4th Avenue
May 1, 2008
StreetLevel: Starbucks Sweet on 4th Ave.?
Gowanus Lounge reports that the western corner of 4th Avenue and Third Street is rumored by an "informed reader" to be the future location of a Starbucks. The site, which sold last year for $3.25 million and is currently being rehabilitated, is across the street from the Novo and on the same block as Staples and Hotel Le Bleu. A real estate executive we spoke to who was involved in the sale of the property said there's truth to the Starbucks talk, though its owner declined to comment on the matter. Is there room on 4th Ave. for more than one Clover?
Fourth Ave. Bulletin: Hot Corridor Getting a Starbucks? [Gowanus Lounge] GMAP
Photo of site from GL; photo of drink by Miss Peach.
April 28, 2008
StreetLevel: 4th Avenue Nightspot Draws a Crowd
The large new high-end club on 4th Avenue and Garfield Place, Garfield's, was jumping last Friday evening. The nightclub, which has been open for a couple of months but only seems to welcome patrons every so often, was hosting a benefit for the corrections officer killed in Brooklyn last week, according to one of the people lined up outside the club. Any readers been inside this place?
StreetLevel: Night Fever on 4th Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP
April 9, 2008
4th Avenue's Argyle 60% Sold
The Argyle condo is shaping up to be a sales success story. Sixty percent of units in the under-construction building on 4th Avenue and 7th Street are in contract, according to Dan August Cordeiro, a senior managing director with Corcoran Sunshine, which is marketing the condo. Sales for the building began in October, and the sales office is located an avenue and a few blocks away from the development, on 5th Avenue in Park Slope proper. Cordeiro says having the off-site sales office has been helpful, and that the prices on units have been raised three times. He thinks the main selling points are the "quite lovely" floor plans and "spot-on" pricing. Prices are now averaging around $700 to $750 a square foot, which "is still a relatively good value" for the area, according to Cordeiro. "Most of the buyers are from Park Slope," he says. "People who really get the Slope understand that 4th Avenue is now part of the neighborhood." Although the building is very much still under construction, it's scheduled to be ready for move-ins by the end of this year.
The Argyle [Official Site]
The Argyle Follows 4th Avenue Pricing Pattern [Brownstoner]
The Argyle: Using 5th Avenue to Sell 4th [Brownstoner] GMAP
April 7, 2008
StreetLevel: Cherry Tree Gets Behind the Mule
The owners of 4th Avenue's Cherry Tree bar are expanding their reach—right next door. The pub's proprietors took over the lease of Mule, the coffee shop they share a wall with. The lights have been out at Mule for about a month now, and one of Cherry Tree's owners told us they're hoping to reopen the popular java spot in a few weeks. Mule's likely to be reincarnated with later hours at first, and it'll probably have coffee and beer on offer. The Cherry Tree owner said he and his partners need to learn more about the coffee-hawking game before bringing Mule back full-force, with regular daytime hours. Mule was widely heralded as a business that defined the changing face of 4th Avenue from a seedy truck route to a rapidly gentrifying stretch. GMAP
April 4, 2008
Development Watch: 574 4th Avenue
The construction crew at the very large development site on 4th Avenue between 16th Street and Prospect has been ramping up work on the property's foundation in the past couple of months, most likely to try to qualify for 421-a abatements before new regulations take effect this July. According to DOB filings, the architect of record for the planned building is the prolific Bricolage Designs, and its developer is Gregory Rigas. Original plans filed for the structure called for 12 stories and 80 units, though more recent new building filings show that it will be at least nine stories high (unclear if it will go to 12). According to a South Slope resident who wrote to us, the crew routinely blocks off two to three lanes of traffic on 4th Avenue, which is a major pain in the ass for drivers at a very busy intersection near the entrance to the BQE. There was no evidence of that when we checked in on the site yesterday afternoon, though the property is not a stranger to controversy: someone on the Forum complained about garbage pile ups in the fall. The photo on the jump gives a sense of how big the entire development is. GMAP
March 31, 2008
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
March 20, 2008
Slopers Sweet on 4th Avenue?
4th Avenue is seen by some as an architectural shit show, and sales at the thoroughfare's biggest condo so far aren't doing so hot, but an article in the Sun today says the majority of buyers at the avenue's new condos come from just up the hill: Mostly, they live in Park Slope. The piece quotes a Sloper who says he doesn't want to miss out on buying in an area that might appreciate, and brokers note that part of 4th's appeal is that most of the surrounding area lacks substantial new development. According to sales directors at many of 4th's condos, half their buyers are coming from the Slope. (One wonders how scientific these stats are.) Of course, controversy about the avenue's lack of affordable housing and by-and-large unappealing new structures remains. "The grand plan of having Fourth Avenue become the 'Park Avenue of Brooklyn' is coming back to slap city officials in the face," says Aaron Brashear, a CB7 member and founder of the Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights. "The buildings are ugly and architecturally devoid. They are more of a dormitory style than high-end buildings."
Park Slope Residents Head to Fourth Avenue [NY Sun]
Novo Takes a Nosedive [Brownstoner]
4th Avenue, the Boulevard of Broken Promises? [Brownstoner]
March 18, 2008
Novo Takes a Nosedive
What's the matter? Don't buyers know they're going to have a brand-spanking-new dog run in their backyard?
Novo [StreetEasy]
Curbed PriceChopper: Everything Left at Novo Park Slope [Curbed] GMAP
March 17, 2008
StreetLevel: 4th Avenue In Clover
Here's some wildly thrilling news for coffee dorks: The $11,000 machine that Slate posits could "broaden the way we think about coffee" is coming to 4th Avenue. 3B, the soon-to-open cafe on Carroll and 4th (nee "Brooklyn Bean"), will have a Clover coffee maker. The luxe machine makes cups one at a time and is a rare lil' caffeinated bird. A story in the Times a couple months ago said there are only about 200 of them in shops across the world, though their cult status is quickly becoming more mainstream (there are a few already in NYC). 3B's espresso machine is no slouch, either, and its owners say they spent months selecting the beans they're going to use. The business, which'll also serve some light food, should be up and running in about a week and a half.
StreetLevel: New Biz Adds to 4th Ave. Buzz [Brownstoner] GMAP
Extreme Makeover Planned for J.J. Byrne Park
While Slopers wait for the Boymelbucks revamp of Terrapin Playground (the section of J.J. Byrne Park behind the Novo) to come to fruition, much bigger plans are on the drawing board for the entire park. Councilmembers David Yassky and Bill de Blasio and the Borough President's office have scared up millions in funding to transform a large chunk of the western section of J.J. Byrne into a wide-open synthetic field, according to Kim Maier, the executive director of the Old Stone House. "The area is now covered in asphalt, and it'll be a significant community asset in terms of open space," says Maier. A groundbreaking for the Parks Dept.-helmed project is scheduled to occur in May, and it's supposed to be timed to coincide with a ribbon cutting for the new Terrapin Playground, according to Maier. That part of the park will have eight new handball courts, a new dog run, two new basketball courts, and a walking oval with four low skateboarding ramps. At the same time, community listening sessions are now being held to discuss the future of the eastern side of the park, which stretches from 5th Avenue to the Old Stone House. Maier says that nascent ideas for that section revolve around making it a more useful public space. At present it's heavily used by parents, kids, and middle schoolers. Finally, as the Brooklyn Paper reported last week, there's a strong push right now to rename J.J. Byrne "Washington Park," its original moniker. GMAP