Condo Count Rises for Brooklyn Bridge Park
July 30, 2005, Brooklyn Papers — Brooklyn Bridge Park’s sponsor unveiled a double surprise Wednesday night, announcing that state officials had approved a draft plan for the 1.3-mile waterfront development — and that it would include 1,200 units of luxury housing. Previous estimates had put the number of high-end condos in the residential, commercial, and…
July 30, 2005, Brooklyn Papers — Brooklyn Bridge Park’s sponsor unveiled a double surprise Wednesday night, announcing that state officials had approved a draft plan for the 1.3-mile waterfront development — and that it would include 1,200 units of luxury housing. Previous estimates had put the number of high-end condos in the residential, commercial, and open space development at anywhere from 700 to just over 900.
Critics have complained since a reworked Brooklyn Bridge Park plan was released late last year that planners have strayed from one of the founding principles intended to guide development of the 80 acre site — that there be no private housing developments. But what shocked them even more about this week’s announcement from the Empire State Development Corp., was that nearly 80 percent of the housing, some 940 units, would be concentrated on the southern tip of the park west of Furman Street between Joralemon Street and Atlantic Avenue.
BB Park to House 1,200 Condos [Brooklyn Papers]
I’m looking for a 2 bedroom condo. please give me an estimate.
Also, with all due respect, what synonymous is saying is that, as much as for buyers, co-ops are a pain for real estate agents. Not to discount the influence of the agent but if I wanted a co-op and my broker refused to show me one, I’d get a new broker.
If there is a 10 to 20% difference in price between co-ops and condos, and that differential is increasing, I think that will guarantee a market for co-ops, especially in this market.
Also, I don’t have the numbers, but don’t co-ops outnumber condos five to one or more?
What about people, presumably like some of the readers of this blog, who prefer a pre-war home? Not many condos there.
it’s not clients unloading their coops, it’s other agents. and, yes, it’s mostly about the coop strictures. just buying a coop is so ridiculous. your offer is accepted on a unit and you don’t know until two or three months later whether you’re allowed to buy the place. this is very difficult for the seller, too. i understand the purpose of the rules (at least some of them), but have you actually heard of a coop going down in financial flames? sometimes the protections outweigh the risks and create their own host of problems. new buyers on the market are younger than ever. the more they and their friends get turned down by coops, the more they grow to resent (and avoid) the process. and the ensuing word of mouth is killing you. i recently had a 24-year-old customer. she doesn’t want to look at coops because three of her friends have been rejected. this is a woman with a great job and a graduate degree. she’ll likely never own a coop.
on the actual price difference. other agents and i have spoken about it. most agree that it’s between 10% and 20% (and counting).
synonymou – so why are your clients unloading co-ops, what is the value divide? Just about the restrictive rules?
anonymous:
i am a real estate agent. board turn downs are on a steep increase. (i recently had an all cash buyer worth millions rejected on a one bedroom apartment worth well under $500K.) the two people from the board that were supposed to interview him showed up 15 and 75 minutes late. amateur-hour.
i know of several agents who are selling their coops because they see a growing value divide. the newly arriving condos loom large for coop owners. you should all reconsider how your “rules” are harming your property values.
Synonomous. I know very well of the security and financial issues that my co-op bylaws protect. And B&Bs are not so silly — there are plenty of them around in rental and large condo buildings; we had a non-resident owner who was having short-term “guests” from Europe. It’s not a good feeling to see a parade of strangers; leaving trash in the halls etc.
The tales of rejection of “really nice people” pertain to so few buidlings that it is a non-issue. Whether an UES co-op rejects Mariah Carey or some other celeb relly means zilch. When do we reject? When a potential buyer lies on the application or can clearly not meet his financial obligations — rare circumstances.
And when there are capital expenditures — we can refinance the underlying mortagage of the building if needed; condos must assess (and then try to collect) from individual owners.
And if there is a bubble (as there was not so long ago) and there are foreclosures — the co-op gets paid first so the rest of the owners do not suffer (on maintenance costs).
what safety issues does your coop board protect you from? and financial security? are you kidding me? have any idea what that financial security is costing you? run the comps… and from all the anecdotes about coop in-fighting it doesn’t seem like that “i like knowing whose living next door” deal is working out too well. the real shame is how many really nice people are rejected by these amateur-hour boards (whose rules of acceptance change with each newly installed board member). i’ll stick with my condo. and if i don’t want to anymore? i’ll rent it out to someone who wants to run a b&b (how silly).
Co-ops are virtually non-existent in other parts of the country. I suspect there are more co-ops in NY simply because many were conversions from rental apts. I can understand the concerns about neighbors in condos but is anyone building new co-ops? Recent news reports indicate condos are becoming more restrictive as well. Also the lower maintenance for condos may be illusory since you still have additional costs that are likely included in the co-op maintenance.