« More Tile-Related Travails on the Bed Stuy Reno Co-op of the Day: 21 South Portland (Revisited) »
June 27, 2007
Development Watch: 525 Clinton Avenue
We've been watching the development of 525 Clinton Avenue, the 13-story project between Atlantic and Fulton, with interest since work started last Fall. With its glass exterior now almost 50 percent finished, we decided to dig a little deeper and get the skinny straight from the developer (who, it turns out, is the same group that built the Green House Condos). When it's completed in the first quarter of next year, there will be 30 market-rate condos atop a community facility, which will most likely be medical offices. It'll be a mix of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units, with the lion's share being two bedrooms. The big selling point is likely to be the combination of light and views, given the building's height and unusual shape, which will ensure that each apartment has a ton of windows. The developer is using an unusually thick (4 inches) and energy-efficient glass called Visionwall designed to minimize heating and cooling bills. The layouts and interior design are being done by Stephanie Goto who's done a number of restaurants as well as the sleek-yet-understate interiors at 448 West 37th Street in Manhattan. That's about all we got. We're just hoping this will be the shot of adrenaline that Fulton Street needs.
525 Clinton Avenue Looking Good [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB
525 Clinton Gets Its Glass On [Brownstoner]
Tower Rising at 525 Clinton Avenue [Brownstoner]
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/1465
Comments
Green House Condos is the building that looks like a giant HVAC unit?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 12:13 PM
This place looks great, i think.
Posted by: Anon at June 27, 2007 12:45 PM
who is marketing this?
Posted by: annon at June 27, 2007 12:57 PM
no one yet. won't be ready for another 8 or 9 months...
Posted by: Brownstoner at June 27, 2007 1:00 PM
hey brownstoner,
isn't it strange that there is no offering yet? looking at all other new dev around, sales often start earlier than that.
not even a website...
Posted by: curious at June 27, 2007 1:12 PM
Wait-- the glass couldn't possibly be FOUR inches thick, could it? Wouldn't that be just staggeringly, mindbogglingly heavy and prohibitively expensive?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 1:16 PM
Re the glass: Probably its double or triple paned, not solid glass all the way through.
Posted by: NonGlassExpert at June 27, 2007 1:31 PM
I also like this building because it's turned on its axis, if that's a way of describing it. It's more interesting to look at from the street and should provide good views.
Posted by: tinarina at June 27, 2007 2:07 PM
I think this is the greatest building between fort greene and clinton hill, I love it!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 2:16 PM
I'm really glad this building looks good and is going to be full glass. I have a direct view of this building from my terrace in Prospect Heights across Atlantic. They seem like they are building this thing a lot slower than its larger cousins, Oro and Forte.
Posted by: Anon at June 27, 2007 2:36 PM
Like it a lot. Should be a good boost for southern Clinton Hill and keep sending the prices up in the area - hopefully with more amenities and development to come on Fulton Street. Five years from now, this area will be even more expensive imo.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 3:04 PM
Good luck trying to sell these at some rediculous price. Have you seen this block? Some developers are just dumb!!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 3:51 PM
I like the block with the huge beautiful church across the street and other lovely row houses, including the one with the front porch. It is part of the proposed landmark extension of Clinton Hill. Plus there will be the new restaurant/food place in the old Bodegas space on the corner of Clinton and Fulton, as well as the new bank on the opposite corner. Good location by the subway, imho, and will change dramatically for the better in the next 5 to 10 years for those who buy in this tower (which will be one of the last towers on a residential block after the contextual downzoning goes through). I think it will be a good long term investment.
Posted by: lp at June 27, 2007 4:12 PM
Oh the painful irony. Brownstoner nailed PACC for tearing down a single unsalvagable brownstone to build an affordable/market rate building on Washington Avenue (that is no more than 6-stories and lines up w/ surrounding buildings) yet this totally out-of-context behemoth on Clinton Avenue which offers no affordable housing and for which they tore down 4 perfectly good brownstones is just fantastic.
Are they going to advertise on the site?
Posted by: clinton hillbilly at June 27, 2007 4:31 PM
They did not tear down brownstones actually. There was a one story commercial type vacant run down building. This is actually a great street architectually with the church, a free standing house etc.
Posted by: lp at June 27, 2007 4:39 PM
interior design by Stephanie Goto, damn, that's very high end. Ever been to Morimoto in NYC - pretty cool. Expect this to be expensive. I think it is smart they are not underestimating the market in the area.
Posted by: lp at June 27, 2007 4:44 PM
I agree lp.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 4:56 PM
That's interesting, Hillbilly. If true (and lp seems to have a different recollection of what was there), we certainly had no idea...Do you happen to have any photos from a couple of years ago? PropertyShark shows a pretty nice house from the tax photos from 30 years ago but nothing more recent that the construction fence of this project. We're not above eating our words so please send along some photos...
Posted by: Brownstoner at June 27, 2007 5:28 PM
No photos, but my husband talked to the demo team and tried to get some salvage off of them as they were tearing down the brownstones.
lp, I agree that it's a great street, that's why I really hate the out-of-context glass high-rise there. But I also hate Greene House for the same reason. Forte looks like crap and is out of scale, but at least it's on Fulton Street vs. a side street.
PS are they planning to advertise these apts on brownstoner?
Posted by: clinton hillbilly at June 27, 2007 6:12 PM
Clinton Hillbilly:
I'm so sick and tired of hearing the terms of "totally out-of-context behemoth" or "monstrosity"! Please come up with something less trite to express your misguided and melodramatic sense of outrage. If I didn't know better, you would think that developers were building replicas of the Empire State Building throughout Brooklyn. Give it a rest already!
The buildings are not immense towers or skyscrapers. They are typically the size of your average local NYCHA housing project which are just down the road on Fulton or even the Clinton Avenue Cooperatives two blocks away. How is this so out of context that it offends your sensibilities?
Furthermore, many of you high rise whiners/haters are missing the boat. Why? Because many of you want high end boutiques, restaurants, cafes and a slew of "must have" amenities but fail to realize that without high density development, many of these neighborhoods will lack the population density to make all of these businesses profitable enough to stay in business. That's why I don't get the beef with the multitude of development projects on 4th Avenue since all the stores on 5th Avenue will undoubtedly welcome the increase in business that these new residents will provide and create subsequent demand for additional stores in the neighborhood.
Ever wonder why so many restaurants on Dekalb Avenue lay empty on weekday evenings? Well it probably has something to do with the fact that there is not, with exception of Forte and Greene House, a lot of high density development in the area. If there was, there would be far greater demand for some goods and services in the neighborhood.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 7:13 PM
Maybe you prefer this type of development -- there's no accounting for taste. I'm not happy with sacrificing the character of the neighborhood to build these cheesy high rises. 4th Avenue is a 6-lane major road where tall buildings do not look out of place. It is also an industrial zone with ugly warehouses and other commercial buildings--there's no comparison to what's going on in FG/CH.
Posted by: clinton hillbilly at June 27, 2007 9:48 PM
First who is LP?
Are you the developer, his PR?
The developers do nice and quality job, but i think they have been delayed because they are trying to push the envelope as they did in the Greene House. In any case they will do well without the PR of LP and you Stoner.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 10:49 PM
So what are your thoughts on all of the NYCHA projects that are spread throughout FG/CH not to mention the Clinton Ave Cooperatives? Are these buildings not out of context or do you simply have a unique fondness for tall brown Fedders brick buildings as a backdrop to your precious brownstone streetscape?
In short, you don't make any sense.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 11:00 PM
i've been watching the development of this building for the past year, and like an earlier commenter said, it seems like the progress has been very slow - there was some significant work last year, but it seemed like they took most of the winter and spring off, even though they were done with the structure (much like the sacarno project on fulton for that matter). and it does seem very odd that they haven't started marketing it - that didn't stop the smith or the forte from marketing before they even had half the floors in.
Posted by: dahl at June 27, 2007 11:12 PM
believe me if they could sell they would do so
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 11:30 PM
To 7:13 - Please note that the NYCHA stopped building high rises after deciding they were not good for the people who lived in them. In Chicago, large public housing developments have been torn down. They were built in the 60's and are totally outdated. As for these hideous out of scale buildings they will warehouse yuppies and this is not an improvement to the neigborhood.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 27, 2007 11:31 PM
I actually spoke to the developers, and they explained that the reason for the delay was that the glass delivery was delayed several months, but it seems as if is finally comming on a normal schedule. The high efficiency glass as told by the developer is a very revolutionary product that is supposed to be a really awesome product, and therefore worth the wait.
I personally think that this will be the nicest building in Brooklyn to date, and based on the Myer building on Prospect Park (which in my opinion is nothing special-a big glass box), I think this building will command some really top prices.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 28, 2007 1:23 AM
Just checked the DOB's website. The architect isn't Meltzer/Mandl from GreeneHouse, but rather some guy Fouladia. Anyone ever hear of him??
Posted by: Anonymous at June 28, 2007 1:27 AM
"To 7:13 - Please note that the NYCHA stopped building high rises after deciding they were not good for the people who lived in them. In Chicago, large public housing developments have been torn down. They were built in the 60's and are totally outdated. As for these hideous out of scale buildings they will warehouse yuppies and this is not an improvement to the neighborhood."
So let me get this. You can't build high rises for the poor because it traps them in a vicious cycle of poverty, hopelessness and despair, and you can't build high rises for yuppies (though there's certainly a demand) because yuppies will adversely impact the community? I guess when yuppies move into a neighborhood most socio-economic indicators such as safety, crime, education and employment worsen. Right?
So you can't build high rises for the poor, middle-class or the rich. I guess we shouldn't be building them at all.
Makes perfect sense to me....and all this time I was under the impression that there is a housing shortage in the city. LOL!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 28, 2007 7:02 AM
This is one of the greatest project I have seen building in 10 years of living in new york, nice!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 28, 2007 9:29 AM
high rises are not good for children and other living things :0)
But seriously, high rises may be good in some situations -- like midtown Manhattan, but leave our low-rise historic neighborhood out of it.
Why be so obtuse? It is out-of-context, out-of-scale development people are reacting to not simply high rise buildings.
Posted by: clinton hillbilly at June 28, 2007 10:05 PM
1:23 - you spoke with the developer.
WOuld you like to expose how was the meeting?
Did you meet him during a regular home conversation, are you his wife, his employee, or perhaps you are the developer or his partner.
Next time when you pretend to be someone try to be a bit more sophiscated.
Stop sending us messages anonymously - if you have the balls expose yourself.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 7:56 AM
I've lived down the block from this address for 6 years now. Before it was torn down it was a large building owned by the church across the street. It housed disabled people. I recall walking my dog one day and a man who lived there asked if my large white dog was a goat. It was a shame that one day the tenants were suddenly gone and there were black bags full of personal items, hundreds of them, torn open on the street for months after that. I googled the address soon after that and found it for sale... a mere 12 million if my memory serves me correct. It was vacant for a couple of months before the whole structure was brought down in a day. The lot sat untouched for a year. There were never any brownstones there.
Posted by: Ms. Turner at July 3, 2007 9:28 PM
I really would like to know what site can I go on to find out all the info on this place b/c I would love to purchase one. Can someone help if they have any info??? Greatly appreciated. My email is akatude6@hotmail.com Thank alot
Posted by: guest at August 27, 2007 11:05 AM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.