Three Brooklyn buildings are to bewere calendared for Landmark designation at next Tuesday’s LPC hearing. They include the Huberty mansion on Bushwick Avenue and the former Long Island Business College on South 8th Street, as well as an 1850s frame building in Wallabout. All great buildings.
Three Brooklyn Buildings Calendared for LPC Designation
Ugliest, Scariest, Most Horrible
The last thing Greenpoint ever wanted was a wall of buildings. This is the ugliest, scariest, most horrible plan.
It would have been great if all these people cared back in 2004 or so when all of this was getting approved. Olechowski is right – there was a lot of activism within the community to get a better plan out of the rezoning (going back to the mid 1990s), but what was approved is what was approved.
And except for the height of 77 Commercial, just about everything here is what was approved in 2005. And the height of 77 Commercial has an actual community benefit attached to it – a new park next door at 65 Commercial. Whether that is a trade-off worth making is another question.
South Williamsburg Creeps North
An investment group led by Waterbridge Capital’s Joel Schreiber has closed on the purchase of nearly an entire South Williamsburg block, with plans for high-end retail development, the Wall Street Journal reported… Waterbridge is looking to bring “high-end retail,” tenants to the block, a source familiar with the transaction told the Journal. Doing so would continue the transformation of South Williamsburg into a trendy retail destination, with stores such as Whole Foods making their way to the neighborhood.
$30 million for a South Williamsburg block?!? And a Whole Foods?!!?
Oh, by “South Williamsburg” they really mean “Bedford and Driggs avenues and North Third and North Fourth streets”. (And Waterbridge already acquired half this block last year – remember J. Crew?
Prime Northside Rents $1,600 Higher Than Neighborhood’s Southside
Yet another very good reason to move to the Southside.
The spate of rent “surveys” coming out about Williamsburg and Greenpoint are by and large nothing but linkage fodder for the brokerages putting them together. The n in the equation is usually pretty low, rendering the whole thing statistically suspect in the first place. In the case of this latest report, the comparison of Northside to Southside is apples and oranges in so many ways.
Walking the CIty with @mosesNYC
Moses Gates has finished his walk around NYC – so, what’s next?
A Week to Celebrate Henry Miller’s Brooklyn Connections
City Reliquary, Videology, Spike Hill and Music Hall of Williamsburg are all part of a week-long celebration of author Henry Miller, whose childhood home is now part of the Fillmore Place Historic District.
Bushwick Mall
Bushwick Daily has pictures from a Massey Knakal brochure marketing a proposed “Bushwick” Mall on Bogart Street in East Williamsburg. It’s not really clear if Massey Knakal is marketing the property (i.e., trying to entice someone to develop it) or if they are trying to market the project (i.e., someone is already planning to build this and is looking for tenants). Either way, this project seems to be more about the Bushwick Hotel than the Bushwick Mall.
Bus to Connect Williamsburg and DUMBO via Brooklyn Navy Yard
New bus route to run through the Navy Yard. Worth the fare just for a tour of the yard.
It’s Much More Local than Williamsburg
Whatever that means – I guess anything in Greenpoint is more local to Greenpoint than Williamsburg.
Sometime pretty soon, development along West Street is going hit. And when that happens, Greenpoint (this section at least) is going to look a hell of a lot like Williamsburg. And like Long Island City.
Restoration of Keramos Hall
Keramos Hall has been getting a lot of accolades and awards for its recent restoration, and rightfully so. Untapped New York has a great collection of photos – it is almost possible to ignore the CVS.