Dumbo: Past, Present, Future
This weekend’s cover story in The Times’ real estate section about Dumbo is notable not just because it might be the first article in the past couple of decades about the neighborhood that does not include the name “Walentas,” but also because it spotlights the continued evolution of one of Brooklyn’s most expensive and in-demand…
This weekend’s cover story in The Times’ real estate section about Dumbo is notable not just because it might be the first article in the past couple of decades about the neighborhood that does not include the name “Walentas,” but also because it spotlights the continued evolution of one of Brooklyn’s most expensive and in-demand areas. Some highlights:
New Development: As has been covered here, there’s a development boomlet in the neighborhood, including Toll Brothers’ build at 205 Water Street; the conversion of 192 Water Street; and the condo at 37 Bridge Street. The newsy bit is that Toll says it expects to get $800 per square foot at its condo when it’s completed.
Dumbo’s Rep: “‘It was cool in the ’80s,’ said Doreen Gallo, the executive director of the Dumbo Neighborhood Alliance, a residents’ group. ‘It was very cool in the ’90s.’ Now, she said, ‘it’s different.’ Many of the artists who lent the neighborhood its character have been forced to move, she said, and historic buildings have been lost. On the other hand, the rezoning, which many preservationists opposed, has delivered residents, businesses and cultural institutions.”
Its Office Scene: Well-covered territory about how businesses like Etsy and Brooklyn Industries have their HQs in the ‘hood; fun you’ve-come-a-long-way-baby quote about how a digital marketing and design agency that launched in the neighborhood in ’99 used to have security guards walk female employees to the subway.
Future Development: There aren’t that many places left to build, but there are lingering questions on whether the two Watchtower-owned parking lots in Dumbo, one the rezoned property at 85 Jay, will ever be developed.
Bringing Up Dumbo [NY Times]
Oe;
Well then I stand corrected. Nevertheless, the Soho shown in that movie is still a scruffy place.
the movie was made in 1986
One night I couldn’t sleep and after surfing the TV channels came upon Woody Allen’s movie “Hannah and Her Sisters”. The movie is insufferable, but it had one good point: some of the shots were taken on location in Soho back in the 70’s, when it was still a scruffy, industrial wasteland that was being occupied by artists because of the cheap rent.
ugh those artists who got their lofts in soho in the 70’s are the worst. i dont think ive ever seen a bunch of people who truly believe their poop dont smell like they do.
*rob*
Ok fsrg, truce!
MM – the point I a making is that of course the area wasnt totally abandoned like some sort of Chernobyl – some people were living there – but it wasnt a neighborhood AT ALL, it was an under-utilized commercial district until Walentas decided to ‘create’ the neighborhood of DUMBO.
This evolution is far different from the ‘artists first’ development of SOHO, Tribeca, etc….
If anyone is blogging about this from the DUMBO General Store then they deserve the final say.
OK fsrg, I guess the “few people I know” don’t count for anything. They, and I, had no idea.(sarcasm)
And granted, the Walentas’ are responsible for the development of DUMBO, as we know it today, and I tip my hat to their genius and foresight in that area. But they didn’t buy up an empty island. There were people, and businesses there.
Rob, most real artists are NOT the children of rich people. Yeah, a few are, but most are not. Artistic expression is certainly not limited to the rich, and artists and artisans come from every walk of life imaginable. Your jealousy is showing, yet again.
Whatever else you think of the neighborhood, the name for it is just awful awful awful.
By the way, I knew a few artists who lived there in the mid to late 1990s. I thought it was kind of cool then.