Brooklyn

A home with an incredible, well-documented history has a unit up for rent inside its turret. The townhouse in question is 1372 Dean Street in Crown Heights. The castle-like, three-story Romanesque Revival brick residence was built in 1888 for $8,000 with a slate-shingled turret. A few years back, its seller was featured in the New York Times--she had bought the property in 1983 for $66,000 and then sold it to an investor for $1.32 million in 2013. It has since been converted to rental apartments.
The master is inside the turret

A massive 1,000-unit mixed-use project is planned right off the Coney Island boardwalk

Rendering of Coney Island North Venture via The Prusik Group

January 3, 2018

A massive 1,000-unit mixed-use project is planned right off the Coney Island boardwalk

It's slated to be a big year for Coney Island--and not just when it comes to new rides and attractions. A massive development will join the growing redevelopment of the beachfront locale, which will be home to at least four major projects totaling 2,151 units in the coming years. According to CityRealty, Taconic Investment Partners and The Prusik Group are planning to build a ground-up, mixed-use complex tentatively referred to as "Coney Island North Venture." It'll be comprised of 1,000 apartments, 80,000 square feet of office space, and 150,000 square feet of retail along Surf Avenue. The complex will join a new 42-story tower, plus a 440-unit development that will boast its very own trolley.
All the development details

New Developments

Cuomo asks MTA to study possible subway extension from Manhattan to Red Hook

Red Hook waterfront, photo via Sunghwan Yoon on Flickr

January 3, 2018

Cuomo asks MTA to study possible subway extension from Manhattan to Red Hook

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Tuesday to study a possible extension of subway service from Lower Manhattan to a new station in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. In addition to expanding transit options, the governor is also asking the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to consolidate maritime operations by relocating them to Sunset Park, as a way to free up space for community activities. The revitalization of Red Hook is Cuomo's 21st proposal expected to be delivered in his 2018 State of the State address on Wednesday.
Find out more

January 3, 2018

Views from this charming top-floor Windsor Terrace co-op might just be worth the walk up–and $700K

With an elegant old-New York name to match the pre-war apartments within, the Algonquin at 175 Prospect Park SW occupies a fortunate spot across from the park in Windsor Terrace. This bright two-bedroom co-op offers the kind of sunset views and sunny mornings you get from being on the top floor, though unfortunately there's no elevator to get there.
Get a closer look

Distinctive Homes

January 2, 2018

Designer couple transforms a landmarked Williamsburg schoolhouse into a modern abode

Keren and Thomas Richter, the founders of Brooklyn-based design studio White Arrow, designed and renovated the top floor of a 1800s schoolhouse in South Williamsburg, converting the landmarked loft into a light-filled home. After purchasing the home in 2010, the couple reimagined the home with custom Victorian millwork, as well as salvaged doors, hardware, antique earthenware sinks and claw foot tubs. Known as the Historic Schoolhouse, the red-bricked building was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2013.
See inside

December 29, 2017

A duplex in a historic Brooklyn Heights townhouse with a private garden asks $10K/month

Located just minutes from the Brooklyn waterfront, a duplex in a townhouse at 164 Hicks Street has hit the rental market for $10,000 per month. The Brooklyn Heights home boasts three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an exclusive outdoor garden. Pre-war details include extra high ceilings and a working woodburning fireplace. According to the listing, the rental can come furnished between 1 and 12 months and there is an additional $200 per week cleaning fee.
Take a peek at the pre-war gem

Distinctive Homes

ODA Architects reveal renderings for Crown Heights hotel with arched patio and floating gardens

Proposed renderings courtesy of ODA Architects

December 27, 2017

ODA Architects reveal renderings for Crown Heights hotel with arched patio and floating gardens

By Dana Schulz

Perhaps piggybacking on the positive reaction to their Rheingold Brewery project, ODA Architects have revealed renderings for another Brooklyn project with a central courtyard, sloping green roof, and stepped terraces. First spotted by CityRealty, the proposed views depict the Bedford Hotel at 1550 Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights, a five-story, 100-key development at 1550 Bedford Avenue. And according to plans submitted to the DOB, there will be a rooftop bar and a banquet hall and retail/restaurant spaces on the ground floor.
More details and renderings ahead

Renderings revealed for Dattner Architect’s nine-story building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Rendering of Admirals Row via S9 Architecture and 399 Sands Street via Dattner Architects

December 21, 2017

Renderings revealed for Dattner Architect’s nine-story building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Once a shipyard where World War II warships were produced, the 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard is undergoing a major development to become a multi-use industrial and commercial mecca. Steiner Equities Group is overseeing the area's reinvention and as YIMBY learned, the developer has filed permits for a mixed-use building at 399 Sands Street. Designed by Dattner Architects, renderings reveal a nine-story building with a concrete facade and lots of greenery on its roof, as well as new views of the site as a whole and the planned Wegmans grocery store.
More this way

Celebrate New Year’s Eve with free rides and ice skating on Coney Island

Deno’s Wonder Wheel courtesy of kzoop’s Flickr

December 20, 2017

Celebrate New Year’s Eve with free rides and ice skating on Coney Island

Editor's Note: Due to the extreme cold conditions, Deno's Wonder Wheel and Stop the Zombies ride will NOT open on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. The B&B Carousell will be open. Overpriced clubs, surging Ubers, and Manhattan crowds not your thing? Check out the fourth annual New Year's Eve party at Coney Island's historic boardwalk instead. Four rides, including the iconic Wonder Wheel, will be free of charge beginning at 6 pm until 9:30 pm on December 31. Nathan's Famous, Coney Island Brewery, and Tom's Restaurant will also stay open for the festivities. As amNY learned, there will be live entertainment and the countdown to 2018 will feature a digital "burst" of lights from the Parachute jump at midnight.
Details on the event here

Events & Things To Do

December 18, 2017

Extell’s first outer-borough skyscraper, Brooklyn Point, gets new renderings

In October, Extell Development released a website with details about their luxury high-rise planned for Downtown Brooklyn. Two months later, they've released additional renderings of 138 Willougby, their first outer-borough tower. As YIMBY learned, the 720-foot skyscraper called Brooklyn Point, temporarily the tallest in Brooklyn, will have 458 condominiums designed by Katherine Newman that focus on blending "Brooklyn industrial chic” with a “refined mid-century aesthetic."
Get a first look inside

December 15, 2017

It’s feeling festive at this revamped Williamsburg townhouse asking $3.7M

Historic townhouses are fairly rare in Williamsburg, better known for its warehouses, but this one is part of the the Fillmore Historic District, a historic stretch of homes and the only landmarked district in the neighborhood. The Neo-Grec style home, which dates back to 1881, was completely renovated and returned to single-family status this year. The result? A modern, minimalist design that's brighter and loftier than the average townhouse. And the Christmas decorations don't look bad in here, either! It's now on the market for $3.7 million.
You'll want to see inside

Distinctive Homes

‘True Blood’ actor Denis O’Hare sells landmarked Fort Greene carriage house duplex for $1.7M

Denis O’Hare image via Wikimedia Commons

December 15, 2017

‘True Blood’ actor Denis O’Hare sells landmarked Fort Greene carriage house duplex for $1.7M

The Fort Greene condo listed in September by actor Denis O'Hare of "American Horror Story" and "True Blood" fame has sold for $1.7 million according to city records. The Tony Award-winner and Emmy nominee purchased the duplex at 159 Carlton Avenue for a mere $175,000 in 1998. The landmarked 2,015-square-foot carriage house was formerly the Feuchtwanger Stable. O'Hare's husband, interior designer Hugo Redwood, spent the last 19 years renovating the historic condo, preserving the arched windows that once allowed horses and carriages to enter, transforming the space into an open, loft-like home. The condo was listed for $1,595,000.
Take a look

A public waterfront park is finally taking shape at Greenpoint’s first skyscraper

Rendering of The Greenpoint via +TOM

December 14, 2017

A public waterfront park is finally taking shape at Greenpoint’s first skyscraper

The Greenpoint, a 40-story waterfront rental and condo tower and the neighborhood's tallest building, topped out in February, launched sales in July and now, is a few months away from getting a public 275-foot long promenade at its waterfront site. After nearly a decade of delays, the Brooklyn walkway, the first of its kind to be privately built in Greenpoint, will open in the spring. According to the Wall Street Journal, the park will total 29,500 square feet, including a 4,000-square-foot playground with lots of trees and colorful oval panels above.
Find out more

The Urban Lens: The surprising beauty of Sunset Park’s Sims Municipal Recycling Facility

All photographs © James and Karla Murray for 6sqft

December 11, 2017

The Urban Lens: The surprising beauty of Sunset Park’s Sims Municipal Recycling Facility

By Hannah Frishberg

6sqft’s series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, we take a look at the inner workings of Sunset Park's Sims Municipal Recycling Facility, from trash heaps to machinery to a learning center. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. The beauty of trash is not often lauded, but out on the Brooklyn waterfront, at Sunset Park's Sims Municipal Recycling Facility, the process is oddly mesmerizing. En masse, the glass and plastic shards processed in the building's bowels become a disposable rainbow, the sharp shapes of residential recyclables a testament to the mesmerizing aesthetic of large-scale sustainability. Sims is located on the 11-acre 30th Street Pier, which also contains the city's first commercial-scale wind turbine. On Sims' second story is a recycling education center; surrounding its exterior are a number of nature-harboring reefs, moorings, and native plants; and on the roof is an observation deck. The plant sorts 800 tons of recyclables on 2.5 miles worth of conveyor belts and machines daily, the majority of NYC's "commingled curbside material," its site proudly purports. In total, the plant processes 200,000 tons of plastic, glass, and metal a year. Ahead, take a look at the Sims world, where trash is heaped so high it really does look like treasure if you squint.
Take a tour

December 7, 2017

This $3.7M Cobble Hill townhouse is period-perfect with rooms to spare and harbor views

On a quintessential tree-lined Cobble Hill block just to the east of the Columbia Street Waterfront, the equally quintessential historic townhouse at 388 Henry Street is seeking a new owner for only the third time in 100 years. Asking $3.7 million, the four-story, two-family home is filled with period details, with plenty of room for new ones.
Tour all four floors

Distinctive Homes

New renderings revealed for Extell’s Central Park Tower as it hits halfway mark

Rendering courtesy of Extell

December 7, 2017

New renderings revealed for Extell’s Central Park Tower as it hits halfway mark

The 1,550-foot Central Park Tower, the soon-to-be tallest residential tower in New York City, has gotten some new renderings that reveal how it'll appear lit up at night, as well as how its interiors may look (h/t YIMBY). Extell Development's current plans for the Billionaires' Row tower call for 179 condominiums, spanning on average 5,000 square feet, with open layouts and oversized windows overlooking Central Park. With the construction of the supertall at 217 West 57th Street now hitting its halfway mark and rising to roughly 700 feet, Central Park Tower is expected to be completed in 2019.
See inside the supertall

In the 19th century, Brooklynites played baseball on ice

Baseball on Ice (1884) via Fine Art America

December 5, 2017

In the 19th century, Brooklynites played baseball on ice

For baseball fans, winter becomes an unbearably long season. In addition to the cold weather and early darkness, there are no games to watch. As a solution to this ball game drought, Brooklynites of the mid-and-late-1800’s began playing ice baseball. Getting its start in Rochester, N.Y. and later moving downstate to Brooklyn in 1861, the sport of ice baseball forced players to strap on skates and attempt to follow the rules of regular baseball on a frozen pond. Although ice skating remains a very popular winter activity in New York City to this day, baseball on ice eventually lost its charm before the turn of the 20th century, as players, and fans, complained about the freezing cold and slippery conditions.
More here

History

New renderings and more funding for South Williamsburg’s Dime Savings Bank site

The Dime, rendering courtesy Fogarty Finger Architecture and Interiors.

December 1, 2017

New renderings and more funding for South Williamsburg’s Dime Savings Bank site

6sqft reported in May that a 23-story mixed-use tower was headed for one of Williamsburg‘s most closely-watched developments, the site anchored by the Neoclassical-style Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh building at 209 Havemeyer Street at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. Now, New York Yimby reveals new renderings courtesy of the project's architects, Fogarty Finger Architecture and Interiors. In addition, the site's developers, Charney Construction & Development and Tavros Capital Partners, have received a $150 million loan to restore the historic bank and build the new tower. According to The Real Deal, the loan coincides with the closing of the purchase of the bank building itself–the site's final parcel–for $12 million.
More renderings this way

November 28, 2017

In Bay Ridge, you can own Tony Manero’s house from ‘Saturday Night Fever’ for $2.5M

This 1920s home on a tranquil Bay Ridge street looks innocuous enough from the outside, but its claim to fame is something it has in common with the neighborhood itself, and about which residents have an uneasy pride: The house had a star turn as main character Tony Manero's family home in the decade-defining "Saturday Night Fever." But the house at 221 79th Street was renovated in 2005, and there's not a disco ball to be found (though there is a Jacuzzi). And the family-sized home with a deck and a driveway is asking a very un-disco-era $2.498 million.
More movie history and creature comforts, this way

November 27, 2017

$975K Park Slope railroad apartment still manages to charm with pre-war details

The railroad apartment--a classic layout across New York City--isn't everybody's cup of tea. Not everyone wants to bypass a hallway to walk through a series of directly connected rooms, but in the case of this Park Slope co-op, each room is especially charming. The floor-through railroad occupies the third floor of 719 Carroll Street, a brick townhouse that's been converted into a small eight-unit cooperative. At 80 feet long, the apartment is lined with prewar details that include a bay window, decorative fireplace, and some exposed brick. It last sold in 2009 for $625,000 before hitting the market at $975,000.
Do the walk-through

Distinctive Homes

November 20, 2017

Stunning church details were woven into this $3,925/month Bushwick rental

This 1890s brick church and school, located at 626 Bushwick Avenue right in Bushwick, has gotten a second life as a new development rental known as the Saint Marks. The church details aren't all extinct, with brickwork and vaulting in some of the apartments. This two-bedroom unit is one of the most stunning in the building--and it's now asking $3,925 a month. The top-floor location means that the elaborate arched ceilings decked out with mosaic tilework and carved wood tower above this lofty pad.
Get a closer look

Distinctive Homes

Crown Building’s $100M penthouse will have two indoor pools and a piano lounge

Penthouse rendering courtesy of Aman Resorts

November 16, 2017

Crown Building’s $100M penthouse will have two indoor pools and a piano lounge

Floor plans of the Crown Building's crown jewel, its five-story penthouse, have revealed what $100 million will buy you at one of the city's most desirable locations for the super-rich. As the Real Deal learned, the penthouse features two swimming pools, a piano lounge and a full-floor master suite. The 14,000-square-foot pad sits in the actual crown of the building, spanning floors 22-26. The rest of the Billionaires' Row building at 730 Fifth Avenue isn't too shabby either; the building includes an 83-key luxury Aman Resorts hotel with a three-story spa, a jazz and cigar club, a few restaurants and 20 luxury condos.
Find out more

November 16, 2017

Foreclosures and flopped flips pile up at One57, sending grim message to big ticket investors

A full-floor, 6,240-square-foot penthouse at Midtown billionaires' bunker One57 recently sold to an unidentified high bidder–one of five contenders–at a foreclosure auction for $36 million. That number is 29 percent lower than the original $50.9 million price shelled out by Nigerian businessman Kolawole Akanni Aluko for the newly-minted condo in 2014. The fire sale was the fourth resale in the 1,004-foot-tall Billionaire's Row flagship trophy tower to trade at a loss, according to data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc., reports Bloomberg. The latest example is the largest discount to date on one of the pricey properties, all of which sends a message to buyers with plans to cash in on the ultra-luxury units in short order. And there are currently 16 apartments at the building listed for sale, most of them by the developer.
Read on

Real Estate Trends

15 apartments up for grabs near the Williamsburg waterfront, from $867/month

Rendering of 94 North 3rd Street courtesy of Hudson Companies Inc.

November 15, 2017

15 apartments up for grabs near the Williamsburg waterfront, from $867/month

Applications are now being accepted for 15 newly constructed, affordable apartments in a mixed-use development in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. With 75 total units and more than 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, the building at 94 North 3rd Street sits just a few blocks from the waterfront and bustling Metropolitan Avenue. Qualifying New Yorkers earning 60 percent of the area median income can apply for studios for $867 per month, one-bedrooms for $931 per month and two-bedrooms listed for $1123 monthly.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

Luxury condos may be off the table at Crown Heights armory after City Council hearing

Rendering of the Bedford Courts development planned for the Bedford-Union Armory; image: BFC Partners/Bedford Courts

November 15, 2017

Luxury condos may be off the table at Crown Heights armory after City Council hearing

Amid growing opposition, the proposed Crown Heights Bedford-Union Armory redevelopment project began its evaluation by the City Council at a hearing Tuesday on land use applications filed by the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), amNewYork reports. The massive armory, once housing for the National Guard, became city property in 2013. The EDC plans to sell the property to developer BFC Partners for the creation of 56 condos, of which 20 percent would be income restricted. The remaining market rate condos would help pay for the rest of the project, which would be leased by BFC Partners and would include 330 rentals (165 affordable), office space and a recreation center. Critics say the city is setting a dangerous precedent by leasing public land for private use, especially when market-rate condos are included. The de Blasio administration has championed the recreation center and housing, but the plan has has come under fire by neighborhood advocacy groups and has had an uphill battle in achieving the City Council approval it needs.
Find out more

November 15, 2017

$3M Fort Greene townhouse may need some TLC but lovely bones and a heavenly garden remain