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The View From the Top at BellTel Lofts
About a month ago we noted that the FHA-approved Downtown Brooklyn condo BellTel Lofts is more than 70 percent sold, and now it’s time for the building’s crown jewels to go on display: The penthouse units. There was an official sneak peek of the units today (on the jump, interior shots of a duplex model unit). The listings for the penthouses have yet to go live, but one gets a sense of the pricing via a listing for another upper-level unit on the 23rd-floor: A three-bedroom that’s asking $1,350,000. Click through to see some interior shots of the penthouse that was on show today.
BellTel Lofts Passes 70% Sold Mark [Brownstoner]
BellTel Lofts [Official Site] GMAP (more…)
04/25/2012 11:52 AM
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Details on the Architectural Plans for City Point Phase II
The Architects Newspaper has a story fleshing out the design plans for the second phase of City Point in Downtown Brooklyn, which will consist of two rental towers designed by Cook+Fox with Lee Weintraub Landscape Architecture. The Flatbush Avenue towers will be 19 and 30 stories. Here’s what Cook+Fox partner Rick Cook says about the look that the firm will strive for: “‘We intend to play off a similar fenestration pattern and skin’ of the first phase, Cook said, which could incorporate the same custom-glazed white terra-cotta tiles. Landscaped areas are subtly incorporated into the site and on the rooftops. ‘We’ve created a series of recesses on the street wall where we could incorporate green spaces,” Cook said. A glass market hall leads through the site to the planned Willoughby Park by Michael Van Valkenburgh. A future third phase calls for an even taller building that Cook said will anchor the corner with a strong sense of verticality.” Other reports have said that the towers are expected to be completed in 2015 and 2016. The Architects Newspaper notes that construction of the second phase will displace DeKalb Market, but there are hopes that it might be able to operate on the site of the planned third phase of City Point. On the jump, the larger rendering for the project that we’ve already seen.
Unveiled> City Point Phase Two [ArchPaper]
City Point Phase Two Aims for 650 Apartments [Brownstoner]
Plans Revealed for Downtown Brooklyn City Point Towers [Brownstoner] (more…)
04/25/2012 9:00 AM
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Rental of the Day: 55 Duffield Street
The leafy, surprisingly quiet block of Duffield Street right off the Tillary/Flatbush Avenue Extension intersection is quite lovely, which is why this studio at 55 Duffield caught our eye. As for the unit itself, it looks like a pretty standard studio with some newer renovations in the eat-in kitchen and bathroom. There’s a shared garden, which is a nice perk. The monthly rent is $1,750.
55 Duffield Street [Miron Properties] GMAP P*Shark
04/24/2012 12:30 PM
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Downtown Brooklyn-NYU Deal: Victory Lap Edition
McBrooklyn put up the fine montage you see above of photos and renderings showing the present and future of 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, which NYU will transform into a tech-oriented campus, as covered yesterday. The Eagle fleshes out details on the deal: The school will be known as the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress, or CUSP. And what’s more? According to the Eagle: “This would be a partnership between NYU and several other universities worldwide — City University of New York, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Toronto, University of Warwick and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay – as well as IBM and Cisco. The school would accommodate approximately 530 graduate and doctoral students, as well as 50 full-time faculty and about 30 post-doctoral researchers, Bloomberg said. While the renovated building is not expected to be ready for use until 2017, classes are scheduled to begin next year at Metrotech. IBM and Cisco will each provide $1 million a year, and four other founding corporate partners — Con Edison, National Grid, Seimens and Xerox — will each assist with $500,000 a year in cash and in-kind services. NYU will be responsible for the $60 million that it will take to relocate NYC Transit and police department equipment within the building. A portion of the building will be demolished, and a six-story annex for lab space will be constructed.” Meanwhile, the Post has some more details about the project, noting the city will put $15 million toward the project: “The venture is slated to produce 2,200 immediate construction jobs and 900 permanent jobs at the school. But the city projects it will create a total of 7,700 jobs over the next 30 years, including school positions and those created by a projected 200 spin-off companies expected from the program. In total, it will generate more than $5.5 billion in economic activity and $597 million in tax revenue, Bloomberg said.” Job creation stats and growth forecasts like this are often slightly grandiose. But you know what? Hell yes! Finally, the underused eyesore at 370 Jay will be put to good use and completely change the landscape of Downtown Brooklyn.
New Engineering, Science Campus Coming to 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn [McBrooklyn]
‘Game Changer:’ After Years of Talk, High-Tech Rehab OK’d for 370 Jay St. [Eagle]
CUSP of Greatness: Deal for NYU Engineering School [NY Post]
HOLY COW! NYU Deal for 370 Jay is Happening! [Brownstoner]
Rendering montage via McBrooklyn
04/24/2012 9:00 AM
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Commercial Klutch: Tenants Face Atypical Space Crunch
Our masked and anonymous soldier in the Brooklyn commercial real estate trenches files this month’s report on what he/she is seeing in the field. The latest column is particularly timely given yesterday’s Crain’s article about Dumbo’s continued status as a “tech hotbed.”
Is the unthinkable happening? Are tenants moving to or returning to the small island across the east river, leaving our big island behind, as commercial space in Dumbo becomes nearly impossible to find?
Tenants seeking space from 500 to 1500 RSF are the bulk of the booming demand around here. Most can’t find decent space this spring. The main “supplier,” Two Trees in Dumbo, is supply short and using most ‘smalls’ for their own internal demand. Even Court Street, historically slow moving, saw 32 Court lease three 900 RSF spaces within a few weeks this year.
Reflecting the rapid decline retail and apartment inventory, commercial offices had been plentiful until last year’s steady draw down. While there is usually something out there, and owners building out new footage as fast as they can, at any given moment the game of musical chairs finds tenants competing for limited seating, festival style. Gowanus, Fourth Avenue and even Sunset are bubbling, with few options even in these edge markets.
One wrinkle – generally creatives decline DTB space.They prefer to herd. That may slowly change as other options sell-out and DTB evolves further.
The new 1000 Dean Street should help out in 2013, drawing from new businesses in Prospect Heights, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Park Slope and beyond, as well as relieving some pressure on Dumbo.
Vinegar Hill, a block from the Manhattan Bridge overpass, has the newly restored 231 Front Street, with a dozen tiny spaces and more smalls coming on line this summer.
Office rents in the great Willie-B approach $40 a foot, when they can be found. Not for the faint of ‘cart’ – $$ that is. The top Gowanus multi-story buildings can get $20 a foot if they ask – where Dumbo was at several years ago.
Previous editions of Commercial Klutch can be read here.
04/23/2012 12:00 PM
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HOLY COW! NYU Deal for 370 Jay is Happening!
“New York University has struck a deal with city officials that clears the way for it to create an applied-science research institute in Downtown Brooklyn. In an agreement to be announced Monday afternoon by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a consortium of universities led by N.Y.U. will set up the Center for Urban Science & Progress at 370 Jay Street, a building now leased from the city by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. N.Y.U. has agreed to pay $50 million toward the cost of moving the transit authority’s equipment and employees out of the building, which the school plans to gut and renovate. In exchange, the city has agreed to provide $15 million in benefits, including breaks on taxes and energy costs, to the school. N.Y.U. proposed creating the school in Brooklyn in the competition the city held for establishing a new school of applied sciences. Cornell University’s proposal for a campus on Roosevelt Island was chosen as the winner of that prize, which included $100 million in subsidies from the city.”
More to follow, of course, but the article reports that the building renovation will take a few years and that NYU will start having classes elsewhere in Downtown Brooklyn in the fall.
N.Y.U. to Create Research Institute in Brooklyn [City Room]
04/23/2012 10:22 AM
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Finally, Signs of Life at 388 Bridge Street
After years of nothing doing, the giant pit at 388 Bridge Street in Downtown may soon have something to show for itself. Construction equipment appeared at the site and the construction fence has been extended onto Bridge and Lawrence streets. DOB last approved building permits earlier this month. A restart would make sense considering developers announced construction would begin early this year. So what’s in store? A 53-story condo-rental hybrid with affordable and market-rate units, 234 apartments and 144 condos in all. Construction was initially held up due to a lawsuit concerning a brownfield investigation back in 2009.
Details on Downtown’s Coming Towers [Brownstoner]
Construction Starting Next Year on 2 Downtown High-Rises [Brownstoner]
Stirrings at 384-388 Bridge? [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: Still Frozen at 388 Bridge Street [Brownstoner]
Brownfield Investigation Begins at 388 Bridge Street [Brownstoner]
Contamination Found at 384 Bridge Street, Lawsuit Filed [Brownstoner]
A Wrench in 388 Bridge Street’s Plans? [Brownstoner] GMAP
04/17/2012 11:30 AM
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Soul-Destroying B61 Bus Line Will Get Real-Time Tracking
Overdue. Today pols sent out an press release saying that the B61 will get the “BusTime System.” From the release: “Council Member Brad Lander, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez and Council Member Sara M. González cheered the announcement by the MTA that the B61 will be the second bus in Brooklyn to get BusTime — a system that provides real-time bus arrival and location information. The MTA has committed to installing BusTime on the B61 no later than June 2012. The system uses GPS devices on buses which let transit riders use their cell phones and computers to find out where the next buses to arrive on a route actually are. The MTA first implemented this system in 2011 on the B63 bus which runs along Fifth and Atlantic Avenues in Brooklyn and recently expanded it in Staten Island. The elected officials restated their hopes that the next steps in improving this often delayed line would be more frequent bus service and “countdown clocks” at bus stops similar to those currently in use in some subway stations.” In November Lander’s office released a report saying that only 43 percent of B61 buses come within 1 to 3 minutes of when they’re scheduled to arrive during peak hours, and a whopping 42 percent of northbound buses skip the stop at Columbia and Union streets between 8 and 9 a.m. because they’re too full.
Report: B61 is Often Late and Way Too Crowded [Brownstoner]
Photo by diacritical
04/12/2012 12:00 PM
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Past and Present: Cadman Plaza
A Look at Brooklyn, then and now.
In 1953, the prominent Brooklyn based critic, Louis Mumford, wrote that the Civic Center /Cadman Plaza area was “covered by grimy buildings waiting for vandalism or fire or the wrecker’s crowbar to level them.” He wasn’t being prophetic, as the entire area was in the process of becoming the largest post-World War II civic center urban renewal projects in the country. The idea for a new civic center of some kind had been bandied about since the 1930’s, but it wasn’t until the 1950’s that the plan kicked into full gear.
The area just in front of the steps of Borough Hall was a densely built up series of buildings of varying heights, styles and functions, all dominated by the presence of the El tracks snaking their way down Fulton Street, around Borough Hall, and down to the Brooklyn Bridge. The area was dirty, noisy, and crowded. To urban planners, the whole area was a commercial slum, with no redeeming features. The El came down in the early 1940’s, which just by itself, opened the area up to light, and cut down tremendously on the noise and pollution, but it wasn’t enough. Planners, foremost of which was Robert Moses, wanted much more. (more…)
04/06/2012 10:30 AM
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Building of the Day: 9 DeKalb Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Originally Dime Savings Bank
Address: 9 DeKalb Avenue
Cross Streets: Intersection Albee Place, Fulton St.
Neighborhood: Downtown Brooklyn
Year Built: 1906-08, Enlarged: 1931-32
Architectural Style: Classical
Architect: Original building-Mowbray & Uffinger. Enlarged by Halsey, McCormick & Helmer
Other Buildings by Architect: M&U- Newark City Hall, NJ, People’s Trust Bank, Montague St, 874 Carroll St, 1 Montgomery Place, Park Slope, H M & H- Williamsburg Savings Bank, Hanson Place, Kings County Savings Bank, Eastern Pkway, and others.
Landmarked: Yes, Individual Landmark (1994)
The story: This is one of the great buildings of Brooklyn. A good bank takes care of your hard earned money, a great bank makes it a privilege to go inside the temple and worship it, and that’s exactly what this bank is, a temple to money. More specifically and ironically, a temple to honor the humble dime.
Speaking of money, the location of the bank is important to the story, as well. By the beginning of the 20th century, most of Brooklyn’s important financial institutions were located near City, now Borough Hall. Fulton Street was a bustling shopping and entertainment corridor, not really a financial hub in that sense, but the building of the Manhattan Bridge, which opened in 1905, changed the traffic patterns, as the Flatbush extension brought masses of new traffic and the possibility of a new customer base to the expanded Flatbush Extension. The changing streets formed a unique intersection here, a perfect place for a handsome bank in the Classical style. (more…)
04/05/2012 3:30 PM
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Leasing of Downtown Brooklyn Office Space Ain’t So Hot
Prime office space in Downtown Brooklyn is readily available but having trouble finding takers, the Real Deal reports:
The office market in Downtown Brooklyn was once going strong with a full slate of long-term leases, and a roster of financial firms like Bear Stearns & Company, which were locating back offices there to flee expensive Manhattan rents. But today its high 90 percent occupancy rate masks a staggering 26.8 percent availability rate — from downsizing tenants and expiring leases in its 8 million square feet of modern, Class A office buildings. That’s according to fourth-quarter 2011 figures, the most recent available from commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle. The growth of vacant and available space has been a long time in the making, as financial firms reduced head counts, moved staff overseas, or decamped to New Jersey.
Another scary stat that’s trotted out is that availability in Downtown Brooklyn modern office space is among the highest in the entire country. There are a lot of possible reasons for the high availability rate, according to the article, such as that Jersey is more financially attractive to some firms. But, to us, the real story in this article that’s only mentioned in passing is that Downtown is in the midst of transforming into nearly as much of a residential zone as a commercial one thanks to the 2004 rezoning of the area. While the rezoning was meant to spur commercial and residential development, it sure has brought a lot more new residents than offices or the folks who work in them. On the other hand, as an article in the Observer recently pointed out, there is basically now office vacancy in Dumbo, and the tech-savvy neighborhood is incredibly popular with Brooklyn’s “creative class.” So maybe companies considering office space in Brooklyn aren’t exactly looking for the white-show firms of old, and perhaps future commercial developers should take heed.
Brooklyn’s Class A Woes [The Real Deal]
04/05/2012 9:00 AM
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490 Fulton: Raw and Ready for Retail
While the exterior of 490 Fulton Street has been looking just about complete for a few months now, the building that (presumably) lost out on a big lease when its intended anchor tenant, Filene’s Basement/Sym’s, filed for bankruptcy protection in November, the multi-level interior is still being primed. Obviously the huge space offers a lot of possibilities for big retailers on the Fulton Mall. (On that note, still no word on what’s going into City Point Phase 1, across the street, though the announcement must be coming soon.) An Express is the only tenant at 490 Fulton that remains on the books, as far as we know, and they’re supposed to open sometime in the spring.
490 Fulton Facade Reaches Completion [Brownstoner] GMAP
04/03/2012 11:00 AM
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Renovation Complete at McLoughlin Park
A reader tipped us off that McLoughlin Park, on the corner of Tillary and Jay streets, reopened after a recent renovation. The park now sports shiny new children’s playground equipment, new benches, game tables, drinking fountains and plantings. Looks nice! GMAP
04/02/2012 12:00 PM
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Squadron: Come On, Guys, Let’s Put 370 Jay to New Use
Plans to re-purpose the former MTA headquarters at 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn—which the city owns but the MTA has a long-term lease on and wants a lot of money ($50-60 million, reportedly) to accept a buyout of the lease from the city—were in the news a lot over the winter, but there hasn’t been much word about the negotiations in some time. Despite the fact that NYU was a bridesmaid when it came to the city’s big tech campus plans for Roosevelt Island, the university still seems intent on revamping the structure and using it as a tech-oriented grad school. Yesterday State Senator Daniel Squadron sent out a press release on the matter, perhaps to bring it back into the limelight: “For years, the nearly-abandoned former MTA headquarters at 370 Jay Street has limited Downtown Brooklyn’s extraordinary potential,” said Senator Squadron in the release. “The MTA-EDC announcement of RFPs for seven other underutilized MTA properties throughout the City is a reminder that now is the time to finally make full use of 370 Jay. I’ll continue to push to make NYU-Poly’s Center for Urban Science & Progress a reality – which would put 370 Jay to use, allow Downtown Brooklyn to continue to grow and thrive, and move New York forward on its path of innovation.” Of course the plan does sound like a no-brainer and as though it would have enormous potential to continue Downtown Brooklyn’s revitalization, but the money’s the rub.
Negotiations Continue for NYU Takeover of 370 Jay [Brownstoner] GMAP
Politicians Rally for NYU’s Overhaul of 370 Jay Street [Brownstoner]
NYU’s Plans for 370 Jay Street May Still Happen [Brownstoner]
Details About NYU’s Designs on 370 Jay [Brownstoner]
03/30/2012 9:30 AM
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City Point Phase Two Aims for 650 Apartments
About a week ago there was a trickle of information about plans for the second phase of the massive City Point development in Downtown Brooklyn, and now the Eagle has an article with a great deal more information about the proposed skyscrapers. Here’s the skinny, according to the paper: “Phase II will include two residential buildings — one a 250-unit 19-story structure that will contain the affordable units in a 50-30-20 mix of income levels; the other a 400-unit 30-story structure that will contain market-rate units. All will be rentals, according to [developer rep Tom] Montvel-Cohen. Beneath the two residential buildings will be a four-story base containing approximately 500,000 square feet of retail. And throughout there will be green roofs and open spaces.” The towers will be located on Flatbush Avenue Extension between Willoughby Street and DeKalb Avenue. Montvel-Cohen also says the rendering above is pure fantasy, since the exact height of the taller building hasn’t been settle on and there’s no final design plan yet. The Eagle based its report made on a presentation at Community Board 2, which voted overwhelmingly to recommend it for the Public Design Commission’s OK. Meanwhile, Montvel-Cohen also said that retail tenants for the nearly completed four-story building that’s part of the first phase of City Point will be revealed soon. The report last week about the second phase of the project said the developer hoped to have the two towers completed in 2015 and 2016.
City Point’s Phase II Will Have 2 Residential Buildings Plus 500,000-Sq.-Ft. Retail Base [Eagle]
Plans Revealed for Downtown Brooklyn City Point Towers [Brownstoner]
03/28/2012 9:30 AM
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BellTel Lofts Passes 70% Sold Mark
A press release went out at the end of last month saying that BellTel Lofts, the 250-unit conversion of a handsome 1929-vintage building, is now more than 70 percent sold. Remaining units start at $575,000 and the condos range in size from 600 to 2,700 square feet. According to StreetEasy, the most expensive unit is a 3.5-bed that’s listed for $1,890,000. This building has been on the market for a looong time. We must be nearing five years at this point, and marketers were touting how it was 55 percent sold exactly two years ago. Still and all, they’re getting there—slowly, but surely.
BellTel Lofts [Official Site]
Million Dollar Views at BellTel Sell For Less [Brownstoner] GMAP
Belltel Rebrands Some Upper Floors [Brownstoner]
A Few More Sales Trickle In at BellTel [Brownstoner]
Belltel Joins the FHA Club [Brownstoner]
Targeted Price Cuts at Belltel Lofts [Brownstoner]
Checking In On The BellTel Lofts [Brownstoner]
Belltel Parking On Tap [Brownstoner]
Belltel Lofts: 50% Percent Sold [Brownstoner]
The Belltel Lofts: 40 Percent Sold [Brownstoner]
03/22/2012 11:00 AM
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Plans Revealed for Downtown Brooklyn City Point Towers
The Brooklyn Paper scored a heck of a scoop last night by getting the rendering above and lots of information about the skyscrapers slated to be built as part of the City Point project. The plans and visuals were presented at a Community Board 2 meeting about the next phases of City Point, on Flatbush Avenue Extension between Willoughby Street and DeKalb Avenue. Here’s the 411 from the developer: “The two towers — the taller of which could rise to 65 stories or more — would be completed in 2015 and 2016, according to Paul Travis, of Washington Square Partners, which is part of the team of developers behind the plan.” The story also says that the first phase of City Point is supposed to open in June, but no anchor tenant for the building has been announced. Here’s how the caption to the rendering describes what’s going on: “This rendering shows the gigantic residential tower, center, plus a shorter skyscraper that developers are planning for the site of the demolished Albee Square Mall.” The initial description for City Point, via architect GreenbergFarrow, which has a smaller, possibly outdated rendering of the towers here, is that “this 1.9 million square foot development on a 2.75 acre site features over 500,000 square feet of retail, approximately 280 hotel rooms and 800 residential units along with 250,000 square feet of office space.” It goes without saying that this is only a bit more than half a mile away from the Atlantic Yards site, and one has to wonder how much financing there is to go around for massive office and residential towers in the area.
Tower Power! Flatbush Avenue’s Got Two More on the Way [BK Paper]
Photo of rendering by Moses Jefferson
03/22/2012 9:00 AM
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Dermot’s BAM-Area Tower to Start Rising Very Soon
Man, it seems like they’ve been digging the humongous hole for the Dermot Company’s high-rise residential tower at 29 Flatbush for years—which they have, since the official groundbreaking was in late 2010—but a construction worker at the site on Monday said steel should start rising within the next couple weeks. Here’s the official line from a spokesperson for the developer: “The project is continuing as anticipated with a superstructure that will begin to rise this spring.” The building, which will top 40 stories, will have 327 studio, one- and two-bedroom rentals. It’s being built in the development-heavy BAM Cultural District/Downtown Brooklyn border zone.
Development Watch: Slow Going at 29 Flatbush Ave. [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 29 Flatbush Avenue [Brownstoner]
ETA on 29 Flatbush Tower: Early 2013 [Brownstoner]
Pols Push Dermot on 29 Flatbush [Brownstoner]
More Details on 29 Flatbush [Brownstoner]
Ground Broken at 29 Flatbush Avenue [Brownstoner]
29 Flatbush Finally Coming Together? [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
03/21/2012 10:00 AM
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New Developer Plans Hotel at 125 Flatbush Ave. Extension
The empty lot at 125 Flatbush Avenue Extension sold to a developer who plans to build a hotel, according to the Real Deal. The previous Pepper and Potter used car dealership on the lot was demolished last February. The then-developer told us previous hotel plans for the site fell through. The new owners, Kansas-based hotel developer LodgeWorks, plan to put up a 117-room hotel from a “well-known national brand.” The company manages hotels for Hilton, Hyatt, Starwood, and Wyndham Hotel and Resorts, according to TRD. They purchased the lot for a hefty $7.75 million.
Downtown Brooklyn to get National Chain Hotel [The Real Deal]
Pepper and Potter Goin’ Down; Hotel Plans Sunk? [Brownstoner]
Pepper and Potter Prepped For Demo [Brownstoner] DOB
Stimulus Boost for Downtown Brooklyn Hotel [Brownstoner]
From Cars to Mini-Fridges on Tillary [Brownstoner] GMAP
03/20/2012 2:40 PM
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cara
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM