Brooklyn

Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to make a proposal on Wednesday that will launch an initiative to transform Downtown Brooklyn into a community that will rival some of its brownstone counterparts. The area has undoubtedly grown significantly over the last decade with new restaurants and cultural institutions that have attracted an influx of residents. However locals feel that the area still feels a bit disconnected. De Blasio’s plan aims to create a greater sense of community in the neighborhood.
Find out more about the proposal here

Real Estate Trends

July 14, 2014

Tim Seggerman’s Wooden Brooklyn Townhouse Extension Blends Nordic and Japanese Design

By Ana Lisa Alperovich

Architect Tim Seggerman renovated an extended a Brooklyn Brownstone blending Finnish and Japanese aesthetics in a beautiful way. Located in Cobble Hill, this family home was re-conceived in a modern way, respecting its traditional brownstone facade with a surprising extension at the back. Using a variety of wood that includes white oak, mahogany, bamboo, teak and ash, the local architect turned this Brooklyn dwelling into a stylish comfortable place to live.
Tour the home here

July 10, 2014

Classic $2.1M Park Slope Co-Op Is Right at Home in One of NYC’s Most Desirable Neighborhoods

By Stephanie Hoina

Newer isn’t necessarily better. Over 100 years ago architect Henry Pohlman built the elegant “apartment house” at 261 Garfield Place where you will find this refined yet cozy co-op on the market for $2.1 million. And while we doubt Mr. Pohlman could ever have imagined even the entire building selling for that price, much less a single apartment, it is clear he took great pride in his work. Throughout the 3BR/2BA residence period details abound, with high ceilings, parquet flooring, ceiling medallions, and decorative moulding at every turn. And a wide gallery/hallway leads you from one end of the home to the other.
See more of this classic home in a classic neighborhood

Distinctive Homes

July 10, 2014

Brooklyn Rents on the Rise With Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy Leading the Charge; Manhattan Rents Relatively Stable

This past week there has been a lot of talk about Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy finally having their "moment", and it looks like there are numbers in to back that up. MNS's June rental market report for Brooklyn and Manhattan reveal that both developers and renters are looking to move away from saturated areas like Williamsburg and DUMBO. By MNS's measure, average rents in Brooklyn increased from $2,556 to $2,741, or 6.2%, as compared with June of last year — very much driven by rent hikes in gentrifying areas. Manhattan rents on the other hand fell just slightly.
More on the Brooklyn and Manhattan rental markets here

Real Estate Trends

July 8, 2014

New Renderings of Two Trees’ BAM South Tower Highlight Views, Green Roofs and Space for Outdoor Markets

New images of the BAM South Tower at 286 Ashland Place have emerged and come courtesy of the project's landscape architect, Grain Collective. The renderings hint not only at the incredible views that will be afforded by the new tower, but the major rehaul of the public spaces along Fulton Street, Ashland Place and Lafayette Avenue. The new streetscaping plan will add much needed green space to the barren concrete quarter, with plenty of room for outdoor activities and events for patrons of BAM and BRIC, as well as local residents, to enjoy.
More of what's to come here

July 7, 2014

Permits Filed for SHoP’s 36-Story Tower at the Domino Sugar Refinery

The transformation of the Domino Sugar Refinery is moving full steam ahead with Two Trees Development filing their first permits for their 36-story SHoP-designed tower at 320 Kent Avenue. The 401-foot glass tower will be one of the tallest of the mega development, sited alongside the Williamsburg Bridge.
More on the tower here

July 5, 2014

Brooklyn’s ‘A Cabin in a Loft’ Transforms a Space with Two Treehouse-Like Bedrooms

Remember as a kid how much you loved hiding out in a fort made of couch cushions or creating a make-shift house in the backyard? The owners of A Cabin in a Loft recreated that fun feeling by building a cabin and treehouse within their Bushwick loft to serve as private sleeping quarters. Each wooden bedroom cabin has its own semi-private garden, set at both ends of the open loft. The idea came about in 2009, when artists/designers Terri Chiao and Adam Frezzo wanted to create separate bedroom spaces within their open-plan guest house and artist space, located in a former textile factory building. Instead of cutting off light and making the unit feel half its size by building floor-to-ceiling walls, they decided to construct the simple, geometric volumes. What resulted is a space that feels like an outdoor environment and takes a new approach to loft living.
See more of the artistic loft

July 4, 2014

This Two-Story Belltel Loft Is Just Steps Away from Heaven

Let’s just say you have $23,500 weighing you down and you’re looking for a way to ease your burden. Why don’t you try renting this spectacular apartment at the Belltel Lofts? 365 Bridge Street Apartment 26B is a 2,800-square-foot, 3BR/3BA stunner that just gets cooler as you go along. This two-story loft manages to give you modern amenities in a prewar building, with surprises around every turn, and views to spare, all while putting you right in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn. Sound like something you want to see? Well then come closer…
A little closer... now click here

Distinctive Homes

July 2, 2014

$6.5M Flawless Merging of Two Gretsch Condominium Units is Music to Our Ears — and Our Eyes

By Stephanie Hoina

In our humble opinion putting down roots in New York City should be on everyone’s bucket list. And that’s exactly what Friedrich Gretsch, an immigrant from Mannheim, Germany did in 1883, when he founded a small musical instrument shop in Brooklyn that later became a dynasty still in existence today. In 1916, as The Gretsch Company expanded, his son moved the operation to a mammoth ten-story factory at 60 Broadway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, now the site of this luxury residential condominium conversion by architect Karl Fischer and interior designer Andres Escobar & Associates completed in 2003.
Read on to see why this apartment is music to our ears - and eyes

Distinctive Homes

July 2, 2014

Former Warner Music Co-Chairman Michael Fleisher Sells Brooklyn Heights Town Home for $6.4M

Wayfair CFO and apparent fan of extramarital endeavors, Michael Fleisher has sold his Brooklyn Heights town home, and for 6.4 million according to city records. The former Warner Music co-chairman listed the home at 273 Hicks Street five months ago with Corcoran agents James Cornell and Leslie Marshall, asking a staggering $6.95 million. After two months, he reduced the asking price to $6.495 million before finally settling in at a sale price of $6.4 million.
Take a look inside the Brooklyn Heights Beauty here

July 1, 2014

Park Slope’s Slim and ‘Super Green’ Condo Building Features a Solar Panel-Clad Facade

A brand new building has popped up in Park Slope and it's got quite an interesting facade. Located at 443 Bergen Street just off of Flatbush Ave, this sleek new addition to the neighborhood boasts 5 stories of living space, a 7KW solar array, reclaimed IPE wood from boardwalks, and triple glazed Passive House windows and doors. According to the building permits, work started in the Fall of last year, and by the looks of things, construction has just about wrapped up.
More on the new solar powered building this way

July 1, 2014

Movie Producer’s Brendan Coburn-Designed Williamsburg Home Sells for $3 Million

Producer Jason Sosnoff--who has worked on such films as Analyze This, The Good Shephard, and You Don’t Know Jack—has just sold his Williamsburg town home for $2.95 million, according to city records. Not only is this single family home at 154 Wythe Avenue a rare find in a neighborhood characterized by warehouse remodels, it also features three floors, a finished basement, a landscaped garden and a rooftop deck. Sosnoff had the 4BR/2.5BA townhouse redesigned by CWB Architect’s Brendan Coburn, who said, “let there be light” and–oh wait, was that another story?
Take a look inside the remodel here

July 1, 2014

If at First You Don’t Succeed… Anne Hathaway Sells DUMBO Clocktower Loft the Second Time Around

After re-listing her DUMBO digs for the second time in early June, Anne Hathaway has found a buyer for her Clocktower loft, last priced at $4.25 million. Hathaway snagged the 2BR/3.5BA unit at 1 Main Street with then-fiancé Adam Shulman in February 2013 for $4.1 million, but reportedly never moved in, instead using the 2,592-square-foot apartment as an extremely oversized closet. The unit first hit the market in September 2013, but was removed shortly thereafter in December. The buyer hasn't yet been identified, but he or she will certainly not be disappointed with the giant master suite, library and media room, corner layout, and spectacular views of the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Manhattan skyline.
Get All of the A-list details this way

June 30, 2014

From Gilded Movie House to University Gym: Uncovering the Past of the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre

We're thinking of becoming local college basketball fans — not necessarily because we love the sport, but because we're dying to get inside this Long Island University gymnasium that was once the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre. Commissioned in 1928 by Paramount Pictures, with a sister theatre in Times Square, this regal venue was the largest movie theatre in Brooklyn, second largest in the city, and the first theatre designed for talking pictures. Noted theatre architects Rapp and Rapp designed the rococo-style palace with 4,084 burgundy velvet seats, a ceiling painted with clouds, a 60-foot stage curtain decorated with satin-embroidered pheasants, huge chandeliers, and tiered fountains filled with goldfish. Movie houses struggled during the depression years, and by 1936 the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre had lost $1.5 million since opening. In 1950 Long Island University purchased the building, and twelve years later they renovated the auditorium as their gymnasium keeping the original, ornate details of the space intact. The LIU Blackbirds played their first game in 1963, and in 1975 a second renovation occurred thanks to funding from local businesses.
We uncover the storied past of this grand movie palace

June 27, 2014

$2.1M Sale at 100 Rugby Road Is Record-Breaker for Prospect Park South

An adorable, historic, turn-of-the-century home modeled after a Swiss chalet has just sold for a record-breaking $2.1 million in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park South. Up until this point, the most expensive sale in the neighborhood was a $2 million sale from last year; however, records confirm that the 7BR/3.5BA home at 100 Rugby Road has edged out the competition by $100K.
Find out more about this historic record-breaker here

June 26, 2014

Live Like an Outlaw (At Least for a Night) at the Urban Cowboy B&B in Brooklyn

As New Yorkers we love to think of ourselves as original and cutting edge, but there's no denying that many of us have a soft spot for things that harken back to gentler times. In a sea of towers and shiny new boutiques, Williamsburg's newest hotel addition bucks the steel and glass trend for a beautiful Adirondack design that will appeal to even the most unwavering modernist. If you're looking for an oasis in this concrete jungle of ours, look no further than the Urban Cowboy Bed & Breakfast, a ranch-style escape sure to turn any city dweller into a cowboy complete with a twang.
Check out the incredible interiors of this quirky B&B

June 25, 2014

Before DUMBO Had a Dumb Name: Eamon Loingsigh’s New Novel References the Neighborhood’s Seamy Past

By Andrew Cotto

There’s been a lot of novels set in New York City (guilty myself, two times). When done right, such work can serve as a portal to the past, when New York was a distinctly different place, one often defined by its era and often in direct contrast to the current conditions. In Eamon Loingsigh’s powerful new novel, Light of the Diddicoy, reference is made in the very first line to the area “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.” Of course, any New Yorker worth his/her salted caramel custard from Shake Shack knows DUMBO, the Brooklyn nabe known for its pricey lofts and tony boutiques, its art galleries and swank eateries and a grassy park that sprawls along the water’s edge below the span of East River bridges. Lovely. The characters in Loingsigh’s novel aren’t so privileged, for they lived in DUMBO 100 years ago, long before any clunky acronyms, when the waterfront was a war zone, and the novel’s narrator, Liam Garrity, a displaced and desperate Irish immigrant, all of 14 years, fell in with a brutal gang as a matter of survival.
More about 'Light of the Diddicoy' here

June 25, 2014

$1.8M Greenpoint Apartment Boasts Incredible 16-Foot High Exposed Ceilings

When you hear about a Greenpoint apartment for sale, "loft" might not be what first pops into your head. But apartment 8 at 190 West Street, currently listed for $1.825 million through CORE, will make you a believer in Brooklyn loft living. The 1,364-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment has all of the loft-like charms you'd hope for--steel support columns, nine-inch oak plank flooring, and exposed wood ceiling beams, duct work, and pipes. It also feels twice its size thanks to 16-foot ceilings, 40 feet of street-facing frontage, eight-foot-high windows, a large skylight, and an open layout that can easily accommodate a two-bedroom conversion.
Don't miss the rest of this Brooklyn beauty

Distinctive Homes

June 22, 2014

Why Is This Fort Greene Residence All Lit Up?

By Patty Lee

As New Yorkers, we have long come to terms with living in small spaces — we cram into tiny studios, fashion herb gardens on fire escapes and even wrap our apartments with shelves for storage space. But we're also a stylish bunch, always looking for ways to make our homes stand out. So when the owners of this Brooklyn residence wanted to tie in their many rooms without losing any space, the partners at Taylor and Miller Architecture and Design came up with a creative plan.
Click to see the interiors...

June 20, 2014

Your Daily Link Fix: Hy-Fi Mushroom Tower Comes to Life; 9 Co-Working Spaces in Brooklyn

9 Co-working Spaces in Brooklyn: It seems the world is going freelance but that doesn’t mean you have to forfeit human interaction. Brooklyn Magazine shows us nine great community workspaces to rub elbows with fellow freelancers. Amazon’s New Fire: The Perfect Phone for Moms?: Amazon has just released the new phone and FastCo. thinks they’ve […]

Uncategorized

June 19, 2014

NIMBY: Residents Lose Out to Hudson Properties’s Plan to Build a 23-Story Tower Near Prospect Park

Workers will resume construction today on the 23-story residential tower planned for 626 Flatbush Avenue at the edge of Prospect Park in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Yesterday, a judge threw out a lawsuit placed against Hudson Properties that demanded they chop their tower down to just eight stories. Through the Prospect Park East Network, residents managed to attain a temporary restraining order through State Supreme Court […]

New Developments

June 19, 2014

Brownstone of Park Slope’s “Original Gentrifiers” Sells for $3 Million

When Evelyn and Everett Ortner bought their Park Slope brownstone at 272 Berkeley Place in 1963 for $32,000 they probably never imaged it would sell 50 years later for over $3 million. But it was their own historically sensitive and forward-looking vision that helped revitalize the area and make it a much-sought-after Brooklyn neighborhood. The Ortners moved to Park Slope when brownstones were unfashionable and the rich turned their noses down at the area. They convinced their friends to also buy brownstones in the neighborhood. Evelyn was an interior designer specializing in period interiors, and the couple meticulously restored their home down to every last historic detail. After a 25th anniversary trip to France, where they were inspired by local preservationists working to conserve a crumbling castle in Normandy, Mr. and Mrs. Ortner dedicated themselves to historic preservation efforts in Park Slope until their deaths in 2006 and 2012.
See the results of the couple's tireless passion

June 18, 2014

City Approves $3 Million Streetscaping Plan for Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District

The city has officially approved a $3 million streetscaping plan as part of the overall plan to create a cultural district on the border of downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene, according to Crain’s New York. The plan, which will transform public spaces along several streets including Fulton Street, Ashland Place, Lafayette Avenue, will include ripping up the existing sidewalks and replacing them with dark stone slabs embedded with a sprinkling of lights. There will also be new seating and landscaping along a number of blocks north of Atlantic Avenue where patrons of popular institutions like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and BRIC arts and media gather. The idea is to turn that area into a cultural epicenter in Brooklyn, much like Lincoln Center in Manhattan, but comprised of several independent entities.
Find out more about Brooklyn's new cultural epicenter here

Real Estate Trends

June 18, 2014

Jared Kushner and LIVWRK Make Plans to Buy a Gowanus Property, Possibly for Luxury Condos

Jared Kushner and LIVWRK could soon be making their way to Gowanus. According to The Real Deal, the pair are in contract to buy a 133,000-square-foot development site at 175-225 3rd Street, located right across the new 3rd and 3rd Whole Foods market and just around the corner from Lightstone Group’s 700-unit rental project at 363 Bond Street. Currently, the land has 600 feet of frontage and allows for commercial development of up to 300,000-square-feet, but sources say that one-million square feet of residential could be constructed if rezoned.
More details here

New Developments

June 18, 2014

Printhouse Lofts are Ready to Make Their Mark on the Williamsburg Real Estate Scene