Red Hook

Amy Haimerl, one of the folks involved with the Red Hook CSA, wrote in to tell us that there was a fire last night at Home/Made, the wine bar/cafe on Van Brunt and Pioneer. Here’s what she has to say about it: “Thankfully, nobody was hurt and damage wasn’t epic. But it did do a number on the place. Monica and Leisah are going to have to replace their kitchen stove and ceiling, possibly do electrical, buy a new front grate and more. There’s no official estimate on the damage yet, but it’s not going to be cheap to repair — somewhere in the five-figures, most likely. Plus, they’ll likely be closed for the next two weeks while they do the work. Here’s how we can help. [Here] is a link to make an online donation. Give $5. Give $10. Give whatever you can afford. But as a community, let’s pull together and help out these two Red Hookers who support our neighborhood in so many ways. (Despite the fire, they’re still helping to organize food for the Falconworks benefit on Monday at Kidd Studios.) My goal: Raise enough to replace their front grate.” Haimerl also notes that Home/Made’s owners have been longtime supporters of the Red Hook CSA. As a side note, this is Barbara Corcoran’s Red Hook investment building!
Fire at Home/Made: How to Help [Red Hook CSA]
Home/Made [Official Site]

This weekend’s “Living In…” feature in the Times is about Red Hook, and the article summarizes its pros—its relative peacefulness and handful of wonderful businesses—as well as its cons, most notably its lack of easy access to mass transit, unless you consider the B61 bus a reliable form of mass transit. On the real estate front, neighborhood brokers report that demand is high and inventory is tight: “Deborah Rieders, a Corcoran broker who sold Mr. Kenedi and Ms. Kaiser their house, said that this passion for the area had contributed to a resurgence in sales, after a period of relative inactivity during the downturn. ‘There’s a real lack of inventory’ at the moment, she said. ‘I have a lot of people that want to buy down there — you’re lucky if a house comes on the market every four or five months.’ Which means that even out-of-the-way houses sell for a premium, she added.” Speaking of Mr. Kenedi and Ms. Kaiser, it sounds like they bought the property we featured as a House of the Day last summer that had a backyard chicken coop. The couple moved from Williamsburg, and Kenedi had this to say about how their new neighborhood compares to their old one: “Williamsburg is nuts. Red Hook is quiet and peaceful.” Brokers quoted in the article say that single-family houses generally start in the $800,000s but can go up to almost double that in asking price for prime blocks and properties in tip-top shape. Co-ops and condos, which are not available in abundance in the neighborhood, tend to sell in the $300,000-to-$500,000 range, say brokers.
Outlier Near the ‘Center of the Universe’ [NY Times]

Fliers have been put up all around Red Hook saying that the Mary A. Whalen, the historic oil tanker built in 1938 that’s docked in the Red Hook container port, is in danger of being scrapped unless funds are raised to secure a permanent, publicly accessible place for the ship. Here’s the word from PortSide New York, the nonprofit that maintains the ship and programs events on it: “This crisis reflects the relationship between funding and real estate: PortSide’s ability to raise money or earn money with the ship is severely limited by not having a publicly-accessible place for the tanker MARY A. WHALEN. We need a place to be liberated from forever negotiating for a home or for temporary event permits. Some emergency fundraising will keep our doors open so we can negotiate past April 30, but the real estate hunt must come to an end!” A meeting about the fund-raising and hunt for a permanent home for the tanker will take place next Monday, the 27th, at LICH. Last year the state determined that the vessel was eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Please Help! [Portside NY]