Waddup with 75 Henry Street?
75 Henry Street is the 370-unit, 33-story tower you see as you come off the ramp from the Brooklyn Bridge. From the looks of this photo put up on Flickr this weekend, the building is getting caught up on some repairs. We’ve always wondered about this place: For some reason it looks like a building…
75 Henry Street is the 370-unit, 33-story tower you see as you come off the ramp from the Brooklyn Bridge. From the looks of this photo put up on Flickr this weekend, the building is getting caught up on some repairs. We’ve always wondered about this place: For some reason it looks like a building that was built in the Sixties as subsidized middle-income housing, but from the looks of recent sales prices (an apartment on the 21st floor sold for over a million bucks last February), that would appear not to be the case. So what’s the deal on it? GMAP
The steps at 75 Henry had to be redone because the cement had small bubbles in it, which would have caused cracking down the road. It doesn’t matter if the steps are exactly the same height, because they will be covered with a precast unit soon. Several years ago the tenants at 75 Henry voted to go private. Since there was only one mortgage and the building was well maintained, this was not a huge problem. Those who sell made a large profit but there’s a 10 percent flip tax. 140 Cadman Plaza West, in a similar middle income program, voted to remain subsidized. The city made them an offer which included refinancing and money for capital improvements. (The city did not make this offer to 75 Henry.) This was advantagous to 140 Cadman because they were not in as good a financial position as 75 Henry. Their maintenance charges were always much lower, income requirements were lower, and they had multiple mortgages. The building was not as well maintained as 75 Henry.
There are two towers that look identical in between Henry and Cadman. This one mentioned used to be subsidized and went private a couple years ago. I know someone who bought. The other building (closer to the Brooklyn Bridge) is still subsidized.
Not sure if this is 75 Henry or on Cadman Plaza, but I know the other one (subsidized) is 140 Cadman Plaza West.
I thought these towers were built by Donald Trump and spurred the creation of the Brooklyn Heights Historical Society, to prevent more of them. Am I wrong?
You know, many say that the new towers in Dumbo are oversized, but at least they are among formerly commercial buildings which are considerably larger than their contemporary residential counterparts–I’ve always despised these Heights towers because they are relentlessly oversized in an area populated by small 19th Century brick, brownstone, and even wood frame homes. To make matters worse, the Henry Street side of these monstrosities offer nothing to the street–no retail, no public space, not even reasonable entry aesthetics, just long expanses of big, bland, concrete walls. Just awful.
the stairs shown in the photo have been in this state for months. the contractor must be incompetant — the first time they cast the concrete steps they messed up the first riser and had to jackhammer it out and start over. then they did THE EXACT SAME THING again. you can see in the picture that the second riser is about 2″. I think they forgot to account for the thickness of the precast treads. either way, i’d be upset if i lived here and the management couldn’t resolve this in less than 6 months.
if this is cadman plaza, i believe it was subsidized housing built specifically for dept of ed employees, teachers, etc, but recently came out of that program to be privately owned (similar to mitchell lama co-op, but adjusted) by the residents. so anyone who lived there, lived through the recent conversion, can sell their apt for a hugh profit. i have a friend who grew up there, they have beautiful views of the harbor, statue of liberty, etc and the building was well maintained through the years.