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Cleanup at 13th Street Hoarder’s House
Several weeks ago we ran photos of a house on 13th Street between 3rd and 4th avenues where the owner has been piling up garbage for more than a decade. NBC picked up the story in early August, and it looks like all the attention resulted in the removal of a lot of the junk outside the property. It’s unlikely that the house is the pride of the neighborhood these days, but at least it’s a lot less gross than it was in late July.
The ‘Trash House’ of 13th Street [Brownstoner]
09/12/2011 9:30 AM
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The ‘Trash House’ of 13th Street
Last week we ran a photo of a row of houses on 13th Street between 3rd and 4th avenues, and a reader who’s thinking of buying on the street got in touch about one of the properties pictured, which she referred to as the “trash house.” She said neighbors tell her garbage has been piled up outside 196 13th Street for more than 12 years, and there’s “been recent complaint activity although it’s been INCREDIBLY tough to get an answer/get any action to get the place cleaned up–apparently since the trash doesn’t go beyond his property line, it’s okay-ish?” We swung by and talked to a couple neighbors on the block who also said that the house has been this way for more than a decade, which seems to be confirmed by a DOB violation on record from 2000 about “debris piled up at front.” Anyone know if the neighbors have any recourse in a situation like this, or do they just have to deal with the unsightly—and most likely unsanitary—mess? Click through for a close-up of the garbage… GMAP
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07/28/2011 10:00 AM
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Hope for Notorious Slope Building?
We stumbled across an interesting tidbit of information browsing last month’s CB6 minutes: “Chairperson Kummer informed that Board that he recently met with Council Member Steven Levin…He was very pleased to hear that the Council Member was most receptive to our need to put our heads together to come up with a way to motivate property owners and developers to make their properties safe and remove blighted conditions from our community. It was reassuring to hear that their office was already in touch with the owner of 187 7th Avenue at the corner of 2nd Street, which has sadly become a poster child for exactly this type of challenging situation.” We spoke with Council Member Levin’s rep Hope Reichbach, who confirmed she’s been in touch with the property owners. Reichbach said the “owners seem open to start a conversation and move forward with the site.” Right now talks are very preliminary and no action has been taken thus far. Options with the long-blighted property include assistance for the owners to make necessary repairs or marketing it to a private buyer. These options, however, are entirely dependent on how discussions go with CB6, local politicians, the community, and the owners of 187 7th. Last month a listing popped up advertising the availability of the building’s ground-floor space.
Will Infamous Slope Ruin be Reborn? [Brownstoner]
Doings at the Dilapidated 7th Ave & 2nd St Building? [Brownstoner] GMAP
03/09/2011 10:30 AM
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Bed Stuy’s Slave Theater Still Looking for a Buyer
The historic Slave Theater at Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue has been empty since 1999, when it was a Regal movie theater. It was on the market in March 2009 for $2,950,000, at which time Curbed reported the building had “received several offers north of 2 million” but the owners were holding out for someone who’d preserve it as a theater. It apparently didn’t sell because it has been re-listed by Massey Knakal Realty for the same price of $2,950,000. There is the option to buy the theater separately or with its sister theater The Slave Theater II on Nostrand. After all this wait, we hope they can find a buyer with the money and time for a careful restoration.
Listing for 1215-17 Fulton Street [Massey Knakal Realty]
Bed Stuy Theater Seeks Savior [Curbed]
Slave Theater Hits the Market [Brownstoner]
Slave Theater in Court, Preservation Effort Weak [Brownstoner] GMAP
07/09/2010 9:00 AM
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Ridgewood Masonic Temple for Sale
We noted with interest Curbed’s report that the Ridgewood Masonic Temple was for sale, so we made a point last week of driving by to check it out in person. Located at 1054 Bushwick Avenue at the corner Gates Avenue, the four-story building has already been utilized as a hipster playground, hosting gigs by the band Sleigh Bells among others recently. Now the fraternal order that owns the 18,000-square-foot building has put it on the market for $1 million, which doesn’t seem that expensive to us. Think it has condo potential? GMAP
07/06/2010 10:05 AM
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St. Vincent’s Dumping Dean Street Geriatric Center
In an effort to do something about its $700 million debt load, St. Vincent’s Medical Center is in the process of divesting itself of some non-core properties, including the Bishop Mugavero Center for Geriatric Care at 155 Dean Street in Boerum Hill. Both The Times and NY1 make it sound like a deal is in place, but neither mentions a buyer or a price for the 135,000-square-foot building.
Mount Sinai Shows Interest in St. Vincent’s [NY Times]
St. Vincent’s To Sell Off Two Nursing Homes [NY1] GMAP
Photo from PropertyShark
03/25/2010 11:00 AM
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Poplar Police Building Back on the Market
The Brooklyn Eagle notes today that the former 84th Precinct headquarters at 72 Poplar Street in Brooklyn Heights is back on the market, but we actually read the news first over on MyHomeBrooklyn last week, which caused us to go by and snap this photo last Wednesday. Given the frustrations the owners have had getting approval to build a rooftop addition since acquiring the property in 2004 for $9.6 million, it’s no surprise to learn that the owners are testing the market. And what’s the magic number? $12 million, according to The Eagle.
Former 84th Police Precinct Back on Market [Brooklyn Eagle] GMAP
03/25/2010 9:00 AM
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23 South Portland Avenue Still For Sale
The owner of 23 South Portland Avenue must not be in a big hurry, because the three-family brownstone has sat on the market for the last three years without a price reduction. (In fact, the price is now $100,000 more than the $2,500,000 price back in 2007.) That number may not sound insane for a five-story house on the most desirable block in Fort Greene until you consider this comment from the House of the Day thread from September 2007:
This house is currently completely demolished on the inside–there are no floors or walls. It is a shell, albeit a nice one, since the facade was recently redone. A buyer would have to build this house from scratch. About the nutty price, they’re trying to sell you a shell at move-in condition prices. There are a few details remaining on the parlor floor, a pier mirror, a marble mantel, and some cracked remnants of ornamental molding.
Has anyone been inside more recently or know more about the back-story?
23 South Portland Avenue Listing [Crewstown Realty] GMAP
House of the Day: 23 South Portland Avenue [Brownstoner]
03/22/2010 11:30 AM
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Inside 664 Jefferson Avenue
UPDATE: THIS HOUSE IS NOT IN CONTRACT! It appears someone with ulterior motives sent in these photos. The only upside is that now a reader can buy this place and restore it to the condition it deserves to be in.
When Montrose posted 664 Jefferson Avenue as the Building of the Day on Tuesday, it was clearly because of the woodframe house’s architectural interest. Of course, the small For Sale sign in the photo led to heated discussion about what this place would sell for. The owner of the house, curious to know what Brownstoner readers thought it was worth, saw the post and sent in some photos of the interior. It actually just went into contract so it’s an academic exercise but fun nonetheless. Hopefully he’ll tell us the contract price when the widget voting has concluded. GMAP
03/05/2010 11:01 AM
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3rd Ave Landmark Still Crumbling
Just as nothing has been doing at the Whole Foods site on 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street, nothing has been done to stop the landmark building on the edge of the grocer’s land from falling into even deeper ruin. As shown in the photo gallery, the property is literally falling apart and it’s also a dumping ground for all sorts of trash. On a positive note, if there’s one to be found here, at least the unintentionally (?) ironic banner that’s sometimes hoisted to the side of the building advertising demolition has been taken down for the time being. The building is not owned by Whole Foods, but the retailer entered into an agreement with its owner back in ’05 to repair the structure. The building is known as the Coignet Stone Company building and was landmarked in 2006 as a “pioneering example of concrete construction in the United States.”
Whole Foods: Not the Best of Neighbors [Brownstoner]
3rd St. Landmark Crumbling; Is Whole Foods to Blame? [Brownstoner] GMAP
Missing Details at Landmarked Third and Third Building [Brownstoner]
02/02/2010 10:00 AM
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Exterior Renovation Work Underway at 370 Clinton
A reader dropped a line to say that “on the corner of Clinton and Degraw there is massive scaffolding up around what had looked to be an abandoned brownstone. It was oddly out of place in the well-kept area with broken windows and no obvious maintenance. Good news that it looks like they are finally going to fix it up.” The building in question is 370 Clinton Street, whose owner sold a half interest in the property over the summer.
Half-Stake in 370 Clinton Sells—For Half the Listing Price [Brownstoner]
House of the Day: 370 Clinton Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
12/04/2009 11:30 AM
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Waverly Shell Coming Up for Auction
As Clinton Hill Blog noted last week, the shell of a house at 437 Waverly Avenue is coming up for auction on Thursday. The house has become part of local lore, as it’s sat vacant for the last decade. The same family lived there for 80 years before that but they never recorded the deed which is why it’s been unable to be sold for so long; the ownership issues are now sorted out and the elderly daughter of the original owners will receive the proceeds. From what we gather, a recent engineer’s report says that the building is structurally stable and that the front wall is in good shape as are most of the beams; however the roof and back wall need repairs. Bidding is expected to start around $450,000 but anything is possible. The auction takes place this Thursday at 2:30 pm in State Supreme Court, Part 76G, Room 575. It is an “as is” sale with no contingencies; the closing will be within 30 days.
437 Waverly Avenue [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
11/10/2009 11:00 AM
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The Gingerbread House Hits the Market
The Gingerbread House, the famous Arts & Crafts residence designed by architect James Sarsfield Kennedy, is for sale. (While it is more popularly known as the Gingerbread House, Forgotten NY points out that its formal name is the Howard E. and Jessie Jones House.) The 5,800-square-foot structure of uncut stone sits on a verdant one-acre lot at 8220 Narrows Avenue just a block from the waterfront. With its thatched roofs and endless interior architectural details, the 1916 house is definitely one of a kind. And it comes with a one-of-a-kind price tag of $12,000,000. This should be interesting.
8220 Narrows Avenue [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP
11/03/2009 9:53 AM
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First Resale at 14 Townhouses
It had to happen sometime! The 14 Townhouses on State Street received a lot of attention, most of it positive, when they hit the market back in 2005. It took a little while (and some time off the market) to get the job done, but ultimately all of them sold for prices of between $2 and $3 million. More than four years after, we’ve arrrived at a milestone in the project’s history: The first resale. The house in question is 267 State Street, the one on the corner of Smith Street. It’s got more than 4,000 square feet of space and doesn’t look any worse for the wear. The asking price? $3,600,000. We shall see.
267 State Street [Corcoran] GMAP
14 Townhouses, After Slow ’06, Go Gangbusters [Brownstoner]
14 Townhouses Update: Slow Going, At Best [Brownstoner]
11/02/2009 11:01 AM
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Church Conversion Opp for Sale in Greenpoint
How sweet would this be? Yesterday Curbed picked up on an unusual listing that just hit the market in Greenpoint. A former church and adjacent Sunday School building at 145-147 Kent Street just hit the market for a cool $3,700,000. For this modest tithe, y ou get over 8,000 square feet of existing interior space plus another few thousand square feet of buildable rights. Evidently the owner has already received permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the residential conversion and associated cosmetic changes. Start passing that collection plate!
147 Kent Street [Douglas Elliman] GMAP
Church Mansion Comes With or Without Sunday School [Curbed]
10/30/2009 11:01 AM
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Waterless in Bed Stuy
Yesterday The Brooklyn Ink published a sad story about the plight of the tenants at the small three-story apartment building at 274 Malcom X Boulevard in Bed Stuy. Last winter the 16 residents went without electricity, and last summer they had to do without water for two months. The problem was not a negligent landlord, but a dead one. And a deadbeat family member who wanted to collect rent but not perform any repairs. The building residents didn’t realize for months that the landlord had died last year; when they finally figured it out and one of them tried to navigate the bureaucracy involved with getting services restored when you are not the owner, they hit a wall. It took a protest by a local with political aspirations to draw enough attention to the problem for HPD to step in a make basic repairs. Positively Kafkaesque.
Bed-Stuy’s Waterless House [The Brooklyn Ink]
10/30/2009 9:03 AM
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Work in Progress at Christie’s Red Hook Warehouse
[Gallery not found]
A couple of months ago a Christie’s spokesman told the Times that the auction company intends to have its storage facility on Imlay Street in Red Hook tricked out by January, and if that’s to be the case the crew on the project sure has its work cut out. Per the pics above, the building is in the process of being gutted. Looks like a massive undertaking!
Christie’s Makes a Winning Bid for Red Hook [Brownstoner] GMAP
10/23/2009 10:30 AM
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Owner Takes Park Slope’s Pink House Off Market
Local media were abuzz recently when Park Slope’s hard-to-miss pink brownstone on Garfield Place went on the market for nearly $2.3 million, but The Brooklyn Paper reported yesterday that Heights Berkeley Realty, the firm selling the house, took the property off the market due to legal complications. The grandson of owner Bernie Henry, who painted the house bright pink in the 1960s, “is under investigation for forging key documents that have put a cloud over who has legal ownership of the building,” according to the Paper. As for the ostentatious color of the home, the article mentions that of course a buyer could repaint it, but one local resident commented: “It’s like anything else in life: at first, you hate it because it’s new. But then you come to love it. And then you don’t want it to ever change.”
Famed Pink House Pulled Off Market in Legal Dispute [Brooklyn Paper]
Park Slope’s Pink House 4 Sale [Gothamist]
Photo by Karen Bonna Rainert
10/16/2009 10:00 AM
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The Locale: Greenpoint Condo Auction
The Locale, a four-story, 16-unit luxury development in Greenpoint from TreeTop Development, is going on the auction block November 11, reports Curbed. This is the sign of the times that the media and real estate business have been expecting—developers have already opted to unload their stagnant projects elsewhere, but this is the first in Brooklyn. The building, at 267-269 Kingsland Avenue, offers one-bedroom and one-bedroom duplex units, some with balconies and views of the Manhattan skyline. The auction will be held at the New York Marriott, 333 Adams Street, at 7:30 p.m., where bids will start at $150,000—as low as 25 percent of the original asking prices of $445,000 to $600,000. points out that Brooklyn condo sales dropped nearly 30 percent in the second quarter, and median sales prices fell 16 percent. GMAP P*Shark DOB
First Condo Auction Looms in Brooklyn [Crain's]
On the Block: New Greenpoint Condos Heading to Auction! [Curbed]
The Locale Auction Listing [Sheldon Good & Co]
10/14/2009 10:45 AM
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Reno Action at 50 Putnam
After initially being listed at $850,000 last spring (when it was an Open House Pick), the four-story brick house at the southeast corner of Putnam Avenue and Irving Place in Clinton Hill sold last month for $695,000. The new owner has wasted no time getting down to the business of renovation, a fact that made another neighbor so gleeful that he couldn’t help snapping this photo and sending it in to the Brownstoner tip line. According to the DOB permit, there’s no change to the 3-family C of O but the place is getting a complete gut renovation, in case you couldn’t tell from all the debris in the back yard. Interestingly, the architect of record is Pratt’s Brent Porter, he of the many Save-Admirals-Row designs. GMAP
10/09/2009 11:30 AM
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southelliottseer
Feb 09, 2012 | 11:02 AM