Two Northside Piers is 50% Sold

I keep hearing about how great sales are at the Edge, but next door, Toll Brothers’ Northside Piers project is quietly selling a lot of units.

Two Northside Piers, the second phase of the much better-looking waterfront development, is now 50% sold (one Northside Piers sold out ages ago). If my numbers (and theirs) are correct, Northside has sold more than 310 of about market-rate 450 units, or about 69% overall. Next door, the Edge has sold about 38% (“nearly 40%”!) of its 565 market-rate units.

Pfizer Plant Sold

02/15/2011 | 1 Comment

Two years after abandoning an attempt to redevelop its sprawling former manufacturing complex in Brooklyn, drug giant Pfizer announced Monday that it had reached a surprise agreement to sell a piece of that property to Acumen Capital Partners of Long Island City.

Surprise move indeed. Then talk for a long time was that this site (the massive industrial building on the south side of Flushing Avenue) would be used for a non-profit industrial development and jobs training project –  along the GMDC or Navy Yard model. The good news, though, is that Acumen is a developer of light industrial properties, and their acquisition of the building has the potential to bring a lot of jobs to the neighborhood.

For a company with a 159-year history in the neighborhood, Pfizer has managed to leave town very quietly. In the process, they have demolished significant historic buildings, taken tens of millions in tax credits from the City, and killed a 1,000+ local jobs.

But what about the rest of their property north of Flushing? Will that become affordable housing? Or does Pfizer have another surprise up its sleeve before it packs up its tent and quietly leaves town?

Quit Your Whining and Start Shoveling

Fucked in Park Slope is not impressed with the fortitude of Park Slopers when it comes to the resumption of alternate-side parking. It seems to be a citywide phenomenon, though – car owners everywhere are appalled that after 17 days they should dig their vehicles out and let the city sweep and plow to the curb. Worse yet, there seems to this collective sense that this is all Bloomberg’s fault – as if the Department of Sanitation should be digging out your car.

Get over it.

it’s not just car owners, either:

And, while I’m getting ranty, SHOVEL YOUR DOG SHIT too! Why does the snow make you think you’ve got a free pass to smearing fucking fecal matter all over the sidewalks????

To which I would add: sidewalk clean up in general. As the grey glaciers finally start to recede, they are exposing piles of litter which property owners and residents alike seem to feel they are exempt from picking up. Your city is a mess, and it’s not all (all) “the City’s” fault.

Stop whining and pick up.

Kitchen Incubator

EDC has issued an RFP for a “kitchen incubator” in Brooklyn. The project would create a “food-use related incubator program, such as food manufacturing, storage, or shared commercial kitchen space” in northern Brooklyn. The RFP identifies Bed-Stuy, Brownsville and the Moore Street market in East Williamsburg as some ofmthe potential locations. The latter location makes a ton of sense – a vibrant but underutilized WPA-era food market. The community and the merchants at the market strongly support locating the incubator there, and the city is planning a $1.2 million plaza upgrade for the exterior.

Fire: 13 Conselyea Street

Not much to go on, but Metro is reporting that today’s fire on Conselyea was the result of “hoarding” (or at least that the firefighters referred to it as a “Collyer’s Mansion“, which may or may not mean that hoarding caused the fire – like I said, not much to go on).

Ruminations on Duane Reade

Yes, way too much has been written about Bedford Avenue’s Duane Reade. But Williams Cole’s piece in the Brooklyn Rail is still worth a read.

400 McGuinness Shelter Nixed

02/04/2011 | Comment

HELP USA and the owner of 400 McGuinness Boulevard have withdrawn their proposal for 200-bed “assessment center for homeless adults” – the shelter that the community has been up in arms about. HELP USA cited an inability to come to an “agreement regarding the operating budget for the project”.



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Expanded Ferry Service Coming in June

02/02/2011 | Comment

NYTferryMap.jpg

Map: NYT

More details are emerging on the new expanded East River ferry service, and it is mostly very good news (unless you are NY Water Taxi, which seems to be getting cut out of the picture). This doesn’t solve the myriad transportation issues for Greenpoint and Williamsburg, but for people who can use the service, it will be a huge benefit.

Come June, the service will expand from Greenpoint (India Street) and Northside Williamsburg (North 5th Street). Existing stops at LIC, East 34th Street, Schaefer Landing, Fulton Ferry and Wall Street will remain. Having more stops will alleviate the biggest problem with the profitability of the existing Water Taxi service – lack of critical mass. Face it, Schaefer Landing is a great convenience for residents of those buildings, but the stop isn’t going to draw big numbers. Greenpoint and Northside will.

The service hours will also expand, with the ferry running from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night, and running every 20 minutes during peak commuter hours (service will be every 30 minutes off-peak during the summer, and every hour off-peak winter). And there will now be weekend service. (The Water Taxi runs hourly, three boats in the morning and three in the evening, with a seasonal hop-on service on Summer weekends.) The new weekend service will also include stopes at Pier 6 (Atlantic Avenue) in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island during Summer months.

At least one of the transportation break issues is addressed too – there will be a free shuttle bus taking riders west on 34th Street in Manhattan. (The Post is saying that the bus service will include Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center and Grand Central (all well north of 34th Street), which would be even greater news.) This means that people who work near 34th Street won’t have to pay two fares to commute to work. (Health care workers of North Brooklyn rejoice!)

For others, the commute might at least be getting cheaper. Fares will now range from $3 to $5 each way (vs. $4.50 and $5.50 on the Water Taxi today). There will be two zones – a Downtown zone covering the Williamsburg stops, Fulton Ferry and Wall Street, and a Midtown zone covering Greenpoint, LIC and 34th Street. Trips within the zone will be $3, out of the zone $5. (The Post says the zones will be three stops, rather than fixed areas, which would mean that a trip from North 5th Street to India Street won’t cost $5.) Part of the lower cost is thanks to a $9 million City subsidy over three years (though the existing Water Taxi service is subsidized to some extent).

The new service will be run by a subsidiary of NY Waterway (subject to an approval from EDC, which is expected today). The Post reports that NY Water Taxi, which bid on the RFP for the new routes, will likely discontinue its East River commuter service on April 30, leaving commuters with at least one month without service. What this means long-term for NY Water Taxi is not at clear – they are a much smaller operation than NY Waterway, and will probably now have to focus on seasonal tourist/recreation business (which they’ve always said was the subsidy for the commuter service).

In the news:

Long-Awaited East River Ferry Will Finally Dock in June [Curbed]
New York Water Taxi Squeezed Out of East River Routes by NY Waterway [Post]
Ferries to Ply East River Far More Regularly Soon [NYT]
New Ferry Service Floated for East River [WSJ, $]