Brooklyn

When the drop-dead gorgeous townhouse at 838 Carroll Street in Park Slope first hit the market, it made headlines with its $15 million price tag. That was earlier this year and apparently nobody bit, because a new ask of $12.75 million is now on the table. Even with the price cut, it's still the most expensive home for sale in the neighborhood.
Get ready to drool

September 13, 2016

Apply for four affordable Bushwick apartments, starting at $856/month

Starting tomorrow, four affordable apartments are up for grabs at 44 Stanhope Street in central Bushwick through the city's affordable housing lottery. They include an $856/month studio and three $985/month one-bedrooms, reserved for those earning less than 60 percent of the area media income. The 20-unit building was recently constructed, and residents will be just five short blocks from the Central Avenue M train station in a low-scale residential area.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

September 13, 2016

Lofty details abound at this bright and bold $1.4M Greenpoint condo

This Greenpoint building at 59 Green Street was originally a 19th century flower warehouse, but today it holds apartments with lots of lofty goodness. This two bedroom, which has just hit the market for $1.395 million, boasts exposed brick, wood-beamed, 10-foot ceilings and an open floorplan. Located on the top floor, it also gets lots of light from eight big windows, not to mention views toward the water and Manhattan skyline.
See more of the loft

Distinctive Homes

September 13, 2016

AECOM wants to turn Red Hook into a 45,000-unit mega-development with new subway connection

What do you get when you cross the new-waterfront nature of Battery Park City with the previous underutilization of Hudson Yards, and throw in a little Brooklyn? This massive proposal from big-time construction and engineering firm AECOM that would turn a huge section of the Red Hook waterfront into a residential mega-development with more than 12 towers, 45,000 units of housing (25 percent of which would be affordable), an extension of the 1 train, acres of parkland, and "waterfront-flood protections that would revitalize and protect the low-lying neighborhood from storms and future sea-level rise," as Crain's first reported. AECOM is presenting the idea today at the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation. They've already admitted that it "lacks key details" like hard costs, but they do estimate that one of their scenarios could generate $130 million in revenue for the city. The sites in question are the 80-acre Red Hook Container Terminal owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a similarly sized parcel along Columbia Street overlooking the Gowanus Bay that's owned by the city, and unused land at the Red Hook Houses. Under their plan, the sale or lease of land to developers, would fund the aforementioned infrastructure projects.
More details and renderings ahead

Architecture And Design

September 12, 2016

This compact Park Slope co-op is a down-to-earth home in a heavenly location for $700K

This renovated one-bedroom co-op at 799 President Street in the heart of prime north Park Slope has all the comforts covered; it's easy on the eyes, and it doesn't cost the world. Old-world details like exposed brick, decorative moldings and fireplaces, and a bay window meet modern conveniences like an en-suite bath, stylish renovated kitchen, and recessed lighting. Plus, Prospect Park is a few blocks away, as is Whole Foods and a constellation of cafes, shops, and restaurants.
Take a look around

Distinctive Homes

The Brooklyn Bazaar’s new home embraces an ‘American Horror Story’ aesthetic

Image: The mirrored halls of the new Brooklyn Bazaar by Eva Kis

September 9, 2016

The Brooklyn Bazaar’s new home embraces an ‘American Horror Story’ aesthetic

By Metro New York

There was no lazing on the beach or barbecuing in the backyard for Belvy Klein and Aaron Broudo over Labor Day weekend. The duo behind Brooklyn Bazaar were busy finishing the fourth incarnation of the late-night market-meets-entertainment mecca, which opens this evening in Greenpoint. Opening night will be a massive affair, headlined by indie rockers Clap […]

Uncategorized

September 8, 2016

Freshly-renovated North Slope co-op is cool, calm and covetable and asking $895K

The interiors at this completely charming Park Slope home in a gorgeous historic townhouse at 134 Lincoln Place will seduce you from the start. And the location on a cinematic brownstone block in the heart of north Park Slope is one of the city's most sought-after and fought-over for everything from the schools and neighborhood amenities to its proximity to Prospect Park. But if a real two-bedroom apartment with any space to spare is high on your priority list, this 850-square-foot charmer may come up a little short.
Tour the apartment

Distinctive Homes

50K oysters in Jamaica Bay tasked to filter pollutants and protect NYC wetlands

Photo: Flickr/nycwater

September 7, 2016

50K oysters in Jamaica Bay tasked to filter pollutants and protect NYC wetlands

By Metro New York

The world might be your oyster, but Jamaica Bay is full of the bivalve molluscs. Starting with 36 thousand oysters last week and 12 thousand more this week, the largest single installation of breeding oysters in New York City began. A spokesman from the mayor’s office said hundreds of thousands of juvenile oysters will be added […]

Uncategorized

September 7, 2016

Be my roommate: Live on a leafy Fort Greene block with a filmmaker for $1,000

To help our fellow New Yorkers on their hunt for a good roommate, we present "Be My Roommate." If you have an empty room you'd like to see featured here, get in touch with us at [email protected]! Meet Jonathan, a freelance filmmaker who hails from Texas looking for not one, but two roommates to share his huge Fort Greene apartment with. Jonathan has been in NYC for over six years and has always found himself in living collaboratively with folks in oversized spaces (he shared an artist's loft with eight other people at one point). Now that two of his current roommates are setting out on their own, he's on the hunt for two new folks to move into their rooms. This home hits all the right notes; not only is it located in one of Brooklyn's most coveted neighborhoods, but it's got some great historic details, it's blindingly bright and did we mention that it's gigantic? Believe us, you'd be hard pressed to find such a fantastic room—let alone two—in a 2,000-square-foot apartment at just $1000 a month.
Go inside the apartment here

Where I Work

September 6, 2016

$495K Park Slope brownstone co-op has a roof deck and a kitchen that hides when you’re not using it

Tucked into one of the gorgeous century-old townhouses on a center Slope block just a stone's throw from Prospect Park, this fourth-floor co-op at 53 Montgomery Place is a cozy cabin of a penthouse walk-up, complete with a private roof deck offering killer city views. While this one-bedroom apartment is indeed cozy, custom renovations have made the space a versatile and charming home.
READ MORE

Distinctive Homes

September 1, 2016

Bright apartment in historic Stuyvesant Heights brownstone offers a lot of space for $1,850/month

With lots of space, a wealth of pre-war details and plenty of natural light, this third-floor one-bedroom-plus-office brownstone apartment at 513 Macon Street in the historic Stuyvesant Heights section of Bed-Stuy looks like a pretty good deal at $1,850 a month. It also offers a fully renovated kitchen and bath with new appliances and a convenient location near the A and C trains. Besides trees and townhouses, you're surrounded by the restaurants and cafes that have been making this neighborhood a new favorite.
See more of this cute Bed-Stuy pad

Distinctive Homes

August 31, 2016

$1.5M Bushwick townhouse charms with its blend of modern and historic

This Bushwick townhouse, at 169 Schaefer Street, has got a little something for everyone: details like the original fireplace mantle and wainscoting for the old house lover, a fancy, renovated kitchen for those who prefer something modernized, and a garden-level duplex rental for a buyer looking to make extra money from a renter. The two-family, semi-detached home was recently renovated to blend the old and the new, and it's now asking $1.449 million.
Go inside

Distinctive Homes

August 31, 2016

My 350sqft: Inside a fundraising professional’s creatively balanced Park Slope studio

Our ongoing series “My sqft” checks out the homes of 6sqft’s friends, family and fellow New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to fundraising professional/art lover's cute Park Slope studio. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch! When Lindsay Casale moved to Brooklyn seven years ago, she shacked up with roommates in North Williamsburg. But after finding success as a nonprofit professional working in fundraising--first for arts groups and museums and now at EL Education, a K-12 education reform organization--she decided it was time to have a space of her own. A self described "avid consumer of the arts, long-distance runner, and proud bookworm," Lindsay relocated to North Park Slope for her first solo apartment, where she's designed a creative home that perfectly toes the line between tranquil and bold, and artsy and refined, descriptors that also match her warm personality.
Get a look at Lindsay's studio oasis

August 30, 2016

$4M 19th century brick townhouse in Williamsburg masquerades as a loft

Williamsburg is best known for its stock of new condo buildings and converted warehouses, but the neighborhood boasts its share of historic gems in the form of 19th century townhouses. They don't come on the market very often, so that's why this one at 130 North 1st Street is asking nearly $4 million. Inside, it looks more like a loft than a townhouse--this is still Williamsburg, after all.
Take an interior tour

Distinctive Homes

Google Earth rendering of the new residential buildings going up in Downtown Brooklyn, via CityRealty.com

August 30, 2016

Is Downtown Brooklyn’s rental boom about to turn into a glut?

This time last year, 6sqft shared a report from CityRealty.com that detailed how Northern Brooklyn would be getting a staggering 22,000 new apartments over the next four years, with the majority, 29 percent or roughly 6,500 apartments, headed for Downtown Brooklyn. The trend has kept up, as the Times reports today that this number of units is concentrated among "19 residential towers either under construction or recently completed along the 10-block section of Flatbush stretching from Barclays Center north to Myrtle Avenue." Another 1,000 units are coming to four buildings on Myrtle Avenue, and all of these are overwhelmingly rentals. In fact, 20 percent of the entire city's rentals that will become available this year and next are in the neighborhood. But many believe this rental boom is fast approaching a glut that will cause prices to soften in a saturated market.
Find out more

Real Estate Trends

August 30, 2016

Cozy Park Slope duplex comes with a sunny garden and wood-burning fireplace, all for $780K

While this one-bedroom Park Slope co-op at 443 Seventh Avenue might not exactly be sprawling at 700 square feet, for $780,000 the diminutive garden duplex packs a lot of living space into its two-and-a-half levels. The large and sunny patio garden is the obvious draw for summer parties and spring planting. A wood-burning fireplace ups the cozy factor in cooler months. And a loft level sandwiched between upstairs and down might be just the place to store your seasonal gear off-season. Two blocks away, Prospect Park is another warm-weather plus, and living steps from welcoming spots like Talde and Cafe Grumpy makes it easy to stay warm in winter.
Pick your sandwich, this way

Distinctive Homes

August 26, 2016

With $2.5 billion in Brooklyn real estate, Hasidic investors are a formidable gentrification driver

We hear so frequently about the players behind Manhattan’s billion-dollar real estate projects and how foreign investors are pouring a global vault's worth of currency into New York City property, often shielded by LLCs. It's illuminating to get a closer look at the city’s larger real estate landscape–one that has changed so much in recent decades–and learn who's behind the soaring property values, skyrocketing rents, frenzied flipping and veritable horse-trading that has driven the unprecedented and transformative gentrification beyond Manhattan’s rarified development scene. A recent story by The Real Deal titled “Learning and earning: Hasidic Brooklyn’s real estate machers” reveals that a huge slice of the borough’s real estate pie is owned by the Hasidic community. The ultra-orthodox sect reportedly includes some of Brooklyn’s wealthiest property owners, to the tune of $2.5 billion.
Find out more

Real Estate Trends

August 26, 2016

$3.5M Boerum Hill carriage house comes with a three-family townhouse in the front for rental income

And that's only one of the many possibilities for this unusual Brooklyn property. On a quaint and classic Brooklyn block in Boerum Hill, this three-family row house at 104 Butler Street is currently being used as a source of income from three separate apartments. Through the picturesque garden at the back, a three-story, four-bedroom carriage house is occupied by the home's current owners. A new owner could leave the setup as-is, use both of these 19th-century houses as a multi-generational home for family, or create condos in the front, with many more options imaginable. The ask is $3.45 million.
See some of the interiors and get ideas

Distinctive Homes

August 25, 2016

Owner of Red Hook waterfront terminal asks city to consider his site for Brooklyn-Queens Streetcar railyard

Just yesterday, 6sqft took a look at reports that the Brooklyn-Queens streetcar will require a train yard/maintenance facility that will likely take up an entire city block and cost around $100 million (which is included in the $2.5 billion overall cost). Finding such a large swath of available real estate would be challenging, but a local industrialist wants to ease the burden by offering up his own property. Crain's tells us that John Quadrozzi Jr., owner of the GBX Gowanus Bay Terminal on the Red Hook waterfront, wants the city to consider his site to host the train yard. The Terminal, which was originally constructed in 1922 as the New York Port Authority Grain Terminal, is a 13-acre shipping depot with an additional 33 acres of underwater property that's used for concerts, film shoots, and commercial offices, and it's expected to be very close to the streetcar's route.
Find out more

Transit

August 25, 2016

Will a (rent stabilized) Williamsburg address make a shower in the kitchen hip?

It's always fun when yet another listing with a shower in the kitchen surfaces; 6sqft has covered versions of the quirky New York City phenomenon previously. The East Village and LES are the usual suspects, and this Bed-Stuy brownstone home makes the kitchen shower look positively chic. But once again, lovely, expensive Williamsburg draws the short straw. For a mere $1,574 a month ($1,604 for a two-year lease), you, too, can discover the joys of the shower beer. To be fair, the one-bedroom at 18 Skillman Avenue has some definite selling points. It's rent stabilized, for one, and the neighborhood is popular, convenient (except for that year without the L train) and fun.
The apartment's actually pretty cute

Our ongoing series “My sqft” checks out the homes of 6sqft’s friends, family and fellow New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to a photographer’s Brooklyn Navy Yard loft. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch!

August 23, 2016

My 1400sqft: Photographer Sasha Maslov embraces DIY design in his Navy Yard loft

If you're a regular reader of the New York Times, Forbes or the Observer, you've probably found yourself lingering over one of Sasha Maslov's photographs. Over the last few years, the Ukranian-born photographer has focused his lens on everyone from Mary Lousie Parker, Elvis Costello, and Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen to notable economist Joseph Stiglitz and real estate mogul Douglas Durst. While Sasha's world appears to be all about capturing striking images of famous and fascinating people, his creativity extends well beyond the 2D format. On the border of the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a 1,400-square-foot loft that's been custom-outfitted from corner to corner by Sasha himself. A self-taught craftsman, his hallway closet hides a compact woodshop that's allowed him to turn his once stark and wall-less apartment into a multi-room home filled with hidden storage and imaginative furniture. Sasha recently invited 6sqft to take a tour of his space, and let's just say if he ever decides to quit photography, he's definitely got a future in industrial design.
Inside Sasha's Navy Yard Home

August 23, 2016

Housing lotto kicks off today for 27 Bed-Stuy/Ocean Hill apartments, from $834/month

As a subsection of Bed-Stuy—and with a location adjacent to rapidly gentrifying Bushwick—Ocean Hill has seen renewed interest from developers in the last few years. The approved rezoning of East New York in February has also given the neighborhood a big boost and brokers have started calling the area Brooklyn's "last frontier." As such, although the area median income remains very low ($35,000), home prices are quickly moving skyward and flipping is already in full effect. But not all is lost for those with lesser means. Starting today, qualifying NYC residents can apply for 27 newly constructed apartments at 1676 Broadway and 8 Rockaway Avenue. Apartments ranging from one- to three-bedrooms have been priced between $834 and $1,163 a month and are being offered to households earning between $30,000 and $63,000.
See more on if you qualify here

Affordable Housing

August 23, 2016

Rent this historic-meets-modern Cobble Hill carriage house for $8,500/month

There's nothing quite like a converted carriage house, from the plethora of historic details to the petite frames hiding often lofty interiors. This beauty at 413 Degraw Street in Cobble Hill, currently renting for $8,500 a month, is no exception. Built around the turn of the century, its brick facade is punctuated by the signature double-wide doors with a cast iron transom, along with arched dental moldings and a handsome cornice. Inside, it's indeed spacious, and though the modern updates are welcome, some of the design choices seem to clash with the historic nature of the home.
See the whole place

Distinctive Homes

August 19, 2016

Cute and cozy studio asks under $400K in Prospect Heights

We know that in a lot of places around the country--even just upstate--$395,000 can buy you a pretty nice house. But here in NYC, we get excited when a studio in a nice neighborhood is asking that price. A charming but modest co-op at 361 Sterling Place in Prospect Heights has hit the market for that very number and will likely be snatched up soon.
Take a look at the very cute space

Distinctive Homes

August 19, 2016

Video: Take a gritty summertime subway ride to Coney Island–in 1987

From the archives of '80s NYC nightlife videographer Nelson Sullivan comes this summertime classic video. Young Village Voice writer Michael Musto, artist Albert Crudo, and photographer Liz Lizard with her two kids in tow join Sullivan on the trip to Coney Island from Manhattan on a very different subway than we're used to today (h/t acapuck via Reddit). Their destination, too, won't look the least bit familiar to anyone who's visited the aforementioned beach destination in recent years, though there are many among us who fondly remember the beautiful decay of the boardwalk environs and the thrill of its garish attractions in the pre-MCU, pre Keyspan days. We never tire of checking out the graffiti-covered cars and fellow riders who probably only look more menacing. And at some moments if you don't look too hard, everything appears pretty much the same: The noise, the heat, the underground grit–and the fact that when it comes to fashion, everything a few decades old looks cool and new again.
Take a day trip to the '80s

History

August 18, 2016

Robert A.M. Stern’s 220 Central Park South now two-thirds erected