Williamsburg
May 13, 2008
Steiner Gives 80 Metropolitan Update
At last week's Real Estate Roundtable held at the Brooklyn Historical Society, developer and film industry entrepreneur Doug Steiner gave an update on his 80 Metropolitan project that jibed pretty closely with what we gleaned last month. According to Steiner, "about 25%" of the 114 units have sold, with studios and one bedrooms proving the most popular so far. ("Same old story," he said.) Other than March, which was "awful," sales have been pretty steady. Based on the signed contracts, studios, one bedrooms and two bedrooms are selling for about $800 a foot; penthouses for about $1,000 a foot. The typical buyer, says Steiner, is in his or her early 40's and moving from Manhattan. Apartments aren't the only thing being sold either: Cabanas are now going for $150,000 a pop; parking spaces have had four price increases, from the original $40,000 to the current price of $50,000.
Development Watch: 80 Metropolitan [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
80 Metropolitan Listings [Halstead]
80 Met Townhouses Hit the Market [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 80 Metropolitan Avenue [Brownstoner]
80 Metropolitan Taking Expressions of Interest [Brownstoner]
Live, Hot Demo at Old Dutch Mustard [Brownstoner]
May 12, 2008
StreetLevel: Beers and Blowouts Coming to North 7th
Two well-loved NYC businesses are setting up shop right next door to each other on North 7th Street in Williamsburg. At 113 North 7th, which is between Berry and Whythe, East Village bar d.b.a. just signed a lease for its first Brooklyn outpost (there's one in New Orleans, as well). One of d.b.a.'s owners says the bar, which is known for its extensive beer selection, should be up and running in the Burg by the end of next month. Meanwhile, next door at 115 North 7th, The Beehive Salon, late of Lorimer Street, will be opening its new location this coming weekend. The salon's employees say they were booted out of their old salon because "it's being turned into condos." Beehive has made it onto "best-of" lists in the Voice, L magazine, and Citysearch. GMAP
May 9, 2008
Bird Blog: Week 2
Every week, Jennifer Mankins, owner of Park Slope- and Cobble Hill-based boutiques Bird, tells us about the new 2,500-square-foot store on Grand Street in Williamsburg that she's getting ready to open.
I'd like to thank everyone that read the first post and for all the supportive and encouraging comments. I would also like to clarify that the Williamsburg location will not replace the Park Slope and Cobble Hill stores. They will remain open. So…if you couldn’t tell from the first post last week, I was smitten with the space. I have seen lots of properties over the years, from dumps that I never even placed bids on to dream spaces where I could clearly envision the future of Bird. This was definitively the latter and I was trying hard not to get too excited. I decided I should call in the troops, to get second opinions. Not wanting to waste any time, I scheduled an appointment that weekend for my own “panel of experts” to visit the space with me a second time: my sister and my husband plus two good friends – an architect and a local commercial real estate broker/developer. The building was built right before the turn of the 20th century, between 1896 and 1898. After the jump, find out what the experts uncovered and how our rent negotiations went...
Burg Wants Cinema and Pharmacy—Not Galleries, Clubs
Greenstone Realty did a survey of 200 people roaming the streets of Williamsburg and published the results in its marketing brochure for The Edge's retail space. The following is a sample of their retail wish list, in descending order: 177 respondents said they want a cinema, 140 want a pharmacy, slightly fewer want more clothing stores (129 described themselves as fashion freaks), and 129 want more food and gourmet markets. Clubs came in last, with only 29 respondents saying the neighborhood needs more places to get drunk and boogie. Second to last was (surprise!) galleries—39 people said they want more places to view and buy art. Other interesting tidbits: 82 people said they dislike the warehouses and manufacturing, and 101 said they dislike the neighborhood's gentrification. Almost everyone felt there needs to be more retail. While 181 people said Williamsburg is "the coolest place in Brooklyn," only 101 said it's cooler than Manhattan. See the full results after the jump...
Burg Throwdown! The Edge vs. Northside Piers [Brownstoner]
Photo by everyplace.
Continue reading "Burg Wants Cinema and Pharmacy—Not Galleries, Clubs"
May 7, 2008
House of the Day: 95 Devoe Street FSBO
If the owner of this FSBO offering at 95 Devoe Street isn't a professional stylist or interior designer, she should think about a career change. As far as we can tell, she's taken a relatively unremarkable Williamsburg row house and turned it into a charming home ready for a magazine shoot. And for her work, it's looking like she'll make some money. The four-story, two-family house was purchased for $640,000 in 2004, according to public records. The asking price now? $1,700,000. The owner is listing it herself but offering a 2.5% fee to brokers who bring a buyer to the table. We'll confess to not being too up on the comps for this area. It's gotta be on the very high end, but then again it's probably a lot nicer than most of the houses that come to market around here.
95 Devoe Street [FSBO] GMAP P*Shark
New Burg Condos Come to Market
The supply of new condos in Williamsburg continues to come online. A couple new ones—one on the South 1st, the other on North 5th—have hit the market in the last couple of weeks. The Rialto, on 5th just off Bedford (above left), is being handled by the Developers Group, with current prices going from $625,000 for an 839-sf, 1-bed, 1-bath to $1,225,000 for a 1395-sf 2-bed, 2-bath with outdoor space. The listings for the building, which has 31 units, talk about how it's a carriage house conversion with "exclusive finishes, cutting-edge state of the art appliances, and a sleek design." Bien sur. Meanwhile, a building called the Soleil on South 1st Street between Havemeyer and Marcy (rendered above right) has listings up on aptsand lofts' site. The eight units advertised range from $489,000 for a 1-bed, 1-bath of unspecified square footage to $615,000 for another 1-bed, 1-bath, square-foot total also unknown. (The development's official website shows some layouts with living rooms that are 22x12 and bedrooms that are 13x11). Think this one'll have a sunny future?
Rialto Listings [Developers Group] GMAP
Soleil Listings [aptsandlofts] GMAP
Wednesday Food & Drink Round Up
Photo by Eating in Translation
Tasteworthy: Blue Marble's Organic Ice Cream
420 Atlantic Avenue (between Bond and Nevins), Boerum Hill
Ice cream season is upon us, and Brooklyn Based is raving about the fresh flavors at Blue Marble: "a Strawberry that actually tastes a little tart (just like in real life!!), a Mocha made with rich cocoa and studded with fat chocolate-covered almonds, and Blackberries and Cream that no one should ever share." This Sunday, they'll be setting up shop at the Flea and offering a rotating selection of four flavors.
Loads of Openings
The NY Times reports that Abigail Abigail Café & Wine Bar (807 Classon Avenue at St. Johns Place, Prospect Heights) will open this Friday, South Brooklyn Pizza (451 Court Street at Fourth Place, Carroll Gardens) opens tomorrow, and the owners of Fatty Crab are getting ready for a summertime opening of a Southeast Asian barbecue spot called Fatty'Cue (91 South Sixth Street, Williamsburg). Time Out New York says that Plan B, a "sports den that boasts an 800-square-foot garden," has opened at 626 Vanderbilt Avenue (between Park and Prospect Place) in Prospect Heights, and Organic Heights, an "organic bakery and takeout spot, featuring 30 varieties of tea and fair-trade, shade-grown coffees," has opened at 460 Bergen Street (between Flatbush and Fifth Avenue).
Now Closed: Chicory Brooklyn
243 DeGraw Street (between Clinton and Court), Cobble Hill
"Just taking a moment to mourn the neighborhood's best fried chicken, greens and various roasted veggies. Also, I'll miss the burger." [A Brooklyn Life]
After the jump: Prices rise at Sweet Melissa and — you knew it would happen eventually — somebody's opening a burger joint called "Williamsburger"...
May 6, 2008
Development Watch: 421 Kent Avenue
What's been happening at 421 Kent Avenue since we checked in back in January? Not a whole heck of a lot, it appears. The full-block site controlled by Isaac Hager in South Williamsburg doesn't have any Stop Work Orders hanging over its head so we can't figure out what could be holding it up. Anyone know?
Hager Wasting No Time at 421 Kent [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB
Hager Re-Ups in Williamsburg Big-Time [Brownstoner]
Some 475 Kent Tenants Allowed Back In
This morning the Times reports that about 100 tenants of 475 Kent Avenue have been allowed to return to their loft spaces, despite the fact that the building still doesn't have a C of O for residential use. Although some of the the property's renters are back, a number are worried about what the future's going to hold for their live-work situations. There are concerns about not only the lack of a residential C of O but also fear that 475 Kent's landlord will raise rents or try to sell the building. Residents are critical of what the city is (or isn't) doing to protect affordable spaces for artists. “The next battles are much more difficult,” says Eve Sussman, a 475 Kent tenant and videographer. “New York State and the city government need to be getting behind creative practitioners so that our foundation isn’t eroded by big developers.”
After Repairs to Building, Artists Return to Their Lofts [NY Times]
475 Kent Vacate Order Lifted [Brownstoner]
Photo by aldella.
May 2, 2008
Bird Blog: Week 1
We've documented home renovations and ground-up developments on Brownstoner so far, but never a store. That changes today with the first installment of the Bird Blog. Jennifer Mankins, owner of Park Slope- and Cobble Hill-based stores Bird, is just embarking on her most ambitious retail effort yet, a 2,500-square-foot space on Grand Street in Williamsburg. (She'll have lots of help from her project manager/sister Stephanie and architect Ole Sondresen.) The space is three times bigger than her two existing stores and, although it has some great bones, is going to need a lot of work. With that, we'll hand it over to Jen for the first installment of what will be a weekly Friday feature on the blog until, well, until opening day.
A self-confessed fashion and real estate junkie, I am always plotting and planning new branches and outposts of the store – baby bird, green bird, bird dog, birdhouse, birdbath. My current stores, both located in typical 20’x40’ townhouses, are approximately 800 square feet, and I carry over 100 women’s designers. You can do the math. There just isn’t any extra space for adding new products. So I started thinking bigger. Instead of opening five separate small stores, why not put everything under one roof – a one-stop shop for the urban Brooklyn family?
My planning showed I would need at least 2000 square feet, and I knew I would probably have the best chance of finding a space that size in an area with an industrial history like Dumbo, Williamsburg, or even Manhattan. I’d already spent a good deal of time trying to make something work in Dumbo, and gone round and round with every major developer there including Walentas, Guttman and Boymelgreen. Nothing ever worked out. So I followed a few leads in Manhattan, including a dream space on Orchard and Broome, a generic storefront on Grand and Mercer, even an old church in Chinatown. Earnest Sewn beat me to the punch for Broome Street, and the jaw-dropping prices of everything else I saw in Manhattan left me feeling a bit woozy. Try keeping a straight face when a broker tells you the asking rent is $360,000 per year!
This left Williamsburg. I saw a promising listing on Craig’s List for a 2,500-square-foot space on Grand Street, but in a typical bit of real estate cat-and-mouse, the broker wouldn’t disclose an exact location. We booked a meeting for the next afternoon and I found myself looking at a former spa with a striking iron façade. I loved the exterior, and wouldn’t need to install a new storefront, a big plus. The interior was another story. It was full of peach painted drywall, awful etched glass, fluorescent lighting and two, that’s right, two Styrofoam dropped ceilings. I didn’t even want to think about how much the demo would cost. On the other hand there were extremely high ceilings, beautiful clearstory windows, a 1,250-square-foot extension with three functioning industrial skylights, and a second, beautiful storefront on North 1st Street. Not to mention a perfect, never-been-used cedar sauna! It wasn’t hard to see the potential. Even the basement, flooded with natural light from glass sidewalk panels, with its decrepit doors, vaulted brick ceilings and exposed stone support walls was just dreamy. I couldn’t believe it. All this and seemingly very cool landlords? There must be a catch. I just kept reminding myself of one of my father’s favorite sayings, “It’s not the good deals you miss that hurt you, it’s the good deals you get.”
More photos on the jump...