I use quotes in the headline here because contrary to the Brooklyn Paper’s headline, it’s not Isack Rosenberg himself who is bankrupt, but rather one of his other development projects.
Rosenberg is trying to raise money by seekign a city rezoning of his lumber yard site from manufacturing to residential — a move that would vastly increase the property’s value.
True enough. But the rezoning isn’t going help Rosenberg meet his December 21 bank deadline to settle a $45 million debt on the Warehouse 11 project (aka the Roebling Oil Field).
A few points with regard to how this impacts the Rose Plaza development:
1) For the most part, it doesn’t. Rose Plaza is a separate project, which may or not get built by this developer. Whatever rezoning passes will run with the property (and increase the value of the property). Whatever special permits are approved will also run with the property, but a new owner could decide not to use them and do an “as-of-right” project.
2) One important way that it does effect the project is that a new owner (or even the current owner) could decide to opt for a different architect or landscape architect, ditching the nice designs that are being presented now in favor of something of lesser quality (this, perhaps?). Such bait-and-switches are not unheard of – Douglaston Development did it at the Edge, dropping Enrique Norten in favor of Stephen Jacobs. That is why the CB1 resolution rejecting the proposal made such a big deal about giving the board a role in future design changes.
I’ve recently upgraded the blogging software that keeps this running, and it has not been without hitches. One of those, I have been informed, is that the site looks worse than ever on Internet Explorer. Since I a) don’t use Windows very often and b) use IE even less often, I hadn’t noticed. But I checked and it’s true.
Everything seems to be OK with Firefox, Safari or Chrome on Windows XP, and it’s possible that IE8 behaves properly, but IE7 (and I assume earlier versions) are definitely not OK. If the content you are viewing is half a page down and you are not seeing a little icon for the NAG party on the right of the screen, something is wrong with your browser. Switch to Firefox (or any other modern standards-compliant browser – it works fine in ) and things should be better.
But I will try to fix it.
Mayor Bloomberg is ramping up his bid to wrest control of Brooklyn Bridge Park from the state with a plan to kick in $55 million – and delay controversial plans to build luxury housing.
Good news for Brooklyn Bridge Park, particularly the potential to turn it from a housing development/park into a park/park.
UPDATE: The Brooklyn Paper sez it ain’t so.
A View from the Hook has the details.
In a move that stunned real estate executives and residents of the building, the sponsors of 20 Bayard Street in Williamsburg filed the condominium into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late [Friday] afternoon… According to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn, the condo by North Development Group owed more than $10 million to more than 50 creditors.
The building is roughly half sold, with the remaining units rented out by the developer.
And I still think the reason the building hasn’t sold is because no one can figure out how to get into it.
The density and infrastructure of many inner suburbs (continue to) lend themselves to more urban – and sustainable – living.
Mark Firth, who co-owns Marlow & Sons, a popular café–gourmet store, agrees: “We definitely have a crew of older regulars. When we first opened, it was mostly under 30.”
Some of us are just getting old, Mark.
A ten-year walk down Bedford Avenue.
[via Andrew Sullivan]
Forgoing the nautical headline, the Courier looks into the state of Water Taxi – with some new NYWT, EDC and developer perspective.
Mollenhauer Sugar Refining Co. (between South 10th Street and Division Avenue)
Source: King’s Views of Brooklyn, 1905
The photo above (click for a larger image) shows the Rose Plaza site as it looked 105 years ago. The building the “M” on the smokestack is the main refinery of the Mollenhauer Sugar Refining Company, and was located on Kent Avenue between Division Avenue and South 11th Street. The shorter building to the left on the river (technically on Wallabout Channel), a warehouse for the sugar refinery, was between South 10th and South 11th Streets.
The tall building beyond the warehouse is probably part of the Brooklyn Distilling Co., which once occupied the site where Schaefer Landing now sits. To the right of the Mollenhauer refinery is a building with a small tower and a mansard roof – that is one of the buildings of the former McLoughlin Brothers printing company. The building still stands on Wythe between Division and South 11th (it is now artists live/work lofts).
