FCR Begins Dean Street Demo, Claiming Safety
After leaving them open to the elements for the past year and a half, Bruce Ratner began demolition of 461-463 Dean Street this week claiming that they are a safety hazard. Hmmmm, those workmen don’t look like they are worried the building is about to collapse. Demo Slated for Dean Street [Brownstoner] GMAP Dean Street…
After leaving them open to the elements for the past year and a half, Bruce Ratner began demolition of 461-463 Dean Street this week claiming that they are a safety hazard. Hmmmm, those workmen don’t look like they are worried the building is about to collapse.
Demo Slated for Dean Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
Dean Street Demolition Porn [Curbed]
Later for the children! We’re talking about $$$$$$!!!!!
Not everyone can afford to buy investment property. Some of us just want a nice place to live and raise children.
Ebomb, if you had $1M to invest in real esate what would you rather own: one $4M Cobble Hill townhouse (cash flow negative) or five $800k brownstones in Bed-Stuy on prime blocks (cash flow positive)? That’s a no brainer. In 15 years the Bed-Stuy investor will be far better off. IMO.
Oppss. PLG will be a big winner too. Without a doubt!
Ebomb, just remember my post and in ten years we can compare notes and assess how well we faired with our real estate investments. I really don’t care about the short term play. I’m looking 10-15 years out. I don’t get folks making $400k plus in Brooklyn and they are simply content with owning one fabulous home and that’s it. If I can take 100k per year out of my bonus and buy an investment property in one of the fringe nabes I will. I’m currently working on my forth because I strongly believe that Downtown Brooklyn is here to stay. I look at some of the small real estate investors who bought multiple townhouses and investment properties on the Upper Westside in the 1970’s at a mere pittance and who’ve done remarkably well. It’s all a matter of realizing value when others do not.
In my humble opinion, AY is going to be a bonanza for the intact brownstone communities in Downtown Brooklyn. And those nabes a little further away will benefit the most.
I agree with Ed. “I think the development is exciting, and I don’t understand why others don’t. Move further into Brooklyn if you want smaller-scale. ” CH, BS, Crwn Hgts and Sunset Park are the best bet!
Bed-Stuy has the A express train. Also, not everyone works in mid-town, many work in the financial district. For many, the lenght of the commute is a fair price to pay for a beautiful home. If people will commute to Manhattan from South Jersey, then Bed-Stuy will surely find plenty of takers for its gorgeous brownstones.
BrownBomber,
How long is the subway commute from Bedstuy to Midtown Manhattan?
In a year, will folks pay 1.2 million for renovated brownstones in Bedstuy? If not, where’s the profit given the current prices which have risen astronomically in the last year.
I’d love to believe in Bedstuy, but it ain’t no Cobble Hill.
Prediction. By the year 2015-2020, you will have the Brooklyn Nets, Brooklyn Devils and perhaps the Brooklyn Jets. If the Mets were smart they’d move to Brooklyn too! Downtown Brooklyn will become a thriving metropolis and townhouses and brownstones, even at the farther edges of the brownstone belt, will fetch $4M at a minimum.
The smart ones among us will own 5-10 investments properties by then. The strategy is to purchase 3-4 multi-family buildings that are self-sufficient, i.e., the rent roll covers the entire mortgage and all expenses (with only 25% down). Under these guideline, most of brownstone Brooklyn would not qualify with the exception of Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, were the numbers still make sense.
As an investors, I’m placing my bet on Bed-Stuy. No one denies the fine housing stock and in ten years the place will look like Fort Greene if not Park Slope. I understand all of the present day issues (yada, yada, yada, yada…) but give it some time. With 6,000 brownstone, twice as much as Park Slope, and its proximity to Manhattan, that nabe has only one place to go and that’s up.
Atlantic Yards, Navy Yard and the Downtown Brooklyn Development Plan are going to be a boom for Bed-Stuy. It’s the most undervalued community in the brownstone belt and definitely has the most upside for investors. I might not benefit form this strategy the most but my children certainly will.
I really don’t want to see another flame war going on. Lord knows, David and I have butted heads on this one many times but while I am squarely in the middle- I want development, just not the way Ratner is doing it- I have come to believe that we won’t know how it affects anything until it’s actually built. There are good arguments on both sides and the fact of the matter is that neighborhoods, like the human body, fight to survive and can be far more flexible and accomodating than we imagine. I really have my concerns about traffic and infrastructure- but hopefully the CIty will have enough pressure put on it to respond appropriately. If the Ratner complex is a done deal, that’s the best I can hope for.