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October 31, 2005

Go, Go, Gowanus! The Times Weighs In

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Gowanus goes under the New York Times microscope this week with the bottom line of the story going something like this: Real estate developers have already staked their ground in the hopes that the area along the canal will be rezoned to more favorably accommodate residential while brownstone hunters who are willing to walk a few short blocks to nearby Smith Street and Park Slope can find deals at significant discounts to those two areas. The evidence?

Earlier this year, Ms. Walker's firm sold a town house in need of some renovation on 11th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues for $825,000. On Seventh Street, Bonnie Coape-Arnold, an agent with Brooklyn Properties, sold a three-story, two-family town house with an owner's duplex for $760,000.

With unsurprising optimism, Hal Lehrman, co-owner of Brooklyn Properties, sums the investment thesis up: "There's a lot of potential in the whole Gowanus area. You're between very expensive neighborhoods, so it's a no-brainer."
Some See Venice, Some See a Canal [NY Times]




Posted by Brownstoner at 8:56 AM | Comments (17)
Categories: Neighborhoods

Comments

That block of 11th Street (between 3rd and 4th) is pretty nice -- it doesn't look anything like the other blocks between 3rd and 4th. I don't think that sale is a good example of anything.

Posted by: Rose at October 31, 2005 9:19 AM

Two comments on this piece -- first, while the "real estate logic" of being between two expensive neigborhoods has a lot to be said for it, there is also the fundamental industrial character of the neighborhood that was not highlighted as much as it perhaps should have been. The area is more like an array of microneighborhoods amidst a sea of light to medium industry.

Second, the map that accompanied the article seemed almost like an effort by some of the other neighborhoods to slough off their poorer relations. E.g., the Gowanus and Wyckoff houses got shifted from Boerum Hill, or even maybe the housing between Hoyt and Bond next to Carroll Gardens.

Also, finally, I was able to check out the grey clapboard house listed in the "on the market" area for 1.05 million --A&H had a showing yesterday. Seems about $200,000 too high, at least. It looked like a total gut reno with no old detail left except for a decent brick fireplace. (However, that's not to say there would have been any detail to preserve.) As it is, the reno job looked bland but adequate with a couple of nice modern touches. Despite the 2-family c of o, it would take some serious work to turn this into a legal two family. Plus, it's literally next door to Monte's parking lot.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 31, 2005 9:42 AM

Here's my favorite part: the broker saying "They're calling it 'G-Slope.'"

Who's calling it that? I googled 'G-Slope' and 'Gowanus' and found a page worth of hits -- all or most of which referred to a March 2005 article, about a couple from Tribeca who bought on 11th Street near 3rd Avenue, who said they heard a broker call it "G-Slope."

So when he says "They're calling it," he means "We're calling it."

Posted by: linusvanpelt at October 31, 2005 10:58 AM

What about the toxic land that surrounds the Gowanus? Before anyone starts calling it G-Slope and thinks of buying property there, they'd better check out the potential problems and whether there are any definitive plans to clean up decades-old toxic waste.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 31, 2005 11:21 AM

aw, heck, let's go crazy and just call it g-spot.

Posted by: suzy at October 31, 2005 12:05 PM

although I recognize the attractiveness of linking anything to park slope, I can't figure out why brokers wouldn't embrace the name gowanus. despite the canal's filth and the expressway's noise, it's a cool word. but I guess building a new brand takes work?

Posted by: anonymous at October 31, 2005 1:15 PM

No one I know has ever called it G-Slope, I like GOWANUS!! G-Slope is rediculous...

Posted by: Anonymous at October 31, 2005 6:21 PM

From article:
Where 10 years ago people would scoff at the whole concept of Venice on the canal," said James Cornell, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, "it appears it will become a reality sometime in the not-too-distant future."

If anyone is buying there thinking THAT is going to happen, I got a bridge I could sell them...is that "not too distant" time before or after they bury the gowanus expressway under the east river?

As for G-Slope, it just goes to show that these writers will just believe anything a broker says. I think that's called anecdotal journalism, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it's just a bunch of baloney.

Posted by: OE at October 31, 2005 8:53 PM

this area will be huge.

gowanus offers the greatest potential for price appreciation and neighborhood improvement. get before the prices skyrocket much further. by the time they open up the whole foods market with its promenade, it will be too late...

and while i make it a general point to detest r.e. agents, the one who said "no brainer" hit the nail on head...

Posted by: flambeee at October 31, 2005 8:56 PM

James Cornell is a moron and doesn't know anything worthwhile about Gowanus. It "will" be a very hot area in the future. But your talking maybe 10 years. Not only do you have to wait for a zoning change (the community will not grant variances and there is a lot of opposition to a zoning change) which will be likely in the future, there is also a huge amount of enviornmental clean-up that needs to be taken up by the city, state and army core of engineers. Maybe we're talking 5-10 years before a project along the gowanus is really something to take seriously. Whole foods will be an anchor for 3rd St. and welcome additional retail but Whole foods is going to be a commuter store, certainly not the destination type of retail needed to really spark the area and create a viable frenzy for residential. All the developers I know already own parcels or are looking for parcels but buying based on speculation is extremely risky considering the majority of properties are zoned for manufacturing. I do feel that the project at 333 Carroll will be a home run as well as any property that is zoned residential west of Bond. The gowanus area won't change too much within the next few years. Why anyone would call it anything besides Gowanus is silly. If any neighborhood has a personality and history it's Gowanus!!!

Posted by: BREUKELEN at October 31, 2005 9:51 PM

10 years is nothing. The house I bought in Clinton Hill for $300k in 1990 is easily worth three times that 15 years later. Buy in Gowanus now if you can.

Posted by: Park Sloper at October 31, 2005 10:27 PM

Buy now...and cry foul when toxicity testing of the area comes back to haunt you...

Posted by: Anonymous at November 1, 2005 10:19 AM

I really wanted to buy in Gowanus when I was house hunting 3-4 years ago... I've always liked the neighborhood "as is" (South Brooklyn Coffin Factory, anyone?) with the added bonus of proximity to both C. Gardens and P. Slope for days when you feel like a little more gentrification. And it was affordable. The problem-- to echo an earlier poster-- was the housing stock. All I saw were unbelievably horrible gut renovations (eg PermaStone siding used as an interior finish!) and paved-over backyards. I have vision, but not that much vision.

Posted by: Naomi at November 1, 2005 10:49 AM

I've commented on this area before ... it was gratifying to see that the NY Times real estate section also knows there is life beyond 4th Ave! For the record, I have never heard anyone call our 'hood G-Slope out loud. I did make a bid for GoSlo at one point (Gowanus Slope - get it, get it?) but it didn't stick.

Yes there are some very shoddy DIY/Home Depot renovations in our SE corner of Gowanus, but you can always do what we did ... strip out the crap and make it spare and modern on the inside, with a quasi-historic "painted ladies" type facade renovation on the outside. Then move in and revel in your proximity to the F and R trains!

Posted by: jemstone at November 1, 2005 1:55 PM

But what of the sewage?
Now that buildings are going up on fourth avenue, those "run down" houses in gowanus are getting sewage.It seems that the sewer overflows can't even get the stuff out into the gowanus fast enough.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 10, 2006 9:26 PM

there are $1.25 million condo units being sold on seventh street (between third and fourth avenue)?!? i don't think anyone in their right mind would pay that now for the location when you can buy apts next to the park for that price.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 12, 2006 9:47 PM

If you go to the Buildings Department, you will find that it is zoned PARK SLOPE WEST PERIOD...If some of you believe that this area is not BOOMING then you are just living in denial. The properties in PARK SLOPE WEST are appreciating every day. In 5 years you wont even recognize the area you are writing about today. It also sounds like some of you dont OWN property in the area, and that is a shame. I do, I took the RISK and I am Happy with the appreciation of the Neighborhood, and my investment.

Time will tell what this neighborhood will become. The signs are here and we should appreciate that transition and not try to belittle it.

Posted by: Get Real at March 4, 2006 11:06 AM

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