August 31, 2005, Wall Street Journal — In New York City’s ultra-competitive condominium market, developers are looking to gain an edge with working families. A soon-to-be converted condo building in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn will offer a “Nanny Concierge” that provides everything from last-minute babysitters to advice about where parents can take their children on weekends to recommendations for pediatricians. Abbie Newman, co-founder of Abigail Michaels Concierge, which will run the service, says it is designed as a one-stop shop for parents. “They can call up and say ‘I need a baby nurse’ or ‘where can I find a good carriage,’ ” says Ms. Newman. Jane Gladstein, a principal at Metropolitan Housing Partners, one of the companies converting the Court Street Lofts into condos, said the idea was sparked by looking around the neighborhood. “We definitely saw a lot of baby strollers,” she says.
Diversified Funding: Family Friendly [Wall Street Journal]


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  1. I used to live in 204 Huntington St. for 2 years, the sister building around the corner and in the benefit of not typing a long post…..YOU DO NOT WANT TO BUY THERE!! ESPECIALLY, ESPECIALLY, if you have intentions of or already have kids. I fyou want detail let me know.. There will be alot of other projects coming on the market soon, this place is a dump. Are they kidding with $700-$800 a/ft???

  2. by risks, i meant the usual risks involved when you buy any property. and for this instance, i meant things like after i move in there still may be construction going on in the building due to other apartment’s renovations, or the fact that the sponsor will have control of the condo association for a period of time until a certain number of units are sold…..just stuff like that. there was nothing out of the ordinary (in my opinion).

  3. i can tell you about my own personal expericence with 505 court, heights guy. after spending many months looking for a good-sized space (we needed at least 1000 s.f.) for a price we could afford, my boyfriend and i finally found something we loved at 505 court. i think the spaces are really great….they’re spacious, lots of light, high ceilings….and i much prefer an older solid building to one of these new constructions going up everywhere. also, i was familiar with the building because i’ve known people that have rented there over the years and i’ve always loved the spaces (and btw, none of them had any complaints about the building…they loved living there). i did inquire at the sales office about all these problems i read about the building on blogs, and i was told yes there were problems but they were repaired. i think when you live in an older building, it comes with the understanding that things do break down and require repairs from time to time….i’m ok with that. i had my attorney look over the offering plan and he explained the possible risks involved, but for me the benefits of that building outweighed any risk.

  4. To Anon 12:43, I don’t see why it would be wrong for Brownstoner to censor insults and malicious comments, if he wants to. (That’s quite rightly up to him, not me, though.) My guess is that most people will eventually tune out the nasty comments–by not bothering to read the posts anymore. Instead of getting helpful comments about renovations, neighborhoods, buildings, and such, the posts have increasingly degenerated into name calling, insults, and so on. “Will” discussed so called trolls who latch onto blogs to start arguments, so I guess this negative spiral has happened elsewhere.

  5. So you advocate censorship then? Because people’s ideas about nasty or malicious vary. It is much healthier to let the extreme types get out there stuff and either ignore it or address it in a civil manner.

  6. I see nothing wrong, Brownstoner, with you filtering posts if they are malicious or nasty. Typically, these types of posts will insult people rather than criticize ideas (smear the person instead of debating points).

  7. This site is one of my daily reads & I’ve really enjoyed it.

    I get the feeling that it is being haunted by “Trolls,” people who comment anonymously soley to get everyone arguing and angry. It happens on lots of blogs & newsgroups. It’s intended to wear people out, and it’s a real bummer.

    Brownstoner: maybe you should require people to register before they post?
    Another tactic is to ignore the deliberately inflammatory posts.
    Opinonated people who aren’t trolls should refrain from calling people “stupid” etc.
    my 2 cents …

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