Author: linked

It may be done by now, but today is (final?) judgement for the Finger Building at BSA. Things are not looking for the anti-Finger crowd – according to an email from supporter, HSBC has bought the development project AND the air rights buildings. The fear now is that with the building and the air rights in hand, BSA will deny the opposition motion and let the full 200′ building go up.

Just so we’re clear on this – the developer probably did not have the air rights to permit the building, but DOB granted the permit anyhow (on the basis of the fact that the developer “thought” he had the air rights). Now, four years after the fact, the air rights and the development are actually in the same hands (for the first time in the project’s history). So BSA will validate the original DOB permit, even though it was clearly faulty.

Brownstoner has more here.

The Times on the Meeker plume and difficulties getting homeowners to open their buildings to inspectors:

But while fixing the problem is relatively easy, agency officials said, getting some residents to cooperate is not… [Many] homeowners — worried about a blow to their property values or even being forced from their homes — have ignored letters asking for access to their buildings, or have refused to answer the door for investigators.

Halstead will also halt sales at the Steelworks Lofts, an 88-unit condominium in a former steel warehouse on North Fourth Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a few blocks from the waterfront.

The Broadway Triangle saga continues, with the coalition of outsider groups calling for larger buildings. BTC is calling for buildings up to 20 stories, but what does that mean in terms of density? The current proposal is a mix of R6A and R7A – pretty dense by neighborhood standards.

On a related note – does anyone have a report on the BTC charrette that was held last Wednesday? If so, drop me an email (I had family obligations that I couldn’t shift on short notice).

After three and a half years, the saga at 202 Franklin continues. According to the News, the current owner bought the property (post-fire) for $610,000 and is trying to sell it for $900,000. While the owner can afford to offer the tenants $100,000 buyout packages, he has done nothing to make the repairs required to get the tenants back into the building.

When: Monday December 8, 2008 @ 7pm
Where: 136 Milton Street (Greenpoint Reformed Church) between Manhattan Ave and Franklin Ave

Meltzer/Mandl, the architects for the Viridian condo in Greenpoint (Magic Johnson, blah, blah, blah) have announced that they have completed the design of the project. Which is good, I guess, because the contractors have been building the project for a year and a half now. Maybe now they can address some of those punch list items Miss Heather noted last week.

“Fancy design store Abode” is opening up shop on Grand Street this weekend. 179 is, I think, next door to Mine (just east of Bedford). The building itself has just finished being stuccofied (part of North Brooklyn’s continuing (and unfortunate) leadership role in cheap, ugly artificial siding – at least Grand Street itself continues to flourish).

The Guttmans bring the Brooklyn way to New Haven:

Brooklyn developer State Assets LLC faces a $48,100 fine stemming from a multi-agency investigation into allegations that unprotected workers were removing asbestos from an unventilated State Street property, that piles of asbestos-coated debris had been left unsecured outside, and that illegal immigrants sleeping on cots inside had been carting the tainted material out at night.

From Crain’s NY (subscription required, so extensive quoting follows) comes word that the waterfront is not immune to the real estate carnage.

Northside Piers (the one finished building) hasn’t sold out, and has now gone the rent-to-own route:

One Northside Piers seemed destined to be a winner when the project broke ground two years ago. The luxury condominium, on the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline, a rooftop terrace and a screening room…

Twenty-three months later, the views and all the bells and whistles are still there, but the buyers are missing.

Things are no better next door:

At The Edge, which features 575 luxury condos in two towers and 350 affordable rentals in lower-rise buildings, sales began strong in April but have tapered off drastically… As of late October, Douglaston had sold only 110 apartments; it shelved plans for another 40-story tower.

A glut of units in a neighborhood short on amenities? No one could have this coming:

Plans for 7,000 condos were announced as developers bet that people would pay top dollar to live in one of the city’s hottest up-and-coming neighborhoods. In doing so, they were also wagering that buyers would overlook such things as long hikes to the subway along streets that were still lined with factories and warehouses.

Its worth pointing out here that the Edge and Northside Piers are three blocks from the subway. But there are a dearth of other amenities:

A glaring problem is emerging as people move into the new apartments along Kent Avenue — the profound lack of essential services, including dry cleaners, drugstores and grocers. Developers expect a boom in waterfront retail, but no leases have been signed so far along Kent Avenue, where asking rents hover at about $60 a square foot.

I don’t understand – Tops (on the Waterfront) is only a block and a half away from Northside Piers. And at $60 a foot, whatever comes in is bound to uphold the neighborhood tradition of overpriced necessities.

Yep, no one could have foreseen a problem here.