Brooklyn

When the Lightstone Group revealed their two-building, 700-unit, $350 million rental project at 363-365 Bond Street, right on the banks of the notoriously toxic Gowanus Canal, president Mitchell Hochberg said it was inspired by a residential project in the Canal Saint-Martin neighborhood in Paris that helped create a “newly hip atmosphere” near a similarly polluted waterway. Despite the area's Superfund status, the promise of living in a trendy, up-and-coming area surely appealed to many; when the lottery opened for the 86 affordable units at #365, nearly 60,000 people applied. Now, the lottery is opening for the 54 below-market rate apartments at the under-construction #363, ranging from $833/month studios to $1,082/two-bedrooms, available to those earning 60 percent of the area median income.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

March 17, 2017

FREE RENT: This week’s roundup of NYC’s rental concessions

Sutton Place High Rise Re-Introduced as Oriana Launches Leasing with Two Months Free [link] Downtown Rentals at 90W in the Financial District Offer Up to 2 Months Free [link] Spring 2017 Leasing Announced for DUMBO’s 181 Front Street, Website Launches with New Photos [link] LIC Rental ‘The Independent’ Offers Two Months Free with 14-Month Lease […]

Real Estate Trends

March 17, 2017

$3.25M Park Slope townhouse has everything you need on three charming floors

A dapper ebony cornice, a three-sided bay front, and a two-part stoop distinguish the house at 548 8th street from its Park Slope neighbors. Half a block from Prospect Park, this landmarked limestone townhouse was built at the turn of the 20th century by prolific local architect Benjamin Driesler. The three-story, two-family home has only changed hands once before, and it's currently on the market for $3.25 million.
Take the townhouse tour

Distinctive Homes

March 17, 2017

$525K Fort Greene studio has pre-war details and a thoughtful layout

Perched atop the 15th floor of the prewar Griffin co-op at 101 Lafayette Avenue, in Fort Greene, is this lovely studio apartment. Although it's modest in size, prewar finishes, large casement windows, and a well-thought-out layout (not to mention the attractive mix of rustic and modern decor) offer a sense of light and spaciousness. It has just been listed for sale at an ask of $525,000.
Time to take a look

Distinctive Homes

March 17, 2017

Oiio’s ‘Big Bend’ proposal for Billionaires’ Row would be the world’s longest building

By Devin Gannon

New York City Architecture firm Oiio has proposed a conceptual skyscraper that would curve at the top and then return to the ground, becoming what the firm believes to be the “longest” building to ever be created. As reported by dezeen, their "Big Bend" proposal challenges Manhattan’s obsession with supertall skyscrapers by substituting extreme height with length—stretching 4,000 feet from end to end. If they are able to design this building, Oiio hopes it could potentially provide a solution to the height limitations imposed by city zoning laws.
See the renderings here

Architecture And Design

March 15, 2017

Governor Cuomo’s $1.4B Central Brooklyn plan stokes gentrification debate

By Devin Gannon

Governor Cuomo announced a $1.4 billion initiative last week to bring resources like health care services and new jobs to Central Brooklyn. According to the governor, the plan, called “Vital Brooklyn,” will bring 7,600 jobs and more than 3,000 new affordable housing units to Brownsville, East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. And while Cuomo’s administration found these neighborhoods to be some of the most disadvantaged in the state, residents worry about the possible gentrification and displacement effects (h/t NY Times).
Learn more about Vital Brooklyn here

March 14, 2017

Eight chances to live in East Williamsburg from $1,020/month

Starting tomorrow, New Yorkers earning between 50 and 60 percent of the area media income can apply for eight units in the heart of East Williamsburg. The apartments--six one-bedrooms for $1,020/month and two two-bedrooms for $1,224/month--are located at 845 Grand Street, a new contemporary rental building with high-end interiors and a bevy of trendy amenities, including a 4,000-square-foot roof deck with hammocks and a turf lawn, communal backyard, gym with yoga room, bike room, laundry room, and indoor lounge with pool tables.
See the interiors

Affordable Housing

March 13, 2017

$2M garage conversion in Bed-Stuy has a zen atrium and industrial glamour

By Devin Gannon

Although this listing looks like a basic garage from the outside, inside 222 Madison Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant is actually a single-family home on the market for just over $1.9 million. The cured cement floors, exposed white-washed brick wall, and high ceilings topped by skylights add plenty of industrial glamour, while a private garage, multiple sleeping areas, and 3,000-square-foot open layout retain all the functionality one could hope for in a residence.
Check out the unique space

Distinctive Homes

March 10, 2017

FREE RENT: This week’s roundup of NYC’s mountain of rental concessions

Brookfield Launches Leasing at The Eugene with One Month Free; Sole Residential Building in Manhattan West is Now Midtown’s Tallest Rental [link] Leasing Launches at Hayden; Studios Starting from $2,281 with One Month Free [link] Leasing Launches for Phase One of Journal Squared; Live in 53-Story Tower for $1,855/Month [link] Avalon Brooklyn Bay Prepares for […]

March 10, 2017

Rare 19th-century Williamsburg townhouse offers gardens and river views for $4M

This four-unit, 19th-century townhouse at 52 South 6th Street isn't your average Williamsburg dwelling, if only because 19th-century townhouses are the exception in the trendy north Brooklyn neighborhood. This particular home, however, didn't get the memo and awaits with sunny interiors, gardens, and a waterfront spot where–according to the listing–you can watch the boats on the East River from your front porch, all for $4 million.
See what's happening in the garden

March 9, 2017

Charming and surprisingly spacious Ditmas Park co-op asks just $399K

The listing also calls this lovely one-bedroom co-op at 601 East 19th Street sweet, cozy and tranquil, and we have to agree with those adjectives, at least from the looks of this top-floor apartment in an elevator building in Flatbush-Ditmas Park. Freshly updated interiors highlight charming details both old and new, like original arched entryways and chevron-patterned hardwood floors. Best of all, the sprawling co-op has more room that you'd expect for $399,000–700 square feet including a very large bedroom, separate kitchen and tons of closets–all a short walk from the B and Q subways, cafes and shops at Newkirk Avenue and Cortelyou Road.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

March 8, 2017

New rendering for the Sheepshead Bay condo that’s the tallest residential building in South Brooklyn

As 6sqft noted just over a year ago when the project was first revealed, a 331-foot tower isn't even news in Manhattan or much of western Brooklyn and Queens, but "in the once-sleepy waterfront community of Sheepshead Bay" it's quite the headline maker. The 30-story building from Perkins Eastman Architects will, in fact, be the tallest residential building in South Brooklyn. Just last week, developer AvalonBay Communities launched a new website with info on the project's rental component Avalon Brooklyn Bay, and now, Muss Development, who's behind the condo portion known as 1 Brooklyn Bay Condominiums, has revealed details on these 56 luxury, high-rise units, as well as a brand new rendering of the glassy behemoth and how it's set to dwarf its surroundings.
Find out more

March 8, 2017

Modern carriage house on an exclusive street of Brooklyn Heights tries its hand at $10M

If you thought Brooklyn Heights only offered blocks of historic townhouses, think again: this carriage house at 6 Grace Court Alley, a private, one-block row that's made up exclusively of 19th-century residential carriage homes. And while the exterior certainly looks historic, the interior has been opened up, modernized, and filled with light thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights. After last selling in 2011 for $2.7 million, it's now trying for a cool $10 million.
Step inside

Herzog & de Meuron will turn Gowanus’ graffiti-covered ‘Batcave’ into an art production factory

Rendering of Powerhouse Workshop via Herzog & de Meuron

March 7, 2017

Herzog & de Meuron will turn Gowanus’ graffiti-covered ‘Batcave’ into an art production factory

Despite its Superfund status, the Gowanus Canal has ushered in a Whole Foods, an artisanal ice cream factory, and more than one high-end residential development, but one vestige of its gritty, industrial days has remained--the so-called Batcave. Build in 1904 as the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company's Central Power Station, the warehouse was taken out of service in the '50s, becoming in the 2000s a home for squatters, venue for impromptu dance parties, and unofficial street art display. But it looks like the former warehouse will now join the ranks of its Brooklyn-esque neighbors, as the Times reports that Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron will transform the space into an art production factory and exhibition space to be called the Powerhouse Workshop, though it will preserve the iconic graffiti
Get the whole scoop

March 6, 2017

Bjarke Ingels moves firm to huge new headquarters in ‘Scandamerican’ DUMBO

Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has just added heft to the big-name design, media and technology shift that has been setting up shop in Brooklyn. BIG, founded by noted Danish architect–and DUMBO resident–Bjarke Ingels, just signed a lease for 50,000 square feet at Two Trees' 45 Main Street building in the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood, with plans to relocate their Manhattan office at 61 Broadway to the new space, which is twice the size of the company's current NYC headquarters. As 6sqft previously reported, Ingels purchased a $4 million penthouse home at 205 Water Street with views of 2 World Trade Center back in 2015.
Find out more

Architecture And Design

March 3, 2017

FREE RENT: It’s all about the views in this week’s roundup of NYC’s rental concessions

Live in SHoP’s American Copper Buildings from $2,975/Mo; Read Carter’s New Review [link] Behold the Views (Present & Future) from Midtown’s 555TEN, Now Leasing with Two Months Free Rent [link] Leasing Begins at Jersey City Urby, Vertical Community + Stunning Views from $2,000/Month [link] Take In the Incredible Views at 1 QPS Tower; LIC’s Newly-Opened […]

March 3, 2017

$10.6M Pierhouse is Brooklyn’s most expensive condo sold to date

It may pale in comparison to Manhattan's $100 million record-setter at One57, but a unit at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pierhouse just closed for $10,669,579, setting the record for most expensive condo ever sold in the borough. Curbed first spotted the sale, which took the top spot from the $8.8 million penthouse sale in Dumbo's 1 Jay Street in September 2015.
Find out who the buyers are

Real Estate Trends

March 2, 2017

Live in a hip DUMBO warehouse conversion for $895/month, lottery opening at 181 Front Street

Back in 2012, Megalith Capital Management and Urban Realty Partners bought two neighboring DUMBO sites from the Jehovah’s Witnesses for more than $30 million. They then tapped Aufgang Architects to design both warehouse conversions: a landmarked former Brillo factory at 200 Water Street was transformed into 15 boutique condos; 181 Front Street into a 105-unit rental. Twenty percent of apartments in the latter development are reserved as affordable, and as of tomorrow, New Yorkers earning 60 percent of the area median income can apply for these 21 units, which range from $895/month one-bedrooms to $1,247/month three-bedrooms.
Get all the info here

Affordable Housing

March 2, 2017

$3M Park Slope townhouse is the ideal mix of historic detail and modern ease

On a quintessential Park Slope street lined with brick homes a block from Prospect Park, behind a cheerful pair of cobalt blue doors, this well-maintained, intelligently updated two-family brownstone has a move-in ready mix of historic detail and modern ease. Built at the turn of the 19th century, the 20-foot-wide home at 510 7th Street is currently configured to offer a garden-level one-bedroom apartment with a duplex above for an income opportunity in a high-rent neighborhood; it easily converts to a single family for more space, and it's a legal three-family so three units are also an option. The three-story home is asking $2.999 million.
See more

Distinctive Homes

February 28, 2017

Spacious $860K loft is in a Bed-Stuy building known for its quirky apartments

This loft apartment comes from the well-known Brooklyn condo the Chocolate Factory Lofts at 689 Myrtle Avenue. (The building was once, not surprisingly, a chocolate factory.) The Bed-Stuy pad, asking $860,000, is much like the other units that have hit the market: spacious, 13-foot ceilings and oversized casement windows. The building's also known for its creative owners who deck out their apartments (just check out this apartment on the market last summer with a "floating" closet and custom staircase) and this latest apartment is no different.
Check it out

Distinctive Homes

February 27, 2017

Greenpoint creative hub gets a funky clay factory from design collective Assemble

London-based collective Assemble works across art, architecture, and design "to address the typical disconnection between the public and the process by which places are made." They've employed this philosophy at their first U.S. project--a temporary clay-extruding factory in the courtyard of Greenpoint's A/D/O creative hub, known as "A Factory As It Might Be." As Dezeen explains, the firm first built only a steel roof on top of the brick walls, but after acquiring an industrial clay extruder and electric kiln and finding that of all the vessels and homewares being created the tiles were the most successful, they decided to use the ceramic tiles to create a colorful, geometric facade.
Find out more about the project here

Architecture And Design

February 24, 2017

FREE RENT: A roundup of NYC’s latest rental concessions

FiDi’s 180 Water Street Announces March Opening; Now Leasing No Fee Rentals + One Month Free [link] Renovated Apartments at Stonehenge Tower on Upper West Side Leasing with Two Months Free + $1,000 Security Deposits [link] Renovated Apartments in Prospect Heights Offer One Month of Free Rent with 14-Month Leases [link] Amenity-Packed QLIC Offering One […]

Real Estate Trends

February 24, 2017

Glamorous modern condo inside a historic Bed-Stuy townhouse asks $855K

Talk about an apartment with good bones. This modern condo was carved from the historic four-story townhouse at 347 Gates Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The condo conversion brought sleek finishes to each floor-through apartment, and this one on the third floor is now asking $855,000. It is located on a block of Bed-Stuy lined with picturesque townhouses, just a half block from the main drag of Bedford Avenue and close to the A/C trains on the Nostrand stop.
See more of the apartment

February 23, 2017

Prospect Lefferts Gardens townhouse with lots of woodwork and sunroom lists for $2.4M

This three-story brick townhouse is nestled on a charming street of Prospect Lefferts Gardens, the Brooklyn neighborhood east of Prospect Park. 88 Midwood Street also has some nice surprises inside, like carved woodwork, a big wood burning fireplace and a bonus sunroom. If you're on the hunt for a lovely Brooklyn townhouse with some historic details still in tact—and have $2.399 million to spare—look no further.
See more

Distinctive Homes

February 22, 2017

Oldest home in Brooklyn Heights is on the market for $6.65M