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May 4, 2006

HOTD: Under The Radar at 351 Van Brunt

building
A couple buildings over from the Hope & Anchor bar there's a brick walk-up building at 351 Van Brunt whose owner decided to use a Long Island real estate brokerage firm called Exceptional Homes Realty to sell the place. Seems like a strange choice to us, but whatever. It turns out the asking price for the 4-story multi-family is $1,550,000. This got us wondering about what commercial rents are like in this part of town. What, for example, do you think the retro furniture store Atlantis pays for this space?
Featured Listings [Exceptional Homes]




Posted by Brownstoner at 11:33 AM | Comments (19)
Categories: Properties

Comments

two trees quoted me $35 psf for a storefront retail in dumbo. so i'm going to throw out $20 psf for red hook.

Posted by: ltjbukem at May 4, 2006 11:50 AM

Way overpriced. Especially when you consider you'd need a commercial loan (at a higher interest rate) to finance the purchase...

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2006 11:54 AM

a nice 15 minute walk to the closest train.

Posted by: 9000 at May 4, 2006 12:01 PM

Or, across the street from the B61. And it's only about 5 blocks from the new Fairway and the water taxi stop there (which is only running weekends now but is supposed to offer commuter service eventually).

Get over it. The bus is not a big deal. I take it every day. I get to work as easily as I did from Park Slope and in about the same amount of time. I will say one benefit of no direct subway is that it's kept the neighborhood quiet in a way that many of the residents appreciate.

Posted by: combustiblegirl at May 4, 2006 12:18 PM

I think what is interesting about the listing is that besides the 6 1-bdrm apts (which are probably rentstabe) and the commercial - there is a 3bdroom-2story house in back.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2006 12:41 PM

The back houses are not unusual in red hook (they're like a wierd BK version of a rear tenement that has been grandfathered in). The guy next door to me completely reno'd the rear house and made a beautiful 2 bedroom duplex out of it. They're not big but they can be very nice.

Posted by: combustiblegirl at May 4, 2006 1:05 PM

How is this under the radar. It is been on the market for a while, in a prominent location. It has languished due to price.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2006 1:55 PM

394 Van Brunt Street down the street went for 1.33 million with fewer units.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2006 2:31 PM

Under the radar because it's with a rinky-dink firm that, as far as we are aware, hasn't exactly done a bang-up job of promoting it. Point taken on length of time on the market--but since it hadn't been promoted very well, we didn't know it had been on the market a long time.

Posted by: Brownstoner at May 4, 2006 2:40 PM

Brownstoner, I hear what you are saying about a rinky dink firm. That being said, I think most buildings in brooklyn are sold by mom and pop small realtor outfits. I've bought several from these kinds of shops. If the property is priced right, it sells. If not, it languishes. Promotioni or no promotion. I think it's got more to do with the price and less with the promotion.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2006 3:40 PM

it's not listed in the times or CL or anywhere except the company's website. so you have to drive by it to see it.

and 394 Van Brunt sold for more because it had a great looking owners unit as well as 2 additional rentals. this building is rent stabilized therefore there's no leeway on the rent. But i have to say it's a nice building and the tenants are nice, and the little back house is pretty groovy. i live down the street.

i think it's too much $
but it is cheaper than another multi- fam at 113 Dikeman Street that the guy from the Stop 1 Deli is trying to sell for almost $2 million.
http://www.era.com/erabin/listing?Property=1937464
they give the wrong zip code

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2006 4:00 PM

Small 'mom and pop' are fine if in the neighborhood and people know them.
Not in million year would you be going to small LI agency to find property in Red Hook.
So unless you saw the sign - how would you know about it - since they don't advertise.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 4, 2006 4:48 PM


Brownstoner,

Why knock somebody who uses a brokerage firm you haven't heard of?

There's lots of reasons to use a small firm -- the main one being their willingness to come down on commission. Or maybe the broker is just a friend of the owner, who knows?

As long as his broker co-brokes, there's no reason he can't sell the place for as much as anybody. It's my understanding that all NYC brokers subscribe to a listing service called OLR which shows them all open listings in the city.

Whether your broker is Corcoran or Bumbleshmuck, Inc., as long as he co-brokes and advertises, what's the difference?

Posted by: Ebomb at May 4, 2006 10:07 PM

I disagree.. there are still people who just go to corcoran.com or brown harris.com (people from manhattan, out of town, etc) .. and those guys aren't spashing their websites with places that are listed with other firms.
You do cast a wider net by going with one of the big ones. As a buyer, I prefer the smaller players, but as a seller I think you're not well served that way.

Posted by: OE at May 4, 2006 11:23 PM

But I guess it's ok for COrcoran to use BP's copyrighted photos as per the linkster today?

Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2006 10:18 AM

why do you think the owners actually want to sell the building? i think they've been "listing" this property with various no-name brokers for the past 3 years or so. they're just trolling for suckers.

and if you are actually curious about what rents on van brunt street go for, it's easy enough to find out, probably 20 or so storefront vacancies the length of the street. many with phone numbers!

Posted by: Anonymous at May 5, 2006 10:49 AM

My guess would be that they're not a "motivated seller" so much as they're curious to see what they might get given the rising prices in the neighborhood. Thus the half-hearted attempt to sell by listing with a broker who doesn't even advertise the property in the Sunday Times.

Posted by: combustiblegirl at May 5, 2006 10:58 AM

This is an invalid assumption. I have bought numerous properties from brokers who did not advertise in the New York Times. If the property is priced right, putting up a sign will attact offers.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 6, 2006 2:04 PM

how about that 300 van brunt with the illegal penthouse. who would buy that knowing the dob has placed multiple violations on it? the current owner bought it for 550k a year ago, hired min wage workers and completed the work with complete disregard for zoning regulations.

Posted by: meaty at May 7, 2006 9:36 AM

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