Using Meier to Sell Brooklyn to Manhattanites
Are Manhattanites ready to pay Manhattan prices for an apartment in Brooklyn, albeit one designed by arguably the biggest brand name architect in town, Richard Meier? It’s too early to tell, but Mario Procida, the developer behind On Prospect Park is betting a lot of money that the answer is yes. As his brother puts…
Are Manhattanites ready to pay Manhattan prices for an apartment in Brooklyn, albeit one designed by arguably the biggest brand name architect in town, Richard Meier? It’s too early to tell, but Mario Procida, the developer behind On Prospect Park is betting a lot of money that the answer is yes. As his brother puts it, “There are always 100 rich people who will pay for a piece of fine art…Mario’s got the only piece of fine art in Brooklyn.” Since opening for business in late October, somewhere north of 12 units (or about 10 percent of the inventory) have been sold. Asking prices are around $1,200 a foot, an untested milestone for the borough. Procida says his costs are well over $700 a foot and The Times estimates that he would have trouble breaking even at $850 a foot. Clearly sales haven’t been as fast as hoped, but, to be fair, the building is not complete yet and most people have a hard time with “the vision thing.” In his targeting of Manhattan buyers, the developer has gone so far as to locate the building’s sales office in Tribeca. Other developers question this strategy: “I think the Brooklyn buyer is a Brooklynite,” says a partner from the Clarett Group, which is building the Forte high-rise on Fulton Street in Fort Greene. Do you think OPP is going to sell out at or near the current asking prices? And to do so, will it have to be mostly Manhattanites doing the buying?
Betting on Star Power [NY Times]
Photo by Tracy Collins
That part of PS is not Dumbo/ BH/ FG/Wburg– which are literally 10 to 15 mins into manhattan by public transport or bike, or a nice stroll over any of the 3 bridges. If a Manhattanite is gonna move to BK, he/she is gonna ease in at the perimeter, not dive head first into the babyspawning puddle that is suburban brooklyn.
The issue that is I see is no shopping that is within walking distance. It is not a ‘short walk’ to 7’th Avenue. You have to cross that traffic nightmare and it is creepy late at night to walk around the circle (as pretty as it is in daylight. Underhill near EP has nothing to offer but one restaurant and a bar, where do you buy food if you live there? C-Town?
Hey BS – $1,200 psf an untested milestone for the Borough? I think not. Many condo transactions in Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo have occured way north of that number.
I need to stop reading comments at this site but can’t. They drive me crazy. Why do I care what half-assed ignorant things people have to say – I don’t. Maybe I can kick the habit. Wish me luck. Au revoir.
The issue that is I see is no shopping that is within walking distance. It is not a ‘short walk’ to 7’th Avenue. You have to cross that traffic nightmare and it is creepy late at night to walk around the circle (as pretty as it is in daylight. Underhill near EP has nothing to offer but one restaurant and a bar, where do you buy food if you live there? C-Town?
David is correct, but in relation to the perception of Brooklyn as a denigrated second choice, the dates would have to scale a bit earlier. For nearly 100 years prior to the Depression, it was Brooklyn that tended to look down on Manhattan in regards to residential opportunities. For most of the 19th Century, the middle and upper-middle classes aspired to Brooklyn as much as they did to the newly-minted Upper East Side; anything in downtown Manhattan was considered terribly declassé (especially Greenwich Village!), for only the lowest echelon. Once the Depression sunk in, the cultural shifts of the Jazz Age were both accelerated and undermined by economics. Then the War and suburban flight, which initiated a period of some of the most destructive “urban renewal” in history. Despite all of our own era’s environmental and geopolitical troubles, we really need to recognize that this is truly a golden age for Brooklyn.
the complainers probably don’t live in the neighborhood.
while this building may not be to your liking, it certainly does not look cheap. that is ridiculous to say…especially with all of the building going on in the borough that actually is cheap.
on a materials and finish level, this is probably one of the top 10 projects being built in all of nyc at the moment.
sounds like a lot of sour grapes that you can’t afford to live there, but no matter how you slice it, this is a great building for the neighborhood. you don’t need to like it or find it pleasing to your eye, but to have a building like this built here is a great great thing for brooklyn. embrace it instead of being such haters.
too much to ask for by typical brownstoner readers, i suppose.
Yeah, good luck crossing the street in front of that disaster without being flattened by traffic. And I agree, the rendering is gorgeous but it’s crap in reality, really cheap looking.
One thing that I can’t tolerate is the blanket concept of “Brooklyn vs Manhattan”. There’s only one or two areas of brooklyn that would even qualify in a value competition with Manhattan, and that part of Brooklyn is NOT one of them. It’s not just about Manhattan vs Brooklyn — it’s about Manhattan vs. inconvenient and boring part of Brooklyn. No buyer here.