235 Cumberland Street
Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by Derek2k3
$1G a square foot
Ft. Greene condos hit record high
By Jess Wisloski
The Brooklyn Papers
http://www.brooklynpapers.com/html/i...8_16nets2.html
Brooklyn’s real estate boom has reached a new plateau — the $1,000-a-square-foot condominium apartment.
But according to an executive brokering sales at the building that is setting the new market high, what is surprising is not that wealthy New Yorkers are willing to fork over all that moolah to live here — a walkup on Columbia Heights along the Brooklyn Heights promenade fetched $9 million this year and another on that skyline-view stretch is on the market for $20 million — it’s where this new peak is cresting.
No, it’s not the waterside loft-ridden DUMBO, where recent open houses held by The Developers Group and Leviev Boymelgreen Developers had buyers waiting for a peek at an offsite model home in overnight queues around the block. Nor is it in the tree-lined brownstone colonies of Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights.
Instead, it is leafy, hilly Fort Greene.
Known for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a slew of French restaurants and a burgeoning African-influenced strip of stores and restaurants along Fulton Street, the once crime-ridden and still edgy neighborhood, settled around a landmark park, features quaint architectural variety, a thriving art scene and a rich ethnic mix of residents.
Jerry Minsky, senior vice president with Corcoran Properties, said the Greene House condominiums, at 383 Carlton St. at Greene Avenue, started listing units on Nov. 30, and since then, 22 of the 27 units have sold, the majority at more than $1,000 a square foot. The three penthouse units sold for more than $1.2 million each.
Paul Palazzo, an executive member of the Fort Greene Association, said he and several residents of Carlton Street organized demonstrations outside of the building during weekend open houses.
The association asked the Department of Buildings to audit the design for the 11-story Greene House, which towers over its walkup brick and brownstone neighbors.
While the Buildings Department audit, completed early last year, did provide a kind of community-level review of architect Marvin Metzler’s design, Palazzo said that in the end it mainly served to address minor aesthetic and safety issues.
“There were some things that did come up in the audit that [the architects] needed to verify and change,” he said. “Their response was to make it go higher.” The Greene House sits literally just outside the Fort Greene Historic District, which bars such a tall building, so its views will never be hampered by future developments.
“The historic districts were drawn very poorly in the 1978 designation,” said Palazzo, who chastised Greene House developers David Weiss and Jonathan Jacobs — who made their name with developments in TriBeCa and the East Village — for being “incredibly belligerent and not responsive to any requests from the community.”
Minksy said, however, it was their responsiveness — to buyers, at least — that was able to lure such high prices in Brooklyn.
“They did understand this process, and they did understand because they’d been in the East Village before they’d been here,” he said. “I’ll admit it’s not cheap, but you’re getting something, you’re actually getting something for your money. They will sit down, literally for hours. to design the unit with [buyers]. They really don’t have that Brooklyn kind of mentality.
“It was a slightly foreign concept, but these developers were ahead of their game,” said Minsky, the exclusive agent for the condominiums.
A stalwart of the “brownstone generation” that bought up Downtown Brooklyn neighborhoods more than 20 years ago, Minksy — who lives in Fort Greene — said he hedged when first offered the listing.
Calling it “originally conceived of as a slightly ambiguous project for this area,” he said he was eventually reassured after meeting the developers.
“What first seemed to be a little anxiety-producing for me — because I’m on the brownstone end — has turned out to be a very pleasant experience,” he said, adding he came very close to buying one of the unit’s himself.
Each of the 27 new units, which are situated three per floor, feature 10-foot ceilings, central air conditioning and heat, new appliances and, says Minsky, “phenomenal” views of the neighborhood, the park and the distant harbor.
The glassed-in entrance will have a “very lounge-like feel,” and the building will have a 24-hour gym. The south-, east- and west-facing views make for sunny one- two- and three- bedroom apartments for the new owners, who Minsky said were “experienced, high-end Manhattan people who understand visible signs of growth in the area [and] they don’t feel like they’re compromising what they would have a few years ago.”
Palazzo called those same gorgeous views the reason the neighboring buildings would depreciate in value.
“When the historic district was designated, the boundaries were done very poorly,” he reiterated. “As a result there are three houses that were in the historic district that have basically degraded because of that building.”
Though he said the Fort Greene Association would remain vigilant with respect to future developments, and noted that a demonstration last weekend showed the neighbors’ “unified stance,” they had no plans to abdicate their welcoming-committee responsibilities, either.
“We are going to welcome the people in the building into the community, because it is now in the community. We don’t like the fact that the building — the edifice of it — is not sympathetic to the community; we hope that the people in the building are,” he said.
Chris Havens, marketing manager of Two Tress, the DUMBO-based development company of David and Jed Walentas, said that occasionally some of the company’s more established DUMBO properties, “on some special new units,” sell for $1,000 per square foot.
Developers Group Executive Vice President Highlyann Krasnow said that four weeks ago, it listed penthouse and ninth four units in DUMBO for over $1,000 a foot. She said she expects the trend to increase.
Minsky said the Greene House condo has raised the bar for standards of design and construction, adding that he has had “so many Brooklyn developers call me on the sly to see how they did it.”
“You’re not going to be able to put together a sloppy building after this one,” said the broker. “These are very, very sophisticated apartments.”
Check out discussionon browstoner about the architectural character the building; some interesting opinions.
http://brownstoner.com/brownstoner/a...house_co_1.html
Fort Greene Town House
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