Mystery Downtown Development Going Affordable
The New York Post ran a story yesterday mentioning two luxury condo buildings in talks with the city to unload their unsold units as affordable housing. One building is in Harlem and the other in Downtown Brooklyn, according to the article, but officials cannot reveal where the properties are while negotiations are still occurring. Any…
The New York Post ran a story yesterday mentioning two luxury condo buildings in talks with the city to unload their unsold units as affordable housing. One building is in Harlem and the other in Downtown Brooklyn, according to the article, but officials cannot reveal where the properties are while negotiations are still occurring. Any guesses, readers? The article says that the city is in negotiations with “banks that have foreclosed on the properties,” and that the Brooklyn development is in Downtown. The leading guesses in the Forum are Forte and be@schermerhorn (above). What do you think?
City Dealing to Make Luxe Condos Cheaper [NY Post]
If it is the Forte, I’d say they should ask Brownstoner for their advertising dollars back.
🙂
“The Avalon’s rent is expensive as well.”
The Avalon is still under construction. They can ask whatever they want.
Rob is so right about this – Putting aside some aesthetic issues, the projects seem to an outsider to be better built than a lot of the new construction condos out there, which just brings home the hilarity of someone borrowing a million bucks to live in a flimsy, depreciating asset for a monthly after-tax cost that is higher that what they would spend to rent.
Brownstones/rowhouses are going to OK though. And by “OK” I mean prices won’t go down very much more and there will always be an active market for them – no one will ever get frozen in as they can in when a condo development goes bust. This is where I disagree with some of the bears.
BrooklynIsHome – Agree, this place clearly cannot be financed. But it just hit the market today so I don’t think there is a price history with this one. One way or another if this buyer thinks someone is going to pour a million hard cash dollars into this place, then spend another $700k or $800k or whatever doing a top-to-bottom gut reno, only to end up $1.8 million in the hole on a modestly sized house on Park Place between 5th and 6th (near scenic Flatbush, Atlantic Center, Atlantic Yards, and the skanky end of 5th Ave), in this market, the seller is under the influence of either hard drugs or an irresponsible realtor.
Let’s get back to the downtown brooklyn topic. Do you think in future 3 years this area is going to go a lot better?
Would more people move in to this area?
What’s the consequences of having affordable housing in those condos?
With so many high rising buildings and units, the price should come down a lot but I still don’t see this happened.
The Avalon’s rent is expensive as well.
The developer of be@ built 53 Boerum and was going to go rental when he saw the opportunity to sell as condos. He has already said that he would go rental with this one if he had to.
Affordable is not cheap – you need to meet income guidelines that many people may meet but they will not have the downpayment. Having OWNERS in a building is always a good thing. Most of the developers were never going to be able to provide the amenities that they promised at the fees that were budgeted.
just a little math. Be@ has 250 units multiply that by 50,000 and it would come to 12,000,000. The city only has 20,000,000 for the entire program. Forte has about 70 units left which would com to 3,500,000. Its the Forte!
also the actual projects are MUCH better built and higher quality (minus the fancy schmancy finishes of course) than these crappy condos.
*rob*
Forest City Ratner defined “affordable housing” as applying to families making up to $130K for AY. The term has lost all practical meaning. Those who wish to have everyone running in fear of “project dwellers” invading their lux pads use the term for their own reasons, as do those who expect to be living down the hall with those making much more than the median average for Brooklyn.
That leaves those in the middle, the average working people who want and need good, truly affordable housing, in limbo. These are the people who would be good tenants in a condo building, and appreciative of the opportunity, if given. The whole idea of emptying out the projects, so you can “raise” (that’s raze)them is alarmist crap, reminiscent of block busting tactics of the not so long ago past.