January 2006
January 31, 2006
House of the Day: Not Much Green for Greene
Another beauty in Bed Stuy today, this one a bit cheaper and a bit further out than yesterday's house. This 4-story, 3-family brownstone has some mad detail, including mahogany paneling, pier mirror and the ceiling mural. The top two floors, both of which are rentals, appear to have been tastefully renovated as well, so this looks to be in move-in condition which is unusual for a house under $800,000 with details. One slight negative: The building's only 18-feet wide, but it looks like one of those houses that pulls it off. Also, props to CityQwest for a very well presented listing. Any takers?
904 Greene Avenue [CityQwest] GMAP P*Shark
215 Hancock Revisited: A 'Stoner's Wet Dream
A Brownstoner reader who now lives in Copenhagen was nice enough to dig out the old photos she had of when she toured 215 Hancock with her engineer last year. "It was hard to capture the grandeur of this house," she writes. "You have to see it to believe it." Indeed. What's truly amazing is that the former owner who bought the house at auction in 2004 for $525,000 had no idea that the interior was anything out of the ordinary.
First Comes Flip, Them Comes Reno [Brownstoner] GMAP
Swimming Pool for New Townhouse Condos in FG
January 28, 2006 -- Fort Greeners already have a fab tennis court. Now buyers at Cumberland Greene, a new four-story townhouse, will get a pool too. Opening near the park, at 237 Cumberland St., the brick building will offer four units, all three-bedrooms ranging from 1,800 square feet to 2,200 square feet for the duplex penthouse. In the back, there'll be a landscaped garden and a waterfall, while a pool and fitness center will be available in the basement. Prices are expected to start at $1.5 million. If Fort Greeners are notoriously protective of their neighborhood, Suzanne Debrango, licensed sales agent at Brooklyn Properties, notes that the developers are two local artists who happen to live right next door to the building. Still, Cumberland Greene is likely to draw the moneyed crowd. The units will be marketed to Manhattan buyers, according to Debrango.
Comment: Could this be the same artist couple that built this Studio-cum-gallery building on Vanderbilt? Supposedly they own a brownstone in Fort Greene...
No Fairy-Tale Ending [NY Post - 3rd Item]
Just Sold in Brooklyn
BOERUM HILL $670,000
154 Bergen St.
Prewar two-bedroom, one-bath co-op in a brownstone, 1,000 square feet, with working fireplace, renovated kitchen with stainless-steel appliances, dishwasher, washer/dryer, oversized windows, renovated bath and parquet floors; building is pet-friendly. Maintenance $424, 50 percent tax-deductible. Asking price $650,000, on market three months. (Broker: Kyeong-Soo Kim, the Corcoran Group)
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $560,000
215 Adams St.
Renovated two-bedroom, two-bath corner co-op, 1,043 square feet, with chef's kitchen, dishwasher, washer/dryer, parquet floors, window AC and Brooklyn Bridge and skyline views from N/E exposures; Concord Village building is pet-friendly and features 24-hour doorman, fitness center, roof deck, laundry, bike room and storage lockers. Maintenance $1,054.75, 39 percent tax-deductible. Asking price $569,000, on market 154 days. (Broker: Susan Levy, the Corcoran Group)
DITMAS PARK $188,000
570 Westminster Road
One-bedroom, one-bath co-op, 600 square feet, with foyer and renovated eat-in kitchen. Maintenance $450. Asking price $188,000, on market one week. (Broker: Alexandra Reddish, Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate)
Just Sold! [NY Post]
Change in Carroll Gardens Squeezing Little Guy
In an article lamenting the fact that the owner of a local Carroll Gardens pharmacy recently had to sell out to Eckerds because of the economics of gentrification, The Daily News notes a couple of specific changes on the retail landscape of the increasingly popular nabe:
"They're making it very difficult for the small businesses to stay in business," says the displaced pharmacist. "Everything changes. I guess they call that progress."
Becoming a Link in a Chain [NY Daily News]
Holiday Inn Slips Into The Slope
NewYorkology's got the goods on the new Holiday Inn Express that's expected to be open by April of this year (we'll see about that). The location of the 90-room, 8-story building makes a lot of sense to old-school local blogger Amy Langfield:
Located on a semi-residential street pocked with auto repair shops, it's situated where the "slope" of Park Slope flattens out to meet the "Gowanus" of Gowanus Canal. A mere half block from the R subway line, it's a block and a half uphill to Park Slope's 5th Avenue, where the new shops and restaurants is turning this stretch into Brooklyn's new Smith Street. (CitySearch even has a "hot blocks" page dedicated to the area around 5th and Union.)
What do you think? Is this a win-win for the hotel and the hood?
Holiday Express to Open [NewYorkology] GMAP
More Professionals Moving to the South Slope
You can down-zone all you want but it's hard to stand in the way of good old capitalism. In fact, given this sign on 3rd Avenue and 24th Street, we not even sure the wife will let us go to Lowe's again on our own.
Photo credit: Tom Toomey.
One Womanizer, Four Sales and a Fire
We missed this story when it broke last week--and suspect most people did as it only seems to have received limited attention in the Daily News--but were pleased to be emailed a set of exclusive photos this weekend. It appears that the brownstone at 600 St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights was torched on January 7th by arsonists, the last step in an elaborate mortgage financing scam that saw the value of the property artificially pumped up over a series of transactions between colluding parties. According to the Daily News, Delbert Baptiste was already indicted last August for inflating the price of the property but the real mastermind is a Mercedes-driving womanizer named Owen Larman who is currently a fugitive in connection with similar scams involving 20 properties and over $12 million. Here's how the Daily News laid out the course of events:
March 24, 2000 — Owen Larman buys 510 Lafayette St. in his own name for $30,000 from Lorenzo Distant, a legitimate owner. April 6, 2000 — Larman sells building to straw buyer Andrea Clark in a paper sale for $245,000. No money changes hands but Larman gets mortgage of $220,500, which he allegedly steals. Profit after costs and expenses is about $170,000.
May 29, 2001 — Straw buyer Clark sells building back to Larman for $363,000 in another paper sale. No money changes hands but Larman allegedly steals a new mortgage of $304,200. Profit after costs and expenses is about $250,000.
August 12, 2003 — Larman files a fake satisfaction of the $304,200 mortgage with the city of New York, so it looks like mortgage is paid off and he owns the property free and clear.
September 5, 2003 — Using a fake appraisal, Larman executes a paper sale of the building to another straw buyer, Sabrina Robinson, for $435,000. No money changes hands. Larman takes out a $391,500 mortgage in Robinson’s name, which he again allegedly steals. Profit after costs and expenses is $323,790.
Larman walks away from the building. Sabrina Robinson is stuck with the mortgage payments.
Total profit for Larman on 510 Lafayette St.: $743,790
Photo Credit: M. Fager GMAP P*Shark
Masters of the Unreal Deal [NY Daily News]
Gentrification Brings Arsonists [NY Daily News]
Playing with Fire [Daily Heights]
Tuesday Linkeroo
Detail, Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew. Photo by Frank Lynch.
Background Checks by Housing Authority [NY Sun]
Monday Article Links [The Real Estate]
Dumbo 1 BR FSBO [Apartment Therapy]
Dumbest Moments in Real Estate [Haute Blog]
CB7 Rejects 5 Projects in South Slope [PS Courier]
Brownstone 3-Pack in Sunset Park [Curbed]
What I Did in W'burg [A Brooklyn Life]
January 30, 2006
House of the Day: Off to Monroe We Go
We like the feel and location of this 4-story brownstone on Monroe between Bedford and Nostrand. Even though it looks like some of the upper floor rooms have lost their details, this parlor floor doors and stairs more than make up for it. (It's a lot easier to find some crown and base moldings to touch up the bedrooms than find original 10-foot doors and frames, that's for sure!) The kitchen alcove is a bummer, but since it's a four-family, you're gonna be tearing out a couple of these kitchens anyway. Close proximity to the A Train at Franklin is also a plus. And the price? $949,000 seems about right though we could see it going for closer to $900,000. Not sure how long this has been on the market, but it looks like a place that should move quickly.
146 Monroe Street [CBHK] GMAP P*Shark
Breaking: Moonstruck House Hitting Market
Just got word that the Brooklyn Heights house where the movie Moonstruck was filmed has hit the market. No pics and limited info on the Corcoran site at this point but both promised shortly. One reader, who fell in love with the kitchen back when she saw the movie, can't wait to get inside. The 4,160-square-foot house, which is located at 19 Cranberry Street, is going on the chopping block for a cool $5 million.
Cranbery Street [Corcoran]
The Moonstruck House [Zax Writ]
Cheap New Construction a Deal? Not a Chance
Not to beat a dead horse, but there were several commenters in Friday's discussion that seemed to feel that the new construction eyesores being slapped up around the borough serve the purpose of providing lower-income people with the benefit of the american dream. Our rebuttal was that these structures actually do the opposite. They are almost without exception poorly constructed and almost without exception extremely ugly. We don't see how these things have a chance of holding their value over time against the traditional housing stock. Take these two comparably priced houses within a few blocks of each other in Bed Stuy, both of which were posted in the last couple of days on Craigslist. Which owner do you think is more likely to have preserved or built equity 20 years from now? Which owner is more likely to get completely wiped out in a downturn? So much for serving the needs of the needy. These developers are taking the money and running from those least able to afford it.
3 Family New Construction [Craigslist] GMAP
4 Family Brownstone [Craigslist] GMAP
Atlantic Yards Environs Booming in Anticipation
The Daily News is reporting that developers have"at least two dozen" condo projects on the drawing board in the area surrounding Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. One developer, Eli Karp, alone is building five separate buildings alond the stretch of Pacific Street between Grand and Washington. "I decided, why wait for the arena?" Karp said.
In the same article, we get a much-needed update on sales at The Washington Condos, where Aguayo & Huebener trumpets their success at being able to sell 28 of the 39 units from architectural plans. Even more interesting, the article notes that prices have been raised five times and are now range from $575 to $700 a foot. We also learn that Jerry Minsky sold the three-story brownstone at 181 Prospect Place in 48 hours.
Condos Rise While Ratner Fights [NY Daily News]
Development du Jour: Pacific Blue [Curbed]
Curbed Brooklyn Round-Up
Curbed couldn't get enough of Brooklyn on Friday so we figured we'd get caught up by dedicating an entire post to Curbed links from last week.
1. Toxic sludge is slowing Whole Foods' Gowanus entry
2. Not much new activity at either the J Condo or 85 Jay Street
3. Who's to blame for razing of trees in B'kln Heights?
4. Shaya slashes prices at 85 Adams in Dumbo
5. Another seller follows Fizzbows and creates sexy FSBO website
6. Fire on the Williamsburg waterfront earlier in the week
7. Curbed readership chimes in on Scarano FG debacle
National Magazine Has Finger on Local Pulse
We were interested to learn of a new up-and-coming Brooklyn neighborhood while reading Time Magazine this weekend. What was it again? Park,uh, something? Oh yeah, Park Slope. Ever heard of it?
A decade ago, the 2.4-km stretch of Fifth Avenue that forms the western edge of the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, was the grim preserve of drug dealers, thugs and the demimonde. Not anymore. Thanks to the city's skyrocketing real estate market, some campaigning locals and a few pioneering investors, a once bleak thoroughfare of boarded-up shops and unsavory bodegas has been transformed into one of the hippest shopping and dining destinations in the Big Apple. Today, this section of Fifth Avenue, dubbed "Restaurant Row" by some, is luring visitors and locals alike with top-notch cuisine and cool boutiques.
Park Slope Becoming One of NY's Coolest [Time Magazine]
Sunset Park: Land of the Affordable Brownstone
As has been discussed in this space before, Sunset Park offers an impresssive assortment of housing opportunities, especially for those looking to stay below the million dollar mark. Like many nabes now undergoing renaissance, Sunset Park, which stretches south of Park Slope down to Bay Ridge, has seen a big turnaround. One of the city's most diverse areas, Sunset Park is also expected to get a lift from the waterfront development projects just getting underway that will include ballfields, lawns and bike paths. Those who have already bought in are pleased as punch:
"We got a much bigger space for not much more than we sold our condo for in Park Slope," said Joe Reister, an academic adviser who bought a three-story brownstone on 45th Street with his wife, Shannon Laughlin, a year and a half ago. "We did some work — don't get me wrong," he said. "But the outside looks like something out of Sesame Street."
The only negative the Times article notes is a lack of parking. How about that commute? The Times the article quoted seemed to give an overly optimistic impression by citing only the time on the subway. How do residents find it?
Hunt for Brownstones in Sunset Park [NY Times]
Addendum: Check out the Times article on Living In Sunset Park from 2001 Here. Thanks, Joyce.
Monday Linkage
Mos Def Doorway. Photo by Laura Holder.
Green-wood Grave Diggers [NY Times]
Gowanus Casket Company as Muse [NY Times]
The Power of Words [NY Times]
B'kln Heights Tree Demo Explained [NY Times]
Residential Sales [NY Times]
Home Shopping Club Rico [NY Post]
Tenant Activist Ripped in 'Burg [NY Daily News]
Port Storm Gets Personal [NY Daily News]
Asthma Infesting Bushwick [NY Daily News]
More Details on Bob Marley Blvd [Jamaica Gleaner]
Review: Bad Service at Palava Hut [NY Press]
Most Expensive Rentals in U.S. [Forbes]
Killing Williamsburg [Gothamist]
Useless Energy [Hunt Grunt]
January 27, 2006
Open House Picks
Park Slope
511 Fourth Street
Corcoran
Sunday 2:30-4:30pm
$2,600,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
609 6th Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday 12-2pm
$2,395,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
380 Sixth Avenue
Aguayo & Huebener
Sunday 12-2pm
$1,795,000
GMAP P*Shark
Prospect Lefferts
26 Midwood Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday 12:30-2:30pm
$1,225,000
GMAP P*Shark
Windsor Terrace
194 Ocean Parkway
Sommers Real Estate
Sunday 12-2pm
$1,200,000
GMAP P*Shark
Williamsburg
362 Union Avenue
Sotheby's Int'l
Sunday 1-3pm
$975,000
GMAP P*Shark
First Comes Flip, Then Comes Reno on Hancock
Speaking of Bed Stuy, here's a semi-recent sale that was brought to our attention. This 22-footer at 215 Hancock recently traded hands at the end of last summer for $899,000. We hear that the seller was a broker who flipped it for a tidy profit of about $375,000 in less than a year's time. We also hear that the interior of the five-story brownstone had suffered a great deal of water damage but that many of the woodwork survived. It looks like a beautiful building to us--we hope the new owner can restore it to its former glory. GMAP P*Shark
New Condos For Lexington Avenue?
Across the street from the lot that Massey Knakal is selling (earlier post) is this new construction. We think the address is 118 Lexington but are not 100% sure. It's hard to tell what it will end up looking like but it is notable at this point for its scale, which is certainly a little more ambitious than the new buildings in the area that we focused on yesterday. GMAP P*Shark
Vacant Lots Today, Eyesores Tomorrow?
When we were tootling around Bed Stuy last weekend we were keeping an eye out for vacant lots that could be the future sites of architectural travesties. The sheer number of vacant lots are perhaps the neighborhood's greatest vulnerability going forward. We offer up a few of them here, in various points in the development lifecycle.
1089 Fulton GMAP
1185 Fulton GMAP
794 Lafayette GMAP
117 Lexington GMAP
Mayor's Speech Highlights Yards, Waterfront
In yesterday's State of the City speech, Mayor Bloomberg had a few things to say about Brooklyn. In addition to specifically naming Bushwick and Bed Stuy as the focus of a new anti-poverty initiative, he also mentioned a couple of the biggest development projects in the borough:
In Brooklyn, construction workers will put shovels in the ground at Atlantic Yards, the most exciting housing, commercial, and sports development in Brooklyn’s history...We’ll fully open a new cruise ship terminal in Red Hook, which will become home to the Queen Mary II and 600 new jobs. Also, along the Brooklyn waterfront, the Port Authority will turn over Piers 1 through 5 – and the City will contribute Pier 6 – to the Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation – something the community has been dreaming about for 20 years!
State of the City Transcript [Gotham Gazette]
Friday Links
End of the Gowanus. Photo by John Baloney.
Some Property Tax Bills Slashed [NY Times]
Preserving Colonial Walls [NY Times]
NY Has Biggest Income Gap [NY Post]
Preserving Poe's Bronx Cottage [NY Daily News]
Greenpoint Screwed on Oil Clean-Up [NY Daily News]
Brooklyn Pier Battle Esacalates [NY Sun]
Road Named After Bob Marley [RJR News]
Scarano Throws Down the Gauntlet [Set Speed]
Search for Perfect Hot Chocolate [A Brooklyn Life]
Passing a Park Slope Co-op Board [Daily Slope]
January 26, 2006
House of the Day: Cramming in Crown Heights
Need some input from the Crown Heights readers on this one. Cute from the outside (though the fire escape has gotta go!), we're worried about how chopped up this must be on the inside to squeeze in five units. Chances are whoever buys this will turn it into a one- or two-family which means you could remove the offending fire escape and make the most of the original details mentioned in the listing verbiage. You might want to have a chat with the neighbors about those window canopies while you're at it!
Crown Heights House [Prudential Douglas Elliman]
Set Speed Condo Report: Manhattan Park Condos
This week we step outside our comfort zone a bit and take a look at a McCarren Park development called the Manhattan Park Condos which are being marketed by aptsandlofts.com. Located at 297 Driggs Avenue, this project looks to have 14 units (two to a floor), two of which are in contract. From the website, they look to be 1 and 2 bedrooms with outdoor spaces in most units. There's not many financial details on the cost of the units other than the asking prices, which in our opinion is high. One bedrooms are asking $579,000 and up while two-bedroom units are anywhere from $715,000 to a whopping $995,000. From the floorplans, the one bedrooms look to be no more than 650 square feet and the two bedrooms no more than 800 square feet. Given our estimates, this suggests that prices are running at almost $900 per square foot.
Amenities include the usual stainless steel appliance suite, the 'floating' bathroom sink. Most units have glass curtains and the elevators open out onto the units. The condo is located within a good 8 block walk to the crowded L train at Bedford and a 2 block walk to the G train at Nassau. As anyone who goes to thedevelopersgroup.com website can see, there are numerous new condominium projects that have already sprouted up and are in the pipeline. This increased supply does not bode well for Manhattan Park's high prices. In addition, the finger building next to Planet Thai off of Bedford and the huge 'Edge' project on Kent will add another few hundred units to the market.
Manhattan Park Condos [Aptsandlofts.com] GMAP
Listings [Manhattan Park Condos]
Every Thursday, ltjbukem, whose own blog Set Speed scrutinizes the progress and quality of new developments in the area we know as Brownstone Brooklyn, pens a guest post about goings-on in the condo market with an emphasis on new projects.
DuMont Spin-Off Still Has Yummy Burgers
Except for the occasional visit to Diner, we haven't been out to eat in Williamsburg since we decamped from the nabe last August. We've been hearing good things about DuMont Burger, off-shoot of the 4-year old DuMont on Union Avenue, but, as we said, we don't get out much these days. Digging beneath the snarky comments about Williamsburg (a journalistic cliche in itself by this point), we learn that, despite some design flaws, DuMont Burger does in fact serve up an "admittedly delectable looking burger."
Review: Dumont Burger [L Magazine] GMAP
Residential Sales in Brooklyn
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $276,000
85 Livingston Street
630-sq.-ft. alcove studio in a postwar building; dining area, eat-in kitchen; maintenance $747, 40% tax-deductible; listed at $265,000 (multiple bids), 3 weeks on market (broker: Nancy McKiernan Realty)
PARK SLOPE $539,000
1209 Eighth Avenue
2-bedroom, 1-bath, 700-sq.-ft. co-op in a prewar building; dining room, living room with fireplace, renovated bath; common roof deck in building; maintenance $650, no tax deduction; listed at $539,000, 3 weeks on market (broker: Betancourt & Associates)
Residential Sales [NY Times]
Historic Beauty Makes It All the More Painful
Part of what makes the new developments around Tompkins Park so sad is the existence of many beautiful older buildings like the First Corinthian Baptist Church at 670 Lafayette and the gutted five-story brownstone next door at 672 Lafayette.
Lost Opportunities: More Butchering of the Hood
In our rant about 1067 Fulton yesterday, we mentioned how we had hoped the building would have been able to raise the bar a bit for new developments further east. In this post, we'll look at little further east--into the center of Bedford Stuyvesant--to show how quickly and on what a scale the neighborhood's architectural future is being squandered. In particular, we'll look at the area surrounding Tompkins Park, which we would think would hold great potential (despite the existence of communist-era-looking projects).
260 Tompkins GMAP
352 Lexington GMAP 53 Van Buren GMAP
697 and 699 Lafayette GMAP
Celebrating Vinyl and Aluminum in Greenpoint
The enthusiasts over at the Bridge and Tunnel Club recently posted a great photo essay on the aluminum and vinyl siding that is one of the distinctive aesthetic touches of Greenpoint. Viewed in abstraction, the materials have a certain charm.
Aluminum and Vinyl Siding [B&T Club]
Commish: Fort Greene Next for Downzoning
Freebie subway reader Metro had an interesting interview with City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden this morning. The most notable nugget for us was her statement that Fort Greene will be the next neighborhood to be down-zoned. "We’re entering discussions with the community this week," she said. Maybe the phallus won't get built after all.
Redeveloping New York City [Metro]
Home Resales Hit Lowest Point in 21 Months
January 25, 2006 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell more than forecast last month to the lowest level since March 2004, evidence of the end of a five-year housing boom that will slow the economy. Purchases declined 5.7 percent to a 6.6 million annual rate from November's 7 million, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. Sales, which have been slowing from the record monthly pace reached in June, still finished 2005 at an all-time high of 7.072 million.
While economists forecast a gradual decline in sales, December's slump raises the risk the slowdown could accelerate and become an even bigger drag on the economy this year. The drop puts Federal Reserve policy makers on notice that more interest rate increases may not be necessary, according to Christopher Low. "Higher rates at this point risk turning the gentle decline of the second half of 2005 into a housing rout in 2006," said Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York. Recent housing reports "make the most compelling argument for the Fed to stop raising the overnight rate."
Home Resales Fall [Bllomberg]
Thursday Linkage
Global Warming Day, Beard Street. Photo by Calla Lillie.
Bank to Monitor Slumlord Customers [NY Times]
Lighting for Dark Corners? [NY Times]
Uneasy After That Bagel [Unbeige]
Patty & Chris' Stripping Down [Apartment Therapy]
Supercheap Eats in Greenpoint [NYCnosh]
Skating in Prospect Park [Blue Sage]
Atlantic Yards Forum Tonight [Daily Gotham]
January 25, 2006
House of the Day: Cranberry Has The Sauce
Unless we're missing something (which is entirely possible!), $3.2 million seems like a solid price for a very charming Italianate brownstone only a block from the promenade in prime Brooklyn Heights. And while the floors and cabinets in the newly renovated ground-floor kitchen ain't exactly our thing, the house looks otherwise beautifully done. The more we stare at the pictures and think about the price, the more we wonder whether the house might be on the narrow side, but with no address (argghh!) we can't do the legwork to find out. Hopefully someone in the hood can give us the straight dope.
Addendum: We just came across the same listing on Corcoran so it looks like a co-broke, folks. Worth checking the Corcoran site for additional pictures.
Cranberry Street Townhouse [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP
Cranberry Brick Townhouse [Corcoran]
No Luck on Luquer: New Condos Too Pricey
Over at 423 Smith, they're bemoaning being priced out of a location that they thought was in reach:
Mostly disappointed with the buildings going up in the neighborhood, I thought the condos going up on Luquer Street (between Smith and Court) to be acceptable and could see myself living there. And then I saw the prices! $1,095,000.00 for a 1 bedroom, 2 bath? Holy Jeebus! Granted, that’s the most expensive unit and you can get a 2 bedroom, 1 bath for $650,000.00 - but even that still seems ridiculous to me for this end of Carroll Gardens. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of Carroll Gardens and would gladly move from my Union Street apartment to Luquer (closer to work!) but I think I’d rather spend my 1 mil on a brownstone.
We agree with the sentiment, but unfortunately $1 million ain't gonna go too far in the Carroll Gardens brownstone market either.
191 Luquer Street [Corcoran] GMAP
Luquer, Filthy Lucre [423 Smith]
Superfine Super-Successful in Booming Dumbo
Superfine's been in Dumbo for 14 years, which makes it something of an artifact in the fast-changing nabe. But don't think that the bar is anti-gentrification--the money's just too good, according to bartender Keith Moss. "It's a little scary," he says. "Superfine's going with the flow, of course. I mean, it's great for everybody, everybody's making more money." But success has its price, right? Yup. Back to Keith:
But at the same time, it's been sad to see DUMBO losing its bohemian style. It's still here, but you can see that it's starting to get lost in the shuffle. I've been making more martinis and cosmos. We have a lot of people hanging out in suits sitting in our bar. That was never our thing.
Superfine is located at 126 Front Street between Jay and Pear in Dumbo. Telephone: 718-243-9005.
Behind the Bar [Village Voice] GMAP
Handouts from NY State for Preservation
Walking down Washington Avenue recently, we were interested to see the sign in front of the Brown Memorial Baptist Church trumpeting the role played by the New York State Environmental Protection Fund in restoring the church's roof and facade. The congregation purchased the 40,000-square-foot church at 484 Washington (aka 52 Gates) in 1974 for a whopping $2 a square foot. Built in 1930, the exterior church appears to still need a great deal of work. Haven't seen the inside.
Applications for EPA Grants [NY State News] GMAP
1067 Fulton Street: The Plague Spreads
We wanted to give this development at the corner of Classon and Fulton the benefit of the doubt. Really we did. Given the location, it seemed like a real opportunity to be a beacon of hope on this stretch of Fulton and set a positive tone for new development further east. Unfortunately, our hopes could not have been more misplaced. What an abomination! We understand how reasonable people could disagree about the merits of a building like this, but we can't imagine anyone being able to find anything nice to say about this monstrosity. The design decisions on the facade, and the ground-level entry area in particular, are a disgrace. Developers like this are a menace to the future of Brooklyn--destroying the borough, one lot at a time, with short-sighted eyesores that, ironically, may even be leaving profit on the table. In