Development

Hi – Donald Brennan of Brennan Real Estate here. Over the coming months we will be building three townhouses from the ground up at the corner of Strong Place and Kane Street in Cobble Hill. Throughout the course of the project I will periodically share with you insights into our development process. While we haven’t broken ground yet, plan is to do so in late spring/early summer, we have been busy gathering the entitlements from the Landmark Preservation Commission and Department of Buildings and marketing the properties for sale – another hat we wear on the project.
Off-market deal = serendipity + patience. Before I get into where we are with the LPC application here is some of the back-story on the opportunity. I became aware of this off-market deal when I was introduced to the previous owner at a holiday cocktail party in late 2010. While the path to acquiring the land was very circuitous – at a certain point in time someone else was lined up to be the new owner – I hung around the hoop long enough to be in a position to move forward with the purchase once the opportunity came to me a second time. The land I own was once part of a larger parcel that bordered Kane Street and ran from Henry Street to Strong Place. I believe the property has shown up on this blog before. We closed on the purchase at the end of November 2011. Two townhouses fronting on Strong Place and a third building, mid-block on Kane Street, use to occupy the property but were torn down circa 1930. I had the venerable Montrose Morris look into the history of the site and she was unable to figure out why the buildings were demolished – quite the mystery. (more…)