Gowanus
March 18, 2010
Streetlevel: Abilene Spin-Off Coming to 3rd Avenue
According to the tipster who sent in this photo, Court Street bar and restaurant Abilene is building out this space at 543 3rd Avenue in Gowanus. Should be a nice fit with the pentecostal church next door! GMAP
Inside Third & Bond: Week 122
This week the Third & Bond bloggers take at look at how their new construction held up to last week's weather...What happened to Third + Bond during one of the worst storms seen by NYC in the last 30 years? Was siding ripped from the façade? Did water back up in the mechanical rooms? Did massive roof leaks ruin newly installed wood floors? Nope. Not much of anything happened. There were two units where the waterproofing hadn’t been completed and a small amount of water leached into a discrete spot. Fortunately the drywall is actually cement board in that area so it fared pretty well. We set up electric space heaters to dry the spot out and will determine soon if the floorboards need to be replaced.
Aside from our sadness at the loss of old growth trees around the City, and our empathy for fellow city dwellers who lost power or experienced property damage, we were pretty psyched to have a storm like this one...
March 11, 2010
Inside Third & Bond: Week 121
More on Third & Bond's marketing strategy from the bloggers at The Hudson Companies...Fan us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Read our blog on Brownstoner! Contact us at www.thirdandbond.com! My, my how technology is impacting the way we do business. A lot has been made about social media and the wildfire of (free) outreach it blazes. This week we wanted to talk about our foray into social media.
This blog was our first stop on the social media train which we boarded in 2007. Brownstoner was and is the foremost blog about real estate in Brooklyn – or so we postulate. For us, blogging about Third + Bond meant the opportunity to get (free) market feedback via the comments and to expose readers to what it’s really like to develop a project. Writing the blog every week is a lot of work but it also has resulted in much wider visibility for the project than we would have gotten otherwise through the period of construction.
March 8, 2010
EPA Gets Cracking on Gowanus List of Polluters
Perhaps in an effort to quell concern that its stewardship of the Gowanus Canal would mean a dozen years of bureaucratic delays, the Environmental Protection Agency moved swiftly in the week after adding the waterway to the Superfund list to start naming companies it would target to recover damages to pay for the clean-up. "This is a historical puzzle we're putting together here," said EPA regional administrator Judith Enck. "This site has a very long legacy of toxic pollution." In addition to figuring out which companies dumped which chemicals into the canal, the EPA also has to trace often-complicated chains of corporate ownership to determine who's on the hook for actions taken decades ago. Some of the big names already getting dragged into the investigation include Bayside Fuel Oil, BP America, Honeywell, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Citibank. "Some of these will be dead ends and they'll say: 'Nope, not me.' Some of them, we'll get live fish on the hook," said Superfund director Walter Mugdan.
EPA Eyes 20 More Companies in Gowanus Superfund Hunt [NY Daily News]
Superfund Decision No Boost to Gowanus Rezoning [Brownstoner]
Toll Folds, Hudson Holds In Gowanus [Brownstoner]
Gowanus Superfund Coming to a Head [Brownstoner]
Photo by joe holmes
March 5, 2010
Superfund Decision No Boost to Gowanus Rezoning
It may be a moot point since no one will be able to finance any construction in the area for quite some time, but the EPA's decision to add the Gowanus Canal to the Superfund list isn't doing anything to speed along the proposed rezoning of the area either. Here's what a Department of City Planning spokesperson told the Architect's Newspaper on Tuesday:
We’ve just gotten the news and we’re continuing to work on understanding the impacts of the designation on the potential for moving forward with a rezoning to facilitate appropriate development and remediation. Clearly, the Superfund designation adds a layer of additional complexity (and uncertainty) to an already very complex process.
This on the heels of a similar statement made to us last summer:
Certification of the Gowanus Rezoning Proposal into the public review process is temporarily on hold to allow the City to focus on the alternative cleanup plan for the Canal, the potential for Superfund listing, and to better understand the relationship of this process to the rezoning. We still intend to advance the rezoning plan, and the EPA has also strongly encouraged the City to move forward with rezoning. Once there is a better understanding of the overall process of canal cleanup, the rezoning plan can move into the ULURP process.
You can read more about the mixed-use rezoning plan for the 25 blocks along the canal here.
March 4, 2010
Inside Third & Bond: Week 120
This week the Third & Bond bloggers from developer The Hudson Companies tackle the exciting subject of insurance.
Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who walked on a tightrope stretched between the two World Trade Center towers in 1974 said, “No, I was not taking my life in my hands. I was very careful with the rigging of the wire and careful to use all my knowledge of wire-walking, which, in retrospect, was limited at the time. But I would never have risked my life.” Developers, too, give the appearance of taking huge risks but in reality we carefully calculate and protect ourselves against disaster. Purchasing insurance is a key component of risk mitigation, and the subject of this week’s blog.
Developers are subject to many different kinds of risk, from building damage or destruction, to bodily harm of workers or visitors. To protect ourselves, we take on several different insurance policies and demand evidence of insurance from our contractor and subcontractors as well.
Let’s start with builder’s risk insurance....
March 3, 2010
Closing Bell: Revisiting the Batcave
Yesterday's Superfunding of the Gowanus Canal is unlikely to speed the sale of Gowanus Village so it's unlikely the building known as the Batcave will get cleaned up anytime soon. Urban explorer/photographer Nate Kensinger recently paid a follow-up visit to the beautiful industrial building (he'd first ventured in back in 2007) and found evidence of further decay: "Additional holes in the slowly collapsing roof flood water into the building," he writes. "Mold and rust have overtaken many surfaces." Bluejake also has a great shot of the main hall.
Gowanus: The Batcave Revisited [Kensinger]
Toll Folds, Hudson Holds In Gowanus
The full real estate ramifications of yesterday's decision by the EPA to place the Gowanus Canal on the Superfund list won't be known for quite some time, but the threat of a decade or more of lawsuit-riddled remediation was enough to make Toll Brothers, the developer of one of the two mega sites planned along the banks of the contaminated waterway, to announce it was pulling the plug. "We don't see any possibility of our doing a project there," said Toll's David Von Spreckelsen. "We can't get financing. We can't get insurance." Meanwhile, The Hudson Companies, the other developer with big plans for the area, announced it was going to stick it out. “We’re in full support of the project, and we’ll work with the E.P.A.,” said Aaron Koffman, a spokesman for the Hudson Companies. In related news, McBrooklyn has a round-up of who's happy and who's sad about the Superfund listing.
Gowanus Canal Gets Superfund Status [NY Times]
Feds Declare Gowanus Canal a Superfund Site [NY Post]
EPA Adds Gowanus Canal to Superfund List [NY Daily News]
Photo by beau-dog
March 2, 2010
Gowanus Superfund Coming to a Head
UPDATE 9:46 am: Pardon Me For Asking is reporting that the EPA has just announced that is has put the Gowanus Canal on the Superfund list. We can't find a press release or mention on the EPA site though.
UPDATE 10:41 a.m.: The Times has an article up now, complete with this statement: “After conducting our own evaluations and consulting extensively with the many people who have expressed interest in the future of the Gowanus Canal and the surrounding area, we have determined that a Superfund designation is the best path to a cleanup of this heavily contaminated and long neglected urban waterway,” Judith Enck, the E.P.A. regional administrator, said in a statement."
With a community meeting scheduled for Thursday (P.S. 58 at 7 p.m.), Crain's takes a close look at the "To Superfund or Not to Superfund" question that is currently dividing various constituencies along and around the Gowanus Canal. If the site is placed on the Superfund list, it almost certainly will be the death knell of the mega real estate projects slated for the area. “Given the way Superfund sites work, it could be a decade or more from now before clean up starts,” said David Von Spreckelsen, vice president at Toll Brothers, told Crain's. “We just don't have that time horizon. We will most likely walk away from the properties.” Not only that, it could affect the ability of homeowners within a half-mile of the site to get a mortgage. The developers and other stakeholders in the area favor a plan put forth by the city for a faster clean-up to the tune of $165 million. One such position is taken by Buddy Scotto, longtime neighborhood resident and activist. Here's what he wrote to the pro-Superfunders in a letter we got our hands on:
I take a back seat to no one with regard to my commitment to our environment and if I believed that you had a better way, I would willingly accept the fact that I might never see the affordable housing and other economic development initiatives along the canal that I long ago envisioned. You, however, come to us not with an open hand bearing gifts but with a hammer growling threats. I willingly reach out my hand to receive the $175 million dollars offered by our City, and I would be more than pleased to accept federal funds to move the remediation of the canal forward, but instead you only offer us the prospect of years of delay through litigation.
Where do you stand on the issue now?
Gowanus Canal Faces Crucial Cleanup Decision [Crain's]
The Other Dead Zone Around the Gowanus [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo by sahocevar
February 25, 2010
Closing Bell: Gowanus Whole Foods
Nate Kensinger, urban explorer and photographer extraordinaire, has sunk his teeth into the Gowanus Whole Foods topic, with a lengthy post about the history of the site with a bounty of photos. The subject is timely given that the green grocer finally began the environmental clean-up of the site that it committed to years ago, though it still won't commit one way or the other to actually building a store there.
The Whole Foods Lot [Kensinger]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 119
The Third & Bond bloggers from The Hudson Companies interview one of the early contract signers at the new condo development.
T+B: What’s your name, rank and serial number? Only joking. We know that you are a veteran of the US Armed Forces. What did you do in the service?
My wife and I were actually both in the Army. She was in for three years and deployed overseas, as did I. I spent about twenty-three years in the service as an armor (tank) soldier and officer, about half of that time in the regular army and the other half in the National Guard. I have deployed to Desert Storm, Bosnia, and most recently I was a combat advisor to the Afghan National Police in southern Afghanistan. We joke that the Military says you’ll see the world, they just don’t mention where exactly.
T+B: How do you like being out of the service, after twenty years in?
The pluses are that I actually have all my weekends to myself, and that I can spend more time with my family. We both miss the camaraderie of the military though.
T+B: What are you doing now, aside from buying a home at Third + Bond?
I am a landscape designer here in the city. I work for a firm that does a lot of work on parks, playgrounds, and public spaces within the city. Of course, my wife and I are thoroughly enjoying living in Brooklyn.
T+B: Are you from NYC originally? Is this your first real estate purchase in NYC?
No. My wife grew up in the DC area and overseas. I was born in upstate New York, but grew up in Alberta, Canada. This is our first real estate purchase in New York.
February 22, 2010
Sizing Up Stimulus Results
A year into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Newsweek checks in with a few local loan recipients. The big question: Did the money doled out by the government work as a stimulus or stopgap? The Polytechnic Institute of New York University picked up $4.2 million to put towards research on renewable energy, which could eventually result in new jobs and cheaper energy resources. However, for Peter Byrners, owner of the seven-person graphic design firm Lúgh Studio Inc. (at 138 Union Street, near Columbia Street), the $150,000 loan he received "enabled him to pay an outstanding American Express bill and payroll taxes, and provided a much-needed cash cushion. But it did not help him hire new workers, restore his company's health insurance, or reinstate the employees' 20 percent pay cut." Greenwich Street Equities took out a loan to build Choice Hotel (at 611 DeGraw St, between Third and Fourth avenues), but it'll be spent entirely on temporary jobs: "The $1.5 million loan for the boutique hotel will employ 50 to 60 subcontractors and construction workers until the property is completed."
The Stimulus in My Neighborhood [Newsweek]
Photo from WSDM.
February 18, 2010
Inside Third & Bond: Week 118
This week the bloggers from Hudson Companies confront the reality of the sales market.
Last October, we dipped our toes into marketing and sales for Third + Bond. The catalyst for opening sales was the unveiling of the Pratt-furnished model residences. We got great press for the Pratt models and we wanted to leverage it to get the news out to potential buyers.
That part worked well. Really well. Our brokers at Corcoran are still getting inquiries daily and many of them cite the various media outlets that reported on the Pratt collaboration. (Thanks Apartment Therapy and New Tang Dynasty TV!)
The part that didn’t work so well was getting buyers to sign on the dotted line...
February 11, 2010
Closing Bell: Degraw Indoor Skate Park Opening in March
Homage, the Smith Street skate shop, sent out an email today announcing that their indoor skateboarding park in Gowanus is opening next month. The 2,500-square-foot facility, which is on Degraw between 3rd and 4th avenues, has room for about 25 skaters, according to a write-up in the Times about it last month. It's unclear how much it's going to cost to use the space. GMAP
Video still from Homage Media.
Inside Third & Bond: Week 117
This week the tax map cartographer approved our condominium tax lots, awarding Third + Bond the distinction of becoming the 2,685th condominium in the Borough of Brooklyn. What are condominium tax lots, and why are they important?
Every kindergartener knows what a house looks like - a lot of green grass, a square with a triangle on top, three windows, a door with a little circle in it and a chimney with a squiggly line coming out. But what is a condominium, and what does it mean to buy one? When you buy an apartment at Third + Bond, what do you actually own? A condo unit is property, but it isn’t a piece of land, and it isn’t a building – so what is it?
New York passed its condominium act in 1964, legalizing a new craze in real property ownership that was sweeping the nation like British guitar pop. Unlike hippie-dippy co-operative ownership, where a non-profit corporation owns the building and shareholders are granted an exclusive lease to “their” apartments, condominium units are Real Property, for Real Americans.
February 10, 2010
Salon for the Tween and Teen Set Opens on President
A loft on President Street has been transformed into a full-service salon with all the luxury trappings one might expect from such a business, like a lounge area with a flat-screen TV, manicure/pedicure stations, and an organic snack bar. What stands out about Felicity, though, is that it's meant exclusively for teens and pre-teens. The salon's owner, Gisselle Singleton, is the mother of a Berkeley Carroll student, and she saw a need for a business that would cater to her daughter and her daughter's friends. Singleton notes that Felicity caters to the hair types of all ethnicities and places a premium on educating clients about grooming techniques. The salon is located in an industrial building that's been renovated over the past year or so and now has several office tenants as well as a personal training studio. Click through for a pic of the lounge.
Felcity Salon [Official Site] GMAP
Continue reading "Salon for the Tween and Teen Set Opens on President"
Signs Point to Whole Foods Brownfield Cleanup Starting
A few readers got in touch yesterday to let us know that there was activity at the Whole Foods site on 3rd Street. A new fence has been put outside a portion of the property and a construction trailer has been set up inside. Meanwhile, as pictured above, a sign has gone up from the Department of Environmental Conservation saying "remedial activities" will be happening. It's a few weeks behind schedule, but it looks like the Brownfield remediation will be starting soon. The remediation doesn't mean Whole Foods is going to start building anytime soon, though. GMAP
February 4, 2010
Inside Third & Bond: Week 116
This week, the bloggers from Hudson Companies pen an open letter to their wood supply and installer subcontractor:
Dear [Redacted]:
While we appreciate that you are in “Americus, GA” with “very limited cell phone coverage” we are pretty sure that both the AT&T map and Verizon map cover the state of Georgia and that landline phones though possibly anachronistic are not yet obsolete.
We also understand that it’s tough being an entrepreneur, especially when you are doing it globally and have to cover China, Missouri, Georgia, New York, and who knows where else mostly by yourself.
But it really doesn’t bode well for our relationship when you disappear for three weeks. We hate to be so needy but we NEED YOU!
Sales Start at Small 13th Street Condo
It looks like listings for the 7-unit condo at 185 13th Street, between 3rd and 4th avenues, hit the market within the past several weeks. According to StreetEasy, prices are running from $406,000 for 1-bedrooms to $643,000 for a 2-bedroom duplex. Here's part of the pitch: "Just off hip 4th Avenue in Gowanus neighborhood / Park Slope vicinity. All spacious apartments have outdoor space and are accented with high-end finishes. Design: Super stylish & sleek. Offering an abundance of space, terraces, gardens & roof decks. Flexible floor plans, generous light, floor to ceiling over-sized windows & 4 inch wide Brazilian cherry wood floors..."
185 13th Street Listings [StreetEasy] GMAP
February 3, 2010
Streetlevel: DIY Beer Brewing Store in Gowanus
A business called Brooklyn Homebrew opened in the former martial arts studio space near the corner of 3rd Avenue and 8th Street a couple weeks ago. The store sells hops, yeast, malts and spices, as well as starter kits ($40+) for the beginner brewer. "The city that supposedly has everything has been missing [a homebrew store] for some time now," one of Brooklyn Homebrew's owners, who used to operate out of an apartment in Sunset Park, told the Voice's Fork in the Road blog.
Brooklyn Homebrew [Official Site] GMAP
Brooklyn Homebrew Opens in Gowanus [Fork in the Road]
February 2, 2010
Development Watch: 433 3rd Avenue
A few stories have been added to the development on 3rd Avenue between 7th and 8th streets since we checked in on it in October. The building will eventually be a 27-unit rental, and it's supposed to look something like this.
Development Watch: 433 3rd Avenue, Now and Later [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 433-435 3rd Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
3rd Ave Landmark Still Crumbling
Just as nothing has been doing at the Whole Foods site on 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street, nothing has been done to stop the landmark building on the edge of the grocer's land from falling into even deeper ruin. As shown in the photo gallery, the property is literally falling apart and it's also a dumping ground for all sorts of trash. On a positive note, if there's one to be found here, at least the unintentionally (?) ironic banner that's sometimes hoisted to the side of the building advertising demolition has been taken down for the time being. The building is not owned by Whole Foods, but the retailer entered into an agreement with its owner back in '05 to repair the structure. The building is known as the Coignet Stone Company building and was landmarked in 2006 as a "pioneering example of concrete construction in the United States."
Whole Foods: Not the Best of Neighbors [Brownstoner]
3rd St. Landmark Crumbling; Is Whole Foods to Blame? [Brownstoner] GMAP
Missing Details at Landmarked Third and Third Building [Brownstoner]
January 29, 2010
Nothing Doing at Whole Foods Site
At the end of last year there was word that Whole Foods was going to start cleanup under the state's Brownfield program at its 3rd Street site "on or about January 11, 2010." Far as we can tell, though, nothing has happened at the property over the past three weeks. Not much of a shock since this site has sat untouched for so long at this point. GMAP
January 28, 2010
Inside Third & Bond: Week 115
For the guest bloggers from Hudson Companies, this week it's all about the benjamins...Money is possibly the most important ingredient in completing a project. Just take one look at the vacant, half-built condo projects around town. Those projects aren’t sitting there for lack of workers or building materials. (Not Stop Work Orders either, surprisingly. Yes, we’re still cranky.) At Third + Bond, fortunately, knock on wood, our lender has been excellent. We started with Wachovia, which was taken over by Wells Fargo. This week we want to take a closer look at the requisition process that allows us to ask Wells Fargo for draws on the construction loan.
To start, we draw from the loan on a monthly basis. It’s not like a car loan for which you get all the money at once and gradually pay it back. We signed...
January 25, 2010
This Will Probably Be The 7th Hotel to Call Gowanus Home
Our memory was clouded a few weeks ago by the excitement surrounding the opening of Gowanus's fourth hotel, the Super 8 on 3rd Avenue and President, and we wrote at the time that there were only two other hotels going up in the neighborhood. Not so: In addition to the builds on 13th Street and Butler Street, there's also a small hotel under construction on Degraw between 3rd and 4th avenues. The project, rendered above on the right, is in the early stages of construction but, unlike a few other planned hotels in the neighborhood, it's clearly not stalled.
Latest Gowanus Hotel Now Open For Business! [Brownstoner]
Behold, the Latest Gowanus Hotel! [Brownstoner] GMAP
Construction Under Way for Gazillionth Gowanus Hotel [Brownstoner]
Latest Restaurant Additions
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La Mancha
added March 19, 2010 12:00 PM in Brooklyn Heights -
John's Bakery & Pastry Shop
added March 18, 2010 12:00 PM in Ditmas Park -
Amarin
added March 17, 2010 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Kimchee
added March 16, 2010 12:00 PM in Bay Ridge -
Magda Int'l Cafe
added March 15, 2010 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Villa Rustica
added March 12, 2010 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Happy End
added March 11, 2010 12:00 PM in Greenpoint -
The Blue Stove
added March 10, 2010 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Madina
added March 9, 2010 12:00 PM in Kensington -
Cataldo's
added March 8, 2010 12:00 PM in Prospect Heights