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August 21, 2006
Development Watch: The Cladding of J Condo
The cladding of Dumbo's J Condo continues apace, with windows installed on about half the floors so far. Who knows that the sales update is? Percentage sold? Recent directional moves in prices?
Residences [J Condo] GMAP
Photo by plemel jr.
Comments
[insert bitter and justifiable comment re. the tragic lost opportunity that this building is, HERE]
Posted by: knee jerk at August 21, 2006 10:55 AM
Sales office is saying it's 80% sold.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 21, 2006 12:21 PM
knee jerk, this could have been A LOT worse. Nobody disagrees that it's too big, but it's not bad when compared to some of the other herrendousness being proposed around Brooklyn. The west side windowed "sails" should look pretty awesome, and the brick facing (even though it is facing) was obviously selected to look as close as possible to the 19th century buildings surrounding. At least it's not another Beacon--that thing looks like a huge industrial air conditioner.
Posted by: rascal at August 21, 2006 12:24 PM
Aside from the noise factor, I think that the J Condo is a good deal. (Or at least was when I went to look at them)
Posted by: Anonymous at August 21, 2006 12:31 PM
i'd take beacon any day over the generic monstrosity of j.
Posted by: knee jerk at August 21, 2006 12:51 PM
is 80% sold really possible? how long has it been in sales?
Posted by: Skeptik at August 21, 2006 12:57 PM
Knee jerk are you kidding me? The Beacon looks like dung. I'm hoping for the buyer's sake that that is not the finished exterior product. I'm thinking maybe they're going to go back and repaint the outside, and take the dings out of the faux? metal cladding? and seal up all the gaps. It looks like it's literally going to fall apart.
Comparatively speaking the J is a whole lot nicer looking.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 21, 2006 1:10 PM
forgive me, i'm comparing what the renderings of beacon and j look like, not construction quality. how can you tell J is quality when it's like 25% faced anyway?
Posted by: knee jerk at August 21, 2006 1:19 PM
The J may be no prizewinner but neither is it generic. Given its size, it has actually struck a rather nice balance between contextual sensitivity and contemporary appeal. Also very smart of them to adopt that local artist to paint the contruction fencing. It already feels like part of the neighborhood for many; not so the Beacon.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 21, 2006 1:42 PM
has anyone else noticed that the NW (city manhattan bridge view) side of The Beacon is almost 75% covered in metallic paneling leaving only one small window per apartment? The other sides all have have ample windows. I dont understand the desgin choice or is there a good reaon for this?
Posted by: bc at August 21, 2006 2:35 PM
What's interesting to me when you compare J condo and The Beacon Tower is ceiling height. Beacon has much higher ceilings. So even though it's only 22 stories tall and J condo is what 33? they are almost the same height...
Posted by: biotch at August 21, 2006 2:45 PM
interesting biotch -- that'll make a big difference in the feel of the units.
Posted by: heightlvr at August 21, 2006 2:48 PM
bc-
Apparently, they couldn't get an easement from the Jehovas who own the site on that side of the building, so they had to put all of the mechanicals on the side with the best views!
Posted by: Anonymous at August 21, 2006 3:35 PM
The J ceilings are over 9' high; 9'4" I think. I don't know how high the Beacon's are but I'd be surprised if they were much higher than that. I'm not sure how one would compare building height by sight, York street, where the Beacon is, is quite a bit higher than Front street, where the J corners...
Posted by: Anonymous at August 21, 2006 4:13 PM
It might be 80% sold but I'm guessing that majority of that is speculative with no intention of moving in. It'll be interesting to see just how many lights on that building are on once people do start moving in.
Posted by: pete at August 21, 2006 6:21 PM
I think that the ceiling heights are the roughly the same for both buildings. Elevations at each site are different. As a longtime resident I have seen both of these come up and the quality seems better at the J condo. At least they use Union labor and seem to respect the nabe and its residents better than the Beacon. The Beacon had the non-Union rat set up for months. The workers park up on the sidewalks, litter and are a generally more of a disruption to the nabe.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 22, 2006 8:41 AM
I went to visit the sales office a week ago to see what they looked like; they gave me a tour of their sales office, which was REALLY NICE. They told me that they were 85% sold in under a year and that most of the remaining apts are high floors, they have nothing below the 24th floor and that several of the prices are still the original prices from the offering plan book... I was amazed considering that most of the developers today are greedy and jack the prices up the first day they open... I have to give them props they were very proficient and kind with an extreme knowledge of the building and neighborhood. (Unlike some other sales office)
Posted by: Taegan at August 29, 2006 1:15 PM
I think the Beacon has 10'6'' ceilings, that's pretty significant
Posted by: Anonymous at September 4, 2006 10:57 PM
FYI: Ceiling heights vary in J Condo from 9' in the lower floors to 10' in the upper floors.
Posted by: David at September 7, 2006 3:53 PM
I'm sure I'll catch some hell from posting this here, but...
My wife and I created a yahoo group with the hope of uniting the future JCondo owners and to provide a forum where ideas can be shared and questions answered.
So if your are a person whose is in-contract with JCondo, please stop by and join our group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jcondo_owners/
Posted by: David at September 15, 2006 3:26 PM
I read a discussion regarding getting out of a condo contract, prior to closing, in light of the new realities in the real estate market. My opinion would be that the buyer may have some leverage with the developer of an unfinished building since the one thing that every developer wants to avoid is litigation prior to final approval by the attorney generals office and prior to selling all of the apartments. The reason for this is that all law suits must be disclosed to the AG and this must be included in offering. Depending upon the nature of the litigation, such a disclosure can have an immense effect in the time it takes the AG to approve the plan and even greater effect on the ability for the other buyers to get a mortgage.
The worse type of litigation that a developer can face is issues regarding disputes of property boundary. In such cases, banks are often forced to back off from providing mortgages to buyers, regardless of the banks relationship with the developer, since boundary litigation places an substantial level of obstacles to sell and package the mortgage on the open market. Some examples that come to mind include the cases where entire walls had to be removed because of minimal infractions and in cases where cornices or overhangs infringed on the adjacent property. My advice to any developer in such a case is to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate and at all costs, avoid litigation. In cases where a person wants to back out of the deal, I recommend to the developer to sweeten the deal and again, avoid any litigation for the reasons mentioned above. It is important to also consider what other potential buyers would think of litigation against a contracted buyer. One method might be to reduce the price, offer free maintenance for a period of time or perhaps exchange the contracted apartment for a “better” or larger apartment. Settle such disputes. A developer must handle disputes with “silk gloves” and swallow their pride, with the end objective of sales in mind
Posted by: guest at January 15, 2008 9:08 PM
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