condominium apartments with dropped ceilings and sorry little galley kitchens. When a couple in the arts — she’s a fashion editor, he’s a screenwriter — bought a 1,344-square-foot duplex in the building a few years ago, they called on Brooklyn-based designer Elizabeth Roberts to help them realize the potential they knew was there.
Roberts removed walls, raised ceilings and doorways, and re-thought the uninspired staircase to the upper level, where three bedrooms were converted to a master bedroom and a home office (there’s a powder room on the lower level, a bath-and-a-half upstairs). Most strikingly, the kitchen area was opened up to bring in light and make the space more conducive to entertaining.
Fred Taverna of New York Interior Construction (212/251-0790) saw the project through. Total cost: approximately $300,000.
“When they purchased it, it was an apartment,” says Roberts. “Now it’s a loft.”
Photos: Sean Slattery
More, including ‘befores’ and construction shots, after the jump. (more…)
02/09/2012 11:30 AM
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Displaced by Shake Shack, Antonio’s Rises from the Ashes
Everyone seemed pretty excited back in late 2010 when it was announced that Shake Shack was coming to the Fulton Mall. Everyone, that is, except for Tony Casaccio, the proprietor of Tony’s Famous Pizzeria, which spent more than 20 years in the retail space at Fulton and Adams Streets. “This location was like dating Pam Anderson. How can you replace Pam Anderson?” Casaccio said to The Brooklyn Paper at the time. Well, he’s managed to rebound, landing on the other side of Borough Hall in the space at 32 Court Street formerly occupied by Korean-style yogurt chain Yofiore. His new spot, which, at 650 square feet, is considerably smaller and also offers salads, juices and cappucinos in addition to ‘za, opened today. A tipster snapped this photo moments ago. GMAP
02/08/2012 2:40 PM
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Co-op of the Day: 1 Pierrepont Street, #1B
All right, let’s get this out of the way: This apartment at 1 Pierrpont Street is on the ground floor. Okay, now that we got that out of the way we can wallow in what a gorgeous prewar pad this is. In addition to three bedrooms and three bathrooms, the 2,000-square-foot (we’re guessin’) co-op has a sizable foyer and two (!) dining rooms. The apartment sold in 2006 (presumably pre-renovation) for $1,362,000 and spent a few months last fall on the market for $2,650,000. After some time off over the holidays, it’s back up for sale with a new broker for $2,595,000. (For the same price, you can also get this house a few blocks away.) Maintenance is $2,505. How do you like its chances?
1 Pierrepont Street, #1B [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
02/08/2012 12:53 PM
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Inside the New(ish) Brooklyn Bridge Park Offices
After a couple of years of camping out in a construction trailer, the folks in charge of building and operating Brooklyn Bridge Park finally moved into new offices in the old Building 50 at the corner of Furman and Joralemon Streets last November. Our poor photography skills probably don’t do it justice, but the million-dollar renovation of the 7,500-square-foot ground floor (which the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation shares with the Conservancy) created a really beautiful workspace–high ceilings, clean lines, modern but inviting at the same time. The two upper floors remain for the time being in their original state. We’ve provided lots o’ photos on the jump because the offices are not open to the public.
(more…)
02/08/2012 10:32 AM
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Downtown School Trying to Spurn P.S. 8′s Advances
In this town, everything comes back to real estate, even schools. Tensions can run particularly high when public and charter schools with strong track records and involved parents seek to expand by moving in on unused turf at schools where the student body has been shrinking. Just witness last year’s heated battle between the well-funded Arts & Letters and the less stable P.S. 20 in Fort Greene. A similar scenario is now playing out in Downtown Brooklyn, where P.S. 8, an elementary school in Brooklyn Heights which has enjoyed surging popularity over the last decade and recently completed a physical expansion of its own, is making a play to launch a middle school at the Westinghouse and Polytechnic High School on Tillary Street which is less than 80 percent full. (Great building, by the way. It was a Building of the Day last month.) According to the Brooklyn Eagle, more than 30 P.S. 8 parents turned out on Monday night to express support for the plan. Council Member Steve Levin was also there to speak in favor: “The expansion into a middle school will mean that students from P.S. 8 will be able to continue their education at a local, quality public school.” Levin is joined in his support of the expansion by State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Joan Millman. Though everyone in the P.S. 8 crowd is saying the right things (we’re going to be good neighbors, this is not a take-over, etc.), parents of the vocational high school aren’t buying it. “I hear everyone talking about being a good neighbor,” said Khem Irby, first vice president of the District 13 Community Education Council. “A neighbor doesn’t live in your house.” She also warned that mixing middle school and high school students could be trouble: “High school students might be having sex in the hallways.” In addition to the obvious class and race tensions just barely below the surface, there’s also the conspiracy theory that city has been deliberately shrinking Westinghouse to make room for the P.S. 8 expansion.
P.S. 8 Middle School Plan Meets Westinghouse Resistance [Brooklyn Eagle]
02/08/2012 9:00 AM
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Co-op of the Day: 58 Pierrepont Street, #3
At $1,500,000, this 1,900-square-foot place at 58 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights is priced pretty inexpensively for a co-op in Brooklyn Heights in move-in condition, especially when you factor in the 400 square feet of private outdoor space it comes with. The kitchen and bathroom finishes aren’t going to win any design prizes, but those are pretty easily addressed. What do you think this’ll go for?
58 Pierrepont Street, #3 Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
02/07/2012 12:54 PM
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Columbia Heights “Off-the-Radar Millionaires Row”
Following the recent sale of 212 Columbia Heights for $11 million (the second such eight-digit sale on the six-block stretch), The Daily News has declared the street the city’s “off-the-radar” Millionaires Row. (We guess that by “off-the-radar” they simply mean “not in Manhattan.”) In addition to being located in the neighborhood with the borough’s priciest brownstones in general, this block has the distinction of offering direct views of Lower Manhattan–or at least the houses on the west side of the street offer such views out their backsides. “Brooklyn was always considered a poor step child to Manhattan, but now it is really coming into its own,” said the guy who owned Number 212 until selling it for $8.9 million in 2005. That observation’s only, what, six or seven years too late?
It’s Brooklyn’s $10 million Street [NY Daily News]
02/07/2012 12:00 PM
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Last Week’s Biggest Sales
1. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $11,000,000
212 Columbia Heights GMAP P*Shark
This was a record-setting sale last week for Brooklyn Heights. It was on the market for $13.5 million and previously sold for $8.5 million in 2006. You can see interior shots of the home right here. Entered into contract on 12/21/11; closed on 1/17/11; deed recorded on 1/30/2012.
2. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $2,596,537.50
360 Furman Street, #215 GMAP P*Shark
A three bed/three bath asking $2.6 million. Entered into contract on 11/7/11; closed on 1/23/11; deed recorded on 2/2/2012.
3. PARK SLOPE $1,775,000
287 Garfield Place GMAP P*Shark
This home wasn’t officially on the market for sale. Entered into contract on 6/28/11; closed on 12/20/11; deed recorded on 1/30/2012.
4. BOERUM HILL $1,700,000
257 Hoyt Street GMAP P*Shark
257 Hoyt has a weird sales history. According to Streeteasy, it sold in 2006 for $830,000, then went to the market in 2010 for $750,000. It sold for $335,000. Then it was listed for $1,650,000 in 2011, a sale was recorded for $550,000. Then it was re-listed and finally sold for $1,700,000. Entered into contract on 6/28/11; closed on 12/20/11; deed recorded on 2/1/2012.
5. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $1,657,528.13
9 College Place, #3J GMAP P*Shark
A 1,697-square-foot two bed, three bath. Asking $2,100,000. Entered into contract on 12/2/11; closed on 1/17/11; deed recorded on 1/31/2012.
02/07/2012 11:31 AM
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Building of the Day: 52 Livingston Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row house
Address: 52 Livingston Street
Cross Streets: Court and Clinton Streets
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1846
Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of Brooklyn Heights HD (1965)
The story: This delightful Gothic Revival home is one of the joys of Brooklyn Heights. It was originally only two stories and a basement and, according to Clay Lancaster, in his groundbreaking book on Brooklyn Heights, was the home of the widow Matilda Brown, in 1846. Lancaster goes on to note that the very Romantic style Gothic ironwork, cornice, porch, and fencing was probably put on in 1854, to complement the Packer School, which was being built across the street at that time. (more…)
02/06/2012 3:30 PM
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Co-op of the Day: 24 Monroe Place, #6D
This new listing at 24 Monroe Place in Brooklyn Heights is exactly the kind of place you think of when you hear the words, “prewar co-op.” Original wood floors, well-preservered moldings, large rooms, good layout, even a working fireplace. The only thing we’re not wild about (in addition to the $1,980 maintenance) is the kitchen renovation, which, while perfectly nice, feels a little below its pay grade to us. The ask on the two-bedroom, two-bathroom pad is $1,195,000.
24 Monroe Place, #6D [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
02/06/2012 12:57 PM
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Mixed Feelings About New Massage Parlor on Remsen
When the Brooklyn Heights Blog posted a story about the impending opening of a new massage parlor at 147 Remsen Street between Court and Clinton streets, reader responses were varied, but skewed, not surpringly, toward the NIMBY and sensational. “Oh boy – here come the 1970s all over again. Cue the wah-wah guitar,” wrote the initial commenter. “Sex in BH?! Maybe in the 70s, but never since. It’s not permitted. Or desired, putting aside real estate porn,” said another. “People please settle down. Everything is going to end happily!” wrote T.K. Small. “Finally a local business is opening that doesn’t rub this blog the wrong way,” wrote a reader who goes by Knight. The new spot is part of a chain called Massage Envy.
Massage Parlor coming to Remsen Street [BH Blog]
02/06/2012 10:15 AM
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Past and Present: 122 Montague Street
A Look at Brooklyn, then and now.
Cultural archetypes, some would call them stereotypes, are hard to let go of when we’ve got them in our collective heads, especially when they’ve been drummed into our cultural consciousness by generations of advertising. Today we’ve become much more sensitive to the kinds of images we use in advertising, and most people now try very hard to avoid being politically incorrect, and insensitive to ethnic, religious and racial groups. Nowhere do cultural images resonate more than when you are talking about food and cooking. For many people in the 1940’s, nothing said good Southern cooking more than the figure of an ample, dark, smiling black woman in a bandana carrying a big ol’ platter of food. So if a Brooklyn restaurant was named after this icon of Dixie deliciousness, it would be seen as a complement, now wouldn’t it? Welcome to Mammy’s Pantry! (more…)
02/03/2012 10:30 AM
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House of the Day: 16 Hunts Lane
This house at 16 Hunts Lane is so special from the outside–as is the mews it’s located on–that it’s a bit disappointing to see the interior finishes. The choices are all so bland and, frankly, middle-market. There’s nothing particularly offensive, mind you, but a carriage house of this historic significance and prime location (smack in the middle of Brooklyn Heights) deserved better in our opinion. (Baseboard heating? Factory floors?) Despite the house’s small size (700 square feet), the asking price of $995,000 would have been easily achievable with higher-end interiors. As is, we’re not so sure. Because of its uniqueness, it still might happen. If you’re interested, there’s already been some discussion of this place over on Curbed.
16 Hunts Lane [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
02/01/2012 1:29 PM
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Building of the Day: 188 Montague Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Lawyers Title Insurance Company office building
Address: 188 Montague Street
Cross Streets: Court and Clinton Streets
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1904-1906
Architectural Style: Beaux-Arts
Architect: Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell
Other buildings by architect: Bossert Hotel on Montague Street, Prospect Park Boathouse, St. Barbara’s Catholic church in Bushwick, St. Gregory the Great Church in Crown Heights North, former Jensen Storage/IBM building, Nostrand Avenue at Gates, in Bedford Stuyvesant, and many others.
Landmarked: Yes, designated 2012
The story: This ten story office building sits partially on the site of the original Brooklyn Academy of Music. That building, one of Brooklyn’s premiere concert halls and assembly rooms, was one of the jewels in Brooklyn’s cultural crown. It burned down in a spectacular and horrific fire in 1903. By that time, Brooklyn’s cultural hub had moved towards Flatbush Avenue, and Montague, Court Street, Joralemon and the area surrounding Borough Hall and the court houses had become Brooklyn’s own Wall Street area.
There were a lot of banks here, large banks and smaller local banks; some in spectacular buildings, also on Montague Street. Along with the banks, were private trust companies, insurance companies, and land and title companies, which did a booming business in Brooklyn’s ever expanding real estate market. These businesses, and the lawyers, accountants and other businesses that thrived along with them, needed prime office space, and Brooklyn’s Skyscraper District was built to accommodate them. (more…)
01/31/2012 3:30 PM
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Co-op of the Day: 114 Clinton Street, #6B
We’re really liking the look and feel of this new listing at 114 Clinton Street. The two-bedroom is a real two-bedroom (no windowless home office here) with lots of prewar charm along with modern updating where you want it (kitchen and bath). Speaking of bathrooms, there’s only one, which is likely to be the $775,000 listing’s only achilles heel. Regardless, we suspect this place will have numerous suitors, don’t you?
114 Clinton Street, #6B [Realty Collective] GMAP P*Shark
01/30/2012 12:55 PM
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212 Columbia Heights Sells for $11 Million, Sets Record
The sale of 212 Columbia Heights was recorded in city records this morning, setting a record as the most expensive house to ever sell in Brooklyn Heights. The 4,950-square-foot, seven-bedroom townhouse sold for $11 million. As Curbed noted a few weeks ago, it went into contract very quickly after being put on the market for $13.5 million late last year. Its sellers picked it up for $4.25 $8.5 million in 2006 (NYT article here), according to PropertyShark. The property beats out 88 Remsen Street, which traded for $10.8 million, as the most expensive to ever sell in the Heights. It comes close to being the priciest sale in Brooklyn ever, too: As far as we know, it ties the sale of a Gravesend house for $11 million in 2003 for that honor. Click through for some interior shots. UPDATE: The 2005 sale price was $8.5 million, as reported in the New York Times at the time. GMAP
Photo via PropertyShark (more…)
01/30/2012 11:50 AM
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Here’s How the Tweaked Design for 30 Henry Turned Out
The Eagle got its hands on the “modified” rendering for the new condo planned at 30 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights, as shown above. The new design, which Landmarks green-lighted last week, is almost a carbon copy of the first rendering for the building. It could very well be a trick of light, but it looks like one new element might be a slightly darker color of brick on the facade. The Brooklyn Heights Association went called the first design “boring.”
Modified Design for 30 Henry St. Unveiled [Eagle]
Find the Changes In New Improved 30 Henry Street Proposal [McBrooklyn]
01/27/2012 11:30 AM
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Williamsburg’s Jardin, Heights’ 75 Clinton Going Rental
Yesterday there was news about two condos that hit the market relatively recently going rental: Curbed noted that the Williamsburg condo building Jardin is making the switch, and Crain’s reported that Brooklyn Heights’ 75 Clinton is also turning rental. There had been 23 contracts signed at Jardin, which is on North 6th Street between Berry and Bedford, and a tipster tells Curbed buyers are being fully refunded. Prices were running around $770 a foot. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn Heights, 75 Clinton was purchased by the firm Invesco, and rents in the 74-unit building will run from $2,800 to $7,000 a month, according to Crain’s.
Williamsburg Condo Jardin Refunding Buyers, Going Rental [Curbed] GMAP
Another Bklyn Condo Project Goes Rental [Crain's] GMAP
01/27/2012 9:00 AM
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New $6.2 Million Heights Townhouse Rising Quickly
The new townhouse rising at 314 Hicks Street isn’t wasting any time: Only one story to go before it reaches full height. This project is being built by the same developer who renovated nearby 45 State Street. According to the website for 314 Hicks, the asking price for the Brooklyn Heights townhouse is going to be $6.2 million.
Townhouse Going Up at 314 Hicks Street [Brownstoner]
State and Hicks [Official Site]
Pre-Selling a Hicks Street Doubleshot [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
01/26/2012 2:41 PM
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brokelin
Feb 06, 2012 | 12:32 PM