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March 2, 2006

Playing Catch-Up at the Newswalk Building

We've gazed at the 300,000-square-foot Newswalk building (mentioned twice in yesterday's commentary) countless times from the Atlantic Avenue side but never really stopped to stare at the wacky Dean Street side of the project that put Shaya Boymelgreen on the map as a developer in Brooklyn back in 2000. The conversion required a zoning change for three city blocks. As we were still living in that other borough across the river at the time, though, we'd appreciate a little history lesson on the conversion. Who designed it? How controversial was it? And has there been much turnover at the 150-unit building recently? What kind of price per square foot are the apartments commanding?
Newswalk Building Spared by Ratner [Village Voice] GMAP P*Shark
Newswalk Marketing Site [Condos in Brooklyn]
Current Newswalk Listing [Corcoran]

Comments

It's really fabulous on the inside....glass elevators, the front door to the apartments are all stainless steel...it has an industrial-chic appeal.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 10:35 AM

Here's a listing for one 1.25 million. Looks nice...

http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=846221

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 10:59 AM

Looks very 1986. Yuck. Reminds me of the squat-style "lofts" in East Willie that my friends and I had to endure through college.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 11:02 AM

Not living there, but looked at apts there one year ago....

...for me this is the benchmark for an industrial loft conversion building in Brooklyn... very nice built out without being pretentious - ltjbukem would hate as it doesn't have the applicances I needs for successfull living...

...in the future I think the north side apts will loose value due to AY... give me a south facing large (around 1800sqf 3br), high enough apt with outdoor space and I would be happy there for quite some time - unfortunately this would run currently at least 1.25mil - and I am not sure that combination exists....

... I love the elevator....

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 11:04 AM

Style is too out-dated, mid-90s. Yuck. Also reminds me of the squat-style "lofts" in East Willie that my friends and I were stuck in through college.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 11:04 AM

what do you mean with outdated?

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 11:06 AM

... one drawback - Mr. Pucca is living there...

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 11:07 AM

Here is what seems to be the original site for the sales of the condos
http://www.condosinbrooklyn.com/views.htm

Posted by: mentch at March 2, 2006 11:13 AM

Thanks for the links!

Posted by: Brownstoner at March 2, 2006 11:23 AM

I moved in 9/02 and I can tell you pre-Ratner the biggest concern was the design of the outside elevator. Some unit owners wanted it changed. Speaking to people on the block they were happy to finally see something happening to the vacant Daily News building. They were constantly being woken up by the Daily News trucks dumping off huge rolls of paper at all hours of the night.Back in 2002 till early 2003 prices were from $325-$400 per square foot. Now they are in the $525-$600 range . The first wave of sellers happened in late 2004 when the flippers could get their 2 year tax break. Now some people are selling because they are afraid the Ratner project might happen. A two bedroom duplex facing the railyards on the third floor recently sold for $1,187,000 but I think he overpaid. As you can see from the listing above, which is also on the third floor and a corner apt. facing the railyards I could be wrong if this sells for the asking. People have done some incredible stuff to some of the units. Shaya is going to be selling units on the first floor ranging from $500,000 -$1,750,000 when he gets his act together.

Posted by: Puca at March 2, 2006 11:24 AM

If Anon 11:07 is going to bash me at least spell my name right.

Posted by: Puca at March 2, 2006 11:26 AM

Those two 'Yuck' commentors sound like spoiled snots that didn't learn much in college.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 11:26 AM

It think the second snot was making fun of the first snot. And it is totally cheesy.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 11:41 AM

Puca (or other NW residents) - Have you had issues with the quality of Boylemgreens conversion. There are alot of bad stories about shoddy construction by Boylemgreen and failure to followup and fix defects - just wondering how NW fared.

Posted by: David at March 2, 2006 11:44 AM

There have been problems in some units with leaks, especially the ninth floor below the roof. He is currently doing work in the building to repair this. There have been other issues , but it helps that he has two sons and one of his construction managers living in the building.

Posted by: Puca at March 2, 2006 12:02 PM

Yo, 11:07am poster: Whatever you feel about Atlantic Yards, Mr Puca is one straight-up guy. You'd be happy to have him as a neighbor, believe me.

Posted by: Roz at March 2, 2006 12:12 PM

Thanks Roz

Posted by: Puca at March 2, 2006 12:38 PM

this is one of the ugliest buildings i have ever seen.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 12:45 PM

I looked at a 1 bedroom on the 6th floor for the price of $475 and i laughed because it did not even have central air conditioning in the apt. The place is ok. the gym is not really that nice there is no pool. not many amenities at all. I would not buy there.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 1:51 PM

We made an offer on a Newswalk apt there in early 2002.

What we liked about the building was high ceilings, open loft-like space, very thick floors (providing more soundproofing, we hoped).

It was nice enough but there were way too many questions we had that no one would answer (even after paying $40 for the prospectus) -- parking fees for the spaces that were supposed to be available, condo fees, business expectations for the street level, and much more.

We withdrew from this deal because of these questions, along with the added doubt the building would be in move-in condition when we needed to be out of our place. Turned out to be right on that.

Thinking back though, a favorite memory is the realtors selling us on the wonderful view over Atlantic Yards. My personal opinion is it was a great call on our part to have gone elsewhere, mostly on based doubt and intuition.

Posted by: leffres at March 2, 2006 1:58 PM

Yikes.

Soviet bloc urban ghetto wasteland "chic."

How depressing. No wonder they call the neighborhood blighted, when even the new developments (back in 2002 when opened) look like this.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 2:15 PM

Please remember is wasn't a new development - it was a conversion of the Daily New printing press - and the developer needed to work within certain constraints....

...for example lots of the smaller apts don't have that much windows compared to the sqf as the apt are quite deep.

I would be delighted if some of Williamsburg industrial structures wouldn't be razed, but used as in this development.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 2:38 PM

what a scam. I'm laughing. Allthose evictions of artists spaces for so many years only to create these dumping grounds for dumb trader trash. I wonder what the gretsch is like now.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 3:02 PM

Hey anon 2:15 who calls the neighborhood blighted other than Ratner and his paid cronies ? How come all the bullsh** comments always come from people who are anonymous??
Leffres you are correct the first people in the building had to wait a really long time to move in and had problems with Shaya getting a CFO.

Posted by: Puca at March 2, 2006 3:13 PM

because if this was a forum where people's real identities were revealed, then a) it wouldn't be a forum, and b) we'd all have hits out on each other.

And I don't want people knowing that I just moved into Fort Greene with my five little orphans and a certain blond stallion.

Posted by: Angelina Jolie at March 2, 2006 3:24 PM

You bitch! I finally found you. You just wait until my boy "Vinny" Vaughn gets a hold of you! No wait, Vince, you aren't supposed to hold her like THAT!

Posted by: Jennifer Aniston at March 2, 2006 3:52 PM

Hi there. I posted Anonymous 2:15.

Anonymous 2:38 - Okay, those definitely are fair comments to consider. My contention was just that...did they really have to keep it as a whole looking so eastern/soviet bloc depressing looking, and perhaps their hands were indeed tied with respect to what they were allowed to do. There are claims that the insides are really nice, in spite of the dated depressing exterior, which does go a long way from a creature-comforts standpoint, to be fair.

Puca - (or whomever you are, perhaps as anonyous as anyone else behind that nickname, for how can identity be truly identified here anyway..) I find it amusing in the typically paranoid manner that any attempt to describe the neighborhood as many see it...ugly, rough, raw, trashy and abandoned in many places...is met with claims that suddenly anyone and everyone with such an opinion *must* work for Ratner or is his crony.

Please get over it. The neighborhood has been rough and dangerous for years with abandoned sites, crime, syringes etc, and it has only been in recent years when individual buildings have been renovated one by one...but the area still has a long way to go. It is still rough, with alot more crime than, say..just a few blocks south of it.

Just because you have defined your standards downward by living there, getting used to it and thinking it is as nice as any other NYC or Brooklyn neighborhood does not mean that those who don't live there who call it as they see it somehow all work in conspiracy for your paranoid construct of a tormentor/nemesis.

To misquote Freud and Duchamps, sometimes a crackpipe is just a crackpipe.

To be fair, only some of the buildings and spots in the area can truly be claimed as blighted, not the entire area, but jeez...it is just absurd to remain in denial that alot of the area around the rail yards was exactly that at the time this came up. Unfair to some buldings cought in the middle? Sure. But no one can say there was not crime, drugs, trash and buildings left to rot in that exact vicinity, and deny instance of any blight whatsoever.

Posted by: Still Anonymous at March 2, 2006 4:23 PM

"Now some people are selling because they are afraid the Ratner project might happen."

might...lol. done deal.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 4:56 PM

To each his own, but I thought the building is quite attractive on the outside.
I've been inside also to view a 'forsale' with friend who was searching and also impressed with interior.
There was no central a/c in that apt. but I think many floors do have it.
If something isn't your cup-of-tea doesn't mean its terrible, poorly built, tasteless, etc.... try to keep a open mind....obviously plenty of people with enough means to have plenty of housing choices bought there.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 5:00 PM

Dearest 5 pm.

I need only quote a sliver of the brilliance emmited by Still Anon at 4:23 pm, whoever they may be, in response to your over-sensitivity. No, all things are NOT relative. Some things just f-in suck.

"Just because you have defined your standards downward by living there, getting used to it and thinking it is as nice as any other NYC or Brooklyn neighborhood does not mean that those who don't live there who call it as they see it somehow all work in conspiracy for your paranoid construct of a tormentor/nemesis."

Posted by: Angelina Jolie at March 2, 2006 5:16 PM

ps. Dearest STill Anon, I hope you didn't mind my stealing your thoughts. It's a bad habit.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 5:17 PM

I agree that not all things are relative. However, with respect to this area, if you go one block off of the yards, there is street after street of beautiful rowhouses, along with restaurants etc. I think the residents of NewsWalk consider themselves part of Prospect Heights as a neighborhood. I do agree that the actual pit in the ground that is the Atlantic Railyards looks like a desolate blighted hole in the ground, but understandably, those who live adjacent to that pit don't think of the Yards as their neighborhood, they think of Prospect Heights as their nabe. PH is not blighted, unless brownstones well in excess of $1MM, cafes and restaurants is blighted in your book.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 5:35 PM

I was the anon poster of 5.35.

I suppose the fact that the Yards themselves are such a desolate hole is why most people want them to be developed (though clearly there is not consensus on what should be put there). AY is an island in the middle of gentrified (or gentrifying) neighborhoods and only serves to separate those desirable areas.

Posted by: lp at March 2, 2006 5:46 PM

when I was looking to purchase 3 years ago, I saw over 100 apartments. I wanted to live at Newswalk. The apartments were huge and beautifully done with incredible views. I also liked how close it was to so many subway lines. This was all before Ratner announced his grand plan. Hubby and I couldn't afford what was left at Newswalk and tearfully ended up purchasing a one bedroom in Dumbo.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 5:54 PM

"Some things just f-in suck": ouch, Angelina. Stick to your core issues -- world peace and an end to hunger, wasn't it. That, or come clean from behind your rather sophomoric and sexist pseudonymn.

Posted by: Roz at March 2, 2006 6:37 PM

I''ll give you sexist, you nagging hag.

haha. That too is a joke. Lighten up!

Posted by: Angie at March 2, 2006 7:01 PM

Hrummph!

Posted by: Jennifer Aniston at March 2, 2006 8:24 PM

Now Ladies, meet me at the newswalk in my 4th floor love pad.

Posted by: brad Pitt at March 2, 2006 8:39 PM

i've lived in newswalk for four years and it is GREAT building. the people here are friendly with real interactions. every day i feel as though this is a real home. i have a spectacular loft with views to n.j.
totally happy. Shaya did a great job on this project.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 2, 2006 10:07 PM

What I love about anonymous forums is that you really get to understand that most "grown-ups" still think like 15 year olds. Hence revealing the true meaning of the expression "arrested development". Mental development that is.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 3, 2006 3:27 AM

It's a good thing we have more mature, intelligent, evolved human beings amongst us to remind us of the seriousness of this forum and the subject of brownstones in general. God forbid this should be a mere entertaining repartee on a purely fun level.

Posted by: Anananananonymous at March 3, 2006 8:38 AM

Tear down Brooklyn, there are too many buildings and vacant lots in this borough that don't appeal to Anon.
Tear the Borough down. YAY!

Posted by: Anonymous at March 4, 2006 5:17 AM

Heh, once again another person from the run-down, arson-happy, drugs, and crime-ridden Prospect Heights person is trying to equate their neighborhood with the rest of Brooklyn.

Park Slope, Bay Ridge, Ditmas Park, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, heck...Red Hook hardly has the problems Prospect Heights has had. Neighborhood of the Year, indeed. Go no further than looking at your own Prospect Heights message board site, and search on "crime" or "drugs" etc. YOUR OWN PEOPLE freely admit as much.

Please just accept that your neck of the woods is in fact the skids and always has been, unlike other nicer areas of Brooklyn.

Your area is nothing like Brooklyn Heights. Your area is nothing like Park Slope. Your area is nothing like Bay Ridge. Your area is nothing like Ditmas park. Your area is nothing like Cobble Hill. I could go on and on, and could cite a zillion articles and published crime, drugs, arson and dangerous abandoned buildings in your neighborhood.

But, your neighbors have made all that nice and easy, as it's all right there within the honest, actual day-to-day citizen's reports at http://dailyheights.com .

Quit trying to convince yourself that your neighborhood is anything like the rest of Brooklyn (except perhaps BedStuy, which I hear is coming up much faster than PH, even without an arena to spur development.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 4, 2006 2:29 PM

Hey Anon 2.29. I don't even live in PH and while I agree that PH is not the same as B Heights etc., it sure is not the crime ridden hole you seem to want to drone on about. Just because people discuss things on a message board does not mean a neighborhood is bad. I used to live in Carroll Gardens, historically one of the safest neighborhoods in the city according to crime stats, and knew of plenty of break ins, drugs, and muggings. Get off your high horse there toodles.

Posted by: lp at March 6, 2006 6:15 PM

Have a nice day

Posted by: penis enlargement at March 10, 2006 11:48 AM

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March 2, 2006

Playing Catch-Up at the Newswalk Building

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