Brooklyn

We're told this big and bright pre-war apartment at 1413 9th Avenue is in a 1923 Finnish co-op building. We know that's not unusual for Sunset Park: In the first half of the 20th century, the neighborhood was home to a large Scandinavian community. But this particular home's charming interiors are also the picture of Scandi-chic (though we're pretty sure it's coincidental). At $560,000, three big bedrooms with plenty of space to spare make the laid-back minimal decor that much easier on the eyes.
Tour this lovely southwest Brooklyn gem

Distinctive Homes

December 13, 2016

Historic districts and landmarking: What they mean and how they could affect you

In New York City, where buying and selling real estate is a high-stakes endeavor, the topic of historic and landmark designation is frequently raised. There are heated discussions on the subject of listing neighborhoods or buildings on the State and National Register of Historic Places or having them designated by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. It's important to know what those organizations do and the distinctions between them. You could even be eligible for significant financial aid for your renovations if you own property in an historic district.
Find out what these designations mean, how you could benefit from them and why they're sometimes controversial.

December 12, 2016

$1.65M brick townhouse in South Slope has a sunroom and a lush garden with a pond

This three-story brick townhouse is nestled in the South Slope, a charming enclave just south of--you guessed it-- the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. For $1.65 million you get interior details like custom millwork, exposed and white-washed brick, a potbelly fireplace and a customized new kitchen. Outdoor lovers will appreciate the sunroom and the backyard, which has been completely decked out with plantings, pathways, and a lovely little pond. The home was last purchased in 2006 for $800,000 by the accomplished stage manager Tricia Toliver.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

December 9, 2016

KBA Architects reveal ziggurat-like tower for Kellogg’s Diner-adjacent site in Williamsburg

Back in March, 6sqft reported that a new hotel/rental tower at 500 Metropolitan Avenue had risen above ground, but there was still a bit ambiguity surroundings its final design. Now, just as the Williamsburg building has topped out, CityRealty uncovered the final renderings from KBA Architects. The firm created a 14-story, ziggurat-like structure that will slope down from the adjacent site of longtime local haunt Kellogg's Diner and offer a slew of trendy amenities.
More views and details

December 9, 2016

Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum needs $75K to stay afloat

By Metro New York

Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum, the black corner building at Seventh Street and Third Avenue dedicated to the beauty of death, is having a hard time staying alive. The museum opened two years ago with a full-bodied program of salon discussions, film and lecture series and quaint exhibitions such as “The Kittens’ Wedding” featuring Victorian-costumed taxidermied […]

Uncategorized

December 9, 2016

Public petition asks Mayor de Blasio to back East River Skyway

A month ago, U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, City Councilman Stephen Levin, and State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol drafted a letter to the Mayor, urging him to advocate for the East River Skyway as a solution for the impending L train shutdown. Building on this momentum, a digital petition addressed to de Blasio has launched on Change.org where the public can show their support for the plan, as well.
Find out more

Transit

December 8, 2016

12-foot ceilings and a wall of windows at this $1.049M Prospect Heights apartment

Loft lovers will appreciate what this apartment at 535 Dean Street, in Prospect Heights, is delivering. The large, open living space--perfect for that flexible loft floorplan--boasts 12-foot-tall ceilings and wall-dominating windows. In addition, there are two bedrooms and a customized loft space built out by a local Brooklyn designer. This apartment, with its many built-ins and creative bedroom spaces, is now asking a hair over $1 million.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

December 6, 2016

Pretty Cobble Hill carriage house boasts history of circus zebras–and Norah Jones as neighbor

Though this 1830s livery stable on a picturesque Cobble Hill block offers seemingly endless charms on its own, the three-story, 4,300-square-foot home may have one of the more unique carriage house histories we've heard: It's believed that between 1915 and 1920 the stable was used to house zebras when what is now the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus was in town—the building next door was used to hold the elephants. If that's not enough distinction, the adorable carriage house belonging to singer Norah Jones—it also appeared in the Julia Roberts film "Eat, Pray, Love,"—sits directly across the street. But this particular carriage house, on the market for $5.6 million, is eclectic enough without past-life zebras or celebrity neighbors, from its expansive owners' duplex to its cozy upper floor apartment. Two decks overlooking a gorgeous rear garden and parking at the front have already won us over, and that's before we've even gone inside.
Explore this eclectic former stable

December 5, 2016

$4.5M Williamsburg building has two apartments and one great backyard

This Williamsburg building has two big things going for it: lots of space and a central neighborhood location. The home is right around the corner from the Bedford Avenue L train, and it holds two apartments and a ground-floor commercial space. Out back, there's an incredible private backyard that looks like the best part of the property, which is now on the market for almost $4.49 million.
See it all

Distinctive Homes

December 5, 2016

As Red Hook’s Norman Foster office complex plans move forward, local residents want more input

In October 6sqft reported that work on Thor Equities' 7.7-acre waterfront office and retail complex, architect Norman Foster‘s first Brooklyn commission, had begun. A recent meeting between the developers' representatives and community members to discuss plans for the 818,000-square-foot two-building project on the former site of Red Hook’s Revere Sugar Refinery–known as Red Hoek Point–revealed concerns that the Red Hook community is being excluded from development plans.
Find out more

December 2, 2016

Live along Clinton Hill’s bustling Myrtle Avenue for $735/month, lottery open for 29 units

The stretch of Myrtle Avenue in Clinton Hill between Hall Street and Classon Avenue, just across from Pratt Institute, is bustling with construction activity. As CityRealty recently reported, three mixed-used projects are in development along the street-- condo 525 Myrtle Avenue, the recently opened rental 490 Myrtle Avenue, and the soon-to-open rental 531 Myrtle Avenue--and between these projects will be a pedestrian plaza with streetscape improvements, seating areas, and trees. The latest to join the list is 504 Myrtle Avenue, a 143-unit rental with ground-floor retail that's rising on the former Pratt Station Post Office. Twenty-nine of its units are now available through the city's affordable housing lottery, and they include 10 $735/month studios, 12 $741/month one-bedrooms, and seven $888/month two-bedrooms reserved for individuals earning no more than 60 percent of the area media income.
More on the lottery

Affordable Housing

My 2,200sqft: Rug designer Amy Helfand shows us around her organic live/work home in Red Hook

Our ongoing series “My sqft” checks out the homes of 6sqft’s friends and fellow New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to the Red Hook rowhouse where rug designer Amy Helfand both works and lives with her family. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch!

December 1, 2016

My 2,200sqft: Rug designer Amy Helfand shows us around her organic live/work home in Red Hook

Artist Amy Helfand has been creating her own line of rugs for over a decade. The gorgeous pieces are hand-woven in Nepal as part of the GoodWeave program, but the design process takes place in Amy's charming Red Hook rowhouse, where she and her family also reside. As she explains, "At heart, I remain a collector: of images, forms and colors, as well as rocks, sticks, and other ephemera from the natural world," and it's this combination of geometry and organic inspiration that's seen throughout her home and studio. From a dining table centerpiece made of rocks to the chicken coop in the backyard, everything reflects Amy's unique vision. 6sqft recently toured the home and found out about Amy's favorite decor, artistic process, thoughts on the neighborhood, and how they rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy.
Take the tour this way

November 30, 2016

Renderings revealed for adaptive reuse Maker Park along the Williamsburg waterfront

Plans for Bushwick Inlet Park, a 28-acre open space along an unused industrial stretch of the Williamsburg waterfront, first came about in 2005, when the Bloomberg administration rezoned the area to allow for new residential development in exchange for the open space. Fast forward to last week, and the city finally acquired the last piece of land for the project, the controversial Citistorage site. Now that the park is on its way to becoming a reality, a trio of grassroots creatives hopes to bring their alternative vision for the former Bayside Oil Depot site to the forefront. Maker Park is the proposal to adaptively reuse this seven-acre parcel's architectural infrastructure--namely the ten 50-foot decommissioned fuel containers--and create a "park as creative as the neighborhood around it." The Architect's Newspaper recently revealed the first set of renderings, which showcase performance venues, art galleries, hanging gardens, reflecting pools, and an adventure playground.
More views and design details

November 30, 2016

The 15 best NYC holiday markets and indie pop-up shops

December's first days bring a dazzling parade of holiday gift markets all vying for the opportunity to find new homes for a bounty of goodies and crafty gifts. We're all familiar with the big NYC markets at Bryant Park and Union Square, but some of the best finds—and the most fun—can be found at smaller, cooler pop-ups and neighborhood markets. Some are only around for a weekend, others for the whole month or longer. In addition to locally-made jewelry and crafts, vintage finds, artfully curated fashions, home items and other things we didn't know we needed, these hip retail outposts sparkle with drinks, food, workshops, tarot readings, nail art, music, and family fun to keep shoppers' spirits bright.
Find out where to get the goods

November 28, 2016

Funky freestanding home in Gravesend hits the market for $1.5M

Although Gravesend is a neighborhood way out in South Brooklyn, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good place to find a deal. In fact, the area is known for its multi-million dollar real estate because of its large Sephardic Jewish population--homes near synagogues and Jewish Community Centers have asking prices that soar into the millions. This house at 8738 23rd Avenue is asking nearly $1.5 million. It's a freestanding four-bedroom property with a funky, cottage-like exterior and a few interior quirks.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

November 28, 2016

$1.7B BQE rehab will be Department of Transportation’s most expensive project ever

When it was built in the 1940s, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway became immediately notorious for the fact that Robert Moses planned it to rip through otherwise quiet, low-scale neighborhoods. Today, it's poor reputation has more to do with potholes, bumps, congestion, and pollution. But that will soon change, as the city is embarking on a five-year rehab of the heavily trafficked, 1.5-mile stretch of the highway that runs between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street in Brooklyn and includes "21 concrete-and-steel bridges over local roads," according to the Times. And at $1.7 billion, it will be the Department of Transportation's most expensive project ever undertaken.
More details ahead

Transit

November 28, 2016

Live in SHoP’s Domino Sugar Refinery tower for $596/month, lottery open for 104 units

Earlier this fall, the first building at Two Trees’ three million-square-foot Domino Sugar Refinery mega-development topped out. The 16-story, $200 million tower at 325 Kent Avenue was designed by SHoP Architects, the same firm responsible for the entire Williamsburg project's master plan, and features a two-winged scheme with a central courtyard. It'll hold a whopping 522 rental units, 104 of which will be reserved for individuals earning 40 percent of the area media income. As of today, these affordable apartments are up for grabs through the city's housing lottery, where availability ranges from $596/month studios to $979/month two-bedrooms.
READ MORE

Affordable Housing

Proposed towers could bring 500 apartments to Crown Heights, including 140 affordable units

Google Earth rendering created by CityRealty; Image depicts the massing of the proposed buildings, not the design

November 23, 2016

Proposed towers could bring 500 apartments to Crown Heights, including 140 affordable units

By Diane Pham

Crown Heights is a neighborhood undergoing rapid change, but the western area south of Eastern Parkway has remained relatively quiet and unaltered by new development. However, it appears that could soon change. As The Real Deal reports, Cornell Realty Management is hoping to rezone two parcels at 40 Crown Street and 931 Carroll Street, just one block from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, to make way for a pair of towers that would house more than 500 residential units.
more here

New Developments

November 18, 2016

The Urban Lens: Bushwick’s ‘Bizarre’ world of burlesque, acrobats, and fire spinners

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, Meryl Meisler captures the artists and performers of Bushwick's bar and event space Bizarre. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. When he moved to NYC, French filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire squatted in a boarded up Bushwick building until he eventually owned it. Along with friend Gregory Baubeau, he decided to turn the building into a bar, performance space, and gallery inspired by the wild stories of Greenwich Village's underground, avant-garde Café Bizarre. Their own BIZARRE opened in 2013, and shortly thereafter they exhibited photographer Meryl Meisler's iconic shots of the neighborhood in the glam/gritty '70s and '80s. Now, Meisler has come together with Sauvaire and Baubeau for a new exhibition that showcases the "assorted madness and the unexpected" of present day BIZARRE. They've shared their energetic photos with 6sqft, capturing all those who make the venue special--the acrobats, artists, burlesque, circus, drag kings and queens, fire spinners, magicians, musicians, poets, patrons and more--and Meisler has given us the inside scoop on this unique scene.
See the collection here

Places

November 18, 2016

Renderings revealed for 40-story Coney Island tower, the tallest residential building in South Brooklyn

Robert S. Trump (Donald's much lesser known younger brother) sold Coney Island's Trump Village Shopping Center in the early 2000s to developer Rubin Schron of Cammeby’s International Group, who, in 2014, publicized plans to replace the center with a 40-story mixed-use tower. Despite opposition from the community, the project is moving ahead, as Yimby has revealed renderings from S9 Architecture of the 430-foot-tall building at 532 Neptune Avenue that's been dubbed Neptune/Sixth. When complete, it will be the tallest residential tower in South Brooklyn, offering 544 apartments, a retail and community facility base, and a public courtyard.
More renderings and details

November 18, 2016

Charming railroad co-op hits the market for $675K in Carroll Gardens

Carroll Gardens is well-known for its blocks of charming townhouses that boast a New York rarity--a front yard. Located at 66 4th Place, one of those "front yard blocks," this apartment is part of an eight-unit co-op and has just hit the market for $675,000. The railroad pad will certainly charm potential buyers with details like wide-plank floors, exposed brick, the original pocket shutters and a working wood-burning fireplace.
Take the grand tour

Distinctive Homes

November 16, 2016

Park Slope mansion with insane prewar details, and a 1950s diner, asks $29K/month

Talk about rental goals: this grand Park Slope mansion, just outside of Prospect Park, is chock full of historic details and could be yours for $29,000 a month. Located at 21 Prospect Park West, it is a Renaissance Revival home designed by the Brooklyn architect Montrose Morris. It's been restored to its single-family grandeur, with over 7,000 square feet (and eight bedrooms!) practically dripping with features like stained glass, carved woodwork and marble fireplaces. Oh yeah, and there's a diner inside that looks straight out of Happy Days.
Take the impressive tour

Distinctive Homes

November 15, 2016

See new photos inside the world’s tallest modular tower; leasing kicks off at 461 Dean

By Diane Pham

It's been a long an tumultuous journey for 461 Dean, also know as the B2 tower, and better known as the world's tallest prefab tower. The fire-engine-red stacked building has seen numerous delays in the last four years thanks to lawsuits, leaks, and alignment issues. Its developer Forest City Ratner even opted to exit the modular business last month—although that's not to say that the technology developed is any less valuable (more on that ahead). But now that celebratory champagne bottle can finally be popped, as this afternoon the developer held a grand opening ceremony to kick off the official start of leasing.
more details here

November 15, 2016

Where I Work: Go inside Lite Brite Neon’s colorfully gritty Gowanus workshop and showroom

6sqft’s series “Where I Work” takes us into the studios, offices, and off-beat workspaces of New Yorkers across the city. In this installment, we take a tour of the Gowanus studio of Lite Brite Neon. Want to see your business featured here? Get in touch! Among the manufacturing and arts tenants in the Old American Can Factory, a converted six-building industrial complex at the Gowanus Canal, is Lite Brite Neon, which has been described as "the darling of artists and designers." And after touring their funky workspace/showroom, the description definitely fits. They were founded in 1999 in Brooklyn and have been creating neon art, signage, lighting, and displays ever since, in addition to preserving and restoring historic neon. 6sqft recently got an insider's look at their colorfully gritty home and spoke to lead designer Wayne Heller about how the company functions and what makes neon unique.
Take the tour here

November 14, 2016

Apartment building designed by notable Brooklyn architect Montrose Morris asks $6.25M

The prolific and talented Brooklyn architect Montrose Morris was known for designing some of the first multi-unit apartment buildings in the borough. This is one of them, at 109 South 9th Street. Built in 1890, the Williamsburg building is decorated with stone, brick and terra cotta alongside oversized, bracketed cornices. Inside is a massive, four-story space with nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms. To make the whole building look good, it's going to require a big renovation from any buyer.
Take a look at this reno project

Distinctive Homes

November 14, 2016

Queens, Brooklyn see ‘drastic’ rise in foreclosures