March 2008
March 31, 2008
Monday Blogwrap
Photo by AllWaysNY.
Once Upon A Time: Carroll Gardens' Pony Cart Vendor [PMFA]
Local Dems Cheer HUD Secretary’s Exit [City Room]
Good Times! Living Near a Crack House [Gawker]
City Responds to Public Place Worries [GL]
Groovin' on a Sunday Afternoon [A Year in the Park]
Columbia Street's New Botanica [A Brooklyn Life]
Closing Bell: 4th Avenue Condo Close to Selling Out
The Crest, the 4th Avenue condo on 2nd Street, is apparently 90 percent sold and ready for move-ins. The sign above is taped to the outside of the building, and a local entrepreneur has put up his own sign next to the Crest's, in a bid, perhaps, to do business with the building's new residents. StreetEasy shows eight active listings left at the condo that go from $559,000 (734-sf 1-bed) to $738,000 (985-sf 2-bed). GMAP
StreetLevel: Gowanus Gallery Opens
Last Thursday a new art gallery on Bond Street right off Union made its debut. Photographer/agent Bruce Kramer opened Bond Street Gallery with fellow shutterbug Robert DiScalfani, and its first exhibition is called "Coney Island of the Heart." The show features the work of Harold Feinstein and will run through May 8th. GMAP
House of the Day: 275 Washington Avenue
Big changes are afoot at 275 Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill! After a couple of months in limbo, the 36-foot-wide brownstone mansion is back on the market with a new broker and a new price. The 7,800-square-foot property, which the current owner subdivided from the adjacent lot after his purchase from Pratt for a song last June, originally came on the market with Corcoran last September for $3,500,000. It's now back on with Brown Harris Stevens for $3,200,000. (The carriage house behind it is now on the market with Brooklyn Properties for $2,600,000.) This could be one of the most spectacular homes in Brooklyn, but it's gonna take a lot of work (and a lot of money).
275 Washington Avenue [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
SOM-designed Toren About to Hit the Market
Toren, the new development at 150 Myrtle Avenue promising "A New Angle on Modern Living," starts sales tomorrow. The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed tower, reminiscent of a barcode, is 38 stories, with 240 market rate condos and 40 below-market rate condos (The New York Times reported that 10,000 people entered the lottery to buy those units). The top eight floors have eight one-bedroom penthouses and 24 two- and three-bedroom duplex penthouses. William Ross, Director of Development Marketing at Halstead Brooklyn, which is handling the listings, said he isn't apprehensive about bringing another luxury product on the market, with Oro Condominiums struggling to sell around the corner. "Not this one, this one is special," he said. Toren's indoor pool is designed to replicate the Art Deco saltwater pool formerly at the St. George Hotel on Henry Street, once the largest of its kind in the world, and there's a co-generation plant in the building's basement. Toren also features a bi-level furnished roof garden with an outdoor movie theatre, indoor library, attended lobby, yoga room and fitness center by Iowa Fitness. Ross said parking is on the second and third floor, not underground, because there's an old train station right next to the building, possibly the former Myrtle Avenue el's first underground station. He said the station is too short to accommodate today's cars. BFC Partners is the developer.
Toren: A New Angle on Modern Living
Toren Listings [Halstead] GMAP
150 Myrtle Revealed As Part of Condo-Mania Event [Brownstoner]
New Details on 150 Myrtle Avenue [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 785 Dekalb Avenue
Only the worsening real estate market can save the former Deliverance Evangelicalistic Center now. With the dreaded MMG sign already posted though, the die appears to be cast for this beautiful old two-story brick commercial building at 785 Dekalb Avenue in Bed Stuy. The developer, SSJ Realty, has filed plans for a four-story, seven-unit (sounds small, no?) building on the site. This is another of those cases where we don't understand why the developer doesn't keep the existing two stories and do a cool modern addition on top. Could it be that 99 percent of developers have no vision or creativity? GMAP P*Shark DOB
Plan for 3rd Ave Hotel Brings Gowanus Total to 7
This is getting kind of crazy. Fencing's recently gone up around a few old warehouses on 3rd Avenue in Gowanus, and what it means is that there's yet another hotel planned for the neighborhood. A firm called GF55 Partners is designing a Fairfield Inn between Douglass and Butler streets. According to the GF55 website, it'll be 9 stories and have 134 rooms. DOB records confirm those plans, and the city's issued demolition permits for the existing buildings. With the Holiday Inn Express on Union, the Comfort Inn on Butler, Hotel Le Bleu on 4th Ave., an under-construction hotel on the corner of President and 3rd, and two other hotels planned for President, Gowanus is going to be swimming in hotel rooms. (See map of Gowanus hotel-mania on the jump.) A few folks have left comments when we've broken news of other planned hotels saying the owners are banking on the area's who-knows-when rezone to residential so they can convert the properties to condos. We don't know whether that would actually be possible or likely. For now, though, it would appear that Gowanus is fixing to have one of highest—if not the highest—concentrations of hotels in Brooklyn.
Some New Action on Gowanus' Hotel Row [Brownstoner] GMAP
Developer Plans Two Hotels on One Gowanus Block [Brownstoner]
Continue reading "Plan for 3rd Ave Hotel Brings Gowanus Total to 7"
Docs: Low Disclosure Req'd From Ratner For ED Seizure
Bruce Ratner would only be required to show his financing plan for the Atlantic Yards arena, not its office and residential towers, for the state to seize property and leases spread across the project's 22-acre footprint. According to the recently released AY funding agreement, "Prior to, or simultaneously with, [Empire State Development Corporation] acquiring title to any portion of the Project Site by condemnation, Developer or its Affiliates shall (i) provide a financing plan, subject to the reasonable approval of ESDC, for the financing of the Arena, and (ii) cause the closing to occur under the acquisition contract for the LIRR Vanderbilt Yard." Most of the property the state plans to seize is not in the arena footprint, and the promise of 2,250 units of affordable housing was a central argument in justifying the use of eminent domain. Forest City Ratner spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt pointed out that prior to the state approving Atlantic Yards, "We have provided a complete financing plan for the entire project ... which outlines in detail all the components of the plan." That plan, dated late 2006, expected the residential and commercial towers to be largely financed by affordable housing bonds and mortgages. ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston said in an email exchange, "The residential piece is the most important component and we are working with the developer to ensure that it is delivered."
Lead Atlantic Yards opponent Daniel Goldstein was momentarily speechless last night when read the terms for seizing his condo, which is located in the center court of the planned arena. "This idea that they're going to condemn 22 acres when the only thing they can assure is an arena, it's an abomination... it's crazy, it's unethical." Goldstein contends that "the state needs to assure that there are financing agreements for the affordable housing before they proceed with condemnation." In a recent interview with The New York Times, Ratner indicated he intends to finish the entire project, but said his inability to find Miss Brooklyn an anchor office tenant and the tightened bond market could delay everything but the arena for years. He's made more headway in financing the arena, now tagged at nearly $1 billion: Barclays Bank agreed to pay $400 million for its naming rights, less than two-thirds the total expected from sponsorship deals according to the 2006 financial plan. Luxury suite and loge box revenue would bring in even more, staring at $38 million a year and steadily increasing.
AY Funding Agreement: This Could Take Forever [Brownstoner]
540G will get you a ritzy suite in new Brooklyn Nets arena [Daily News]
Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards [New York Times]
State Never Saw Business Plan For Atlantic Yards Project [NY Sun]
Entire Atlantic Yards funding agreement (37 parts) [Empire State Development Corporation]
Photo by threecee.
The San Fran-Brooklyn Love Connection
Did you know there are places to live in the United States aside from Brooklyn? Neither did we, but according to an article in the Style section of yesterday's Times, there's a place in California called San Francisco that is something of a sister city to Brooklyn. Or, as the piece puts it, "there is a young, earnest population that is beating a path between artsy, gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn and their counterparts in the Bay Area, especially East Oakland and the area south of Market Street in San Francisco, or SoMa." So what do the two places have in common aside from loads of creatives? Local eyesores (Emeryville mud flats and the Gowanus Canal); good breweries (Anchor and Brooklyn); literary do-gooder establishments (Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia and 826NYC); and a shared ethos: "If there is an aesthetic credo to Brooklyn and the Bay Area, it is Do It Yourself, which connotes more than using an Allen wrench from Ikea. D.I.Y. can mean everything from wearing locally designed T-shirts to attending concerts staged in someone’s warehouse apartment, to riding a bike to work."
Sisters in Idiosyncrasy [NY Times]
San Francisco photo by Dizzy Atmosphere; Brooklyn photo by rsguskind.
160 Imlay Finally Gets the Go-Ahead
After years of legal haggling, the developer of 160 Imlay Street in Red Hook can proceed with his plan to convert the huge warehouse into a mixed-use building with residential and retail. An appellate panel recently upheld the variance given to Bruce Batkin way back in 2003 to convert the warehouse; for the past four years, that variance has been challenged in court by a Red Hook coalition that opposed the project on the grounds that it would kill the neighborhood's industrial character. An article in the Brooklyn Eagle quotes the appellate majority decision as saying that “Imlay will suffer great prejudice if the variance is vacated.” In a press release (see copy on jump), the developer says his team is "reviewing all...options for proceeding with this exciting project." Reached by phone on Friday, Batkin gave the impression he was ready to pick up where he'd left off, despite the less-than-perfect market and financing environment.
Case Dismissed Against Red Hook Residential Development [Brooklyn Eagle]
160 Imlay Street: A Sacrificial Lamb? [Brownstoner] GMAP
Vito's Plans for Pfizer: A Gross Misuse of Eminent Domain?
This morning the Sun takes a look at the drive to seize the old Pfizer plant in Williamsburg via eminent domain. Assemblyman Vito Lopez introduced a bill that would result in the state condemning the 15-acre property so it could acquire it and issue its own request for proposals to create around 1,700 affordable housing units. Pfizer intends to shut down the plant at the end of this year, and it released its own request for proposals for a mixed-use development on the site that would also include affordable housing. Lopez's chief of staff says Pfizer's RFP isn't good enough since it doesn't specify how much affordable housing would come out the site's redevelopment, but Pfizer begs to differ. "Not only is the concept of state-sponsored eminent domain extremely premature at this point and could have implications for development statewide but the legislation's justification fails to mention affordable housing is one of the key uses already being considered," said a spokesperson for the pharma giant in a statement. Critics of Lopez's plan think his bill would result in a completely unwarranted use of eminent domain. "The fact that this grossly mistreats business doesn't make it any better," says Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. "If Lopez wants the affordable housing on that site then he should work with Pfizer to get it included in the development and require that they build it on their property."
Eminent Domain Foes Fear Bid By Assemblyman [NY Sun]
Pfizer v. Vito for Rights to Old Pfizer Plant [Brownstoner]
Photo by hi-lo.
Monday Links
Near the Union St. Bridge. Photo by Frank Lynch.
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson Expected to Resign Today [WSJ]
Eyes on the Sky for a Crane Jump on Flatbush [NY Times]
Christopher Gray: Diversity on Willoughby [NY Times]
Jean Nouvel Wins This Year's Pritzker Prize [NY Times]
PS Coffee Tea and Spices Lures Students [NY Times]
Pity the Poor Brokers in a Downturn [NY Times]
State Budget Deal on the Fast Track [NY Post]
MTA's $150M Plan for 370 Jay: Dumb? [NY Post]
Abby Hamlin Talks 14 Townhouses [NY Post]
More Than $20B in Developments At Risk [NY Daily News]
MTA, City Fear Paterson Will Cut Budget [NY Daily News]
Downtown Parking a Free-For-All [NY Daily News]
Progress on Strong Place Church [Lost City]
Ward Bakery Gets Gutted [AY Report]
March 28, 2008
Friday Blogwrap
Clinton Hill. Photo by dog blue
Hey, Brooklyn: Switch Off Your Lights For One Hour! [PMFA]
Dumbo’s Sky Watch Already Has Reduced Crime [Dumbo NYC]
Brooklyn's Ugliest Karl Fischer Looking Great [GL]
Unusual: Smoking Backpack on Subway [Gothamist]
Burg Architecture Goes to the Dogs [Curbed]
Bed-Stuy Real Estate Picks [Bed Stuy Blog]
Closing Bell: Organic Market Coming...Or(o) Not
The bodega opposite the sales office for Oro Condominium (pictured in background) has had this "organic market coming soon" wrapper around its facade for a year, yet there's no organic food for sale. If the tiny box really is turning into a green-mart, it appears it will take awhile - no application for work has been filed with the Department of Buildings since an automatic fire suppression system was installed in 2003. Inside, the bodega's few shelves are disheveled and bare, but the deli runs a brisk business, especially with swarms of construction workers a captive market. The next closest neighborhood amenity is the Starbuck's inside MetroTech now that Myrtle Avenue's retail has been cleared indefinitely for development.
Open House Picks
Park Slope
865 Union Street
Townsley & Gay
Sunday 1:30-3:30
$2,550,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
303 13th Street
Warren Lewis
Sunday 2:30-5
$1,895,000
GMAP P*Shark
Ditmas Park
440 East 19th Street
Mary Kay Gallagher
Sunday 1-3
$1,390,000
GMAP P*Shark
Prospect Lefferts Gardens
73 Rutland Road
Corcoran
Sunday 12-2:30
$1,390,000
GMAP P*Shark
Development Watch: Sunset Park H.S. Rising Fast
The new public high school on tap for Sunset Park is going up quickly. The building, as rendered to the right, will be 191,000 gross square feet, according to IMBY, and it's supposed to be ready for action by 2009. The 5-story school is on 4th Avenue between 34th and 35th streets, and it's going to have neat stuff like a 550-seat auditorium and a 4,000-square-foot fully wireless library.
Sunset Park High School November 2009? [IMBY] GMAP
Rendering from IMBY.
Rentals of the Week: Greenpoint
Lots of share-worthy looking apartments in Greenpoint posted on Craigslist. Clockwise, from left to right:
1. 2-bed, 2-bath, EIK, private yard. $2,200, Humboldt near Nassau.
2. 1-bed near waterfront. $1,675, Huron at Franklin.
3. 2-bed railroad w/ sep. entrances. $1,695, 197 Green St.
4. 2-bed w/ backyard. $1,600, Calyer at Eckford.
5. 2-bed w/ h/w floors. $1,525, Franklin at Java.
Commercial Sales in Brooklyn
4TH AVENUE, GOWANUS SIDE $4,050,000 (left)
438 4th Avenue, 202 8th Street GMAP
The sale of two of the properties Massey Knakal has bundled together as a residential development site were recorded in city records. The owner also controls a third adjoining parcel Massey is marketing for him, along with plans for a 12-story residential development.
WILLIAMSBURG $4,000,000 (right)
180 Borinquen Place GMAP
The insatiable Dermot Company buys another Brooklyn rental building, this time not in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill. According to PropShark, this is one's got 30 units and appears to be another rent-stabilized acquisition for the firm.
Photo of 180 Borinquen from Property Shark.