NY Sun Interview with Williamsburg Broker
The subscription-only New York Sun ran this interview today with Aptsandlofts.com President David Maundrell… Q: How has the development of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg waterfront changed the market, and how have prices been affected in the last year? A: Prices have gone up dramatically in the last year, between 25% and 40%. Williamsburg is becoming…
The subscription-only New York Sun ran this interview today with Aptsandlofts.com President David Maundrell…
Q: How has the development of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg waterfront changed the market, and how have prices been affected in the last year?
A: Prices have gone up dramatically in the last year, between 25% and 40%. Williamsburg is becoming a more attractive place. It was a very, very large rental community, and the people who rented knew the pockets of good neighborhoods. They didn’t need to be sold by a broker. They know it already and they’re happy there.
Brooklyn Broker’s Favorite Hood [NY Sun]
Homepage [Aptsandlofts.com]
Q: Are there still deals to be had for buyers in Williamsburg?
A: Absolutely. There are two new projects underway. One, called NOLA, is around the corner from the L train. It’s on a great street in a very safe part of Williamsburg. You can get a two bedroom for $399,000 in that building. Tower 78 is also coming out, with lofts with ceilings from 16 feet to 20 feet. They start at $415,000. Buyers who are coming in the initial phases tend to do well. Also, Broadway Riverview is the third rehab on Broadway. It was an old hotel. It’s a really cool building. Broadway is going to be huge in the next five years. There are over five projects scheduled on the Broadway main strip.
Q: What are some of the hot areas in Brooklyn now, aside from Williamsburg?
A: Greenpoint is going to be an amazing place. It has historic buildings and tree-lined streets, and it’s one of the safest neighborhoods in New York City. It’s a great neighborhood if people can deal with a little inconvenience with transportation. The G doesn’t go directly into Manhattan, but crosstown in Brooklyn. But if someone has a car, Greenpoint is a great place to live. I see a lot of great things happening there.
Q: Where are there good deals on rentals in Brooklyn?
A: A lot of people are renting now in Bushwick, as long as they stay on the L line. Usually the artists come in first and other people follow. The artists look for space at a reasonable price.
You can find a two-bedroom for $1,100, renovated. Greenpoint also has good rental deals and it’s a safe neighborhood.
Q: If you were advising a young couple looking to buy their first home in the city, where would you suggest they look?
I would say Williamsburg. Its growth has just begun. Once redevelopment and rezoning hit, Williamsburg is going to be a brand new neighborhood, like Battery Park City. It’s in the very beginning stages overall, but with the brand new buildings and lofts going up, Williamsburg will become what Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights are now.
I have a 20+ jazz musician son and his roommate wanting to live in Brooklyn; while he is very hip, down to earth and has traveled and lived all over, I am ignorant as to the “better” and safer neighborhoods in Brooklyn. He is totally cool not living in a “trendy” area as long as there is a little space and a safe walk to and from the subway – any suggestions?
Ahhhh as I step out the front door of my Williamsburg apartment in the morning, greeted by the sight of a gaggle of “hipster” 20 somethings stapling up yet another poster protesting the “destruction” of the character of “thier” beloved neighborhood. To see the throngs opposing the changes coming to the neighborhood they grew up in and watc…..oh wait! Oh that’s right, they all moved here 3 years ago from some distant suburb to be a “part of IT”. And now these people have such strong emotional ties to a neighborhood they wouldn’t have dared SET FOOT IN 15 years ago. The price of being a native of a international cosmopolitan center – the fact that everyone who’s just arrived or is in the middle of thier stay until they move on lays claim to your own beloved home ground, “defending” it without a clue as to what is was or where it could be. Most will be long gone by the time it becomes whatever it may, either to another neighborhood or another city. THIS IS THE NATURE OF NYC – CONSTANT CHANGE, for all of you new arrivals. Remember when there was a neighborhood called Hell’s Kitchen? Remember when the LES was strewn with junkies. All of you who party your naive posteriors away smiling and laughing at say, ummmmm Max Fish – 15 years ago you would have tepped on a syringe while doing your happy dance AND YOU WOULDN”T HAVE LIKED IT. And you wouldn’t have staged a revolution to save it’s character. For every one of you that I have to hear lay your grandfatherly claim of having been here for “10 years”, well I’ve been here for 27. And those people you see sometimes on the street, you know ones that dont listen to Bright Eyes, have no idea what “electroclash” is, and didn’t go to FIT.They might be a little older, or look a bit Italian or Polish. You know the ones who seem out of place? THEY ARE THE NEIGHBORHOOD – not you because you like to sip a latte and discuss Che Guevara. And you know who’s happy to see the neighborhood improve and buildings go up. THEM, or should I say US. It’s a big city, there’s plenty of room for everyone. If you don’t like it, start a new Williamsburg – WHEREVER YOU LIKE. I for one welcome the waterfront not being a TOXICOLOGICAL DISASTER AREA anymore, even if it does mean that it has to transform into a much greater horror, new buildings and A PARK.
Well, have to defend the brokers (Apts and Lofts) who sold me my apartment in Williamsburg (which btw was designed by scarano, and I happen to love it). They were extremely professional, helpful and armed with credibility that companies like the Corcoran Group and Dougas Elliman do not have. They live in Williamsburg, work in Williamsburg and hang out in Williamsburg; CG and DE have elaborate marketing plans that are employed to “seemingly” relate to the buyer/renter: toss the suit, tossle the hair, quote the lastest press mention… Someone has to sell/rent the apartments; rather it be Apts and Lofts.
And these folks don’t price the rentals, the owners do. I agree with the previous post that it all comes down to supply and demand. Prices seem ridiculous? To you maybe, to someone else, apparently not. If they are asking the prices, one can only assume they are getting them. Over-hyped? Overrated? Looking for the next best thing? People that love Williamsburg don’t love it b/c the Times did a piece on it or b/c Vogue mentioned a “chic” dining spot. If people think that it’s sooo passe, blah, blah, blah…well, go on to the next best thing. Have a blast tackling Bushwick, Bed Stuy and Crown Heights. I’m staying in my brand-new Williamsburg pad with amenities up the wazoo.
Let me say as a person who has lived in Williamsburg pre-Planeat Thailand and pre-media buzz…
Williamsburg, over 30 years ago, was nothing like the Williamsburg we know today. Families raised their children there, but the “safe” areas were confined to just a few blocks. There was no venturing out into the Southside, and there was no Northside shopping or restaurants. In fact, the Southside was full of crime and drugs, and the locals, although armed with their Brooklyn smarts and machismo, would not even think to step foot there.
On behalf of the true Williamsburg natives–not the artists or hipsters, or the new types that both groups have a distaste for–the resurgence has been wonderful. The number of people raising families IS growing and the local businesses are catering wonderfully to them. It still, in my opinion, has retained a neighborhood-feel that Manhattan can’t touch. The new developments are exciting and pretty incredible actually. There are so many choices now, not just “crappy buildings with siding” as someone mentioned. Remember, demand fuels supply. And as for displaced artists, this is an age-old dilemma; one that will continually occur. The only solution: buy cheap instead of rent cheap. Then, when gentrification occurs, which it will, everyone wins.
I have to use this opportunity to tell anyone who’s considering using the knowledgable folks and aptsandlofts that those guys are a bunch of overcharging schmucks. When we were attempting to move to a new apartment in this area with a broker from there, we spent a week calling him leading up to the lease signing to get him to ask the landlord a few basic questions about what would be acceptable in the apartment. Instead of answering the questions we asked, he repeatedly told us that he was sure everything was fine, relax, no big deal. Well, when we went to sign the lease with the Polish speaking landlord and her translator, shit hit the fan when we finally got to voice our concerns. None of what we asked would be okay, and thankfully, we walked right out of there without handing over the fee in cash as our broker had requested. I really advise anyone who is considering renting with them to go ANYWHERE else.
I don’t know why I’m bothering, but I know what crack vials look like. They are also used for ketamine aka Special K, and any other powdered drug, and plenty of hipsters and trendies use those drugs, all the time. As with ‘trane worshipping jazz musicians doing heroin, many, many misguided young actors feel the need to emulate Morton Downey Jr. and smoke crack in order to try and attain his level of genius.
Anway, I agree with Nate. I’m just not sure the gentrification is going to reach so deep past the BQE as the Apt&Lofts projects are, or, if it does, it’ll be 4 20-somethings renting a crappy 1 bedroom for $2500 … that could happen.
As far as me not having a job right now, well, February is always a slow month.
“How can he think that Williamsburg will be like Battery Park City, Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights all rolled into one? ”
Because the fast-track redevelopment plans are all for giant buildings that look like battery park city by the waterfront, and the gradual gentrification is all for blocks that look like park slope and brooklyn heights.
Dick’s comments are absurd, as anyone in the neighborhood knows. What Mr. Broker ignores is that so much of the housing stock in Williamsburg is cheap and ugly, ugly, ugly, siding galore, and literally sinking because of the high water table, so you get sloping floors etc. Williamsburg has the most bizarre pricing, the 1.7 million dollar storefront on grand st. – a DUMP with no architectural integrity, for example.
I can only guess that many of the properties that apts&lofts sells are sold to investors who then rent out the property … I’ve lived on grand st. in williamsburg for 10 years and seen a lot of changes, but the idea of buying a close to 400,000 studio “loft” on Ten Eyck & Union is really a stretch — real estate in the burg really looks like the heart of the bubble to me. I guess it really comes down to how much people are willing to spend to be “cool.”
Do NOT move to GreenPoint! Stay OUT! We have no interest in morphing into another over-priced, over-hyped neighbordhood like Williamsburg. We have enough yuppies spilling over from neighboring Williamsburg as it is!