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December 14, 2007

Development Watch: 4th Avenue Twofer

carroll4thtwofer.jpg
You can't throw a rock on Fourth Avenue without hitting a new development, but the eastern corner of Carroll Street, where two buildings are going up, has been particularly intriguing. On the southeast corner, a skinny phallic thing has shot up pretty quickly at 251 4th Ave., and it now looms large over the neighboring lesbian bar. The building is the handiwork of Bricolage Designs, which laid out the blueprints for 4th Ave.'s biggest condo (so far), the Novo. We haven't seen a rendering for this one, but as one Brownstoner commenter said, "It looks like this building has no windows in it other than the projecting balcony facing 4th avenue. Is this a storage warehouse or something?" According to DOB records, it's actually a residential building slated to have eight units, which we assume are going to be floor-throughs given how narrow the building is. Right across the street, meanwhile, progress on 255 4th Ave. has been quite a bit slower (not surprising since it's a much bigger footprint, though the multiple SWOs the job's been hit with can't have helped). A few months ago, we incorrectly ID'd this as a Scarano design; in fact, the developer pulled Scarano from the project and replaced him with a White Plains firm named KSQ Architects that appears to have mostly specialized in institutional architecture. Scarano's original plans called for this one to rise 12 stories and have 41 units, though we have no idea whether the specs changed in the shuffle between architects. In any event, we're definitely interested to find out whether these babies hit the market as rentals or condos, especially after some units at the Novo popped up as rentals. Bets?
Development Watch: Unstable at 255 Fourth Avenue? [Brownstoner] DOB DOB
The Novo Going (At Least Partially) Rental? [Brownstoner] GMAP




Posted by Gabby at 12:25 PM | Comments (16)
Categories: Development, Park Slope

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Comments

the phallic thing shot up pretty quickly and looming large over the lesbian bar...

funny as hell.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 12:46 PM

How wide is the phallus, anyway? My eyeballs say 16 feet! But I'm drunk.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 12:51 PM

Novo has only 16 units on the market and 60 contracted, with some held in reserve. Crest has similar numbers. Argyle is more than 50% sold, and it went on the market maybe two months ago.

And none of these buildings is even done yet.

Looks to me like demand has been pretty good for buildings in this area. Is your only evidence of weakness that a couple of units hit craigslist for rentals?

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 12:53 PM


Gabby, you are as boring as you are predictable.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 12:59 PM

12:53--

You seem to know a great deal about the sales figures for a neutral observer. Are you a paid shill?

Remember, this is Brownstoner. Credibility comes from lack of knowledge!

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 1:32 PM

Shame on you Brownstoner for perpetuating a completely false rumor that Novo is currently turning (even partially) rental

Its bad enough that you posted that when all you had were some (non-sponsor) craigslist adds - but now to reprint it - really reeks of an agenda to undercut the developments on 4th Ave with negative publicity.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 1:43 PM

I heard Fort Greene is going rental.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 2:23 PM

Ummm, Novo is going rental and the Argyle is like 25% - 30% sold, not 50%. Not to say this means anything, the VUE on 16th is about 65% sold as well as Suite 16. So it seems people are buying. The developer of the lot on the S.E corner of 4th and Carroll does really crappy work, you can see how they undermined the adjacent building to such an extreme they had to brace the building and try to excavate around it. I don't expect anything but crap from that development!

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 4:06 PM

4:06, not sure what 'going rental' for the Novo means. Are you the sponsor? How many units are you renting out? Streeteasy shows 60 of 76 available units as contracted.

Streeteasy also shows at the Argyle 21 units contracted and 15 on the market. That's greater than 25%-30% sold.

Don't know where you get your info.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 4:23 PM

PLEASE tell me why you would build this corner lot building without any windows on the side!!!

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 5:08 PM

There are windows framed on the South side of the building. It looks like they put up the siding and will cut the windows out later.
The north side is on a lot line, so windows won't do much good when the lesbian bar gets torn down and a high rise is built in its place.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 5:15 PM

Hey Genius, stop looking to Streeteasy for your info. The Argyle is 20% sold and a few were from the developer. I'm suprised that in this market people think it's smart to buy into a project that doesn't even have a hole in the ground and has a stop work order on it, it's just flat out stupid. The prices were pretty cheap but anything can happen, who know's what's going to happen to rates, they just went up again!! There are dozens of projects coming to fourth Avenue in much better locations than this and there is far superior product out there right now!! I know of two people who dropped out of the Argyle and bought on 16th Street. This is really a god-awful location. I feel sorry for anyone that gets duped into buying there.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 7:30 PM

The Corcoran brokers selling the St Marks Lofts told me they are going to work with the sponsor of that building on two new projects, 4rth Ave and 16 St. Could be this one, since the architect is Bricolage, just like the St Marks Lofts.

If you're interested in buying, beware that as soon as you've signed the contract you will be treated like an idiot who is not worthy of any information or access to the building, except for when it's time to close - but ONLY when it suits the Corcoran brokers, not the actual buyer.

Posted by: guest at December 14, 2007 7:35 PM

Please god don't tear the Lesbian Bar down! Build a Lesbian Bar Highrise!!!!!

Posted by: guest at December 15, 2007 10:45 AM

Does the Argyle have a SWO? I was wondering since I had not seen an workers on the site in the past week or so.

Posted by: guest at December 15, 2007 12:06 PM

I think the corner sliver is the same developer who did the rental bldg. on the corner of Baltic.
ugleee!

Posted by: guest at December 16, 2007 3:32 AM

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