Williamsburg Residential Development

[antinimby]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2769659586_cae5061a92_o.jpg
jschumacher (http://flickr.com/photos/jschumacher/2769659586/)

[Tectonic]

Very nice overview of Williamsburg.

[NYC4Life]

http://www.williamsburgisdead.typepad.com/my_weblog/



October 07, 2008

Two Northside Piers to Manhattanize Williamsburg

http://www.williamsburgisdead.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/07/gordongecko.jpg
I got a little treat in my inbox today--an email from Urban Daddy titled "Williamsburg Starts Ballin'." I was intrigued as I figured Williamsburg had always been ballin', but oh how I was wrong. It was apparently advertorial content for the Two Northside Piers condominium towers:

Friends move to Williamsburg, they get hipper. Their tastes improve. They start talking about hot new bands. Suddenly they've got a lot of interesting thoughts on denim.

The problem is, you always tell yourself, they gave up Manhattan. And more important: the Manhattan lifestyle.

But all that changes with Two Northside Piers.
As a public service to you, dear reader, allow me to translate.

Oh no, you lost all your money! You can't afford to live in Manhattan anymore. You could move to Brooklyn but everyone there is all like "Have you read such-and-such book?" and "I love art blah blah blah." Luckily there is a super-shiny condo for you to move into. It's got a gym so you can totally blast your delts, and a "hotel-style private concierge service" so you don't have to go outside and be judged by holier-than-thou hipsters. So what if the last book you read was written by Dan Marino! Anyway, you'll be close to Manhattan and you can totally convince that chick at Tenjune that you live in Williamsburg because you are a sensitive artist or some shit. Did I mention it has a pool?

[brianac]

Original rendering.

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2197/2438396969_8fc942e75a_o.jpg

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/04/24/bonkers_on_berry_street_2_44_berry_renovation_reve aled.php

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Latest.

Burg's 44 Berry Gets the Friedrich Treatment Big Time

Monday, October 13, 2008, by Robert

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3176/2939389188_5523d28a5b_o.jpg

44 Berry as it currently looks as the renovation progresses.

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3176/2939389188_74f0f92c97_s.jpg (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/burgs_44_berry_gets_the_friedrich_treatment_big_ti me.php?o=0) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3292/2938537153_9589499a4b_s.jpg (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/burgs_44_berry_gets_the_friedrich_treatment_big_ti me.php?o=1) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3173/2939389418_5a2c0b3f75_s.jpg (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/burgs_44_berry_gets_the_friedrich_treatment_big_ti me.php?o=2) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3248/2939389084_069ab8f291_s.jpg (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/burgs_44_berry_gets_the_friedrich_treatment_big_ti me.php?o=3) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3048/2938537551_1e8bb21975_s.jpg (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/burgs_44_berry_gets_the_friedrich_treatment_big_ti me.php?o=4) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3246/2939389276_320b5215f2_s.jpg (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/burgs_44_berry_gets_the_friedrich_treatment_big_ti me.php?o=5)

Followers of development on the hot strip of Berry Street in Williamsburg around N. 10 and N. 11 Street might recall the reveal of 44 Berry (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/04/24/bonkers_on_berry_street_2_44_berry_renovation_reve aled.php). That's an old industrial building that isn't being demolished, but is being rehabbed and will return as rental loft units. Once upon a time it was a seltzer building. The issue is that big holes are being hacked into the building (which were never in the renderings) for AC units. The tipster who pointed this out noted:

At the corner of N 11th and Berry in Williamsburg, a beautiful old warehouse is being turned into luxury rental apts. What is astonishing is what they are doing to the façade of this brick building. They are cutting into the spaces below each of the old windows for the purpose of installing those fugly wall-through air conditioners that we usually see in cheap new construction, the "Fedders' specials"...A real shame to ruin what was such a promising renovation!
Actually, they're Friedrich! Whee. What a freaking relief. The building will ultimately have 42 rental units and eight retail spaces at street level. We are now confident it will make a superb Rendering vs. Reality candidate.
· Bonkers on Berry Street #2: 44 Berry Renovation Revealed (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/04/24/bonkers_on_berry_street_2_44_berry_renovation_reve aled.php) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/13/burgs_44_berry_gets_the_friedrich_treatment_big_ti me.php

Copyright © 2008 Curbed

[NYC4Life]

NY Post

SCHOOLS' NETS GAIN
By RICH CALDER

Last updated: 11:51 am
October 21, 2008
Posted: 4:08 am
October 21, 2008


The Nets have yet to start building their long-delayed Brooklyn arena, but team brass are breaking ground on posh playgrounds at public schools.

The first of eight being funded with $150,000 from Nets owner Bruce Ratner and Barclays Bank, which has naming rights to the new arena, is set to be unveiled today at PS 19 in Williamsburg.


Copyright 2008 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

[NYC4Life]

Brownstoner

October 31, 2008

DCP Wants to Keep Williamsburg and Greenpoint Low-Rise (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/10/cpd_wants_to_ke.php)

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/cb1-rezone-1008.jpg

Okay, it's a little late for that, which is why earlier this week, the Department of City Planning, Community Board 1 and Council Members Reyna and Yassky chatted with Greenpoint and Williamsburg residents about the proposal to rezone 175 blocks of their neighborhoods in the hopes of preserving "the existing built character and to encourage new affordable housing," per a press release that landed in our inbox. "These areas have a consistent row house context of 3-4 stories with slightly bulkier buildings and retail uses on some of the wider streets and commercial corridor. In recent years these areas have seen new residential construction that is at times significantly taller than the current low- to mid-rise scale of the neighborhood. This rezoning seeks to prevent future out-of-context development in this area." Part of the plan includes height limits: four to five stories on narrow side streets and six to seven on wide streets, with eight stories in select spots. The ULURP should begin come winter.

[Derek2k3]

Why does that context need to be preserved? The ugly vinyl-sided row-houses are no better than the ugly finger buildings popping up all over the place.

How does it make sense to encourage bulkier buildings that will demolish more of the existing context that they are trying to preserve? Apparently the neighborhood's character is only defined by the height of its buildings.

[antinimby]

I've said this before, but the Dept of City Planning, while in the beginning of this administration, had really progressive, forward-looking, planning ideas but over time, the constant complaining from communities about heights of new developments, they too have been mentally "worn" down to the point now that they actually are believing that "height is the enemy" themselves.

Just about every rezoning they are doing, come with restrictions on height, where there were none before. Often times, their MO predictably is usually to increase conservatively the FAR (almost miniscule) for wider boulevards and streets (with height limits put in) and reduce the FAR for smaller sidestreets (also with height limits).

I am not sure these rezonings are any better than if they had just left them alone.

[NYC4Life]

Brownstoner

November 12, 2008

The Edge Tops Out (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php)

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-01.jpg
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-01_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=1#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-02_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=2#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-03_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=3#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-04_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=4#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-05_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=5#gallery-1089)
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-06_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=6#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-07_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=7#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-08_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=8#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-09_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=9#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-10_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=10#gallery-1089)
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-11_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=11#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-12_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=12#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-13_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=13#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-14_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=14#gallery-1089) http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/edge-top-15_restrict_width_72.jpg (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/11/bono_views_from.php?gallery1089Pic=15#gallery-1089)

We're just back from the topping out party for The Edge, Douglaston Development's huge waterfront development on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. Even Marty was there. Gotta love those views!

[NYC4Life]

New York Magazine

Same Space, Different Place
What price drama?


By S.Jhoanna Robledo (http://nymag.com/nymag/author_robledo)
Published Nov 30, 2008

http://images.nymag.com/realestate/features/theedge081208_1_560.jpg


Apartment 20GH (left); Apartment 26KL (right)

http://images.nymag.com/realestate/features/theedge081208_2_198.jpg
(Photo: Courtesy of Williamsburg Edge)


Try $265,000. These two condos at the Edge, on Williamsburg’s waterfront, are near-identical (the larger of the two, by 78 square feet, is actually cheaper). Each has two balconies, too. Why the price gap, then? Apartment 20GH’s layout is fairly straightforward, with a slim kitchen separating the living and dining rooms with views of Brooklyn. In 26KL, however, the combined living-dining spans 30 feet and is bookended by terraces, with views of Manhattan. “The buyer who likes to entertain will want the KL,” says Sarah Burke, sales director at the Edge. “It has the wow factor."


Copyright © 2008, New York Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

[NYC4Life]

Curbed.com

Burg Groups Say City Screwing Them on Housing Money

Monday, December 1, 2008, by Robert

http://curbed.com/uploads/2008_12_NorthSidePiers.jpg

We wouldn't normally go back this far for a story, but since it appeared over the Thanksgiving weekend when people were out of town, sleeping off dinner or getting trampled at stores at 5AM, we figure it's worth a serious visit. The lead in the Daily News story was that "the city is backing off a pledge to spend $2 million to battle tenant displacement along the Brooklyn waterfront." Part of the deal that accompanied the 2005 rezoning that allowed luxe highrises like the Edge and Northside Piers on the Burg waterfront was funding for groups to protect longtime tenants from displacement. The trouble is the city is now cutting the funds by $550,000. One community leader says "You're going to see a lot more low-income people being forced out. You're going to see an increase in harassment and neglect to get these people out because there will be no enforcement, nobody there to help them." The North Brooklyn Tenant Anti-Displacement Collaborative is losing $300,000 of its $1.3 million grant and its director says the group is going to have to ay off people that provide legal representation to tenants facing eviction or harassment. The local Council Member David Yassky, who supported the rezoning, complains, "this was a promise." A study at the time predicted rezoning could displace 2,500 people. Former Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff pledged to create the $2 million fund in a letter to the City Council before the rezoning vote. Some people say a large chunk of the money went to politically-connected groups and left others scrambling for funds. And so it goes.

[NYC4Life]

Gowanus Lounge

Giant Fart Cloud Building Rises in Burg with Open Door Policy!

December 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment (http://www.gowanuslounge.com/2008/12/01/giant-fart-cloud-building-rises-in-burg-with-open-door-policy/#comments)

http://www.gowanuslounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/giant-fart-cloud-rising.jpg (http://www.gowanuslounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/giant-fart-cloud-rising.jpg)

That kind of cheap looking thing rising at the corner of N. 11 St. & Roebling in Williamsburg that has now reached the imposing height of two stories? It’s the Giant Fart Cloud Building, so-called because it is a condo (actually, we hear it’s going to be a rental building) replacing an old cabbage processing plant that left the corner smelling like godzilla had cut the cheese. (Click here for all our coverage (http://www.gowanuslounge.com/?s=giant+fart+cloud+building) of this sordid little story.) We’re looking for major high-grade construction quality from the early looks of this thing. It will eventually be 66-feet-tall, with six stories and ten apartments that should hit the market at a very interesting moment.


http://www.gowanuslounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/fart-gate-open.jpg (http://www.gowanuslounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/fart-gate-open.jpg)


© 2008 Gowanus Lounge

[NYC4Life]

Curbed.com

Construction Watch: Another Big One Up Near McCarren Park

Friday, December 12, 2008, by Robert

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3047/3103291542_e1e8324c6a_o.jpg
A view of 524 Manhattan Avenue from McCarren Park.

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3047/3103291542_49628bc536_s.jpg (http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3047/3103291542_e1e8324c6a_o.jpg) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3115/3103291724_2da3f8d36c_s.jpg (http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3115/3103291724_d87d45b823_o.jpg) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3272/3102457661_a3a56ebccc_s.jpg (http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3272/3102457661_8fb82bdc77_o.jpg) http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3028/3103291596_0b5c41194d_s.jpg (http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3028/3103291596_6e5fc90e48_o.jpg)

The booming area around McCarren Park is getting another bigish and this one is significant because (a). it's next to Robert Scarano's masterwork, the Manhattan Park Condos, (b). it's blocking a lot of views at Loftology and (c). residents can roll out of bed and land inside Enid's. Also, there are good view of McCarren Park and it's adjacent to the condo heavy Tahoe Triangle (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/02/20/checking_in_all_the_tahoe_triangle_condos.php). The building we're talking about is 524 Manhattan Avenue and it's a 12 story job with 14 units. No renderings, but it's showing a lot of potential for fugliness.

[ablarc]

^ Actually, it shows promise of being a rather handsome object. Don't know about the ground floor, though.

[Merry]

January 11, 2009
Williamsburg

At an Old Warehouse, a Reversal of Fortune

By JAKE MOONEY (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/jake_mooney/index.html?inline=nyt-per)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/11/nyregion/11aust.span.jpg
Preservationists had lost the battle over the Egyptian Revival-style building. Then, suddenly, they won.


ONE thing that the owners of the Austin, Nichols & Company warehouse at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, were firm about throughout the long battle over the building’s fate three years ago was that it was not historically valuable. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, which declared the 1915 structure a landmark, disagreed, but the City Council took the rare step of overruling the commission and siding with the owners.

A lawyer for the owners, the Kestenbaum family, called the warehouse an eyesore. Councilman David Yassky (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/y/david_yassky/index.html?inline=nyt-per), who helped lead the fight against designating the building a landmark, described the warehouse as “a nondescript white box,” indistinguishable from anything else on the Williamsburg waterfront. When the mayor stepped in to preserve the warehouse, the Council overrode him, too.

But times have changed, and the warehouse, which was designed in the Egyptian Revival style by Cass Gilbert, the architect of the Woolworth Building, has had a reversal of fortune.

A short time after the Council voted, the Kestenbaums sold the warehouse, which takes up an entire block, to the real estate company J.M.H. Development. Then representatives of that company, saying that the building was not an eyesore after all, announced in December that it had granted a national preservation group the right to preserve the building’s exterior in perpetuity. The warehouse is now being restored and is scheduled to open for rental tenants this summer.

The Kestenbaums wanted to build condominiums on the site, either with a tower or a large rooftop addition, plans that would have been impossible if the structure had been made a landmark. J.M.H.’s rental plans, by contrast, are not impeded by preserving the building.

No one from J.M.H. would comment officially, but Daniel Reardon of the Trust for Architectural Easements, the group to which J.M.H. gave the preservation rights, said the company will get tax benefits for that donation as well as for rehabilitating the building. Without the incentive of these tax benefits, he said, “this magnificent building would be in a landfill somewhere.”

In addition to the tax benefits of the new plan, “I just think it’s much more efficient to reuse an old building than to tear it down and build a new one,” Mr. Reardon said. “It just makes horse sense.”

The new development plan involved excavating the middle of the warehouse to create a large courtyard, restoring the windows, repainting the facade and adding a rooftop penthouse.

Preservationists, who hope for sunnier times as the real estate boom slows, expressed relief at the change in direction with the warehouse. Ward Dennis, a spokesman for the Williamsburg Greenpoint Preservation Alliance, called the previous owners’ plans for the site “very scary,” and added of the new owners, “We’re very happy to see the work that they’re doing.”

As for the shift in emphasis, Mr. Dennis said: “That is somewhat ironic. But it reinforces a lot of what we have been saying all along, that it’s a great building and it’s a very historic building.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/nyregion/thecity/11aust.html?ref=thecity

[ASchwarz]

Terrible news.

Tax credits to lower density and encourage sprawl, under the guise of "historic preservation". What else is new in the U.S.?

[BrooklynLove]

Agreed but nonetheless Williamsburg could benefit from some artificial barriers on development right now or else they're going to end up with a dire glut issue. This is especially true when one takes Williamsburg and LIC together, which is not entirely unreasonable.

[sfenn1117]

Thought people might want to see how the waterfront development is going on...

http://i39.tinypic.com/11vjonn.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/2ztc6ky.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/343t8pi.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/2n9yhya.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/30a56c0.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanshnookenraggen/

[BrooklynLove]

Nice, thanks for posting.

Now who is going to buy these new places?

[sfenn1117]

One more from afar...there are three 30 story buildings up or nearly topped out, the last phase of both The Edge and Northside Piers calls for a 40 story building, so that should add to the dimensions of this new skyline.

http://i42.tinypic.com/wb8epi.jpg

http://flickr.com/photos/rogerimp/3183734517/

[TREPYE]

^What does the final product look like?:confused:

[BrooklynRider]

Williamsburg skyline develops north of the bridge...

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/DSCN0043.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/DSCN0044.jpg

[BrooklynLove]

About 30 years from now the waterfront stretch from the Wburg bridge to the Qboro bridge is going to be completely unrecognizable.

[Merry]

They've defaced Lou :eek: :(.


Developers Not Yet Ready to Support Williamsburg Revolution

Friday, March 13, 2009, by Joey


http://curbed.com/uploads/2009_3_buybacksign.jpg

Last year, predicting a glut of new Williamsburg condos, some fellas with a dream launched (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/02/04/new_williamsburg_group_says_the_end_is_here.php) the "Williamsburg Buyback" campaign, in which they hoped to mobilize like-minded members of the Williamsburg creative class and buy apartments in bulk from developers at a steep discount. It didn't work. This year, they're trying again (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/03/05/curbedwire_williamsburg_renters_revolution.php), only now the Williamsburg Buyback is now targeting rentals (Williamsburg Rentback is kind of an awkward name). The Brooklyn Paper (http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/11/32_10_bm_buyback.html) checks in with how the mission is going, and according to founding member Zev Eisenberg, there are some nibbles:


“You can’t really go up to a landlord and say, ‘Hey, can I get a deal?’ — but when I tell these guys I can fill their building in a week, they get a bit more interested,” said Eisenberg, who was a part of an earlier incarnation of the group that attempted, but failed, to purchase Williamsburg condos units at discounted rates two years ago.

Interest, unfortunately, hasn't yet led to results: "The Williamsburg Buyback has not reached any deals with developers, but the group claims to be involved in negotiations with four developers for building-wide rent cuts of $100 or more per month."

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/03/13/developers_not_yet_ready_to_support_williamsburg_r evolution.php

[Merry]

May 3, 2009
Big Deal

More Sales, for Less Money

By JOSH BARBANEL (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/josh_barbanel/index.html?inline=nyt-per)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/05/03/realestate/03deal1-650.jpg
The NV, 101 North Fifth Street, Williamsburg

FAR from Manhattan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo)’s most famous residential streets, in places where few barons of Wall Street hang their hats, brokers say that sales activity has picked up. Some new condominiums are moving, driven by lower prices, increased incentives and first-time buyers looking for value.

No one was buying last fall at projects near the waterfront in Williamsburg, said Highlyann Krasnow, an executive vice president at the Developers Group. But after developers got the message and cut prices, sales began to pick up in late February, and became stronger in March as buyers spread the word about their new finds, she said. Soon 30 buyers were showing up for some open houses.

“Once it started, it snowballed,” said Ms. Krasnow, whose firm is selling a number of Williamsburg projects, including the NV and the Rialto.

At NV, a glass and brushed-steel building at 101 North Fifth Street, near Berry Street, buyers have signed contracts for 17 of the 40 apartments in the last two months, Ms. Krasnow said.

While many larger new buildings are expected to linger on the market for years, NV could sell out in a matter of months. A lower-floor one-bedroom with 11-foot ceilings is available there for $430,000, down from $515,000.

A block away, at the Rialto at 150 East Fifth Street, there were also some price cuts. Ten apartments out of 31 went into contract in the last two months, Ms. Krasnow said.

Few of the buyers in Williamsburg work on Wall Street, she said. She described many as “creative types” who work in publishing, fashion, marketing and Web design. Some are first-time buyers, receiving help from their parents.

For Deborah Rieders, a Corcoran broker, it seems as if the good old days were back, bidding wars and all. Ms. Rieders is the broker at Mason Fisk, a century-old factory building on Berry Street near North Ninth Street in Williamsburg. Before the conversion went on the market last month, prices were cut back sharply. Since then, 24 out of the 26 apartments have gone into contract, she said.

Ms. Rieders said many buyers hesitate before returning contracts, even at discounted prices. But at Mason Fisk, when buyers dawdled, the developer was able to make a few new deals at higher prices.

Ms. Rieders also represents sellers of individual apartments, but she said, “In my resales, the same fervor to buy is not there.”

Manhattan developers are learning the price-it-right lesson, too. Last week, the scaffolding that had hidden the facade of the Hudson Hill condominium on West 58th Street, near 10th Avenue, was taken down. At the same time Kenneth S. Horn, the president of Alchemy Properties, the developer, cut the asking prices on the 67 apartments by an average of 18 percent, to $1,063 per square foot from $1,300 per square foot.

He said that as word of the cuts spread, nine deals were quickly negotiated, and the first five contracts went out late last week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/realestate/03deal1.html?ref=realestate

[Jeffreyny]

There are two new buildings going up at Broadway and Bedford.
Does anyone have any info. as to the what they are?

[kz1000ps]

These all date back to April 13th... I'm not familiar with Williamsburgh, so I have no idea what I'm looking at:

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/5519/img0564.jpg

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/949/img0566.jpg

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/5350/img0568u.jpg

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6176/img0578n.jpg
Had to crop out m'lady ^

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4511/img0580xgt.jpg

[lofter1]

New stuff looks like Anywhere USA :(

[BrooklynRider]

1.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0585.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0585.jpg)

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0584.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0584.jpg)

2.North 3rd Street & Bedford Avenue
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0580.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0580.jpg)

3.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0583.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0583.jpg)


http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0582.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0582.jpg)

4.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0586.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0586.jpg)

5. North 4th Street at Kent Avenue. Across the street from 164 Kent.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0622.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0622.jpg)

[BrooklynRider]

1.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0630.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0630.jpg)

2.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0633.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0633.jpg)

3. This is a typically crap building in Brooklyn that has covered itself in planks and calls it self cutting architecture - literally.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0636.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0636.jpg)

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0635.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0635.jpg)

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0638.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0638.jpg)

[BrooklynRider]

.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0640.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0640.jpg)

2. This building was a renovation of a warehouse (yellow brick) with addition on top. The photo of the building didn't come out, but this is the cladding on the addition.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0641.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0641.jpg)

3. This is a typical distribution warehouse and some did a little Peter Eisenman style renovation on it. Certainly more interesting than one would expect. There was a red corrugated aluminum component to the far left side.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0642.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0642.jpg)

4.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0643.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0643.jpg)

5.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN0646-1.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN0646-1.jpg)

[BrooklynRider]

1.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN1139.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN1139.jpg)

2.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/th_DSCN1147.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd121/BrooklynRiderRob/?action=view&current=DSCN1147.jpg)

[Merry]

Construction Watch: Williamsburg's 111 Kent Bulging Out

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2429/3654706150_6686418823_o.jpg

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2481/3653907985_fdefd71c55_o.jpg

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3136/3662185365_207f9a2029_o.png

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3389/3653907247_c734ce3644_o.jpg

Just in time for rumors of Williamsburg's ultimate demise (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/06/26/williamsburg_totally_screwed.php), the new condo building at 111 Kent Avenue is taking its very interesting shape. Flying somewhat under the radar, 111 Kent would be the talk of the Burg if it was located on any other block, mostly for its rooftop swimming pool—we know where this is headed (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/05/28/a_building_pool_party_report_drugs_booze_everywher e.php)—and crazy concierge-loaded lobby (see gallery above). But its location happens to be at Kent and North 7th Street, putting it pretty much right behind the two behemoths of the north Williamsburg waterfront—Northside Piers and The Edge. Interested in a protruding window bay of your very own? The listings are nowhere to be found at the moment, but the Prudential Douglas Elliman (http://www.prudentialelliman.com/MainSite/NHD/NHDInfo.aspx?ID=339&SearchType=newdev&PageName=home&location=NYC&sublocation=B&nhdname=111%20Kent&nhdaddress=111%20Kent) website mentions a price range of $575,000 to $2.5 million for units sized 720 to 1,800 square feet. Cabanas not included, obvi.

111 Kent (http://www.111kent.com/home.html) [Official Site]
111 Kent coverage (http://curbed.com/tags/111-kent) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/06/26/construction_watch_williamsburgs_111_kent_bulging_ out.php

[Tectonic]

About 30 years from now the waterfront stretch from the Wburg bridge to the Qboro bridge is going to be completely unrecognizable.

Can't wait. The thing that will choke this city's growth will be infrastructure. A lot of bikes to come I think.

[Tectonic]

New stuff looks like Anywhere USA :(

So right, especially in Brooklyn. Sad. Northside Piers looks very cheap.

[kritiosboy]

http://nymag.com/realestate/features/57904/

Interesting article about the present state of affairs of real estate development in Williamsburg. Warning: lots of developer whining in the article where they are directly quoted.

[BrooklynLove]

Also an issue for LIC. It's been clear since early 2007 that this situation was coming to both areas.

[ap307]

Also an issue for LIC. It's been clear since early 2007 that this situation was coming to both areas.

Don't you think this also applies to Downtown Brooklyn, albeit to a lesser square? Oro has been "mostly" empty for the past year, and Oro II is nothing but a hole in the ground... And at least anecdotally, it's a scary time to be living around Ft. Greene Park - shooting on Fleet Walk, vicious mugging with brick to the head in the park proper, a woman getting a bat to the face near Adelphi... Has got to make you wonder whether "gentrification" is loosing hold...

[BrooklynLove]

Much much less supply in the chute and much much more balanced development - condo/rental resi, schools, retail, commercial, etc. It's as about as safe as its been since the 70s in the area. And once Myrtle and Gold fill out over the next 5-10 years, it'll be safe enough for just about anyone.

[Merry]

The Billyburg Bust

A working-class neighborhood became a bohemian theme park, which in turn became a fantasyland for luxury-condo developers. Now, littered with half-built shells of a vanished boom, Williamsburg is looking like something else entirely: Miami.

http://images.nymag.com/realestate/features/williamsburg090720_1_560.jpg
The Edge (left) and Northside Piers along the Williamsburg waterfront.

By David Amsden

Jul 12, 2009

Driving around Williamsburg with David Maundrell, it was easy, if only for a moment, to forget about the recession. A 34-year-old with jet-black hair, a fuzzy goatee, and a thick Brooklyn accent, Maundrell is the president of Aptsandlofts.com, a brokerage he founded in 2002 that was among the first to specialize in the neighborhood’s high-end housing stock. The past few years have been some extraordinarily good ones for him. No other neighborhood in the city has been more visibly transformed by new residential construction than Williamsburg, where countless glass-and-steel structures have gone up on blocks long defined by abandoned factories, trash-strewn lots, modest row houses, and (more recently) residents of the nebulously creative postgraduate variety. Maundrell, who grew up in the area “when it was just a working-class no-man’s-land,” has been involved with the marketing of over 150 new buildings in Williamsburg—about half of them condos—and in the process has gone from working alone out of a dingy storefront to employing 45 brokers inside a sleek, loftlike headquarters that would not be out of place in late-nineties Silicon Alley. To celebrate the success of the past few years, Maundrell recently splurged on a silver Maserati Quattroporte, a shiny bullet of a car that retails in the ballpark of $120,000.

“This here is 100 percent the result of the Williamsburg condo boom,” Maundrell told me, chuckling a bit, as he revved the Maserati’s eight-cylinder, 405-horsepower engine on a recent sunny morning. As we began driving around, however, Maundrell’s nostalgia for the days when brokers like him “could practically sell out entire buildings before they even existed” darkened to a state of concern for the neighborhood. With sales across Brooklyn down a staggering 57 percent from a year ago, Williamsburg, with its high density of new construction, has taken on an ominous disposition. Walk down virtually any block and you’ll come across an amenity-laden building that sits nearly empty: relics of a moment in history that seems, increasingly, like a fever dream. Some developers with iffy financing have quietly been forced to go rental, others have lowered prices to the point where losses are inevitable, and a handful of projects, including two buildings Maundrell had been selling, have gone into foreclosure.

Most unsettling are the cases of the developers who seem to have vanished, leaving behind so many vacant lots and half-completed buildings—eighteen, to be precise, more than can be found in all of the Bronx—that large swaths of the neighborhood have come to resemble a city after an air raid. “I mean, look at that,” Maundrell said as we drove down a particularly grim block on North 9th Street that was lined on both sides by pits of mud where luxury buildings were supposed to be going up. “No signs of anyone actually building anywhere. It’s crazy. My lovely Williamsburg is filled with all these vacant sites everywhere you look.”

All over the city, overleveraged developers have seen their projects stymied by the recession, but the highly speculative nature of what’s happened in Williamsburg stands out as exceptionally dramatic and misguided—New York’s version of the collapsing exurban “boomburgs” in Florida and Arizona. Thanks to its proximity to Manhattan and trendy reputation, Williamsburg had seemed poised, by the end of the nineties, to shed its identity as a postindustrial moonscape and attract the sort of culturally current luxury buyers who were being priced out of the Manhattan market. But developers were constrained by the neighborhood’s zoning, which remained manufacturing-only.

This changed in May 2005, when the city passed a sweeping bill rezoning the area’s most desirable section—the frenetic cluster of blocks surrounding the Bedford Avenue subway station—for residential construction. While many in the neighborhood worried that the rezoning threatened to destroy Williamsburg’s raggedly chic charm, the Bloomberg administration heralded the policy as a way of “harnessing the private market” to create much-needed housing at both affordable and market rates. Developers, of course, were more than willing to be harnessed: A neighborhood that had been tantalizingly off-limits was now suddenly there for the taking.

Construction began at a phenomenal pace. In 2005 alone, there were 130 new projects in the works; since then, over a thousand proposals have been filed with the local community board—including a handful of buildings with more than 200 units apiece. As the frenzy ensued, few developers seemed to entertain the critical question of whether a neighborhood with mediocre schools and a median income of $25,892 (less than that of decidedly ungentrified Crown Heights) was fully prepared to lure hordes of young professionals willing to pay Manhattan prices. “Basically, dreams were being built upon dreams,” says Matthew Haines, the chairman of PropertyShark .com, a website founded in the neighborhood that aggregates real-estate data. “The first developers out the gate thought they might—might—be able to ask around $500 or $600 a square foot. Soon they had bid each other up to $1,000 a square foot. It was ridiculous, considering that in Manhattan you could still buy for $800, but the buyers were there, so no one was really worried about what that meant.”

http://images.nymag.com/realestate/features/williamsburg-map-560.jpg (http://nymag.com/realestate/articles/09/williamsburg/)

Part of what makes the present situation so dire is that it is still in the early stages of unfolding. There are already about 400 new apartments on the market in Williamsburg, and additional condos are completing construction every month. According to a study Maundrell released last month, 2,818 new apartments will have hit the market by the end of this year, with another 2,766 projected by the end of 2010. On top of this, Fannie Mae, the country’s most dominant home-mortgage lender, recently implemented a policy requiring that buildings be 70 percent in contract before guaranteeing mortgages, thus delaying the moment when a developer can stop covering the taxes and common charges on a finished project. (While most other banks require 50 percent of a building to be in contract, Freddie Mac, the other chief lender, is expected to follow Fannie Mae’s lead later this month.)

“The thing is,” Maundrell told me as we drove past a sarcophagus of a building on Berry Street, “a year ago, those inventory numbers would have been great news. Buildings around here have been selling out so fast that there didn’t seem to be an end in sight.” He paused. “Now, with the new restrictions, the bottom line is that most of the new buildings will have to be turned into rentals. The problem is that, for a lot of these guys, that’s just not an option.”

Like many people in the real-estate industry I spoke to, Maundrell placed blame for this implosion on the city as much as the hubris of developers. The “inclusionary zoning” plan of 2005 was passed largely to foster the revival of the neighborhood’s waterfront, where developers would be allowed build as high as 40 stories—and receive huge tax breaks—so long as they dedicated a portion of their building to low-income housing. But in reality, most new construction ended up inland, where developers could receive the same benefits on smaller buildings without having to set aside affordable units.

Recognizing this design flaw, the city amended its tax-abatement program in June 2008 to require all new buildings, no matter how small, to devote 20 percent of their units to affordable housing. “That 20 percent? It’s a developer’s profits,” Maundrell said as we parked outside a vacant lot on North 10th Street. “What the city did is they forced all these guys to take down the existing building and drive the pile”—in other words, to rush construction far enough along that the development would not be subject to the new rules. “Most of them did it with their own money, or they took a hard-money loan at some outrageous interest rate. Well, that was just as the banks stopped lending. It was like Armageddon. You had the city looming, you had to take down your old building, and then—poof!—there was no money.” He sighed. “So here we are, everyone asking the same question: What the hell is going to happen?”

On October 16 last year, a party was held inside a storefront on North 6th Street to celebrate the launch of what once seemed like one of the neighborhood’s more promising and unique new projects: a development called the Steelworks Lofts, which, when completed, would offer 88 high-end units featuring exposed beams of salvaged wood, claw-foot bathtubs, and wide-plank oak floors, as well as a rooftop outfitted with private “cabanas,” an outdoor cinema, and a communal fire pit. The scene, at that point, had become a familiar one in Williamsburg, where a number of storefronts formerly occupied by eccentric boutiques had been converted into “sales galleries” that invited young professionals to buy apartments on spec in buildings that existed only as renderings on flat-screen monitors. Inside the Steelworks Lofts party, a stylish crowd streamed in and out over the course of a few hours, sipping cocktails provided by Woodford Reserve and Finlandia while admiring the model kitchen and bathroom that had been designed by AvroKO, the firm responsible for the Nolita restaurants Public and Double Crown.

Two of the guests, however, were having trouble fully embracing the festive mood. Greg Belew and David Berger, former classmates at Wharton who went on to found Fifth Square Partners, the boutique development firm behind the project, were quietly beginning to question the timing of their endeavor. A year and a half earlier, when they paid $26.5 million for the 130,000-square-foot former steel factory on North 4th Street—one of the biggest deals the neighborhood had seen—the Dow was soaring toward 14,000 points and Wall Street was handing out $33 billion in bonuses. Their faith in the endurance of this kind of economy was implicit in their somewhat unorthodox business model: As part of the deal they had struck with their lenders—a combination of private investors and the Anglo Irish Bank—they were required to “pre-sell” fifteen units before construction funds would be released. Then came the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the dismal events that followed; the day before the party, the Dow had plummeted 733 points—the second-largest single-day drop in history.

http://images.nymag.com/realestate/features/williamsburg090720_2_250.jpg
NV at 101 North 5th Street

“I just feel like we got sucked into this giant tsunami that isn’t letting up anytime soon,” Belew told me recently when I visited him in his offices on lower Fifth Avenue. It had been a demoralizing nine months since the party; not surprisingly, Belew and Berger failed to get enough units into contract to begin construction, and by January they were issued an eviction notice at their sales office for not paying rent. (Today the space has been turned into a flea market on weekends.) While they had positioned their development as a sophisticated alternative to the cookie-cutter condos going up in the neighborhood, it now stands as a particularly vivid case study in the limited options—all bleak—that many Williamsburg developers are faced with. “People say to us all the time, ‘Why don’t you just turn it into cool, raw apartments, rent them out, and then convert it back into condos when the time is right?’ ” Belew said. “What they don’t understand is that it’s not nearly so simple.” Indeed, the savings in construction costs are less than one might think, and with banks currently dealing with their own pressures on the road to solvency, such loans are nearly impossible to secure. “It’s really crushing,” Belew added, “to work so hard and to spend so much time on something just to see it fall apart like this.”

Though he continues to hope that the economy will recover enough to build the Steelworks Lofts as originally conceived, it was clear as we spoke that Belew recognized the odds were slim. (He had trouble avoiding the past tense: “For the kitchens, we were going to have these great, industrial fixtures—excuse me, are going to have these great, industrial fixtures.”) At the moment, they’ve been able to renegotiate their loan with the Anglo Irish Bank, which, having imploded and then become nationalized over the last year, is in an even more precarious situation than their own. They are making their monthly payments with the help of private investors, who would prefer to sink more money into the project than see their entire investment vaporized by the bank. But this is a holding pattern that won’t last much longer. Most likely, Belew and Berger will try to take the building rental (if successful, this could bring in around $3 million a year, which would cover their monthly loan payments), but they are considering other options, too.

“Lately, we’ve been thinking of turning part of it into a kind of youth hostel,” Belew admitted.

For a moment, I wasn’t sure I had heard him correctly. “A hostel?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Belew said, shaking his head. “A hostel.”

A few days after my drive around the neighborhood with David Maundrell, I spent a warm Sunday afternoon meandering through a handful of open houses. My first stop was a building called the Rialto, on North 5th Street, a choice block near the Bedford Avenue subway station. “Conceived to create special homes for design-conscious urbanites,” according to its sales brochure, the building in many ways epitomizes the style favored by developers in the area: slick, modernist, with “soaring” ceilings and “European-style” kitchens featuring teak cabinetry and CaesarStone counters. The Rialto has been on the market since May of last year, but only seventeen of its 31 units have sold. Hoping to entice new buyers, the developers have begun to offer incentives that would have been unthinkable to those who purchased fourteen months ago. In April, for instance, anyone who bought an apartment was treated to an all-expense-paid trip to Venice—to walk the actual Rialto Bridge! Alas, there were no takers.

It says something about the current state of the market that Ted and Marianne Hovivian, the husband-and-wife team behind the project, are in a far better position than many in the neighborhood. With just over half the building in contract, the Hovivians have made it past one major hurdle—the fact that most banks will not release closing funds until at least 50 percent of a building’s units are in contract. (Most sales were made before Fannie Mae upped its threshold to 70 percent.) And because they’ve owned the land since 1983—it was the site of their furniture-manufacturing company, Rialto Furniture—they can afford to be patient. “Thank God for that,” Marianne told me when I called her after visiting the property. “If we’d paid the high prices that some people around here paid, we’d be in a much worse position.”

The idea to convert the property had been on her and her husband’s minds since the late nineties, when they got an unexpected call from someone with Starwood Hotels. “That sparked our awareness that the neighborhood was really beginning to change,” Marianne said. Though she still felt that she and her husband made the right decision, she conceded that “we’re not as happy as we’d like to be.” The Hovivians had figured the building would sell out quickly, in as little as six months, allowing them to retire in style. “There were many grand plans of what might be when we first got started,” Marianne told me, laughing ruefully. “But now, obviously, those are all on hold.”

http://images.nymag.com/realestate/features/williamsburg090720_3_560.jpg
111 Kent Avenue

I next headed two blocks west, to check in on a building called NV, a reference both to its North 5th Street address and, ostensibly, the idea that anyone who moves in will become the “envy” of all their friends. With its aquamarine exterior of glass and “brushed jade steel,” the building is one of the most conspicuous new projects in the neighborhood, resembling something that, after failing to sell in Miami’s faltering market, was airlifted and plunked down into Brooklyn. Like the Rialto, the building is finished, but on the day I visited, only twelve of 40 units were in contract. Having paid $13 million for the land alone, Michael Morton, the president of the Morton Group of Del Rey Beach, Florida, was not in a position to hold out for the high bidders, as he was paying the taxes and common charges for the entire building. In the lobby window, a banner informed interested shoppers that the Morton Group was willing to pay 100 percent of closing costs, evidence that a contingency plan was in effect. “Is this what I expected? Of course not,” Morton told me a few days later. “You go into a project like this expecting that the sellout would be very quick and that you’d be able to keep raising prices as the units sold.” Instead, Morton has been forced to drop the prices considerably, which turned out to be an effective (if less rewarding) move. Since I visited, the building is now 75 percent sold. “We feel as good as we can right now,” Morton said. “We’re still in the black, that’s the good news.”

From NV, I made my way down to the waterfront, where the neighborhood’s two riskiest and most ambitious projects, the series of high-rises known as Northside Piers and the Edge, will eventually introduce a combined total of over a thousand units to the market. It is these, more than any other development, that represent the core philosophy behind the Bloomberg administration’s 2005 rezoning: that the city could create affordable housing and revitalize the waterfront without spending public money. Financed by industry stalwarts—Toll Brothers at Northside Piers and Douglaston Development at the Edge—the two developments began construction at a time when national developers were eyeing substantial parcels of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint waterfront, and many observers expected this slice of northern Brooklyn to evolve into a sibling of Battery Park City.

“Basically, dreams were being built upon dreams. It was ridiculous, but the buyers were there.”

A year before her death, the urban activist Jane Jacobs, then 88, wrote a remarkably prescient letter urging Mayor Bloomberg to scuttle his plans for the Williamsburg waterfront. “Even the presumed beneficiaries of this misuse of governmental powers, the developers and financiers of luxury towers, may not benefit,” she wrote. “Misused environments are not good long-term economic bets.” Four years later, Jacobs’s prophecy has been realized: Developer interest along the waterfront has receded, and given the current state of sales at both Northside and the Edge, it’s unlikely that similar buildings will be going up anytime soon.

The Edge—which, in addition to offering 360 “moderate-income” rentals, includes two towers of 570 condos, plus all the usual amenities—is expected to be completed by the end of year; right now, just over 20 percent of the units have been sold. Still, Douglaston Development has yet to lower prices, which may explain why the glossy sales office was among the most desolate I visited. “Look, we’re in a fortunate situation,” Jeffrey Levine, Douglaston’s chairman, assured me. “Our financing is secured, so we’re in a position to weather the storm. If we had a completed building, the story would likely be different. My belief is that the economy is going to rebound, but if the market doesn’t improve, of course we’ll take steps to improve our product. For now, our attitude is, let’s keep building and see what happens.”

It is hard to imagine the Edge successfully selling at its current prices (about $950 a square foot) given what’s happening next door at Northside Piers. That project was designed to include three towers around 30 stories each, one of which is complete, another almost finished. When Tower One hit the market in 2007, sales were initially brisk, with units going for an average of $900 a square foot. But only 70 percent of that building had sold by the time I visited, and with sales already begun on Tower Two, Toll Brothers had announced the most dramatic price cuts the neighborhood has seen so far, with some units in the first tower being reduced by as much as 36 percent from their listing price.

Perhaps as a result, the sales office was a bustling environment. “We talked about it for a while,” David Von Spreckelsen of Toll Brothers told me, referring to the decision to slash prices. “The bottom line is that we’ve been on the market for two years, and we expected to be sold out by now so we could focus on selling the second tower. After doing some individual deals at reduced prices, we figured we should just bite the bullet and do a price amendment with the attorney general’s office. People can look at it as a failing building or desperation, but it was the only thing that made sense.”

More recently, Toll Brothers announced a summer special, offering to cover mortgage payments, common charges, and real-estate taxes for twelve months after closing— essentially allowing residents to live free for a year. Tower One’s first buyers (the $900-a-square-foot ones) are now sharing elevators with neighbors who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars less for identical units. Meanwhile, no one talks much about Tower Three.

Northside’s aggressive sales tactics have helped move inventory, but they have also had huge ripple effects on the market throughout the neighborhood, putting pressure on smaller developers to make similar concessions. Unfortunately, many are not in the position to compromise so radically, either because their lending banks won’t allow it or, in the case of buildings in the last stage of construction, developers don’t want to upset those already in contract.

Later that afternoon, I made my way to a building called Warehouse 11, on the corner of Roebling and North 11th Streets. Marketed by David Maundrell, the building has 120 total units (plus the requisite yoga center, playroom, parking garage, 24-hour concierge, gym, and communal sundeck). While the model apartment seemed an appealing enough place to live, there was something generally off about the building as a whole: Despite having been on the market since early 2008, only 30 percent of the units were in contract, and it was clear that construction wasn’t complete. The list prices, too, were significantly higher than comparable products, as if the developer had not been informed about the current state of the economy. A few weeks later, I noticed the front doors of the lobby had been padlocked shut. The process of foreclosure had begun.

I called Maundrell to ask what, exactly, had gone wrong. He explained that the developer had found himself caught up in a number of unfortunate tangles. “When we opened the building, the first units in contract were priced at $760 a square foot,” Maundrell explained. “Realistically, if you want to sell right now, I think you’ve got to be at somewhere around $650. But since we sold 30 percent at the initial rate, lowering the prices across the board would have been a huge risk: Maybe we’d get new buyers, but we’d also likely lose the ones we already had. It’s a tough call.” Massey Knakal, the brokerage firm handling the sale of the building, looked into converting it into a rental and projected that it could bring in $4.1 million annually, which, with monthly returns of $340,000, would not be nearly enough for the developer to pay off his current loans—$50 million from Capital One and another $12 million from private equity.

In a situation like this, Capital One knows that going into foreclosure will significantly devalue the property and likely involve years of legal wrangling. But foreclosure also offers a lender two options, each of which would generate at least some returns. They could sell the condos in a fire sale—at $500 a square foot, for instance, the revenues would still be more than $50 million—or simply arrange the sale of the building at a discount, which is the route Capital One is taking. But even this isn’t pretty. According to a number of people familiar with the situation, bids coming in are closer to $30 million than the $50 million owed.

In the world of real estate, one developer’s misfortune tends to be another’s opportunity. Among those closely following the status of buildings like Warehouse 11 is Jamie Wiseman, a laid-back 33-year-old who is not what most people think of when they think about real-estate developers. A self-described “recovering lawyer” who favors stenciled T-shirts, Wiseman lives with a roommate in a small apartment in Bushwick, where over the past few years he has made a modest living buying up nondescript buildings and turning them into rentals and condos.

In November 2007, he made his first foray into Williamsburg, when, along with his business partner, Jacob Sacks, he purchased an abandoned factory at 44 Berry Street for $12.7 million. During the height of the market, the building would have been far out of his price range; in fact, it was in the process of being sold for $15 million to a California-based conglomerate called Atherton-Newport Investments, which planned a luxury-condo conversion. That deal fell apart last January, when Atherton filed for bankruptcy.

“They’d already put down a nonrefundable deposit of a million dollars, so the owner was willing to cut us a deal,” Wiseman told me on a recent afternoon, as we stood outside the building along with the project’s development manager, a 25-year-old named Ari Heckman. “The biggest difference between us and most of the developers out there is we’re not building apartments based on the fantasy that Williamsburg is where bankers want to

As Wiseman and Heckman gave me a tour of the building, which was nearly complete, it became immediately clear what they meant. Unlike most new apartments in the area, theirs were more reminiscent of the semi-legal artists’ lofts that have been all but eradicated by the influx of development: big, airy spaces designed to be shared by self-consciously creative types who don’t mind sleeping in cramped mezzanines. Rents in the building average $2,500 and are meant to be split two or three ways.

“Will I get rich off this building? Not at all,” Wiseman said as he showed me the apartment he’ll be renting to himself. “I’ll probably need a roommate to afford this.” Still, Wiseman explained that although he won’t see the immediate returns that condo developers aim for, he is expecting slow, consistent revenue from a product that can expand and contract as the market dictates. The building is poised to generate about $2 million a year in revenues, which, after the debt is serviced and operating expenses are paid, comes out to around half a million in cash. Most of that will go to paying off private investors, with Wiseman and his partner receiving a roughly 3 percent management fee. They hope to refinance down the line, which will free up cash for other projects.

On the Fourth of July, Wiseman threw a party for the future residents of 44 Berry on the building’s expansive roof deck. It was a decidedly different affair than the launch of the Steelworks Lofts back in October: keg beer instead of top-shelf liquor, twentysomethings decked out in thrift-store attire as opposed to thirtysomethings in designer clothing, and the general mood seemed less like a stylized appropriation of the neighborhood’s identity than something approximating the neighborhood itself. Less than a year ago, the notion of such a scrappy scene unfolding in a brand-new building would have been unthinkable. But in time, as more developers fail to find buyers and default on their loans, Williamsburg is likely to see more projects like 44 Berry begin to take shape: new endeavors that, somewhat ironically, will keep the neighborhood feeling much like its old self. As everyone gathered to watch the fireworks dazzle above the Manhattan skyline, it was easy to imagine a future in which even Williamsburg’s swankier buildings have become home to the very people they once threatened to displace.

http://nymag.com/realestate/features/57904/

[ASchwarz]

Billyburg condo owners will have the last laugh.

Yes, there is a bust, but it's the same (or worse) everywhere else in the world.

If you bought to flip, then you're out of luck. If you bought to live, you'll make a very handsome profit.

[BryanSereny]

Billyburg condo owners will have the last laugh.

Yes, there is a bust, but it's the same (or worse) everywhere else in the world.

If you bought to flip, then you're out of luck. If you bought to live, you'll make a very handsome profit.

And if you held of to buy until now, you are even better off! :D

[BrooklynLove]

If you bought at the top full price in Northside Piers you're not getting back money for a long long time.

[Merry]

Williamsburg Welcomes 'The Pad'

September 16, 2009, by Joey

http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2492/3925843877_c4d6619bb4_o.jpg

http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2492/3925843877_8793eaa6ac_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2492/3925843877_c4d6619bb4_o.jpg) http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2619/3926628196_c09590f1f8_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2619/3926628196_1c26d32dcd_o.png) http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2512/3926628366_770cc50e37_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2512/3926628366_3cb799004f_o.jpg) http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2426/3926628278_1f0d6b0dec_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2426/3926628278_6e302c4353_o.jpg) http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3505/3925844113_ced22a450a_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3505/3925844113_3708ede91b_o.jpg) http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2626/3926628242_3f5d94ac8c_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2626/3926628242_c2f1c3daa5_o.jpg) http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2651/3925844091_c0dbbc16af_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2651/3925844091_ecb026397f_o.jpg) http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3534/3925843793_49b80e5793_s.jpg (http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3534/3925843793_856873cb2e_o.jpg)

(click on thumbnails for larger version)

First: Yep, the window thing is intentional. Per the website description (http://aptsandlofts.com/new-developments/the-pad), architect Robert Scarano's recently completed The Pad at 196 South 2nd Street in Williamsburg boasts a "striking, sleek steel panel façade with an intentional geometric window design that sways from the traditional."

Second: There's no pool. Bobby Scar saves that for the luxury stuff (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/09/16/sunnin_with_scarano_1_poolside_at_scaranoonbowery. php). But all is not lost, tanorexics! Each apartment in the 30-unit Southsider has private outdoor space, and there's a fairly snazzy looking (in renderings, at least) common rooftop sun deck, "for your warm-weather pleasure." Wear protection.

Listings so far, according to the (new and improved!) Aptsandlofts website (http://aptsandlofts.com/new-developments/the-pad), range from $390,000 to $605,000 for studios and 1BRs boasting the trademark Scarano mezzanines, Exploiting Zoning Loopholes One Building Boom At a Time™. Two units have closed, and prices were recently trimmed 3-10 percent across the board. Pasty geometry geeks, this is your moment!

The Pad (http://www.padcondos.com/) [padcondos.com]
Listings: The Pad (http://aptsandlofts.com/new-developments/the-pad) [Aptsandlofts]

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/09/16/sunnin_with_scarano_2_williamsburg_welcomes_the_pa d.php

[Merry]

New Bike Lanes on Kent Avenue

http://www.tienmao.com/images/2009_09/kentlanes1.jpg

http://www.tienmao.com/images/2009_09/kentlanes2.jpg

http://www.tienmao.com/archives/002985.html

[Merry]

Oh, dear :o.

Kent Avenue FAIL: Williamsburg's Northside Piers Tarred!

September 25, 2009, by Joey

http://curbed.com/uploads/2009_9_dr1.jpg

The war over the makeover of Kent Avenue (http://curbed.com/tags/kent-avenue) along the Williamsburg waterfront has its first casualty: The freshly laid sidewalk outside the brand new Duane Reade (http://racked.com/archives/2009/09/17/storecasting_pharmacy_wars_brewing_in_williamsburg .php) in the Northside Piers megadevelopment. A tipster writes:
Greetings, as a resident of Northside Piers, I wanted to notify you of the City's lack of planning regarding the resurfacing of Kent. By doing a huge stretch from N14 to South Williamsburg, the city forgot to account for people crossing the street to get to their homes. Unlike smaller stretches of road in NYC that are done late at night, this project began at 8pm. Tenants, delivery people, etc., crossed onto the tarred road and have left black footprint markings everywhere! Suffice to say, the pavement outside the new Duane Reade is replete with tar. There was no effort by the city to form a safe passageway. Another black mark, no pun intended, for this development!Needless to say, we immediately dispatched Curbed photographer Will Femia to the scene, and, well, the evidence is above. And below.

http://curbed.com/uploads/2009_9_dr2.jpg
Poor innocent Duane Reade, barely open before the Burg turned its soul black.

Storecasting: Pharmacy Wars Brewing in Williamsburg (http://racked.com/archives/2009/09/17/storecasting_pharmacy_wars_brewing_in_williamsburg .php) [Racked]
Kent Avenue coverage (http://www.curbed.com/tags/kent-avenue) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/09/25/kent_avenue_fail_williamsburgs_northside_piers_tar red.php

[JCMAN320]

Seriously?? Who cares; in a year it will start to crack and have dried gum on it.

[BrooklynLove]

Only newbies whine about this stuff. Williamsburg must be a miserable place to live. Seems a bit like Murray Hill but filled with hipsters.

[ablarc]

http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2492/3925843877_c4d6619bb4_o.jpg
This guy Scarano may have iffy ethics, but he sure knows how to design.

[futurecity]

More of him, less Costas.... Williamsburg would be well served with more modern infill of this ilk instead of brick.

[Alonzo-ny]

Scale seems all wrong on that building.

[Derek2k3]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3562/3670225570_891dfbe98f_o.jpg
Joel Raskin (http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelrnyc/3670225570/sizes/o/in/set-72157604285369718/)

[lofter1]

Future subsidized housing ^

[stache]

Slums with a view!

[JCMAN320]

Why you say that?

[lofter1]

Word in the press last week that there are newly-finished but not yet sold condo developments going into foreclosure that will be used to fulfill the inclusionary housing component of projects -- pertains to developments that have gotten into financial trouble and where developers (who had gotten a zoning variance) are now unable to meet their commitment to build medium-income housing.

Whether or not these buildings fit that bill I'm not sure.

Too much thinking about the specifics would have spoiled the yoke.

[JCMAN320]

Ahh now I see what you mean!

[BrooklynLove]

Lofter - not these buildings.

[lofter1]

Not sure of what is or isn't included in the list of 601 ...

150 Rally for Conversion of Vacant Condos to Affordable Housing

Brooklyn Daily Eagle (http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=31604)
Compiled by Linda Collins
October28, 2009

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — An estimated 150 people turned out for a press conference and rally at Albee Square in Downtown Brooklyn Tuesday to ask the city to consider converting thousands of vacant condos in an estimated 601 buildings citywide into affordable housing units.

In a survey of nine community districts across the city by Right to the City-NYC (RTTC), a coalition of city community organizations, 601 vacant condominium buildings were identified, including 126 buildings in Community District 2 in Downtown Brooklyn and 108 in Community District 4 in Bushwick ...

[ASchwarz]

These waterfront buildings are some of the most valuable in Brooklyn, and would NEVER be considered for affordable housing.

I have no idea if the developers are doing well or not, but that's called the real estate market. You make a fortune in good times, and (if you're smart) hopefully put some money away for bad times.

NYC HPD has made it very clear that the affordable condo program will ONLY be in neighborhoods with high proportions of foreclosures, meaning Bed Stuy, Jamaica, and a few other places.

Besides, the program is only funded to the tune of $50 million or something, which is only enough to fund a few smaller buildings.

[Merry]

CB1 Committee Not Digging Plans for Huge Burg Project

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/roseplazarendering-11-09.jpg

Last week Community Board 1's land-use committee voted 8-1 against approving a zoning change on the South Williamsburg waterfront for a humongous development that's on the drawing board, according to The Brooklyn Paper (http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/48/32_48_wy_rose_plaza_vote.html). The project slated for Kent and Division, which is known as Rose Plaza on the River (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/05/big_in_the_burg.php), is supposed to consist of three residential towers with 801 units between them. Board members spoke out against the development mainly on the grounds that only 20 percent of its units will be designated affordable housing, and because its proposed unit mix is mostly studios and 1-bedrooms. “Is this what you think our community needs?” asked Rabbi David Niederman, a committee member and president of the United Jewish Organization. “It’s another development that gentrifies a community that is suffering already from a lack of housing.” For their part, the development team argued that Rose Plaza would add construction jobs, affordable housing and open space to the neighborhood, and despite Williamsburg's inventory glut they're banking on it being a cinch to sell because they anticipate a market rebound.

This ‘Rose’ Has Thorns! (http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/48/32_48_wy_rose_plaza_vote.html) [Brooklyn Paper] GMAP (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=5cr&resnum=0&q=19+Division+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY+11211,+USA&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image)
Big in the Burg: Rose Plaza on the River (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/05/big_in_the_burg.php) [Brownstoner]

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/11/cb1_committee_n.php

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/11/30/new_rendering_not_enough_to_make_cb_1_like_rose_pl aza_project.php

[Derek2k3]

Just to the south (right, in the rendering) is the site of the recently demo'd Con-ed building. Off to the left are the two towers of the Schaefer Condos and next to those will be the Kedem Winery Development (http://www.pksb.com/index.php?mode=projects&category=Housing&page=0&project_id=48&image_id=image2).

So in a decade or two from now the east side of the East River from the Navy Yard to Astoria will be lined residedntial towers. Hopefully they all won't be so generic.

[Stroika]

I'm still bitter about that ConEd plant getting demo'ed. It would've made this area infinitely more interesting if they'd re-adapted it for ... well, anything, rather than sell off the land for another version of "Northside Piers" or "The Edge."

[Merry]

New 'Burg Condo Building Sports Unplanned 'Gritty' Look

February 22, 2010, by Joey

http://curbed.com/uploads/2010_2_lorimer1.jpg

Renderings of the 28-unit 390 Lorimer Street are still alive and well on the website of S3 Architecture (http://www.s3arc.com/lorimer.html), their fake trees greening up the Williamsburg block, fake people kicking back on white leather couches and playing fetch with fake dogs. So calming! In reality the building, which has been percolating for a couple of years (http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2007/03/gls-construction-site-du-jour-390.html) now, is looking a bit more rough around the edges. A special Curbed correspondent sends in some fresh shots of 390 Lorimer, and it seems that the building is picking up the High Line's slack (http://curbed.com/archives/2010/02/22/high_line_graffiti_removal_enters_phase_ii.php) when it comes to graffiti. Based on the flimsy "front door" we wouldn't be surprised if squatters are now enjoying the "creamy white and varied blue porcelain tile and rift cut oak floating cabinets and shelves" intended for our rendering friends.

http://curbed.com/uploads/2010_2_lorimer2.jpg

PropertyShark (http://propertyshark.com/mason/nyc/Reports2/showsection.html?propkey=194361)'s info on the plot notes that a mortgage foreclosure lis pendens was filed by creditor Capitol One Bank back in June, which could be one reason for the holdup. Writes our tipster, "It would be interesting to aggregate all the properties being started/built/stalled from Metropolitan Avenue to Montrose Avenue between (roughly) Union and Bushwick Avenues (in 'East Williamsburg'). There are a slew of them. Some of them are damned big to boot. It'll be interesting to see what happens when they hit the market. The ones which actually get finished, anyway. My prognostication: total disaster." Aggregate all the properties? We think this is enough despair for one day.

Lorimer Condominiums (http://www.s3arc.com/lorimer.html) [S3 Architecture]

http://curbed.com/archives/2010/02/22/new_burg_condo_building_sports_unplanned_gritty_lo ok.php#more

[Merry]

The Montagues and Capulets of Brooklyn Development

By Eliot Brown

In the past five years, one industrial site after another along the Williamsburg waterfront has been demolished and inevitably replaced by a high-end apartment tower, gradually adding a new skyline across the East River. The Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal became the Edge; a trash transfer station became Northside Piers; the onetime hulking Schaefer Brewery south of the Williamsburg Bridge became the 25-story Schaefer Landing; and now the owners of the former Domino Sugar factory are fighting to put 2,200 apartments on their site.

And for more than five years, Isack Rosenberg, the owner of the giant Certified Lumber warehouse just to the south of the Schaefer property, has wanted to do the same to his waterfront land, currently a sprawling, low-rise, red-brick building and a parking lot littered with lumber. He drew up plans and began a lengthy approvals process for a three-tower complex, dubbed “Rose Plaza on the River,” with 801 apartments that would rise around an open plaza and esplanade.

But just weeks away from facing a must-win approval from the City Council for a rezoning of his land, the plan appears imperiled, due in large part, according to one side, to a religious rift between two of Brooklyn’s most powerful Hasidic factions.

The standoff also involves the newly elected councilman for the area, Stephen Levin, who has taken an unusually forceful stance in opposition, displaying no eagerness for compromise in the face of community resistance to Mr. Rosenberg’s development. The stage is set for a high-profile rejection of a major development by the City Council, an extremely rare occurrence in New York City, particularly along the former industrial waterfront.

Much of the public opposition from Mr. Levin and other community groups has been directed at what is said to be too little affordable housing—160 units, or 20 percent, would be for low-income residents—in addition to concerns about overwhelming the neighborhood.

But running as an undercurrent in the drama is the complex world of Williamsburg Hasidic Jewish politics, with two bitter rival factions of Hasidim’s dominant Satmar sect staking out opposing positions on the issue.

Like oil and water, the two factions frequently take opposing sides in the community, supporting rival political candidates and warring with each other over proposed developments. The split initially formed over a succession fight after Grand Rebbe Moshe Teitelbaum, the sect’s leader, died in 2006, leading both his sons, Aaron and Zalman, to claim leadership. Their factions together have tens of thousands of members.

Recently, they stood in virulent opposition to each other on the hard-fought Broadway Triangle affordable-housing development planned for East Williamsburg, with the locally dominant Zalmanite faction strongly urging the plan, backed many Brooklyn Democrats and Mr. Levin, and many Aaronites working to defeat it.

MR. ROSENBERG, who bought Certified Lumber two decades ago and has sat on the land since, is a Satmar who is a follower of the Aaronite faction.

His proposal, not surprisingly, enjoys the support of leading members of the Aaronite community. The Zalmanites’ opposition is led by the influential United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, which has ties to the local Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Vito Lopez, among other elected officials (Mr. Levin was Mr. Lopez’s chief of staff).

The developer charges that it is the rivalry, not a lack of merit, that is fueling resistance.

“Unfortunately, as a result of the politics in Williamsburg and the split in the Satmar community, I believe the opposition has developed regarding Rose Plaza,” said Howard Weiss, Mr. Rosenberg’s attorney, who has been leading the project through public approvals. “It’s simply the local politics that’s driving the opposition.”

Mr. Levin, the local councilman, insists that the issue is far more complex—he said any intra-Satmar disagreement “has no bearing at all” on his position—and his opposition is rather a reaction to a developer who failed to listen to the broader community.

“You have people on the community board from all over the district that voted against this thing, and I share their concerns,” Mr. Levin said. “This is a much bigger issue. People in Williamsburg are upset about overdevelopment, and about over–luxury development.”

For his part, Rabbi David Niederman, president of UJO, denied that religious rivalries played any role in his group’s position, saying he was simply pushing for more affordable housing, consistent with concerns of non-Hasidic groups. “The overwhelming opposition came from outside of the Jewish community that has no interest in this internal rivalry,” he said.

Indeed, the developer did a poor job of winning over the community board, which felt Mr. Rosenberg was unresponsive to its concerns and voted 31-8 against the project; the board also urged him to boost affordable-housing levels.

Mr. Rosenberg is new to the world of large-scale development, with no experience to his name of something on this scale, not to mention a set of bankruptcy problems—not the most desirable quality for a developer trying to round up votes. The only comparable development he has done is Warehouse 11, a new, boxy 120-unit Williamsburg condo building developed at the peak of the market. The high cost of the loan for the project—$50 million—sent Mr. Rosenberg into bankruptcy; only in recent days has he negotiated a settlement with the main lender, Capital One, although other issues may remain. This was not his first time in financial trouble—in 1999, Mr. Rosenberg pleaded guilty in federal court to bankruptcy fraud, receiving two years probation.

BUT MR. ROSENBERG'S financial woes aside, what makes the opposition of Mr. Levin so unique is that it appears unwavering, a rare occurrence when a project moves this far along in the public-approval process. The City Council is the last stop in a seven-month review process—a hearing is set for next week—after the City Planning Commission and the local community board, which very frequently recommends “no” votes on projects. At this point, developers traditionally unveil a compromise plan to assuage the local member’s concerns, inevitably leading both sides to declare a “win-win,” and the rest of the Council duly approves the development.

In another unusual move, it was nearly voted down at the City Planning Commission after representatives of the Brooklyn borough president pushed for its rejection.

But Mr. Weiss, Mr. Rosenberg’s attorney, said that at this point he views Mr. Levin’s eventual support as unlikely, as he met with the councilman on the issue and was not offered a clear path to winning his support.

“He listened, and didn’t indicate that there would be any basis for him to support the project,” Mr. Weiss said. “We’re not even able to identify precisely what the issues are.”

Mr. Weiss now plans to try to sway the rest of the Council, pointing out that the project has the same amount of below-market-rate apartments as other private waterfront developments in the area. In coming days, he said, his client plans to increase that number.

Still, it is highly uncommon for the Council to vote against the will of a local member on land use, as members don’t want the rest of the body to turn around and do the same on a development in their districts.

Mr. Levin did not rule out a compromise entirely, although his language suggested he did not see one on the horizon. “I’m always open to having a dialogue,” he said, cautioning, “I have not seen any meaningful concessions on their part.”

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/montagues-and-capulets-brooklyn-development

[lofter1]

Tribalism :confused:

[Merry]

Balancing the Burg

New Brooklyn council member takes aim at luxury waterfront towers

by Matt Chaban

http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/image/roseplaza11_30_09.jpg
Rose Plaza's three towers will rise to a maximum of 28 stories, with 30 percent of the units qualifying as affordable.

Rose Plaza might look like yet another luxury condominium on the Williamsburg waterfront: a trio of towers planned for a former lumber yard not far from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. But after last-minute concessions won by local City Council representative Stephen Levin, the project can be seen as a beacon for less density and more affordability along the north Brooklyn shore.

“The world around us has changed,” Levin said this morning after a 19-1 vote by the council’s Land-Use Committee in favor of the project. “As community residents have seen a glut of luxury apartments spring up around them, I think people, to an extent, feel like the community has not seen real benefit or is not convinced there’s a real balance there.”

With scaled-back density and affordable units climbing to 30 percent of the project’s total, Rose Plaza may herald a new wave of lower-scale thinking in response to the city’s 2005 rezoning of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint waterfronts. That ambitious rezoning allowed 30- and 40-story towers to rise in the formerly industrial area, with only 20 percent of units required to be affordable. But so far, only two major projects, Northside Piers and the Edge, have gotten off the ground, while the upland portion of the neighborhoods have been flooded with lowrise buildings, few of them containing affordable units as the city had hoped.

Rose Plaza, comprised of three towers designed by Gruzen Samton and ranging in height from 24 to 28 stories, is located on land to the south of the rezoning area, hence Levin’s greater leverage over it. Initially, its 801 units included numerous studios and one-bedrooms, which locals, particularly in the neighboring Chasidic community, saw as a further invasion by the hipsters to their north. Only 20 percent of the units were affordable, and while that complies with the rezoning and other inclusionary housing bonuses in the city, Levin demanded more.

As of last week, the developer Isack Rosenberg had agreed to increase the number of affordable units to 28 percent and reduce the total unit count to 776. But it was not until an agreement reached last night that the council member was satisfied—30 percent affordable out of 754 units, including dozens of three- and four-bedroom apartments.

Howard Weiss, the developer’s land-use counsel, said Rosenberg was happy to have reached an agreement on what will be a landmark project. “There’s no question Rose Plaza sets a new benchmark for affordable housing in privately owned projects,” Weiss said. (One waterfront project, Schaefer Landing, located directly north of Rose Plaza, has 40 percent affordability but was built on city-owned land on the site of the former Schaefer brewery.)

The one dissenting vote at today’s hearing was Brooklyn council member Charles Barron, who argued that the project still remained at 20 percent affordability because one-third of the affordable units were set aside for people making 120 percent of the area median income. “In an area where a family of four only makes 30 or 35 thousand dollars a year, why would we take away from the affordability?” Barron asked. The other units are split between one-third at 40 percent of the area median income, with the remaining third at 60 percent.

Levin, who entered office in January, said that he was satisfied with the mix, and that it provided ample opportunity for both working- and middle-class families to remain in the neighborhood. “I want to make sure that when development happens on the waterfront, families can participate,” Levin said.

Other compromises for the deal included the removal of an urban beach—part of a 33,000-square-foot open space plan designed by Thomas Balsley—and the elimination of restaurants as a possible use within the ground-floor retail. A vote by the full council is expected today, when, based on this morning’s outcome, the project will almost certainly be approved.

Today's approval looks to be a new precedent for the waterfront, as well as continuing the council's new-found ambivalence toward development. Even though most projects within the rezoning can be built as of right, any developers looking for zoning modifications will have to deal with Levin, who has made clear he expects more for the community than has been agreed to in the past.

The next mega-development in his sights is the massive 2,200-unit Domino redevelopment designed by Rafael Viñoly and also wending its way through the public review process. The sugar refinery was left out of the original rezoning as it was still in operation at the time, and like Rose Plaza, it requires its own set of public approvals. Levin has been particularly critical of that project, which has half-a-dozen towers surrounding the refinery on as many blocks.

UPDATE: The project passed the full council this afternoon by a vote of 47-1, with Barron the lone member in opposition.

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4437

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/16/33_16_as_rose_final.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBrooklynPaper-FullArticles+%28The+Brooklyn+Paper%3A+Full+article s%29

[Merry]

Williamsburg's 125 North 10th Finds PriceChopper Success

May 13, 2010, by Joey

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_5_125n10.jpg

Some time ago a new resident at Williamsburg condo building 125 North 10th Street wrote us a heartfelt letter begging for other buyers to join the party. It worked! OK, maybe the "dramatic price cuts" that happened a little bit later had something to do with it. The building—actually two six-story buildings joined by an interior courtyard (above)—has just passed the 70% sold mark, a press release chirps, thanks to 37 sales since another wave of minor price cuts at the end of last year. Hey, a C grade is not too shabby!

Marketing for the building kicked off so long ago that it had a MySpace page touting its many amenities, including a 24-hour concierge, lounges, two roof decks and a 'Burg rarity—a children's playroom. Remaining apartments are priced from $595,000 for a one-bedroom up to $1.15 million for a lingering three-bedroom penthouse (another penthouse recently sold for just over $940K). The listings average in the $750-per-square-foot range, a bit higher than that off-the-waterfront sweetspot.

Listings: 125 North 10th Street (http://www.corenyc.com/en/new-developments-125-north-10th-street,4,ND_4.html) [CORE]
125 North 10th coverage (http://ny.curbed.com/tags/125-north-10th) [Curbed]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/05/13/williamsburgs_125_north_10th_finds_pricechopper_su ccess.php

[Merry]

We've had Queens Crap (http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/) for a while, but we now seem to have Brooklyn Crap as well :eek:.


Say Hello to Williamsburg's Palazzo Yucky

August 26, 2010, by Joey

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_8_yucky1.jpg

Strange things are often uncovered (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/02/23/new_east_williamsburg_building_turns_to_stone.php) while strolling the side streets of Williamsburg, as this Curbed tipster just found out:
Walked past this place on Leonard and Conselyea in the Eye-talian part of the Burg and immediately thought of Curbed. [Ed. note—Uh, we're flattered?] Sorry the pics are almost as bad as this faux palazzo, which made me wretch even if it does go pretty well with the area's vinyl siding and the mobster steakhouse across the street.To be fair, neighborhood context was shattered when this crazy thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scarano_88_conselyea_st.jpg) popped up at the same intersection. Care for another look?

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_8_yucky2.jpg

We've been staring at these pictures so long that we're now kind of into it. Someone set us straight, or at least give us some intel on this faux-lazzo.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/08/26/say_hello_to_williamsburgs_palazzo_yucky.php#more

[Merry]

Not a bad view :).


Builder Taking a Loss on His Schaefer Landing Penthouse

October 12, 2010, by Sara Polsky

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4107/5076055632_4ac77d5784_o.gif (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/10/12/builder_taking_a_loss_on_his_schaefer_landing_pent house.php)

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4018/5075458419_ebf913b7d2_o.gif

Ribbing new Schaefer Landing listings has long been one of our favorite pastimes, so even if the market is improving, why stop now? The South Williamsburg waterfront luxury condo complex has a new apartment on the market, a whopper of a penthouse known as #PH3B. This one last sold for $1.875 million in 2006, so what's the ask going to be after four years? Uh, $1.65 million, which would make it the development's latest money loser. Interestingly, records show the penthouse is owned by one of the complex's builders, BFC Partners' Don Capoccia. Maybe he'd rather move on to his new baby, Toren, or maybe he's just lonely. Either way, we're digging some of the unit's added features, especially that rooftop swimming pool. Is there a better view in Williamsburg?

Listing: 440 Kent Avenue PH3B (http://greatjonesrealty.com/listing-details.php?lid=46&viewimage=205) [Great Jones Realty]
440 Kent Avenue #PH3B (http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/560956-condo-440-kent-avenue-williamsburg-brooklyn) [StreetEasy]
Schaefer Landing coverage (http://ny.curbed.com/tags/schaefer-landing) [Curbed]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/10/12/builder_taking_a_loss_on_his_schaefer_landing_pent house.php#schaefer-landing-phb-7

[Merry]

Very nice.



South Williamsburg Candy Factory Makes Sweet Switch to Rentals

October 25, 2010, by Joey Arak

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_10_390wythe.jpg

Not every old Williamsburg industrial building gets knocked down for fancy new apartments. Some just become them! Like the former Matchett Candy Factory at Wythe Avenue and South 4th Street (former home of the Roebling Hall art gallery), which will become 69 new studio, 1BR and 2BR apartments open for business in January. Developer Caro Enterprises just named Corcoran's Barak/Blackburn Group the leasing agents, and rents will begin at $2,000/month for a 450sqft studio.
\
erkins Eastman designed the conversion, which includes a rooftop addition, and the loft look will include exposed brick and original wooden beams. Amenities at 390 Wythe Avenue will include a part-time doorman, bike storage, on-site parking and a roof deck with "spectacular city and harbor views." A model apartment designed by BoConcept will launch with the building. Brownstoner (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/04/development_wat_593.php) got a couple looks at construction last spring:

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_10_390wythe2.jpg

Most luxury Williamsburg rentals are new construction, so we're guessing an old candy factory will have some serious appeal. We'll find out in 2011.

Development Watch: Wythe Addition Up Close (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/04/development_wat_593.php) [Brownstoner]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/10/25/south_williamsburg_candy_factory_makes_sweet_switc h_to_rentals.php

[Merry]

LOL.


Non-Karl Fischer Puts His Stamp on Burg's Karl Fischer Row

December 20, 2010, by Joey Arak

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_12_14bayard.jpg

According to permits, the architect who dared to ply his craft on Bayard Street, known as Karl Fischer Row for that prolific architect's many buildings lining McCarren Park, is Philip Toscano. And even the world's best architect knew he had to think outside the box to compete with Hot Karl's creations. Folks, he nailed it. Now at 14 Bayard Street: the balconies to nowhere! More photos over on New York Shitty, which we're assuming Pritzker Prize judges are combing through right now.

New York Shitty Day Ender: 14 Bayard Street (http://www.newyorkshitty.com/greenpoint-goodness/?p=50802) [New York Shitty via Gothamist (http://gothamist.com/2010/12/20/rooftop_squatters_get_their_own_bal.php)]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/12/20/nonkarl_fischer_puts_his_stamp_on_burgs_karl_fisch er_row.php

[antinimby]

That right there exemplifies all that is wrong with the crappy architecture in this city.

New York Shitty.

That it certainly is.

[Tectonic]

March 23, 2011 5:59 AM
Big Billyburg development site in contract

Property at 250 N. 10th St. could sprout a building as large as 155,000 square feet; price offered by LCOR is said to be over $100 per buildable square foot.

Share Print (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110323/REAL_ESTATE/110329954&template=printart) Email (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art_tips?Date=20110323&Category=REAL_ESTATE&ArtNo=110329954&SiteData=CN&SectionCat=&template=emailart?iframe=true&width=400&height=400) Comment (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110323/REAL_ESTATE/110329954#reader-comments) By Amanda Fung (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/personalia/19/Amanda+Fung)

One of the largest vacant development sites in the hot Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg is in contract, according to sources.
The site, which is zoned for a building as large as 155,000 square feet, is located at 250 N. 10th St. The buyer is real estate investment firm and developer LCOR Inc., sources said. The site, owned by the Lax family, which is in the diamond business, has been on and off the market for three years, according to sources.
A spokesman for LCOR declined to comment.
SLCE Architects and Slade Architects were reportedly retained to design the residential project, but the family decided that they would be better off selling the property after they could not find an equity partner to invest in the project, sources said. The site is currently in contract for more than $100 per buildable square foot, a source said.
It is still unclear, however, if the deal has actually closed. Back in December, The Davis Cos., a Boston-based residential development firm, bought the note on the property from the original lenders, Intervest National Bank and The Stillwater Asset Backed Fund, according to public city records. The original mortgage was valued at $6.1 million, records show.
Jon Frey, director of investor relations and senior vice president of acquisitions at The Davis Cos., confirmed that the company owned the note but said that was no longer the case. Mr. Frey declined to elaborate.
Originally, the site was to become home to a 207-unit rental project with roughly 100 parking spaces, according to one source. The site is shovel ready and zoned for residential use, sources said.
If the sale closed for north of $100 buildable per square foot, brokers said it would set a benchmark for future development site sales in Williamsburg, where there have been very few trades this past year. Most recently, a 64,000-buildable-square-foot site at 157 Kent Ave. sold for $80 per buildable square foot.


©2011 Crain Communications Inc.

[RoldanTTLB]

I don't do much reposting of other articles, but holy cow:

http://cdn.brownstoner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/edge-new-rental-williamsburg.jpg

Big news this morning in the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203914304576629322840335328.html?m od=WSJ_NY_MIDDLEThirdStories): Edge builder Douglaston Development intends to construct a 500-unit rental on the Williamsburg waterfront parcel where Three Northside Piers was supposed to rise. According to the story, Douglaston plans to break ground in March for the 40-story building. Toll Brothers is walking away from plans to develop a third Northside Piers building on the site because, according to senior VP David Von Spreckelsen, the “Williamsburg market is strong, but for most of us developers, it’s not a place where we were making a lot of money.” Douglaston’s plans for a third Edge condo—on the land where Smorgasburg and the Brooklyn Flea are held—are currently on ice, but the firm’s principal Jeff Levine says there’s a great deal of demand for rentals in the neighborhood and he expects to rent apartments in the building for $55 to $60 a foot, or around $3,000 for a one-bedroom. The Journal notes that the $300 million development could be “Brooklyn’s most ambitious new residential project since the recession.” Douglaston still needs to work out nitty-gritty financing details before the tower is a go. The tower, rendered above at right, will be 10 floors taller than the Two Northside Piers, which goes to 30 stories.

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2011/10/burg-bombshell-edge-developer-planning-huge-rental/?stream=true

[Derek2k3]

Glad it's slightly taller. I was worried this skyline was going to be one long tabletop. The design looks decent with hints of deco too,

[BrooklynLove]

This shouldn't be a surprise to any well-informed buyer at Edge or Northside Piers, but the reality is that many of the buyers in those buildings are not well-informed.

[antinimby]

Yippie...another unremarkable blue glass building.

[Gulcrapek]

10/15/11

129 and 135 (?) Metropolitan Avenue

http://i.imgur.com/Uivlih.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/z2aA8h.jpg


Nitehawk Cinemas/136 Metropolitan

http://i.imgur.com/wdXATh.jpg


Louver House/91-93 Metropolitan

http://i.imgur.com/tOVbth.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sipOrh.jpg



180 Metropolitan

http://i.imgur.com/q3Xhwh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xLsDAh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Qtacmh.jpg

180 Metropolitan townhouses

http://i.imgur.com/qsVvUh.jpg


Something in about a block away

http://i.imgur.com/QxXcKh.jpg

[Derek2k3]

I like the Louver House one.
The rest all seem interchangeable with each other.

[Tectonic]

Louver House looks like its completely empty.

[johnkerr]

Very nice.



South Williamsburg Candy Factory Makes Sweet Switch to Rentals

October 25, 2010, by Joey Arak

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_10_390wythe.jpg

Not every old Williamsburg industrial building gets knocked down for fancy new apartments. Some just become them! Like the former Matchett Candy Factory at Wythe Avenue and South 4th Street (former home of the Roebling Hall art gallery), which will become 69 new studio, 1BR and 2BR apartments open for business in January. Developer Caro Enterprises just named Corcoran's Barak/Blackburn Group the leasing agents, and rents will begin at $2,000/month for a 450sqft studio.
\
erkins Eastman designed the conversion, which includes a rooftop addition, and the loft look will include exposed brick and original wooden beams. Amenities at 390 Wythe Avenue will include a part-time doorman, bike storage, on-site parking and a roof deck with "spectacular city and harbor views." A model apartment designed by BoConcept will launch with the building. Brownstoner (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/04/development_wat_593.php) got a couple looks at construction last spring:

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_10_390wythe2.jpg

Most luxury Williamsburg rentals are new construction, so we're guessing an old candy factory will have some serious appeal. We'll find out in 2011.

Development Watch: Wythe Addition Up Close (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/04/development_wat_593.php) [Brownstoner]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/10/25/south_williamsburg_candy_factory_makes_sweet_switc h_to_rentals.php

One of my buddies worked on the Candy factory renovations doing the bathrooms including one apartment he's buying himself that he put in these fittings all the way back from our homeland. This designer bathroom (http://www.rogerseller.com.au/bathroom.aspx) joint

[Peteynyc1]

If you were to pick your favorite building to possibly purchase an apartment in Williamsburg, which would it be in? (location, quality, style)