November 20, 2009

Checking In On 660 Bergen Street

Things have been going pretty well over at 660 Bergen Street, the 16-unit Karl Fischer-designed condo development in Prospect Heights. When we took its temperature back in March, six apartments were in contract. And now? 12 are either closed or in contract, leaving just four still up for grabs. Probably not coincidentally, they are all first-floor duplexes. Still, overall an impressive showing in this market.
660 Bergen Street Listings [StreetEasy]
Checking In On 660 Bergen Street [Brownstoner]
Checking in on 660 Bergen [Brownstoner] GMAP
Development Watch: 656-662 Bergen Street [Brownstoner]

November 19, 2009

Streetlevel: New Veterinarian for Flatbush

Pet owners of Prospect Heights and Park Slope, rejoice! A little birdie tells us that the storefront undergoing construction at 277 Flatbush Avenue will ultimately be a new veterinarian. GMAP

House of the Day: 540 Bergen Street

540 Bergen Street (pdf flyer) has some redeeming features—nice location, pretty facade, some original details—but it's also been chopped up into three units and suffers from a bad case of crappy listing photography. All of which may explain why the price was just reduced after only a month on the market from $1,550,000 to $1,475,000. We don't think it'll be quite enough to get a deal done though. What about you?
540 Bergen Street [Mark-Roth] GMAP P*Shark

November 18, 2009

Streetlevel: Vinnie's Styles Opening New Store on Flatbush

Vinnie's Styles, maker of hip-hop and Brooklyn-themed apparel, is in the process of building out a new double-wide storefront at 239 Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights. If the Nets arena does ever get built, this location will look like a pretty smart choice. GMAP

November 17, 2009

New Bar Opening in Prospect Heights

The Brooklyn Paper has the lowdown on a new bar opening in Prospect Heights. The new spot, being launched in a small storefront at 706 Washington Avenue by the owner of the Kings County bar in Bushwick, will be called Minor Arcana, a reference to a Tarot reading he received in Coney Island while contemplating the new venture. The new space will be filled with Coney Island references like a cabinet of curiosities and freak show-related wall hangings. As the owner described it to us in an email last week, "The Minor Arcana will focus mainly on drinking in a slightly creepy but still fun sideshow/carnival atmosphere." The opening is slated for this Friday.
Bar Owner Defies Tarot Reading [Brooklyn Paper] GMAP

November 16, 2009

Development Watch: S#!tbox on Underhill

This new two-family building going up at 112 Underhill Avenue may be the ugliest piece of crap we've had the misfortune to lay eyes on in recent memory. It would be hard to design anything this heinous if you tried. There should be a law...GMAP P*Shark DOB

November 4, 2009

Development Watch: 659 Bergen Street

The windows are all in at 659 Bergen Street, the Karl Fischer-designed project in Prospect Heights. When the facade and interiors are done, another 16 units will be added to the borough's housing stock.
Development Watch 2/25/09 [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
Development Watch 10/23/08 [Brownstoner] DOB

Price Cuts at 272 St. Marks Avenue

After four months on the market, 272 St. Marks Avenue was coming up goose eggs in the sales department. As a result, seven out of the eight units were on the receiving end of 10 to 15-percent price cuts recently. So a top-floor three-bedroom that was $1,049,000 is now $895,000 and a second-floor one-bedroom that was $575,000 is now $495,000. Think it's enough to get a little action going?
272 St. Marks Avenue [StreetEasy] GMAP

October 27, 2009

Co-op of the Day: 100 Underhill Avenue, #2

This place at 100 Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights looks like an unusually nice floor-through co-op conversion. Most of these things end up being charmless or dreary but this one is neither. The two-bedroom apartment has lots of original charm and an attractive new kitchen. Personally we'd open up the wall between the living room and the den to create a better sense of space, but overall it looks like a great job.
100 Underhill Avenue, #2 [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark

97 St. Marks Avenue Update

It's been about a month since we broke the news about the new owner at 97 St. Marks Avenue who was trying to create a curb cut in the recently landmarked part of Prospect Heights so we thought we'd check back in with DOB to see what the status was. Remember that last we checked the DOB had just issued a 15-Day Letter of Intent to Revoke the permits for the cut. Here's the latest from the buildings department: "The Department has put the applicant on notice that approval needs to be obtained from the Landmarks Preservation Commissioner before work can begin for the curb cut. The Department also issued a Stop Work Order which will remain in place until the approval is granted."
DOB Posts Letter of Intent to Revoke on St. Marks Ave [Brownstoner]
A Curb Cut on Landmarked St. Marks Avenue? [Brownstoner] GMAP

October 26, 2009

New Grocery and Coffee Shop To Open on Underhill

There's a new food shop opening in Prospect Heights and it sounds very nice based on the description and graphics in the window and on the website. The name of the new storefront at 115 Underhill Avenue is Goods, and what they say they'll be offering is "Grocery, Coffee, Food & Drink." Sounds like something in the vein of Choice Greene or the front of Marlow & Sons. Big plus for the nabe! GMAP

October 23, 2009

Development Watch: 112 Underhill Avenue

Work began at 112 Underhill Avenue at the end of the summer. The new building is slated to be a three-story, two-family house of indeterminate aesthetic quality. Let's hope for the best. GMAP P*Shark DOB

October 22, 2009

The Vanderbilt Officially Opening Tomorrow

With its grand opening scheduled for tomorrow (it soft-opened earlier in the week), we decided to pop our head into the The Vanderbilt (which got shout-outs in both The Times and New York Magazine this week) earlier this week and, man, is it swanky. The brainchild of Saul Bolton (of Saul in Cobble Hill fame), the large but inviting corner space at 570 Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights will offer "small plates" (charcuterie and much, much more) as well as a full range of cocktails and draft beers. This could really be the tipping point for this stretch of Vanderbilt which has gradually been building momentum in recent years.

October 21, 2009

324 St. Marks Launches

After what seems like an eternity in development, 324 St. Marks Avenue (aka Mark 324) has finally hit the market. As Set Speed said last week, "You'll get radiant heating in the bathrooms and a gas fireplace in every unit, but it sure won't come cheap." The eight units range in price from $631,000 for a 852-square-foot two-bedroom to $932,400 for a 1,228-square-foot three-bedroom. We'll see whether the nabe can support the prices!
Development Watch: 324 St. Mark's Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB

October 16, 2009

House Tour Double-Shot This Weekend

Lots of ground to cover this weekend for house-tour lovers...Tomorrow, the 31st Annual Bedford Stuyvesant House Tour runs from 11 am to 4 pm; you can buy tickets in advance from Brownstone Books at 409 Lewis Avenue or pick them up at the kick-off spot at Brooklyn Academy High School at 832 Marcy Avenue. On Sunday, the action shifts to Prospect Heights, where ten homes—including three architects' residences—will be open for viewing. The self-guided tour goes from 12 to 5 p.m., and you can purchase tickets ($20 ahead; $25 same day) at Forest Floor Antiques at 659 Vanderbilt Avenue. For more info., call 718-393-7653 or visit their website.

Streetlevel: Thai Food for Flatbush

A new restaurant's coming to 293 Flatbush Avenue (on the Prospect Heights side) and, according to the folks next door at Franny's, it's slated to be a Thai place. Unlikely to make headlines but possibly good news for the local take-out crowd. GMAP

Atlantic Terrace Applications Available Nov 1

The Local reported yesterday on this week's October meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 2, during which it was announced that applications for Atlantic Terrace, the 80-unit affordable (ish) housing development at 669 Atlantic will be available November 1. According to The Local, "construction should be complete by May, followed soon after by a city-sponsored lottery." Other topics at the meeting included the Navy Yards, the new Fulton Street business improvement district called the FAB Alliance, and zoning and how it relates to stalled construction sites.
At the Board: Atlantic Terrace Coming Soon [The Local]
Development Watch: Atlantic Terrace Plods Along [Brownstoner]

October 8, 2009

Collision at Grand Army

There were at least half a dozen emergency vehicles filling the road near Grand Army Plaza last night around midnight, blocking traffic between the arch and the park. At the center, there were two cars in terrible condition from what looked like a head-on or perhaps side-impact collision. Despite some improvements to bicycle and pedestrian paths around Grand Army Plaza, the roads there are still some of the busiest and most dangerous in Brooklyn. When passing this particularly nasty accident scene, we didn't have the time to stop and talk to the police, but we hope that everyone involved survived unscathed.

October 5, 2009

476 Sterling Condos Now For Sale

This would fall under the category of "Things we missed while we were in Hawaii." 476 Sterling Place, which we covered a year ago when it was a work-in-progress, hit the market in August, with one-, two- and three-bedroom pads priced from $384,020 to $642,005. The interiors look about like what you'd expect from a mid-level new construction project. Most of the asking prices come out in the mid-$400s per square foot. Anyone checked it out yet?
476 Sterling Place Listings [StreetEasy] GMAP
Development Watch: 476 Sterling [Brownstoner]

October 1, 2009

Turf Looking Good to Go at Dean Street Playground

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The new artificial turf field on Dean Street between 6th Avenue and Carlton looks like it's finally finished. The project was supposed to be finished early in the summer, but it was delayed for a couple of months because the Parks Dept. says their contractors had difficulty getting the turf to adhere. A Parks Dept. spokesperson says the field will be open to the public next week, once some final "punch list items" regarding the turf installation are complete.
Dean Street Turf Field Delayed [Brownstoner]
New Turf Field On the Way in Prospect Heights [Brownstoner] GMAP

September 28, 2009

The Darkness at Richard Meier's Brooklyn Tower

When Richard Meier, the architect famous for his glass and steel towers such as those on Perry Street in Greenwich Village, announced plans in 2005 for one of his signature buildings at Grand Army Plaza, the idea met with plenty of resistance from residents of Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Park Slope, as well as Brooklynites throughout the borough. Thus, some people might have read with relish the New York Times article profiling the building, now open ten months but on the market for much longer. Through interviews with neighbors and residents, the article leaves final judgment somewhat up to the reader: its vacancy rate proves the Richard Meier experiment in Brooklyn a failure, or a building planned in the boom years that is now struggling to fill spaces (the developers report sales of 50 percent of the units, while Streeteasy has recorded only 25), just like many other new developments, independent of architect or developer. Some residents of the sparsely occupied glass box expressed worry about the dropping values of their new purchases, while one retired couple showed more longevity of thought: "We’re living here for the rest of our lives. We know there are ups and downs in the market. It’s not a time to panic."
Glass Half Empty: Richard Meier's Brooklyn Tower [NY Times]
On Prospect Park: Is Anybody Home? [Brownstoner]
Photo via Curbed

September 25, 2009

DOB Posts Letter of Intent to Revoke on St. Marks Ave

Here's an update on the situation at 97 St. Marks Avenue that we wrote about two days ago: In response to complaints that were lodged, the Department of Buildings made two visits to the worksite, one on Wednesday and on one Thursday. Yesterday's visit resulted in the Borough Commissioner issuing a Stop Work Order as well as a 15-day Letter of Intent to Revoke. While the owner technically has 15 days to address the specific issues, a code consultant we just got off the phone with suggested that the fact that the letter was combined with a Stop Work Order means that the odds are now strongly against the owner. If anyone can clarify/expand on that reading of the situation, please do.
A Curb Cut on Landmarked St. Marks Avenue? [Brownstoner] GMAP

September 24, 2009

Condo of the Day: 475 Sterling Place, #3I

The listing for this two bedroom condo at 475 Sterling Place calls it "the best value per square foot in Prospect Heights" and, at $575,000 for 1,119 square feet, it's probably not far off the mark except for the fact that some people might argue that it's technically in Crown Heights. The building was one of the first new ones to go up in the area and it's been a long slog but we think it's one of the better looking ones and $500 a foot is pretty reasonable. Waddya think?
475 Sterling Place, #3I [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark

September 23, 2009

House of the Day: 526 Carlton Avenue

This four-story brownstone at 526 Carlton Avenue in Prospect Heights sold for $1,230,000 back in 2006. Since then, it's undergone a major renovation that's resulted in a pretty nice looking house; recessed lighting notwithstanding, the reno managed to preserve the major architectural details of the house while injecting it with some attractive modern upgrades (i.e. they did a nice job on the kitchen and bathrooms). The bigger question is whether $2,300,000 will fly so close to Atlantic Yards.
526 Carlton Avenue [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark

A Curb Cut on Landmarked St. Marks Avenue? Really?

See this beautiful brownstone front yard at 97 St. Marks Avenue? Better enjoy it while you can, because the owner is getting ready to demolish it to create a driveway and garage despite the recent landmarking of Prospect Heights, according to a tipster and DOB filings. How could this happen? We're not quite sure, but here's the initial permit where it mentions converting a portion of the ground floor into a garage and here's an amendment for the curb cut. The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of what happened at 174 Clinton Avenue a couple of years ago. The icing on the cake, according to a Forum post yesterday, is that the owner's kicking out the old lady who sold him the house but continued to live in the garden apartment in order to do it. We'll get back to you with what Landmarks has to say. Let's hope this is all a big misunderstanding! Update: LPC confirms that they have no record of any applications for Landmark approval at this address. GMAP