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April 3, 2008

14 (Commercial) Townhouses Planned in Red Hook

RedHook10CoffeySt.SitePlan4.2.08.jpg
A few weeks ago developer Lawrence Omansky closed on the purchase of almost an entire square block in Red Hook, and his plans for the parcels involve building a lot of new space for commercial and light industry tenants. Omansky, whose firm is called Dragon Hearth Realty, bought all but one of the properties in the block bounded by Dikeman, Otsego, Dwight, and Coffey streets, and he intends to build 14 low-rise townhouses that will be leased to small manufacturing firms or artists and some additional retail space in the ground floors of the buildings. The three extant buildings on the site, pictured on the jump, will not be knocked down, and since they've been grandfathered in for residential uses, will stay as such. "I'm very excited about this project, because it will be attractive to artists and it'll also be very close to the new IKEA," says Omansky, who believes that the future retail in the properties will be driven by what customers leaving IKEA would want for amenities (for example, restaurants or more home supply/hardware stores). Omansky intends to build about five townhouses in each stage of the project's construction, which he hopes to start very soon. As sketched above, the finished product will also have a 12,000-square-foot communal courtyard for the buildings' tenants to use. Frank Galeano, who has been a broker in Red Hook for the past seven years, handled the sale of the properties. Galeano says the site's proximity to IKEA and the fact that it was a rare large parcel in Red Hook both contributed significantly to the property's lure. GMAP

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Comments

Is anyone still considering moving to Red Hook ("the next IT place") now that RE is tanking?

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 11:15 AM

They do have some good sweets in Red Hook, at Baked. That alone is worth the train-less headache.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 11:21 AM

They do have some good sweets in Red Hook, at Baked. That alone is worth the train-less headache.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 11:21 AM

Very cool idea. I like that little building on the right that they're going to save.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 11:42 AM

I think there's more interest in moving to RH now than in past ten years cause the area is safest it has been in the past fifty years. 4000 people applied for the 80 affordable housing units on Coffey and Wolcott Street. Plus, you just don't see the crack vials and drug dealers like you did 10 years ago. Also, downturn is good for the neighborhood because it has scared off developers while the lower prices are still attracing potential homeowners. Case in point, a house on Coffey Street sold in one day above asking price. I pitched to Mr.B as house o' the day, but his Brahmin heart poop-pooped it. The nabe just needs better transit and good schools and then it will continue to evolve at an incremental clip. Which is best IMHO.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 11:49 AM

Pretty impressive for one guy to do, where are the rest of the real estate developers taking advantage of the tens of thousands of people who will flood the area seeking out Fairway, BWAC, IKEA, the Red Hook Field vendors, water taxis or Steve's Key Lime pies?

Posted by: bmfesq at April 3, 2008 11:57 AM

How hard would it be to run an express bus from Red Hook into the Battery Tunnel with a drop off on the bottom of Broadway in Mahhattan? Wouldn't that largely mitigate the transport problem there?

Posted by: Brooklynnative at April 3, 2008 11:58 AM

Wow, a developer responding to what makes sense in Redhook...commercial / light industrial. Bravo to their common sense and good luck.

Posted by: kuroko at April 3, 2008 12:12 PM

brooklynnative, that is actually the proposed plan for the 77 once smith/9th closes for renovations.

the 77 will loop through red hook and then dash through the tunnel.

should help, but i imagine that bus will be packed every morning, once the regular 61 riders get hip to the idea of going right into manhattan that way and not via the trains at jay street.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 12:42 PM

i love red hook, but in this city, most people want to be close to a subway line. no matter how many express buses you add, no subway access is going to close the door for a big chunk of people. that said, I think this limit on over-development is a real plus for those in red hook who like it for what it is.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 1:01 PM

1:01,

There's a lot of devo in Greenpoint-Williamsburg that more than a mile from the subway. With a unique waterfront locale, folks are willing to over the look the lack of a subway.

Who really like Red Hook the way it is- the bohemians? hipsters? a couple of Puma clad bloggers? Most long-standing residents, led by the Red Hook Civic, are always looking change.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 1:16 PM

Interesting that this listing just arrived in my inbox: http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite/Listing/Profile/Profile.aspx?LID=15645995&linkcode=15560&StepID=104

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 1:39 PM

Subway access has nothing to do with it. East End Ave in Manhattan is some of the most expensive real estate in the city and that is further to the subway than a lot of Red Hook.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 3:40 PM

im not a hipster, nor a bohemian, and i dont own a scrap of puma (also, is that what counts as cutting edge blogger attire?). nor are/do my friends. we all live in red hook and are all trembling in fear of ikea and the hellacious traffic it will bring with it. the bus is going to become non-existent and thats when the lack of subway will really really hurt.

change is good, but not when it comes in the form of giant box stores or pointless little art boutiques (like the metal/thread place that just opened? please. we need more places to eat lunch and buy sundries).

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 4:17 PM

Like much loft space for "artists", I suspect that people will be living and working in these buildings as soon as they're rented. There is really nothing to stop someone from adding a shower and a full kitchen once they take possession. Most East Williamsburg/Bushwick lofts are filled with artists who are living in their work spaces.

Posted by: guest at April 3, 2008 5:14 PM

There is no mystery here - Red Hook as a neighborhood that people actually love to live in is about to become a point of nostalgia. Why anyone (and I've lived there for years) would want pay plenty to live in proximity to a strip mall in New York is totally beyond me. Yes, the transportation issues have always existed, but in the past they were mitigated by other things - cheap rent, a sense of community, a refreshing isolation, an actual relationship to geography, etc. IKEA kills that in one dramatic fell swoop, as will the pod-like spawn it will bring about - Red Hook is essentially a planned suburb waiting to happen. What you are seeing now in terms of Red Hook "development" is carpet-bagging; a lot of people that couldn't care less about the neighborhood, but see dollar signs because of IKEA. RIP Red Hook.

Posted by: guest at April 4, 2008 10:27 AM

amen, 10:27.

Posted by: guest at April 4, 2008 12:22 PM

My friend just got booted from the house she loved (the one with the ugly exterior and the awning) because of this development. She (and her neighbor around the corner) had tried to buy their houses from the landlord for years and he insisted on selling the whole block. I certainly don't like seeing people kicked out for this kind of deal, at all! Why couldn't they sell just the houses to my friend and her neighbor and then the rest to the developer? So the development as a whole would be bland and homogeneous. Lame.

Posted by: guest at April 4, 2008 1:01 PM

The individual lots are for sale if someone wanted to build their own 2000 sf two story building at $325,000

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 10:04 AM