Landlords Give Sandy-Damaged Tenants a Break


red-hookLandlords in Coney Island, Red Hook and Dumbo are helping out their Sandy-ravaged commercial tenants with rent and other aid, DNAinfo reported. Thor Equities has lowered rents by as much as 40 percent on Surf Avenue in Coney Island, benefitting Brooklyn Rock and Wampum, among others. Red Hook landlord Gregory O’Connell, whose own business moved back into its Red Hook HQ only last week, has offered low-interest loans and rent abatements to tenants. Two Trees Management in Dumbo has also been letting tenants pay rent later and talking to insurance companies on their behalf, as well as helping out with property repairs.
Brooklyn Waterfront’s Landlords Forgo Rent to Keep Sandy-Ravaged Tenants [TRD]
Photo by Lock

Categories: Brooklyn, Commercial Real Estate, Coney Island Area, DUMBO, Environmental, Flooding, Red Hook
By Cate | 05/17/2013 9:45 AM | Comment

Council Members Express More Lightstone Concerns



Council members local pols Brad Lander, Nydia Velazquez and Velmanette Montgomery wrote a letter to City Hall in light of the most recent Gowanus flooding, asking for the city to consider the adverse hydrologic impacts on properties resulting from regrading large development sites within flood hazards areas. Of course, they specifically mention the proposed 700-unit, 12-story development for the Lightstone site, where the developers plan to regrade the site by raising it by two feet at 1st Street. The developers are regrading because of new building standards set after Hurricane Sandy. But, because the Gowanus Canal is a long, narrow tidal waterway lined by buildings, the neighbors are worried that regrading will actually cause floodwaters to be pushed out to more properties, as well as impede drainage from properties further inland. The letter asks if there will be any investigation into the effects of regrading around the Gowanus Canal to come up with a development approach specific to that waterway. As Pardon Me for Asking, which printed the letter in full, said, “it is encouraging that our Electeds recognize the hydrological impact to surrounding areas if developers like Lightstone are allow[ed] to regrade the Gowanus area. We need a new hydrological study before any new development moves forward.”
Politicians Ask City to Evaluate Hydrologic Impact of Large Elevated Sites [PMFA]
Photo via Storify

Categories: Development, Flooding, Gowanus
By Emily | 05/10/2013 9:30 AM | Comment

Serious Flooding in Gowanus Today



All the rain today brought flooding into Gowanus and parts of the Slope. Weather.com posted photos of severe flooding at Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street (pictured above) and 9th Street between 2nd and Smith. South Slope News nabbed photos of crazy flooding on 4th Avenue between President and Garfield and minor flooding along 7th Avenue. What’s the situation over in Gowanus now, since the rain’s calmed down a bit?
Twitter photo via Weather.com

Categories: Environmental, Flooding, Gowanus, Park Slope
By Emily | 05/08/2013 2:40 PM | Comment

Burst Pipe at Lefferts Hotel Floods Three Homes



A pipe burst on the second floor at the problem-plagued Lefferts Hotel in Clinton Hill causing major flooding yesterday evening according to a fire department spokesman. A tipster tells us that water also damaged a number of adjacent brownstones. Firemen were unable to shut off the vacant building’s water valve because the basement had flooded with seven feet of water and, says the tipster: “water was pouring out of windows and down the side of the building like a waterfall.” The Department of Environmental Protection had to be called to shut off the water main from the street. However, that took hours and in the meantime water spread to adjoining homes. Our tipster reports that neighboring 123 Lefferts had over four feet of water in the basement. The Lefferts Hotel has been a problem on this block for years as we wrote back in 2010 after the vacate order was issued: “Back in 2006, after an undercover operation exposed extensive drug and prostitution activities going on behind those shaded windows, the hotel somehow managed to maintain enough leverage to negotiate a deal that enabled them to stay open as long as they switched from being a short-stay hotel to a long-term residential one and installed some surveillance cameras.” Does anyone have any more information on this most recent calamity?

Lefferts Hotel Lockdown [Brownstoner] GMAP
Update on the Lefferts Hotel? [Brownstoner]
More on Hotel Deal, Shooting on Downing [Brownstoner]
Lefferts Hotel Cuts Deal with Tish James [Brownstoner]

Categories: Clinton Hill, Flooding
By Jim | 01/30/2013 12:00 PM | Comment