Commercial Real Estate
May 8, 2008
Big Red Hook Warehouse Buy for Manufacturing Biz
A building supply company that's rented space in Red Hook recently got a little help from the city to buy the warehouse near that waterfront that it's been leasing. Extech Building Material closed on an $8 million
160 Imlay Finally Gets the Go-Ahead [Brownstoner]
May 5, 2008
Closing Bell: One of Brooklyn's Grandest Office Address
Manhattan may have its so-called Country Club towers, where office space is among the priciest in New York City, but Park Slope has something of an answer to those corporate castles in the sky—a far less high-tech but unmistakably brownstone Brooklyn alternative. Martin Goldin, a developer who purchased the condo-office space on the lower level of the Montauk Club building in 2001, rents out seven offices in what used to be the landmark's private bowling alley (see pic of bowling pin markers on the jump!). Goldin currently has two spaces available that are asking $950 and $1,200; tenants get amenities like a shared conference room (above right), high-speed Internet and air-conditioning. The offices primarily attract home-based businesses who've outgrown their homes but want to be based in the community, says Goldin, who notes that the tenant mix tends to include professionals like attorneys, writers, and interior designers. "I think there's a lot of need for this kind of space in the community," he says. GMAP
Continue reading "Closing Bell: One of Brooklyn's Grandest Office Address"
May 2, 2008
Report: Brooklyn's Industrial Market Staying Strong
A new commercial brokerage called TerraCRG recently released a (warning: PDF!) report showing that demand for warehouses, factories, and garages in Brooklyn remained fairly healthy despite the credit crunch. The firm researched industrial property sales in 2006 and 2007, and determined that while the volume of transactions was more or less the same both years (105 in 2006 versus 101 last year), the average price per square foot on industrial sites jumped from a little below $175 a foot to almost $200 a foot from '06 to '07. The median price per square foot rose 15 percent in 2007, to $181. At the same time, the study found that the aggregate value of transactions dipped to around $270,000,000 in '07 from $375,000,000 in '06, and there was a tad less turnover. "It's almost a secret that industrial buildings are asset properties on their own," says Ofer Cohen, who used to cover Sunset Park for Massey Knakal and is the managing director of TerraCRG, which started doing business this year. "For a long time people were looking at things only on a residential development level, but that's slowing down." Cohen says his company excluded sales from the report that seemed destined to be development sites, and he notes that the small number of transactions each year, and the dip in aggregate value of deals in '07 signifies, in part, that "there's not much industrial supply left in the city...While inventory gets tighter and the volume of trades lower, demand is holding, which keeps pushing prices higher, or, at the very least, keeping them at the same levels." Properties in Gowanus/Park Slope, Williamsburg, and Sunset Park fetched the highest prices last year. Of course, what we'd like to know is how the numbers stack up in '08.
PDF Report on Brooklyn Industrial Space [TerraCRG]
Photo by Zach K.
April 25, 2008
Commercial Sales in Brooklyn
PARK SLOPE $5,000,000
910 Union Street (left) GMAP
The People's Cathedral of Brooklyn sold off their 15,791-square-foot building on Union, near Grand Army Plaza, according to public records. The deed names the property's buyer as Jacob Pinson, the developer behind the Vermeil condo. Last year the DOB disapproved a filing to enlarge the building and make it residential.
BOROUGH PARK $16,700,000
1462 62nd Street (right) GMAP
We don't know anything about warehouse values in this neck of the woods, but a buyer thought it made sense to shell out a pretty penny for this 123,390-sf property.
Photos from Property Shark.
Atlantic Gets its HIP Adjustment
The new office building on Atlantic and Nevins that'll be leased by HIP is looking more or less good-to-go these days. When we last checked in on it in spring '07, it was a big hole. Architecture-wise, we find it to be a "there it is, I've already forgotten what it looks like" kind of building. They do get points for aligning the facade and roofline, though!
Development Watch: 447 Atlantic Avenue [Brownstoner]
HIP's Giving Out Bad Vibrations [Brownstoner] GMAP
April 16, 2008
Commercial Sales in Brooklyn, Heights Edition
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $7,500,000
54-66 Livingston Street GMAP
A Brooklyn-based management company paid $2,250,000 for 64-66 Livingston and $5,250,000 for 54-62 Livingston, adjoining rent-stabilized buildings. 64 and 66 Livingston each have nine units, according to Property Shark, while 54-62 Livingston has a total of 32 units.
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $10,890,000
82 Pierrepont Street GMAP
As reported in the Brooklyn Eagle, the Herman Behr mansion on the corner of Henry and Pierrepont was sold after being listed on the market for $12 million. The building has 26 rental units and was designed by Frank Freeman in the late 19th century. The landmark was purchased by a Manhattan-based firm called Fine Times, a developer that specializes in restoring townhouses and brownstones, according to an article in the Times.
Photos from Property Shark.
April 8, 2008
Behold 'Sunset Marketplace,' Time Equities' S. Park Plan
What you see above are renderings for the massive development project Time Equities has on tap for Sunset Park. The Greenberg Farrow-designed shopping center, which is being dubbed "Sunset Marketplace," will be part of Time Equities' redevelopment of two square blocks (30th to 32nd streets) between 3rd Avenue and the water. New construction on the site will total 790,000 square feet, according to Greenberg Farrow's website, including a large parking garage. The retail building will rise next to Federal #2, an huge industrial structure that Time Equities will redevelop for light industry and commercial tenants (there will probably also be some retail on Federal #2's ground floors). The EDC selected Time Equities and the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation for the project last May. According to Philip Gesue, Time Equities' project director for acquisitions and development, the proposal is now in pre-application review with City Planning and should enter ULURP soon.
Sunset Park's Federal #2 a Potential Lifeboat for Creatives [Brownstoner] GMAP
April 3, 2008
14 (Commercial) Townhouses Planned in Red Hook
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
Continue reading "14 (Commercial) Townhouses Planned in Red Hook"
March 28, 2008
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.
March 24, 2008
Bergen Street Brewery Off the Block
We noticed this beautiful building at the corner of Franklin and Bergen when we rode our bike past a couple of months ago and then swung by a couple of weeks ago for a second look. When we called the broker, Michael Silber, he informed us that the corner building was originally a brewery. He also informed us that it had recently sold—for somewhere just short of the asking price of $8 million. (The site, which includes two lots that run through the block from Bergen to Dean, has approximately 90,000 buildable square feet.) The developer who bought it will most likely do some kind of residential conversion. Hopefully, he won't make the same mistake as most of the developers over on 4th Avenue and fail to turn the ground floor into retail. This stretch of Franklin could really use it. GMAP P*Shark