Year in Review: Biggest Stories of 2014

A look back at the biggest stories of 2014, in no particular order:

1. Property prices and rents continue to climb and surpass the highs of 2007, with prices in “prime” Brooklyn now exceeding $1,000 per square foot. The Pierhouse condos in Brooklyn Bridge Park, pictured above, sets records with average prices per square foot (in contract) at $1,850. A four-bedroom penthouse there is in contract for $11,180,000. The median for all types of homes in the borough stands at $587,515 at the end of the third quarter, a 4 percent increase over the year before and a record for Brooklyn, according to Douglas Elliman. It is also 8.8 percent above the high before the financial crisis — and Brooklyn is the only borough where sale prices are now higher than they were before the crash. At the same time, a lot of high priced houses (asking over $10,000,000) FAIL to sell. (Truman Capote’s old rental, 70 Willow Street, continues to hold the record for priciest townhouse at $12,500,000, set in 2012.)

2. The price gap between “emerging” and “prime” Brooklyn narrows. A narrow but nicely renovated house at 242 Gates Avenue in Bed Stuy, not far from the Clinton Hill border at Classon, sells for $3,000,000, topping the previous record of $2,250,000 (22 Arlington) by $750,000, while equivalent townhouses in Park Slope continue to sell for between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000. The median sale price of a townhouse in Crown Heights, Bed Stuy, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Bushwick leaps 86 percent in one year to $1,850,000, according to a third quarter market report from Corcoran.

3. The construction boom that took off last year advances to Bed Stuy, Bushwick, PLG, and Flatbush. Brookland Capital leads the pack — in sheer number of projects with more than 40 in the pipeline.  Walks through Bushwick over the summer and fall reveals two or three construction or renovation projects on just about every block.

4. National retailers and other big firms replace mom and pops in Williamsburg. Apple finally inks a lease for its first Brooklyn outpost, on Bedford Avenue. Starbucks, J.Crew, Madewell, Urban Outfitters open; Dumont, Moon River Chattel, and Northside Pharmacy close. Glasslands and Death by Audio prepare for their last shows.

5. Big real estate players arrive, especially Downtown and in Williamsburg.

6. Mayor de Blasio and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams propose rezoning East New York, Broadway, and other areas for mixed-income, high-rise housing.

7. Wood frame houses, including some that date to the early and mid 19th century, are torn down in large numbers to make way for bigger developments.

8. Gas stations, laundromats, churches, hospitals, libraries make way for apartment buildings. Junior’s decides to sell, then decides not to.

9. After an unbelievable year of shocking twists and turns, the state approves the sale of Long Island College Hospital to Fortis, the same developer SUNY wanted all along. Instead of a full-service hospital, the development will have a critical care center, and mostly luxury housing.

10. Epic drama in Prospect Lefferts Gardens over development, gentrification and zoning.

11. Two policemen killed in Bed Stuy.

12. Atlantic Yards rebrands itself Pacific Park, work stops on first tower and partners sue each other, breaks ground on more towers.

13. Developers embrace a popular format from yesteryear: The townhouse.

Rendering by Marvel Architects