Brownstoner is Brooklyn's most read
website about real estate, renovation
and neighborhood news. Read More»
Juliana’s: Still Coming to Dumbo, but When?
Patsy Grimaldi, who originally operated Grimaldi’s out of 19 Old Fulton, sold the pizzeria and its name to Frank Ciolli back in 1998, which moved its operations further down the block several months ago; in the meantime, Grimaldi said he was returning to his roots at 19 Old Fulton and would open a pizzeria there called Juliana’s. Reportedly, Grimaldi intended to open in March. However, the pizza legend’s return to his old haunt is still very much under construction, as can be seen via the photo on the jump.
Juliana’s Marks its Turf in Dumbo [Brownstoner] GMAP (more…)
05/23/2012 10:30 AM
Comment
Condo of the Day: 1 Main Street, #4A
This 2,200-square-foot loft at One Main Street in Dumbo has been on the market for a little over a month now with a the overly specific asking price of $2,497,500. It’s got a lot going for it–size, views, finishes, etc.–and is priced more than $800,000 cheaper than the same apartment on the 9th floor. We think that some more modern furnishings would help the sales cause a lot here. The current set-up is lacking in any sex appeal.
1 Main Street, #4A [Halstead] GMAP P*Shark
05/22/2012 12:57 PM
Comment
Rental of the Day: 39 Pearl Street
Here’s a big, lofty Dumbo rental at 39 Pearl Street with a big, lofty price tag of $7,500/month. There are four bedrooms plus an office space. While the few pictures posted make the apartment seem pretty minimalist, the exposed beams and high ceilings have ample room for potential. What do you make of it?
39 Pearl Street [FRBO] GMAP P*Shark
05/22/2012 12:30 PM
Comment
Tobacco Warehouse to St. Ann’s in Bridge Park Deal
An agreement reached [yesterday] will provide for the expansion of Brooklyn Bridge Park and for the preservation of historic structures at the Park, substituting new parkland for any lost if regulatory approvals are secured to re-use the structures for other cultural or commercial purposes. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, Brooklyn Heights Association, Fulton Ferry Landing Association, New York Landmarks Conservancy, Preservation League of New York State, and St. Ann’s Warehouse, a non-profit Brooklyn-based performing arts organization, have settled a disagreement over the process for developing part of the park, which houses two historically significant structures. The Agreement – which resulted from litigation brought by the Brooklyn Heights Association, the Fulton Ferry Landing Association, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and the Preservation League of New York State — will require state legislation and National Park Service approval to effectuate any development and re-use of the structures. Subsequent to this agreement, State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan Millman secured an additional community planning process and expanded community participation. The agreement will allow for the preservation and adaptive re-use of the historic Empire Stores as a mixed-use retail and commercial development that will provide vital revenue to help fund Brooklyn Bridge Park’s operation and maintenance costs. These improvements will restore the Empire Stores, which is currently in deteriorated condition and closed to the public. The agreement also sets the stage for the preservation of the Tobacco Warehouse and starts a process to secure regulatory approval for re-use of that structure as a cultural and community-use venue. Redevelopment of the Tobacco Warehouse would create a theater space, an outdoor public garden, and a community room for use by schools, community organizations and the public. St. Ann’s Warehouse has been conditionally designated as the lessee of the Tobacco Warehouse.
The Daily News has a translation of the news in English that is comprehensible: “Under the settlement, the St. Ann’s plan, which includes a theater space and an outdoor garden, will be able to go forward – eventually. First, city officials will have to get state legislation and approval from the National Parks Service for the development, expected to take about a year. The city will move the paint shed and water meter testing facility currently located under the bridge and turn it into part of the park, a Bloomberg spokeswoman said.” Here’s hoping this all works out.
Brooklyn Bridge Park to Expand Under Deal to Settle Tobacco Warehouse Lawsuit [NY Daily News]
05/22/2012 9:30 AM
Comment
192 Water St. Developers Will Take on 185 Plymouth St.
Looks like the developers of Dumbo condo build 192 Water Street are behind the planned renovation of 185 Plymouth Street, a major conversion job heading to the LPC next Tuesday. (192 Water Street update: it’s fully closed and occupied, less than a year after the sales launch.) AJ Pires from Alloy Development says 185 Plymouth in the very early stages, but the project will be very similar to 192 Water Street. In his words: “At 185 there will be 9 or 10 large, family units and we’ll do a similar treatment of the existing warehouse building. Some differences at 185 are that most units will have outdoor space, and there’s an interior courtyard that all units will have views to. 185 also has 13-14 foot ceiling heights which are a couple of feet taller than 192 Water. Half of the units also have water views.” Earlier this week the CB2 Landuse Committee approved facade changes, including a rooftop addition for two penthouse units. Here are a few more cool facts from the architect: since there’s no real sidewalk on Plymouth (it’s mostly cobblestone), they plan to continue the cobblestone into the lobby to create the feeling of a continuing street. And the building, previously a brillo pad factory, had a bridge opening across to 205 Water Street, also part of the factory. The indentation for the old bridge remains (at right), so the architects plan to install a projecting bay window there made of a sheer plate of glass.
Dumbo’s 185 Plymouth Heading to the LPC [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
05/18/2012 9:30 AM
Comment
Details on Two Trees’ Reno of 30 Washington
Today the Times has an article focusing on Two Trees’ current project in Dumbo, the conversion of 30 Washington Street into about 100 rentals. The article has details about the various other projects that have opened in Dumbo and Vinegar Hill recently, but back to 30 Washington:
[David] Walentas said Dumbo had come a long way since his earliest visits, more than 30 years ago, when he first saw the 30 Washington Street building, owned at the time by Helmsley-Spear. “That was a vacant building and had a for-sale sign on it,” he recalled. “I said to the broker: ‘Well, somebody should buy the whole neighborhood. One building, it’s tough to make a difference.’ He said, ‘We own the whole neighborhood — we’ll sell it to you.’ ” They did, in a deal worth $12 million for two million square feet. Since then, Mr. Walentas said, “It’s been quite a trip.”
The story also notes that Two Trees plans to begin work on its 400-unit-plus-school Dock Street project in July.
Condo or Rental, It’s New in Dumbo [NY Times]
30 Washington Street Conversion Begins [Dumbo NYC]
LPC Approves Rooftop Addition at 30 Washington [Brownstoner] GMAP
05/11/2012 9:00 AM
Comment
Dumbo’s 185 Plymouth Heading to the LPC
Later this month, the owners of 185 Plymouth Street will propose a slew of building upgrades to the Landmarks Preservation Commission later in anticipation of a residential conversion. The most recent DOB permits lead us to believe it will remain a mixed-use building. According to the LPC Agenda [PDF] for May 22nd, 185 Plymouth/60 John Street, a stable and storage building built circa 1900, submitted an “application to construct additions, modify window and ground floor openings, alter sidewalk, install storefront infill, a canopy, and signage.” So it sounds like some ground-floor commercial space may be in the works, as well. This is only a few doors away from the residential conversion happening at 195 Plymouth. GMAP DOB
05/04/2012 9:00 AM
Comment
Building of the Day: 81-89 Washington Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Thompson Water Meter Building
Address: 81-89 Washington Street
Cross Streets: Corner of York Street
Neighborhood: DUMBO
Year Built: 1889
Architectural Style: American Round Arch Factory
Architect: Mercein Thomas
Other Buildings by Architect: Methodist Home for the Aged, now Hebron School, Crown Heights North, houses on Clinton Avenue and elsewhere in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene.
Landmarked: Yes, part of DUMBO HD (2007)
The story: A sign can mean everything, when it comes to identifying and remembering buildings, even if that sign is not exactly accurate. Case in point: the Thompson Water Meter Building, in DUMBO. As mentioned last week, in a BOTD on Thompson’s landmarked factory several blocks from this location, at 100 Bridge Street, John Thompson, a Scottish-born inventor, had made it big with his invention of an effective water meter, which as any homeowner today knows, measures the amount of water going into a building from the city’s water supply. Thompson’s meters were used in commercial buildings all over the country, and especially here in the greater New York City area, where his was one of the four approved designs for commercial meters which were mandated to be installed in every commercial space in the city, beginning in 1899. (more…)
05/01/2012 3:30 PM
Comment
Fire at Con Ed Plant in Dumbo Yesterday
McBrooklyn noted that at around 5:20 yesterday “an explosion rocked the Con Edison plant (at the John Street substation) in the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO and thick black clouds of smoke filled the sky.” Also of note: “In September 2011, a transformer fire erupted at the substation but was quickly extinguished. Con Ed has plans to tear down the plant. Brooklyn Bridge Park leadership has discussed expanding into part or all of the site.”
Explosion, Fire at Con-Ed Plant in DUMBO, Brooklyn [McBrooklyn]
04/30/2012 10:15 AM
Comment
Bridge Street Townhouses Now on the Market
Halstead recently released a listing for “the townhouse collection” of the Kirkman Lofts. Townhouse A is the first of three interior townhome units, each four stories tall with a private internal elevator. The interior pictures give no sense of size, but it’s three bedroom/two and a half bath, with no square footage listing. The townhouses also share all condo amenities. This one’s priced at $2.6 million. The rest of the building is over 80 percent sold since it hit the market last August, how well do you think these townhouse units will do?
39 Bridge Street Listing [StreetEasy]
Four Penthouse Units Now For Sale at the Kirkman Lofts [Brownstoner]
55% of Dumbo’s Kirkman Lofts in Contract [Brownstoner]
Checking in on Dumbo’s Kirkman Lofts [Brownstoner]
Dumbo’s 37 Bridge Hits the Market [Brownstoner] GMAP
04/27/2012 11:30 AM
Comment
Building of the Day: 100-110 Bridge Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: former Thompson Water Meter Building, former Eskimo Pie Corporation Building
Address: 100-110 Bridge Street
Cross Streets: York and Prospect Streets
Neighborhood: DUMBO/Vinegar Hill border
Year Built: 1908-1909
Architectural Style: Industrial Beaux-Arts
Architect: Louis E. Jallade
Other Buildings by Architect: before going out on his own, worked with others on the Ansonia Hotel, Union Theological Seminary, NYC. Later made national building consultant for YMCA’s across US, and was consulting engineer for Riker’s Island.
Landmarked: Yes, individual landmark (2004)
The story: This factory building would stand out anywhere, but in this part of DUMBO, studded with brick industrial buildings, new construction condos, a huge empty lot, and the brick towers of the housing projects across the street, it’s practically got spotlights on it. At first glance, it’s a terra-cotta ornamented fantasy, but look closer…it’s much more, a building with a delicious history, as well.
In 1887, Scottish-born inventor John Thompson patented his Thompson water meter, a device that accurately measured the amount of water coming into a building from public pipes. It was hailed at the 1893 Columbia Exhibition as one of the most useful inventions of the age. Thompson, who immigrated to the Rochester area with his family as a child, was a brilliant inventor who would hold over 350 patents during his lifetime. In 1899, after the consolidation of NYC, the city ordered water meters to be installed in every public building in the city, from stables to banks to factories to theaters. Thompson’s water meters were one of the four approved designs, and demand for his product grew faster than his factory at 79-83 Washington Street, a few blocks away, could handle. He needed more space. (more…)
04/25/2012 3:30 PM
Comment
Rental of the Day: 25 Jay Street
Here’s a somewhat raw-looking loft space in one of Dumbo’s less-hyped residential buildings, 25 Jay Street. There’s a separate bedroom in this unit and a teeny-tiny area for a sleeping loft. The kitchen finishes are pretty bland, but the apartment gets points for the exposed ceiling and dark wood floors. As for the monthly damage: $3,950.
25 Jay Street [Platinum Properties] GMAP P*Shark
04/25/2012 12:32 PM
Comment
A Rendering for the New St. Ann’s Warehouse
Here are the plans St. Ann’s Warehouse is proposing to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for its new location at 29 Jay Street. The changes to the building are minor (the theater company is only signing a three-year lease) and include signage, lighting changes, and a door installed in the existing garage door. St. Ann’s hopes to open up the 19,000-square-foot space for performances this November.
St. Ann’s Warehouse is Heading to the LPC [Brownstoner]
St. Ann’s Finds a New House in Dumbo [Brownstoner] GMAP
Image by Flyleaf Creative, Inc
04/25/2012 9:30 AM
Comment
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
Comment
109 Gold Street Tries Again, With Rentals This Time
That was quick! Rental units are now on the market for 109 Gold Street, the Vinegar Hill condo that sold for $14.5 million dollars last month. Five units have hit the market, including a studio for $2,025/month; one bedrooms for $2,625 to $2,700/month; and a two bedroom for $3,900. There are 33 apartments in total. According to a press release about the launch, amenities include “entry garden, lobby with WiFi, furnished roof deck, fully equipped fitness center, and package and delivery storage.” Think this will fare any better than when it was on the market as a condo? Those were initially priced from $345,000 to $720,000.
Troubled Vinegar Hill Condo 109 Gold Sells for $14.5M [Brownstoner]
109 Gold Developers Throw in the Towel [Brownstoner]
109 Gold: Ready for Move-ins, but are Buyers Biting? [Brownstoner] GMAP
109 Gold Officially on the Market [Brownstoner]
109 Gold Listings Trickle In [Brownstoner]
109 Gold Fully Glassed [Brownstoner]
109 Gold Gets Windows [Brownstoner]
Glacial Pace at 109 Gold [Brownstoner]
04/19/2012 10:00 AM
Comment
Conversion Construction Begins at 30 Water Street
Dumbo NYC reported yesterday that construction’s started up at 30 Water Street, a residential conversion a few years in the making. The DOB already approved plans for the conversion and the LPC signed off on a two-story rooftop addition (although DOB permits only ask for one additional story). Previous reports say Two Trees Management is planning a 100-unit rental building, most likely with hopes to piggyback off the success of nearby rental 25 Water Street/Gair 2.
30 Washington Street Conversion Begins [Dumbo NYC]
LPC Approves Rooftop Addition at 30 Washington [Brownstoner]
04/18/2012 9:30 AM
Comment
From Rentals to Condos at 133 Water Street
As Dumbo NYC pointed out yesterday, rental building 133 Water Street started putting condo units on the market. Over on StreetEasy there are four available one- and two-bedroom apartments priced from $700k to $939k. Rentals were anywhere between $2.600 and $4,800/month. You can see some interior pics on the Brown Harris Stevens listing.
133 Water Street Building Converting from Rentals to Condo [Dumbo NYC]
Owners of 133 Water Street Go Belly Up [Brownstoner]
133 Water Half-Rented, Partially Inhabited [Brownstoner]
Dumbo’s 133 Water Goes Rental [Brownstoner] GMAP
04/17/2012 2:40 PM
Comment
Project for Public Spaces Levels Criticisms of Brooklyn Bridge Park Design
Brooklyn Bridge Park must surely carry the mantle as the most controversial park in history. After decades of wrangling among neighborhood groups, urban planners and politicians, the first portions of the waterfront greenspace opened in 2010 to great fanfare and almost universal praise, even as financing question marks and controversy around real estate development in the park continued to swirl. As work continues on the remaining portions of the park, including the footbridge from Brooklyn Heights, park officials have to contend with yet another round of negative nabobism. According to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, the park’s design–and by extension its designer, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.–is being attacked by a group of planners as being too disconnected from the needs of most park-goers. In a scathing quotation, Project for Public Spaces head Fred Kent says, the park is “one of the deadest waterfronts ever designed,” displaying a “massive disconnect between what people want to look at and do in a place and what designers impose on them.” Matthew Urbanski, the architect of the park, counters: “We’ve created a calm foreground that allows you to appreciate the sublime beauty of the industrial urban setting.” As the Journal points out, Kent’s criticism seems to ignore the acres of programmed space–soccer fields, volleyball courts, basketball courts and marina–that are slated for the remaining piers. Based upon the throngs of people who visit the existing portions of the park on a daily basis, it doesn’t seem like the public shares Kent’s misgivings. “Brooklyn Bridge Park succeeds magnificently at being a space people want to make their own,” says The Journal. “Pier 1, the portion closest to the foot of the bridge that was one of the first completed sections, is an assemblage of placid meadows and grassy, sloping grades that make the perfect setting for picnicking and taking in the view.”
Conflict in Park Plans [Wall Street Journal]
Article behind subscriber paywall–Google the title to get around it
04/16/2012 11:00 AM
Comment
Condo of the Day: 85 Adams Street, #3D
At this point, $850,000 for an apartment in Dumbo qualifies as relatively inexpensive. In that context, this two-bedroom, two-bathroom pad at 85 Adams Street strikes us as a decent bang for the buck. The ceilings are high, there are lots of windows and the square footage count–at 1,165–is generous. In fact the only negatives we can come up with are the lack of views and proximity to the Manhattan Bridge, over which subways rumble round the clock. On balance, though, intriguing.
85 Adams Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
04/11/2012 12:58 PM
Comment
St. Ann’s Warehouse is Heading to the LPC
Later this month Dumbo’s St. Ann’s Warehouse heads to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for permission to renovate its new home at 29 Jay Street. The application is to “alter the facade, and install signage and lighting.” According to a Wall Street Journal article on the matter, the theater company hopes to open at 29 Jay this November. The organization’s space is 19,000 square feet, which is 5,000 square feet larger than the current location. St. Ann’s is leaving its current home after the landlord took back the space and a court ruling prevented the theater from relocating to the Tobacco Warehouse.
St. Ann’s Finds a New House in Dumbo [Brownstoner] GMAP
04/09/2012 10:30 AM
Comment
adam_dahill
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM