Inside Third & Bond: Week 65

The end of 2008 is fast approaching and none too soon. In January (Week 21), we took a look at new projects and old rumors in the nabe and before we leave this tumultuous year behind, we thought we’d check in on the news then and now.

Then: While the talking heads worry over a recession and the people on the street wonder if there will be down market buying opportunities, we thought this would be a good time to check-in on the neighborhood surrounding our site.

Now: Everyone is talking recession. Unless they are talking stagflation, depression, or hyperinflation. Investors are wondering if it’s time to invest have we hit bottom? We would like to be far past bottom when Third + Bond sales begin next year. Falling a little behind in construction won’t hurt so badly if that means we launch sales at a better time.

Then: Our informant tells us that DOB was about to sign off on the [Whole Foods] permit when they realized that they didn’t like the reference datum that the survey was based on.

More Now & Thens on the jump…

Now: Whole Foods is on hold and not because of DOB. While Mackey fights with the Federal Trade Commission about its 2007 merger with Wild Oats, his in-house team is looking for a partner to help them develop the site. We hope they find someone.

Then: Two sites catty-corner from Third + Bond were for sale.

Now: Still for sale, still vacant. We know there’s been interest and from some potentially great uses – but no deal yet. But directly across Bond St, the Grammy-Award winning publisher PictureBox has opened the PictureBox Departmental Store. The retail store specializes in graphic novels, ‘zines, and the like.

But the daily go-to store is more likely the deli-corner store at Third and Hoyt that has reopened after a several year hiatus. While Smith Street has a plethora of shops for our residents, it’s still nice to have a place for toilet paper within shouting distance.

Then: A new comp was the just-listed 116 Third Place development. Five elevator units in a renovated rowhouse were priced at about $1,000/SF.

Now: One unit is in contract and asking prices have dropped to the mid to upper $800/SF range. This in contrast to the Satori, the 34-unit project on Bond Street that has not made any sales despite cutting prices 10-20% in November. Of course, their timing could not have been worse: they launched sales the week of the Lehman meltdown in September.

Then: The morning of our January post, there was a rally to support de Blasio’s resolution for fast-tracking the City’s study of downzoning Carroll Gardens. The issue: Limiting the height of new buildings and enlargements to match the prevailing character of the nabe.

Now: In July, City Council adopted a text amendment so that certain streets in the nabe would be treated as narrow rather than wide. This will limit the height of new construction along these streets and cause development to be more contextual in size and configuration. The BSA grandfathered in the 70′ Oliver House (2nd Pl & Smith) on the basis that the foundation was substantially complete by the time City Council adopted the amendment. This ruling is still hotly debated by the Carroll Gardens residents who led the downzoning charge with Oliver House as example numero uno they want it limited at 55′.

Then: City Planning had been quiet since July 2007 on their rezoning study of Gowanus.

Now: A draft rezoning proposal was presented to the public in May 2008 that would change about 25 blocks from manufacturing to mixed use. Most development would be limited in height from 5-8 stories, but 12 stories would be allowed in the waterfront district. Carroll Gardens residents have started a letter writing campaign to Marty Markowitz, asking that buildings in the waterfront be limited to 8 stories. Third + Bond will plug along regardless, as we are residential as-of-right and below our height limit. The rezoning could affect our potential buyers though: giving them even more faith in the location established residential neighborhood on one side, new residential neighborhood coming up on the other.

Back then, Gowanus Green was little more than a twinkle in our eye. Now, the Hudson Companies, along with several fantastic partners, are working toward ULURP for the Public Place site, which is south of Fourth St. Gowanus Green ties us more closely to the success of the neighborhood, which buyers should see as a positive.

Then: We saw price inflation along Third Avenue on the sale of old industrial buildings and Park Slope creeping across Fourth Ave.

Now: The Bell House, Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, Home Ec, Littlefield, Ultraviolet, Lemur have opened… there are more and more reasons to venture into Gowanus and not just to buy a cheap car part or drop by an open studio. Entertainment and retail interests are heightening.

Then: Women’s Wear Daily said, this South Brooklyn neighborhood, a sprawling grid of industrial warehouses and factories incongruously situated between the million-dollar brownstones of Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, with the 20-foot-deep Gowanus Canal ribboning through it, is emerging as an artists’ — and artisans’ — haven in a borough where rent by the square foot continues to skyrocket.

Now: New York Magazine puts more oomph behind WWD’s wisdom on the emerging arts haven of Gowanus, saying it has, unmistakably become Brooklyn’s newest culture cluster.

Then: We were working on demolishing the old industrial buildings on site.

Now: We are working on foundations for the new buildings.

Then: We were working toward our DOB permits.

Now: We have permits, sunk our piles in time to meet 421-a, and have overcome stop work orders too numerous to mention.

Then: We had a term sheet for a construction loan that was only slightly less generous that what we’d seen for the previous few years.

Now: That loan closed, and terms like those are no longer available.

Then: We had done 21 weeks of Brownstoner.

Now: We’ve done 65. We’ve shared our thoughts with you on what makes a good offering plan, how we name a project, the complications of meeting NYSERDA’s Energy Star requirements, comps, caps, collars, swaps, dual flush toilets, underpinning, piles, and more piles. We gave you interviews with Jonathan Marvel, the architect; Irene Berzak, the expeditor; Hakan Turkmenoglu, the contractor’s project manager; and a day in the life of Alison, Hudson’s project manager and blog writer. We gave you a birds’ eye photo of the site and asked you to vote on your favorite logo.

So, while it has been a rough year, there’s been a lot of good. And we’ve tried to keep you in the loop. Let us know if there are any particular topics you want us to cover or update you on in 2009. On the 2009 horizon are: construction successes and pitfalls, revealing the model residence and model’s decorators, the best and worst of subcontractors, LEED commissioning, sales and more.

Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-60 [Brownstoner]

From our lawyers: This is not an offering. No offering can be made until an offering plan is filed with the Department of Law of the State of New York.”