Open House Picks
Park Slope 475 4th Street Brooklyn Bridge Realty Sunday 12-3 $2,990,000 GMAP P*Shark Crown Heights 859 St. Marks Avenue MMM Management Sunday 12-1:30 $1,500,000 GMAP P*Shark Crown Heights 1265 Dean Street Corcoran Sunday 2-3:30 $1,100,000 GMAP P*Shark Bedford Stuyvesant 471 Decatur Street Location Location Location Sunday 12-2 $895,000 GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
475 4th Street
Brooklyn Bridge Realty
Sunday 12-3
$2,990,000
GMAP P*Shark
Crown Heights
859 St. Marks Avenue
MMM Management
Sunday 12-1:30
$1,500,000
GMAP P*Shark
Crown Heights
1265 Dean Street
Corcoran
Sunday 2-3:30
$1,100,000
GMAP P*Shark
Bedford Stuyvesant
471 Decatur Street
Location Location Location
Sunday 12-2
$895,000
GMAP P*Shark
Montrose Morris:
That was an excellent, information-filled post, well-balanced, and useful for anybody thinking about the Crown Heights houses.
I learned about Wilson, the architect, when I was writing an undergraduate New York history paper at Columbia and went to his office on 125th Street. There, on the wall, was a technicolor rendering of the New York Avenue apartment house. When I learned the address, my heart sank. (Today, of course, developers are smarter, and would have included wonderful P.S. 41 as the building’s base featuring duplex “loft” units in the former high-ceilinged classrooms. I wish!)
Wilson was one of those grand old men, perfectly dressed, with an aristocratic mien, and flawless diction. He may or may not have met FDR, but I could easily imagine him sharing a martini during one of the president’s famous cocktail hours (Ivy Leaguer to Ivy Leaguer — at least as they were back in the 30s). His favorite story: Being turned down at a well-known architectural office because he was African American only to be asked decades later to renovate one of the office’s buildings!
As for the Dean Street house, I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one (the only time I’ve had an issue with you in Brownstoner). It may be smaller, but it’s certainly better than the St Marks number. Sure the latter is magnificent, but from what I can see, its facade has been stripped up top while the Dean property appears to be in original shape. And the plan is wonderfully flexible and livable.
I was so convinced of it that I even asked my brother whether he’d be interested in taking a look with me. He also keeps a place in town and this could give us a chance to consolidate. My pitch: the garage, where he could store his Jeep on his trips down from Maine. He thought the house is great, but his girlfriend is a born and bred East Sider and never thinks of going east of Lexington Avenue.
“Maybe in ten years,” he said. So, if some time a decade from now you see a couple of old duffs pottering around one of those Crown Heights beauties, come up and say hello.
NOP
4:02 here again. i have to back up 5:44. i have not been on wall street nearly as long, but was back office in 01 (switched to equity side in 04) and remember the pain. this feels way worse to me. all my former colleagues at a big broker (you would know the name) are very unhappy/freaked out right now. i have friends at bear. some found jobs, some didn’t. i hear of hedge funds liquidating and doing poorly every day. SAC (one of the most successful hedge funds) just announced it is shutting down a division and firing all the staff from it. this is already very bad and it is certainly getting worse. if we have a commercial leg (which is a real possibility) to the downside this cycle, the only comparison we will have is to the great depression. i certainly hope some of these people ONLY lose 20%. none for me, thanks.
“This cutback on Wall Street may be painful now, but it’s also a great thing for this city in the long term.”
5:55 here. I agree on some level. When I first joined Wall Street, it did not dominate the landscape as it does today. This is very very healthy for NYC in terms of diversity, arts and culture and the general balance of professions in the city.
Why? Simply because NYC will be more affordable. In other words, because real estate values and rents will decline (are declining). That will be the single strongest driver towards greater diversity in the city.
The downsides are many, however, including:
– Economic suffering for most non-Wall Street industries in NYC
– Municipal budget cutbacks (decreased services – already happening w/MTA). This will hurt SCHOOLS and SAFETY as well.
– Greater crime (let’s hope this doesn’t happen, but naive to think it won’t)
etc. etc.
There’s a cloud to every silver lining.
Montrose- good to see you back! Thanks for the information. I love that block of Dean and the corner house looks so awesome.
Sorry to see Legionnaire’s Disease is posting his nonsense again. He seems awfully proud of naming himself a demon, yet seems to want us to believe he is a fundamentalist Christian. Or perhaps it’s just a function of how poor his logic is, as evidenced by his less than stellar arguments against Obama, liberals, gay rights, etc.
Back to the topic of houses, both of these Crown Heights houses are architectural beauties on 2 of the best blocks in Crown Heights. Unfortunately, I do agree that both are priced too high, especially what is probably the better house, the one on St. Marks.
Thanks for the info, NOP, I did not know that the StuyPark House was designed by a black architect. That is the high rise modern building referred to as “projects†across the street from the Dean St House. It has a high concentration of active senior citizens, and may be Mitchell-Lama, and is certainly very well kept and quiet. The building was built on the site of a school, which Nostalgic on Park, as well as many of my friends who grew up here, remember well. Across the street from this house are both of the churches shown in the listing, and those are both masterpieces of sacred architecture, especially the brick Union United Methodist Church. Both of the blocks these houses are on are two of the most photographed and mentioned streets in Crown Heights, and are a pleasure to walk down.
Since I live a block from the Dean St house, I’ve seen the sellers fixing up their house for the last 7 years. I’ve only been to the doorway, and have seen the staircase, which is beautiful, but haven’t seen the rest of the house. But because of the corner location, the size and scope of the house, as well as the two car garage, I can see them getting pretty close, if not making it to a million dollars. A one family across the street from this house, sold by the same agent, went for over 900K last year, or the year before, and this house is much bigger. It only takes the right person to go for it, despite the scorn and ridicule of many on this thread.
The St. Marks place is a massive house on a truly impressive block. (Both blocks are landmarked, by the way.) Buying this house would really be an investment looking towards the future, as it is a case of buying a fixer upper on what could arguably be the best block in Crown Heights. This block boasts the last free standing mansion of the Gilded Age of the St. Marks District, as it used to be called, which is the Dean Sage House on the corner. It also boasts 2 semidetached Montrose Morris designed houses only a couple of doors down from this one, one of which has an amazing turret and loggia on the upper floors, as well as a very large intact carriage house in the back. With the notable exception of a hideous Fedders house in the middle of the block, as well as a misplaced modern Baptist Church, every other house on this block is a huge, beautiful gem. The new Children’s Museum is directly across the street, as is an elementary school and Brower Park is behind them. Most of the houses on this block have been in the same families for generations, and most are exceptionally well cared for. This was Crown Height’s Gold Coast, and will be again.
That said, assuming that the house needs mucho work, I think the seller is pricing it as if it were completely renovated and you only need your toothbrush and towel to move in. It’s way too expensive for where we are now, and for the economy, and I predict they will have to go down in price considerably. As a comp, the completely renovated, modernized down to the central air and wine cellar mansion on the other side of Brower Park, at 1094 Park Place, a past HOD garnering much discussion here, is listed at $1.395M, and that one you could just bring your toothbrush, and after a year, still no takers. This house is certainly worthy of a decent price, and certainly a top notch renovation. I plan on going to the open house because I never turn down a chance to see the inside of a house on that block.
Sorry about the length of the post, but both of these houses are worthy of lengthy discourse, not just the usual “Crown Heights? Are you nuts?†dismissals.
– Montrose Morris
This cutback on Wall Street may be painful now, but it’s also a great thing for this city in the long term. We need a more diversified economy, and having 1 in 5 jobs tied somehow to a Wall Street job is not something we want to continue. This forced diversification of the New York City economy will create for a healthier economy down the line.
Just be patient. These things always go in waves. We just had a huge wave and in another few years, this will be a thing of the past. In the meantime, enjoy your family, go discover some of the terrific things you can enjoy for free in this city and hold tight. People in this world go through a lot worse than having their 2 million dollar homes go down in value by 20%.
Think about the big picture a little more and look outside your bubble.
Go take a walk and rediscover what it is that makes New York so special to you.
Not to mention, 12:22, are you aware that this time around most mid-level and senior bankers have seen their nest eggs decline by over 50%? 70% for Lehman. 95% for Bear.
Trust me my friend, ’87, ’91 and ’98 don’t come close to this mess. ’01/02 might, only in terms of the # of layoffs (so far), but bankers didn’t lose as much of their net worth in ’02.
“11:59 – Maybe you and the people know just aren’t quality enough to get aggressively recruited. I was here for 91, 98, and 02 as well, and this just isn’t that bad. I’m not old enough to have been here for 87, but my dad was in the business back then, and in his opinion that was def worse than this as well.
I also think that anyone who works in finance and expects job security didn’t do their homework before they signed on. The hand on the shoulder can come at any time. That’s just the way it is. If you don’t like it, try civil service.”
That’s funny, because the wall streeters I know are MDs at Goldman, Lehman, Citi, JPM, Deutsche. In banking, in equities, in fixed income. I myself have been in M&A for about 20 years. I suggest you speak to some people who actually work on wall street on the client side. I’m not sure what you do, 12:22, but your understanding of what is happening on wall street right now is so off it’s laughable. Sorry, but I truly have a hard time believing you are close to the action at all. Tell me, what area are you in?
I have been getting calls from plenty of folks looking for a job. They talk to recruiters all the time. In this environment, recruiters are worthless.
Two weeks ago I chatted with a recruiter at one of the top firms whose focus is investment banking. Her words: “It’s abysmal. Maybe I should just take the rest of the year off.”
I have to admit…I really love the North Slope too…despite all the negative press about the hood, I am still always blown away when I walk through some of those named streets near the park. Something about those streets feel so grand, yet comfortable and inviting all at the same time. 3rd Street is gorgeous, but it’s a little too much for me.
When we talk on this blog, we should remember the things we fell in love with about these neighborhoods too, instead of constantly ripping every single thing to shreds. I know that can be fun too, but let’s not forget how freaking beautiful this place is. It truly is an urban oasis in the middle of the largest megalopolis in the country.