Bushwick Booming, Or So The Brokers Say
Have you heard the news? Bushwick is hot. “It’s what Williamsburg was in the ’90s [and] what SoHo was in the ’80s,” says Len Moroz, co-owner of Potion Café in the McKibben Lofts building. With the first several condo projects in the area having sold at well above expected prices last year, brokers (hardly an…
Have you heard the news? Bushwick is hot. “It’s what Williamsburg was in the ’90s [and] what SoHo was in the ’80s,” says Len Moroz, co-owner of Potion Café in the McKibben Lofts building. With the first several condo projects in the area having sold at well above expected prices last year, brokers (hardly an unbiased crowd) are predicting that more and more landlords will be converting their rental buildings to condos in the near future. So who’s going to buy all these new condos? “Artsy Yuppies,” says Douglas Elliman’s Lisa Maysonet, who’s had her hand in the sale of several new condos in the nabe. “They’re artsy in look and feel,” she says of the gentrifiers, “but not in occupation.” That is, they have a real paycheck but are still partial to the bed-head look. Do you think there are enough of these folks to fuel a continued condo boom in the area or do you not believe the hype?
Approaching the Summit [NY Post]
Photo by martha martha martha
wow.
some of my best friends have been living in a loft on varet street since the mid 90s and how things have changed. a few years ago the city cracked down on all the illegal a.i.r. lofts over there and gave the landlords the choice to push it one way or the other. bring things up to code or kick the tenants out and be commercial like you’re zoned. tons of landlords upgraded and my buddies watched their rent double (the windows, however, made up for it, no parkas indoors in winter!). several years later, however, their new rent is cheap in comparison to the rents that people are paying for the new lofts that have been built in that neighborhood. i’m still stunned that there’s a bar and a place to buy food in their hood.
it should be noted that bushwick has two different types of neighborhood. some blocks are purely residential with rows of 2 and 3 family homes. other parts are old warehouses and lofts which i think is the appeal for those looking to relive 80s soho or 90s billyburg.
still amazed….
The new nabe is BuBLoBLe. It is so new that the real estate elite are meeting in secret trying to figure out exactly what it stands for, but one thing is certain people of color(not white) will get kicked out of the hood while the greedy landlord walks away with hundreds of thousands of dollars selling their crap buildings to silly white people who went to art school and now work as lawyers working for the common good! God Bless the USA.
“To be honest even the worst parts of Bushwick are better then the worst parts of other bad neighborhoods that are priced higher (hint hint- Bed-Stuy).”
OMG, where do I start? First, it’s probably not a smart thing to promote ones neighborhood from the standpoint that its worst area is far “better” than the worst area in other nabes. Not a great selling point. That’s like trying to convince families to migrate to Newark because its worst area is better than Camden’s. Sounds stupid, right?
Second, this comment is hilarious because the worst section of Bed-Stuy (northeast corner) is the part that is directly adjacent to Bushwick which is miles away from pristine Brownstone Bed-Stuy and Stuy Heights in the far south. I’m sorry but I rather take a beautiful 4,000 sq. ft. limestone (at $225 per sq. ft.) on landmarked Stuyvesant Avenue over anything you could show me in Bushwick. Hands down!
I was in Bushwick in January of this year. A friend of mine is a building super for a few buildings out there, the ones with the overpriced lofts for entitled slummin’ hipster artists who think they’re living the real city life. It’s a ridiculous scene. It really is. And it’s polluted and smells bad from the garbage dumps and cement factories and all kinds of other nasty stuff. I mean, sure, there’s a coffee shop that rents out art flicks, and a place to buy organic groceries, so there’re amenities and all. But the kids hanging out there hate the amenities. They’re such uberposeurs, they’re all slouching around, drinking their coffee and shooting each other hateful looks. Everyone thinks they got there first. Everyone is pissed to see another gentrifying white face. Everyone there is putting such effort into keepin’ it real, it’s painful to watch.
Everyone there except me, that is. I’m keepin’ it real for real. I’m camping out under the “Trenton makes, the world takes” bridge. I hear that’s the next big thing. I hear NO-ONE’s living there yet.
i agree that gowanus is a much more viable option for the next “hip” hood.
did you all see that vote they had on where to potentially open up the next tonic as the lower east side club just closed its doors this past week?
gowanus got over 50% of the vote.
next closest hoods got like 1-5%
i personally love the area down by the gomanus, even with its current problems. i’d be much more willing to invest there than bushwick. if for no other reason than it’s closer to “nicer” neighborhoods like park slope that offer some good amenities. it’s just a walk up the hill to ps.
nope bushwick is on the way out. The new nabe GoSoSlo ‘Gowanus / South Slope’
A friend of mine is police brass in the area. He says that white guilt is the reason some of the crime is not being processed. They won’t press charges or won’t report incidents. I think that is ridiculous, but the PC pendulum is still on the motion that is ruining society.
And I don’t know why anyone would be ashamed of making a decent salary.
(and 12:24, lawyers work for the common good?)
bushwick is beautiful is more a music blog than informational. this guy has several very interesting pieces about the neighborhood (he’s doing an exhibition at the Brooklyn Historical Society):
http://www.citynoise.org/author/upfromflames
and from the same site, an post whose comments have become a pretty interesting discussion about the area:
http://www.citynoise.org/article/646
speaking of 80’s HC, do you guys know anything about the band White Boy from DC?
i hope that newcomers to the area investigate some of the older one, two and three family homes for sale in the area rather than just jumping into a condo/developer type situation. I am SURE that there are some real gems out there and that you will get more for you money.