Closing Bell: First Move-Ins at Belltel?

Yes. They started to move in last month. But they could only do it afterhours and weekends.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 4:10 PM

Yes, this is old news -- first move-ins were about 5-6 weeks ago.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 4:43 PM

How about some intelligence on One Hanson - anybody know anything on move ins there? I heard December for lower floors...

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 4:48 PM

Go Belltel! Welcome to the hood folks.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 4:57 PM

if you all only had access to the ownder's forums at (http://groups.google.com/group/belltellofts), you would be amazed at the crap that went down with this developer.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 5:34 PM

5:34, can you elaborate at all? I was very close to buying a unit here.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 5:36 PM

5:34 -- anything serious? hope it wasn't too bad... always issues with new construction, but I heard something about this developer getting his condo declaration rights revoked from the state.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 6:47 PM

cwh812 -- it's a free country...

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 6:48 PM

I am waiting to close in this building. As far as the owners private forum, it is for discussing building matters. It is setup by a person that is buying/bought a unit in the building and the person has nothing to do with the developers as far as I know. He/she made the private google groups/blog to discuss and improve and share information with other owners and people in contract.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 7:05 PM

@7:26pm
From the Belltel Lofts blog website, there is a link on the top left page to the "Owners Forum".

http://www.belltellofts.blogspot.com

A centralized location for dissemination of information concerning everything and all things about the building has been a tremendous help.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 8:10 PM

...top right page....

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 8:15 PM

11:55pm, what was the listed price for your 2bd/2th 1,500 sf space?

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 12:18 AM

congrats rubyrose. It looks like a beautiful building and the size of your apartment is enviable. Enjoy!

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 9:03 AM

For the most part, the problems with the developer involved them continuously cancelling and pushing back closing dates. They'd schedule you for a date and then cancel the day before, which made things very difficult vis a vis scheduling existing lease terminations, furniture deliveries, scheduling painters/contractors etc. A big part of the problem had to do with assigning and splitting the existing mortgage on the building which enabled us to not have to pay mortgage recording tax (which I will say was some nice savings). The other issues, for the most part, I think are just usual glitches that go along with moving into new construction and they are all being worked out. We love our apartment and are of course anxious for the rest of the building to be complete. Also, despite some people giving Metrotech a bad rap, I have to say; I really enjoy it. On the weekends its nice and quiet and you have the park to sit and relax in. No, its not the center of night life, but I find it quite enjoyable.

With all the great new buildings that just opened or are scheduled to shortly (110 Livingston, Oro, One Hanson, etc.) Downtown Brooklyn is on its way to being a great neighborhood.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 9:33 AM

The Belltel Lofts advertise a "2.5 acre private garden." Is this Metrotech? How can they call that a private garden? Is there a part that is only for the Belltel residents? It just seems so misleading, it must be illegal?

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 10:10 AM

I haven't seen anything advertised as such. There is a 6,500 sq ft private roof deck and then there is the Metrotech park (which is definitely not private). I'd be suprised if there was any advertising that said BellTel had private access to this

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 10:26 AM

I'm a BellTel owner and I moved in at the end of September. I understand we now have over 30 units moved in now, and it is nice meeting new people in the building.

The message board/blog is great. It was started by one of the owners and I found it via Google. It's been a great place to connect and discuss issues with other owners. Most of the issues have been quite small (discussion about construction waivers, who to contact for x, which closet company to go with, etc. etc.).

I'm exicted to be in the area and I can't wait for all of the planned changes to be completed.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 10:35 AM

We're in contract at Belltel and waiting to close and move in, in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

The forums are for current owners and buyers in contract, it's been a great resource. From what we can tell there's at least 20 or more move-ins already, and most people seem quite happy. There are what seems common new construction problems like finishes, or problems arising from the fact that the building is still under construction and as someone mentioned above with postponed closings (crossing fingers for ours), but no deal breakers. And as far as we're concerned the developers have been good at addressing problems that came up in our walkthrough.

I think it's a great building, we looked at a lot of other condos in the area (and we're moving from the heights so we're pretty familiar with the area). Beautiful building, low per sqft cost, so we were able to get a larger apartment than we would have somewhere else, and a great location (pretty much all trains, and right between the heights and fort green).

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 10:58 AM

I saw "2.5 acre private park" (that was the wording) on the website (belltellofts.com) but it must have been in the animated movie, I can't find it now. I first saw it on a subway ad.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 11:05 AM

@11:05
Perhaps they meant BellTel residents have "access TO a private park". As in, it's not ours but we get to use it.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 11:18 AM

But then, it wouldn't be private, would it?

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 11:38 AM

Yes it would. Private as in it doesn't belong to the city.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 12:02 PM

Out of curiosity... Are most of you who are moving ito BellTel selling your current apartments (not renting)? It seems that most of the people who have bought at the new buildings already owned a coop or condo. For the past year, no problem. Now that we are seeing more units sitting on the market... it's a concern.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 12:06 PM

We're renting (posted previously at 10:58a), it's our first home purchase

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 12:38 PM

I love how it's so close to Toys R Us.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 7:55 PM

our condo building had a blog. now we have a yahoo group. i really really enjoy meeting my neighbors and have made some great friends since moving in a year ago. think that other buildings would benefit from doing the same.

we too had problems, but by working together, we are about to finish a major waterproofing that we got the sponsor to pay for. and, all other issues have been addressed and fixed.

if you pick new construction, you have to be prepared to work on things, and have an open mind about your neighbors.

everyone is thrilled with our building now i think.

Posted by: guest at November 17, 2007 12:16 AM

There continue to be closing problems associated with the bldg. There were several closings cancelled last week and Rosen & Livingston, the sponsor's attorney, are extremely difficult to work with. It's impossible to get them to return calls and the sales staff is useless.

Posted by: guest at November 20, 2007 2:49 PM

I am trying to close soon in 2-3 weeks. I love the building and location as well. I was wondering what are the owner experiences with refrigerator. Since the kitchen is designed around smaller Fisher Pykel (happened to be not "energy star" as a requirement for tax abatement) and GE fridge substituition is much bigger in depth by 5-7 inch. Where you able to get another "energy rated" that fits well or changed the kichen panels around? Thanks

Posted by: guest at November 23, 2007 3:45 PM

I don't mind GE, its too big and depth is 5 inch more and the sides are not stainless steel

Posted by: guest at November 24, 2007 2:02 PM

I viewed a few of the apts at Belltel and was very impressed with the finished and the space. My one concern is the neighborhood. There isn't much of one. One of the great things about Brooklyn are the neighborhoods but this doesn't give you that. Furthermore I keep hearing about all of the money that the city is pouring into the MetroTech area and how there will be renovations. Is that true? Are people seeing the changes already? Please let me know your thoughts

Posted by: guest at November 27, 2007 12:44 PM

Is anyone looking to rent their unit at belltel?

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 4:01 PM

Why are so many people in love with this building? I took a look at several units recently and I left the viewing disappointed. The lobby and old-world charm of the building were fabulous but the units themselves were unimpressive. Because this building was converted from an office, the layout of the units are not ideal (bedrooms without windows, dead space, etc). Also, I know the building is "green" but the finish and fixtures were not up to par with other new units. There will be several new developments going up within a 2-3 block radius of Belltel within the next several years and once they are up and running, the rate of price increase in Belltel will surely lag the others.

Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 10:45 AM