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Ethan Hawke Buys Town House in Boerum Hill
The list of celebrities in Brooklyn is getting rather long. Last week, actor Ethan Hawke sold his Chelsea town house and bought one in Boerum Hill at 247 Dean Street in Boerum Hill, The Real Estalker and Curbed reported. The house is mid-19th century, with a mix of Italianate and Greek Revival details, according to the listing. It was last listed for $3,900,000. Click through to the jump to see the very nice exterior.
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04/08/2013 9:00 AM
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Biggie’s Childhood Home Available for $725K
Big news: The Clinton Hill crib where The Notorious B.I.G. spent his childhood years can be yours for $725,000. Meanwhile, the blogs are debating whether or not this area was once considered Bed Stuy, which he calls home in some of his lyrics. From our own Montrose Morris: “Long story long, the case could be made that when he was a child, in the ’60s, his street was considered to be part of Bed Stuy. However, by the time he started his career as a criminal, it was definitely called Clinton Hill. And by the time he started rapping, there was no doubt it was Clinton Hill, and he was trading on the tough Bed Stuy reputation to make himself look badder and ballsier than his neighborhood actually was.”
Late Rapper Notorious B.I.G.’s Childhood Home Lists for $725K [Curbed]
Where Brooklyn At? Notorious B.I.G.’s Old Apartment On Sale [Gothamist]
Biggie Smalls’ Childhood Apartment in Brooklyn on the Market [NY Daily News]
226 St. James Place 3L Listing [Warren Lewis]
Photo by Warren Lewis
04/03/2013 9:00 AM
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Celebrity Caterer Serena Bass Buys in Bed Stuy
From the annals of the improbable: Caterer to New York City socials Serena Bass has bought a townhouse in Bed Stuy, according to a story last week in The New York Post. (Bass used to own Serena’s in the basement of the Chelsea hotel; her ex husband David Shaffer is also ex husband to Vogue chief Anna Wintour.) The only listing we could find for the property is for a three-bedroom rental, which was asking $3,200 but recently dropped to $3,000. Bass’ son reportedly paid $860,000 for the property at 229 Macon Street, above. Bass plans to hold catering and cooking classes in the townhouse, according to the Post. Ah-mazing.
Photo by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark
03/21/2013 9:30 AM
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“Girls” Tourists Descend on Greenpoint
Uh-oh. Seems like “Girls” is doing for Greenpoint what “Sex and the City” did for the West Village. Tourists from as far away as Australia are flocking to Cafe Grumpy, above, to see where Lena Dunham’s character works as a barista, according to a story in Crain’s. Here’s hoping the show doesn’t feature Peter Pan anytime soon; it’s already hard enough to snag a donut there before they sell out. Can you imagine a Marc Jacobs store across the way on Manhattan Avenue?
Greenpoint Goes Really “Girls” Crazy [Crain's]
Photo via Dead Programmer’s Cafe
03/19/2013 12:00 PM
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Avenue Q Creator Moves to Park Slope
The townhouse at 33 Montgomery Place in Park Slope owned by Rory Kennedy (daughter of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy) and Mark Bailey was an Open House Pick back in May. And now it has another, even better-known owner. Robert Lopez, co-creator of The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q, and his wife Kristen Anderson Lopez, an actress, writer and music producer, bought the home earlier this month. After Kennedy bounced the asking price between $3.5 million and $3.7 million, it finally sold for $3.45 million, a bit below asking. Think the 10-room townhouse has enough room for all of those awards?
Park Slope Celeb Roll Call: You Win Some, You Lose Some [Fucked in Park Slope]
A Kennedy Sells Park Slope Townhouse [Brownstoner]
01/24/2013 9:00 AM
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A Kennedy Sells Park Slope Townhouse
The Observer reports that couple Rory Kennedy (daughter of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy) and Mark Bailey sold their Beaux Arts townhouse at 33 Montgomery Place for $3.45 million. They bought the home in 2004 for $1.5 million. Here’s the story of the house’s history on the market: “Ms. Kennedy listed the house for $3.65 million with Corcoran broker Minette Stokes in May, but seemed unsure if the price was right, raising it up to $3.75 million, then dropping it to $3.5 million in the same month, before taking it briefly off the market in the summer. She re-listed in September for $3.6 million.” The home went into contract in November. This made our Biggest Sales List earlier this week. You can check out the old listing of the property, which the Observer calls “bland and elegant,” here.
Does Townhouse Sale Mean Park Slope Is Losing Its Kennedy? [NY Observer]
01/17/2013 10:15 AM
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Celebrities’ Red Hook Homes Hurt by Floods Too
We’ve been wondering how all these newly arrived-to-Red Hook celebrities feel about living in one of the worst-hit flood zones. Well, we still don’t know the answer to that — though maybe it’s not so different from living in Malibu — but The Daily Mail has intuited that Michelle Williams’ and Jason Segal’s home in Red Hook was “devastated” by Sandy, based on reports about the fate of the Fairway supermarket on the first floor of their building. ”The supermarket was all but destroyed, with the building and the surrounding roads flooded as they were directly in the path of the storm which rampaged over the eight-foot breakwater,” according to The Daily Mail. Fairway may be destroyed, but nonetheless, they’ll probably reopen soon.
Exclusive: Williams and Segal’s Waterfront Lovenest Devastated [Daily Mail]
11/02/2012 9:45 AM
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Celebrities Move to Red Hook
The Daily Mail reports that actress Michelle Williams has left Boerum Hill for Red Hook. Reportedly she moved into a loft apartment at the Fairway Building with her daughter and boyfriend, actor Jason Segel. She hasn’t yet sold her Boerum Hill townhouse, which she purchased with Heath Ledger in 2007 for $3.6 million. But as Curbed is wondering: “Do these celebs really live above a grocery store?” Can any Red Hook residents report recent star sightings?
Michelle Williams and Jason Segel Move in Together [Daily Mail] via Curbed
10/25/2012 9:30 AM
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Actors Help Build Habitat Houses in Bed Stuy
Yesterday theater directors, actors, producers and writers went to Bed Stuy to help out Habitat for Humanity in building affordable houses. NY1 reported that the event, called Broadway Builds, was the first time the Broadway community teamed up with Habitat. The group of actors (which included Laura Linney) worked on renovating 386 Jefferson Avenue into a four-story, eight-unit condo building. Habitat for Humanity aims to fix 100 homes in Brooklyn by 2014, 79 of which are in the Bed Stuy area. “Most of us have done Summer Stock in the past and have built sets and have painted sets and so it feels a little bit like that,” Linney said. The home Broadway Builds worked on will likely be completed in November with new families moving in sometime in early 2013. Broadway Builds plans to return next year to work with the organization again. Click through to the link to see the video story.
Broadway Group Builds on Habitat Mission in Brooklyn [NY1]
09/26/2012 10:00 AM
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We Hear SJP Is Moving to Brooklyn Heights
You know how Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have put their Greenwich Village townhouse on the market? Well, even before that happened, we heard a rumor they have bought a new-build townhouse in Brooklyn Heights for more than $4 million. We know the address, and the building was recently taken off the market, but we don’t want to say more. And no, this is not the pair of brownstones on State Street they were rumored to have been considering earlier. We heard that deal fell through.
Photo by tsayguy
09/18/2012 11:27 AM
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FIPS: Patrick Stewart in Park Slope Tumblr Arrives
“With the news that Jean Luc Picard, er, uh, PATRICK STEWART IS BUYING INTO OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, it was just a matter of time before this happened,” said FIPS. Click through to Park Slope Patrick Stewart to see how he purportedly feels about the food coop and babies in bars.
08/22/2012 9:45 AM
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David Byrne Debuts Bike Racks of His Own Design at BAM
The former Talking Heads frontman (and longtime NYC biking advocate) David Byrne unveiled his bicycle rack design yesterday outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As Gothamist noted, he partnered with Dero Bike Racks to create a bike rack “alphabet.” Says Byrne: “I realized that a few very basic shapes—a semi circle, a line, and a V shape—would allow one to make a good percentage of the letters of our alphabet… we figured out how these components could be easily and quickly swapped out to spell different words. For example, the letters could spell out the productions at BAM or any random message for that matter.” The bike racks now spell out “pink crown” and “micro lip.” According to BAM’s press release, “BAM will reach out via social media to its audience and local community to solicit suggestions for additional letters and words to be used for the ever-evolving installation.”
Photo by Dino Perrucci
08/22/2012 9:30 AM
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Audrey Tautou Filming Soon in Park Slope
Park Slope Stoop reports that French director Cédric Klapisch is scouting Park Slope for an apartment to be featured in his next film, starring Audrey Tautou. The film in question is called “Chinese Puzzle” and is, according to PSS, “the third installment of his L’Auberge/Russian Dolls Euro-romantic trilogy.” They are looking for a ground-floor or first-floor apartment available Sept. 10 for approximately six to eight hours. Read the notice from the production company over at Park Slope Stoop.
08/14/2012 9:30 AM
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Patrick Stewart Moves to Park Slope
Actor Patrick Stewart has moved to Park Slope, according to a tipster. We won’t say where exactly the captain of the Starship Enterprise is moving (we wouldn’t want to get phasered for blowing his cover) but let’s just say there’s plenty of bedrooms in case a few mutants stop by for a stay as well as a large outdoor space from which to practice his Shakespearean soliloquies. At over $2 million, the price tag was also very Hollywood.
08/06/2012 9:30 AM
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Martin Amis: Manhattan Looks Good From a Distance But Wouldn’t Want to Live There
With Martin Amis now ensconced in his Cobble Hill townhouse, The Times pays a visit to the literary legend and extracts some thoughts about his decision to live in Brooklyn. “One of the things I like about Brooklyn is you see Manhattan from a distance,” he says. “And it’s magnificent: what a work of man that is. And every time I see it … And then you visit it and come back here.” Plus, he adds, ““[Manhattan]’s too noisy.” Amis, who says he only gets recognized in the neighborhood every couple of weeks, also had this to say about his address: “It’s a good spondee. Strong. Place. You can’t stress one or the other. Two big stresses.”
Literary Brooklyn Gets Its Leading Man [NY Times]
06/25/2012 9:40 AM
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More Celebs Moving to Brooklyn
Brooklynites seem to take their celebs pretty well in stride, which maybe is part of the reason they keep moving here. The Observer had two separate stories yesterday about actors taking up (or preparing to take up) residence in the County of Kings. First up: Penn Badgley (whose character on Gossip Girl lives in Dumbo) recently moved to an undisclosed neighborhood (“It’s where everyone lives in Brooklyn,” he told the Velvet Roper without ever saying where that was.) And in a separate article, we learned that writer/actor Dan Futterman and his wife had scored a house in the South Slope with original detail but in need of work for a very reasonable-sounding $1.17 million. And the beat goes on. UPDATE: Playwright John Patrick Shanley will be the first condo resident at the Finger Building, according an Observer post this afternoon.
Dan Futterman Buys South Slope House For Cheap [Observer]
Penn Badgley Has Moved to Brooklyn [Observer]
06/21/2012 1:45 PM
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Too Legit To Quit: Jay-Z Joins Barclays Arena Board
Already a cheerleader for the new Barclays Arena (as well as an investor in its main franchise, The Nets), Jay-Z can now add “Board Member” to his resume. As first reported by Atlantic Yards Report and followed up on by The Post, the rap star and impressario has accepted an invitation to be one of seven directors of Brooklyn Arena LLC, the ownership and management entity for the glass structure currently nearing completion at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn. His legal name Shawn Carter surfaced in documents recently as part of the venue’s application to the State Liquor Authority. Other board members include Forest City’s Bruce Ratner, David Berliner, and Mary Anne Gilmartin as well as Mikhail Prokhorov reps Christophe Charlier, Irina Pavlova and David Carlock. In addition board member, Jay-Z also gets to call himself designer–he played a hands-on role in styling the group of 11 luxury suites in the arena called “The Vault.”
06/14/2012 9:30 AM
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Girls Creator Lena Dunham Buys in The Heights
The young woman behind HBO’s show Girls has returned to her roots and purchased an apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Dunham, who grew up in the neighborhood and attended Saint Ann’s, recently paid $500,000 for a 800-square-foot one-bedroom on Hicks Street in an unlisted deal. According to Curbed, which also provided this photo, “There are two other 1BRs that recently went into contract in the building, asking $499,000 and $575,000, so Dunham’s deal looks pretty in line with the market.” In related news, WNYC and The Guardian have teamed up to map all the locations that have appeared in the show, including Weather Up, Cafe Grumpy and Washington Commons. (As we recall, the star’s boyfriend on the show lives in Prospect Heights.) You guys been watching?
06/13/2012 9:30 AM
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Beasties Park Naming Effort Moves South
In the aftermath of the death of Beastie Boys member and Brooklyn native Adam Yauch earlier this month, a group of fans began a Facebook campaign to rename Squibb Park at the northern end of Brooklyn Heights after the famous rapper. That effort, which has attracted over 2,000 ‘Likes’ to date, recently took a turn, though, when wife of one of the surviving members of the band contacted the organizers via Facebook earlier this week to try to get everyone on the same page with an alternate plan: “I just wanted to let you know that Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz has already begun working with the Parks Commissioner to fix up and rename State Street Park where Yauch actually played as a kid to Adam Yauch Park. It would be great to get people behind THIS idea as it won’t hurt the Squibb family.” The State Street Park in question is at the southern end of Brooklyn Heights in Willowtown and actually already has a name–Palmetto Playground–though Park officials did confirm to Fox 5 News that they were looking into the request. State Senator Daniel Squadron has already honored Yauch with a resolution on the Senate floor.
Adam Yauch Park Closer to Reality [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
05/25/2012 10:01 AM
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jucope
May 21, 2013 | 09:56 AM