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Rental of the Day: 226 20th Street
Granted, the photos reveal a cluttered space, but the listing for this three bedroom in Greenwood Heights at 226 20th Street promises lots of room. From the listing: “3 bedroom duplex with massive garden. (Two living rooms, one large bedroom, one small bedroom, small bathroom, one very large living area in finished basement “recreation” room with garden access that has been used as a bedroom.)” Put some work into that garden and it could be a really nice space. And the rent? A very reasonable $2,500/month.
226 20th Street [FRBO] GMAP P*Shark
02/13/2012 12:30 PM
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Some Protest Closing of Columbia Street Post Office
Some residents who live near the small post office (technically a “Contract Postal Unit,” or CPU) on Columbia Street between President and Carroll streets are trying to fight to keep it open following an announcement that it would be shut down within a couple of months. The owner of the space, Rita Farone, has a petition for residents to sign urging the USPS not to end its contract for the space, according to Patch, and Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman has sent a letter to the postmaster general saying the location should be kept open. A reader who lives in the area also wrote in to us to say that an online petition is coming soon, and had the following to say about how it serves the community: “Please note for those who aren’t aware that substations do not charge a fee on top of postal charges. The employees are not paid either. The USPS pays the landlord a rental fee for the space. For those who don’t frequent this post office, it should be known that it generates a lot of secondary business for those who normally use the station in Red Hook at 615 Clinton off the BQE. The Red Hook station has a notorious reputation for being understaffed and undermanaged while the Columbia substation is well regarded, friendly and efficient. This closure would affect a great deal of people in this burgeoning and growing neighborhood.”
Community Board 6 District Manager Speaks Out On Behalf of Rita’s [Patch]
Keep the Columbia Street Post Office Open! [The Word on Columbia Street]
02/13/2012 12:00 PM
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Foreclosure Auctions Set for 2 Big North Brooklyn Lots
Two large lots that at various points were set to be developed in Williamsburg and Bushwick will go up for auction on March 1st, according to Property Shark. The first is the 95,275-square-foot lot taking up the entire block of South 8th between Kent and Wythe avenues, 36-54 South 8th Street (pictured). Developer Issac Hager paid $42.5 million for the site in 2008, and building permits were renewed here as recently as last April. The lien for that one is $29,854,019. The second lot is at 1209 Dekalb Avenue, a 44,950-square-foot lot between Bushwick and Evergreen avenues. The DOB approved plans there in 2007 for a five-story, 126-unit build. There’s a comparatively modest lien of $10,716,077 on it. GMAP
02/13/2012 11:30 AM
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Critics Fight Whole Foods as BSA Decision Looms
Crain’s has a story about the opposition to Whole Foods’ plans to build a supermarket at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue that covers the by-now-familiar criticisms from some in the neighborhood that the store would harm area artists and small businesses. An example: “Some residents and small businesses would like to keep the vacant lot, nestled between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, zoned for small- and medium-scale manufacturing—a dwindling asset they want to protect. A recent report by the Gowanus Institute claims the site could be developed to create three times the 300 retail jobs Whole Foods promises.” There’s also a quote from someone who says that if the Board of Standards and Appeals decides to grant Whole Foods a variance to build a store on the property larger than zoning allows—the BSA is supposed to announce its decision before the month is out—it could open “the floodgates” to other “retail and residential developers looking to take bites out of the industrial neighborhood.” OK, but what do you think?
02/13/2012 11:00 AM
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Sales Prices in Dumbo Top Most Other Neighborhoods
Is Dumbo more expensive than the Upper East Side and Chelsea? Yes, in terms of an analysis of median sales prices last year that was highlighted by Wall Street Journal. The stats come via PropertyShark, which pegged the median sales price in Dumbo at $1.05 million, an increase of around 13 percent over 2010 that was “enough to catapult it above median sales prices for the Upper East Side, Battery Park City and Chelsea.” By this reckoning, Tribeca was the most expensive neighborhood in the city, with a median sales price last year of $2.25 million, followed by Soho ($2.09 million) and Flatiron ($1.19 million).
Dumbo Moves Up in Real-Estate Ranks [WSJ]
Photo by Simon Collison
02/13/2012 10:30 AM
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Another Tower, ‘The Hub,’ Slated for Downtown Brooklyn
Today the Journal brings news about how developer Doug Steiner (of Steiner Studios and 80 Met fame) is planning a very large residential development at Schermerhorn and Flatbush in Downtown Brooklyn. The rental, which is being called “The Hub,” is supposed to rise 52 stories and have around 720 units, 20 percent of which will likely be affordable under the 80-20 program. Steiner tells the paper he’s hoping to break ground by early next year and that market-rate rents would be in the $40- to $50-a-foot range, so “a 1,000-square-foot apartment would rent for $3,333 to $4,166 a month.” Steiner bought most of the lots where he’s planning to build the tower for $30 million late last year; the properties that currently exist on the land are mostly nondescript commercial buildings. The rendering of the project at right, courtesy of Dattner Architects, also shows the 50,000 square feet of retail planned at the base. The entire project will cost around $325 million to $350 million.
Brooklyn’s Shifting Center [Wall Street Journal]
02/13/2012 10:00 AM
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Slave Theater Vacated, but Questions of Ownership Linger
The Times ran a story looking into the long, ugly battle over competing claims of ownership to Bed-Stuy’s Slave Theater. Last week the city put a vacate order on the property, locking out two tenants who each claim to have a stake in the property. The article chronicles the back stories of the various players in the theater’s drama, starting with Judge John L. Phillips Jr., who bought the theater in 1984 and “filled the Slave with African-American political art and murals celebrating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey and other figures from black history.” The judge was placed under guardianship in 2001 and died in 2008 without a will. Meanwhile, Rev. Samuel Boykin, of Ohio, is the judge’s nephew and the administrator of his estate. Boykin has been trying to evict two longtime tenants from the building: Clarence Hardy, who used to sell DVDs in a concession area until last week and claims the judge wanted him to take control of the property, and a televangelist named Rev. Paul Lewis who held regular services in the building and says he once had an agreement to buy the theater for Boykin for $1.6 million. As it stands now, the judge’s estate owes millions in taxes, and Boykin is looking to sell the building, though it’s unclear what that means for the future of the property:
Charles Barron, a councilman from Brooklyn, said the theater should not become just “another commercial entity,” especially as the neighborhood reshaped itself around development dollars. In the Slave’s heyday, he said, going to the theater was like being in an African marketplace. “They’d have the most profound lectures from scholars and historians, and people would be selling socially conscious books and art, and food from around the world. You’d see the diversity of our culture — and it provided people with an income.” Mr. Boykin said he hoped to sell the theater to a church or community group.
Tug of War Over a Civil Rights Legacy [NY Times]
Judge Slaps Vacate Order on Historic Slave Theater [NY Daily News]
Photo by bondidwhat
02/13/2012 9:00 AM
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Building of the Day: 129-135 Cambridge Place
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row Houses
Address: 129-135 Cambridge Place
Cross Streets: Gates Avenue and Fulton Street
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1894
Architectural Style: Queen Anne/Arts and Crafts
Architect: William B. Tubby
Other buildings by architect: Pratt Institute Library, Scheiren Mansion and Charles Pratt Mansion, Clinton Ave, row houses on Lafayette, Vanderbilt Avenues and St. James Place, in Clinton Hill.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Clinton Hill HD (1981)
The story: When it comes to some of the eclectic, but narrow, row houses scattered throughout Clinton Hill, I can usually identify the ones designed by William Tubby fairly easily. Tubby’s houses stand out, even the plainer ones, because in their simplicity lies genius. This talented architect, who is on the short list of the best of the architects from this period, was a master of form and composition, and use of materials.
It takes a master to make the simple look elegant. These modest row houses were built in 1894, a time when America was still celebrating the new elegance and opulence of the White Cities world depicted at the World’s Fair in Chicago, in 1893. In Brooklyn, in this same neighborhood, the mansions of people like the Pratt Family, the Arbuckle’s, Schieren’s, Hoagland’s, and the other barons of Clinton Avenue, were practically side by side with the growing numbers of worker’s housing, tenements, and more middle class fare all around the area. These houses were a part of that growth. (more…)
02/10/2012 3:00 PM
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Empty Lot Snapped Up on St. Marks Place
The empty lot at 11 St. Marks Place, right off 3rd Avenue, was purchased recently for $1,450,000, according to public records. The land is zoned for residential but no plans have been filed with DOB yet. Luckily this block was included in the recent Boerum Hill downzoning so don’t expect anything too monstrous going up here! GMAP
02/10/2012 2:40 PM
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Jamaican Cafe Coming to 4th Avenue and 10th Street
A tipster sent over this photograph with the note, “DOB sign at building on 4th and 10th street in Park Slope says ‘coffee’… Right across street from Cafe 474.” The architect on site gave us a few more details on what’s to happen at 453 4th Avenue: “There is a plan for a café. It will have a Jamaican flavor and will be called Slope Café.” Nice! The DOB permits actually indicate that a pretty big reno is coming to ground-floor commercial space. GMAP
02/10/2012 2:00 PM
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Open House Picks
Fort Greene
294 Cumberland Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday, 1:00-2:30
$2,600,000
GMAP P*Shark
Carroll Gardens
162 Union Street
Brooklyn Bridge Realty
Sunday, 12:00-2:00
$2,495,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
572 Pacific Street
Halstead
Sunday, 12:30-1:30
$2,150,000
GMAP P*Shark
South Slope
144 16th Street
Corcoran
Sunday, 2:00-3:30
$1,450,000
GMAP P*Shark
02/10/2012 1:06 PM
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Brooklyn’s Last Humpback Street Sign
We missed this when it went up last week but it’s too good not to post. Forgotten NY, that tenacious chronicle of old time Gotham, ran this photo of the “the last of Brooklyn’s ‘humpback’ street signs.” You can see that the smaller street that Willoughby intersected with once upon a time was Hudson Avenue. A commenter points out that this section of Hudson was removed to make way for Long Island University campus, though a one-block stretch of the street still exists between Dekalb and Fulton.
02/10/2012 12:00 PM
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Putnam Court, Rendered
Here’s a rendering of the new affordable housing project on Putnam Avenue and Irving Place, courtesy of Dunn Development and SLCE Architects. Site prep began last week. After approximately 18 months of construction, this will be a 58-unit residential development.
Big Dig at Putnam Avenue Lot [Brownstoner]
Clinton Hill Affordable Build Going Up This Month [Brownstoner]
Clinton Hill Lot to Become Affordable Housing [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
02/10/2012 10:31 AM
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Past and Present: Atlantic Avenue at Cumberland Street
A Look at Brooklyn, then and now.
Today’s historic photo from 1924 shows two commercial buildings on the south side of Atlantic Avenue, near Cumberland Street. Frequent passers-by today will recognize these as the sole remaining 19th century large commercial buildings in the AY footprint. On a 1929 map, 700 Atlantic Avenue, the building on the right, belonged to the American Railway Express Company (AREC), a large shipping company founded in 1917 to consolidate shipping efforts during World War I. It was bought out by the railroads, and was an early shipping company that was like UPS with trains instead of planes. Goods were shipped via rail, taken to warehouses like this, and then shipped by trucks to their destinations. They needed warehouses near rail lines for the most efficient transfer of goods. They couldn’t get any closer than this. (more…)
02/10/2012 10:30 AM
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Grand Avenue Getting Another Bump
Good news for those who live on or around Grand Avenue: At the urging of Council Member Letitia James, a second speed has been approved for the block of Grand between Gates and Putnam avenues in Clinton Hill. The bump was approved late last month but will likely not be installed for six months or so because of an existing backlog at DOT. Hopefully there will be a little hump in this bump, as the current one does little to dissuade aggressive drivers from speeding down the street.
02/10/2012 10:00 AM
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Fort Greene Park Renovation Plan Revealed
On the heels of the exciting news that $2.55 million had been officially approved for the renovation of Fort Greene Park, we’ve got a copy of the site plan for the project along with some more details. The renovation is focused on the Willoughby entrance to the park. As the plan shows, the stairs will be rebuilt and a new ADA ramp will be installed, making stroller and disabled access easier. A variety of water control features – engineered (bioswales, cisterns and other) and organic (understory plantings)- will be installed in the circle adjacent to the Willoughby entrance within the park; this will mitigate the flow of water from the height of the park around the monument to the sidewalk outside and eliminate the pooling there. A curb bumpout will be built to improve pedestrian safety and the aesthetics of the entrance by giving pedestrians crossing from the park to Willoughby improved visibility and by eliminating parking directly in front of the entrance. The pavers along Washington Park will be leveled and reset. There will also be 9 new benches around the circle, which will add more seating capacity and help to harmonize the furniture in the park.
All good! Congrats to the Fort Greene Park Conservancy for their relentless (and effective!) advocacy. There’s a community listening session scheduled for February 29th from 6 to 8 pm at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford Street. To get a bigger look at the plan, click here.
Fort Greene Park Renovation a Go! [Brownstoner]
02/10/2012 9:30 AM
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More Delays at Atlantic Yards
The Atlantic Yards Report writes this morning of two delays relating to the Barclays Center built-out. The biggest news to those who have to try to navigate the giant construction project is that the Carlton Avenue bridge reopening has been delayed by a month, and in order to meet the new completion date of September 2012 work crews will be at it until 3 am. “The artery’s absence could plunge area traffic into chaos, especially given the inevitable shakeout period in which arena-goers and area drivers learn to regulate down their vehicle use before events,” notes AYR. As the blog notes, The $40 million bridge project is an Arena Opening Condition under an agreement Forest City signed with Empire State Development. Delay #2: For the second time in five weeks, says AYR, the “substantial completion date” for the arena itself has been pushed back a week to September 5. (The final completion date is slated for June 30, 2013.)
02/10/2012 9:00 AM
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Closing Bell: Sh!t Park Slope Parents Say
Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end. — Sid Caesar
02/09/2012 4:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 342-352A Vernon Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row Houses
Address: 342-352A Vernon Avenue
Cross Streets: Lewis and Stuyvesant Avenues
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1889
Architectural Style: Neo-Grec/Queen Anne
Architect: Theobald Engelhardt
Other buildings by architect: Arion Hall, Ulmer Mansion and Brewery, and countless homes, tenements and factories in Bushwick, Williamsburg, and this end of Bed Stuy. Also Peaks Mason Mints Building, Bklyn Hts.
Landmarked: No
The story: In certain parts of this borough, if you throw a rock, you’ll probably hit a Theobald Engelhardt designed building. He was an amazingly prolific architect who seems to have single-handedly designed the entire Eastern District, that part of Brooklyn loosely covering Bushwick, the far eastern part of Bedford Stuyvesant, and parts of Williamsburg. It comes as no surprise that these houses are his. And for several good reasons. (more…)
02/09/2012 3:30 PM
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Forum Poster Wants Great But Cheap Neighborhood
On the Forum: Where can I get a yard big enough for a garden, safe nabe and decent public transport? http://t.co/ehIkIstb
@Brownstoner
Brownstoner
02/09/2012 3:02 PM
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jad2k
Feb 09, 2012 | 11:02 AM