Next Goldman M&A Target: Brooklyn Heights?
We got an email a few days ago from a regular tipster who’s always been right in the past so we’re tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt this time around. While pointing us in the direction of a recent sale on Joralemon Street, he noted that the buyer happened to be a…
We got an email a few days ago from a regular tipster who’s always been right in the past so we’re tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt this time around. While pointing us in the direction of a recent sale on Joralemon Street, he noted that the buyer happened to be a Goldman Sachs executive. This was, he claimed, part of a trend that’s seen members of the city’s most successful investment bank crossing the East River (more than usual) in recent months to buy a piece of the rock in Brooklyn Heights. Another broker we quizzed, who has several Goldman clients looking in the neighborhood at the moment concurred, said he knew of two Goldman deals that have taken place in recent weeks. The only bank where bonuses are expected to rise significantly this season, Goldman bankers and traders are certainly in the best position to snap up those $5 million-plus houses. Think there’s anything to this “trend” or has it just always been so?
The wall streeters worth talking about live in Greenwich, CT people. They’ve heard about the cutsie neighborhoods in brooklyn, and may buy a place for their trust fund children – but they will never themselves live here. Now if you’re calling the low level associates and VPs (1 to 3 or so yrs out of college) “the wall streeters” – you’re giving them much too much credit – they’ve not yet earned the right – they’re still getting us coffee – so of course these neighborhoods are fitting for them; they can feel superior to the artsy fartsy types who like to believe they live among “bankers”!
Sure, you have a few public finance banking underwriters etc in BH, but believe me the money(wo)men are not in Brooklyn.
“Did i see someone describe BH as shabby?”
Yep, that was me. I’ll say it again. It’s shabby. Since I work in advertising, here’s a free slogan for ya:
Brooklyn Heights.
Close to Manhattan.
Far from interesting.
Yes…it has shabby edges. NYC is a rather shabby city even in nice areas. It’s not a well managed city esthetically. Aside from the horrors of nouveau-riche redos of townhouses on the UES, many areas of the UES that are in decent places are shabby. Only very specific places are completely manicured and perfect. The UES has some real ugliness too. Come on, BH has shabby areas. It’s not shanty-town shabbiness…but there are plenty of townhouse that have had very mediocre treatment serving as apartment houses for some many decades.
Please, let ’em think it’s shabby … they can move to sparkling Billyburg with the rest of the Vermonters I mean Brooklynites.
Did i see someone describe BH as shabby?
That’s the most absurd comment i’ve heard in a good while.
To the person who wrote the recent 9:58 AM comments today 12/12/07, thank you for your understanding. There were a couple of more sensible people on this topic who seemed to be able to relate their personal experiences.
You are correct that there are many oldsters buying property for their youngsters! This is what many people do not apparently seem to realize.
I’m not sure why my statements exposed me to such vitriol and denials from what I would call “angry youth”. I was simply pointing out things from my own experiences.
I feel uncomfortable reading things that make it seem so many people have preconceived ideas and assumptions about people who happen to have over-average wealth, be it inherited or earned, things that just do not hold true. People will not necessarily choose to live in ostentatious mega-houses just because they can afford it. If you live in huge houses, you need staff. And a lot of people who grew up with household staff all the time don’t want to live that way later on because you can end up having no privacy and there are so many complications.
It’s very irksome reading the tone of the comments on this site that battle around the money-lines. The writers are doing themselves a disservice. They also cannot conceive of what is really going on around them if they stay this ignorant.
TheGrammarLady
Jersey City is the new Brooklyn
truth.
This news flash is about as cutting edge as it would be to call Soho ‘up and coming.’ Born and bred in the Heights with a lot of Wall streeters kids. The only news flash is that the rest of you discovered the neighborhood much to the natives chagrin.
Park Slope is a great neighborhood. It’s the granola eating people that live there that suck.