Red Hook

January 28, 2015

A 12-Acre Mixed-Use Project Is Set to Wake Up Sleepy Red Hook

If you've been to Red Hook lately chances are you were visiting the Fairway for lunch or taking the ferry to Ikea for a new $10 end table and some Swedish meatballs. But we soon may have many more reasons to visit the sleepy, industrial, square-mile Brooklyn neighborhood. The Red Hook Innovation District is a plan for a 12-acre, 1.2 million-square-foot, mixed-use project that would include offices, retail space, performance venues and a promenade. Last month, Los Angeles-based development firm Estate Four purchased the final property on the site. They now plan to roll out the $400 million project in phases over five years.
More details ahead

January 2, 2015

New Yorker Spotlight: Dominatrix Turned Restaurateur Erin Norris on Her Red Hook Restaurant, Grindhaus

By Diane Pham

A former construction manager, music publicist, Bergdorf's window dresser, dominatrix and dungeon owner, Erin Norris has lived enough lives to make all of us feel like a bunch of old fogies. The founder of one of Red Hook's newest eateries, Grindhaus, the sassy blonde is the embodiment of the resilience, edginess and charm that defines New York City. Back in 2008, Erin set out with the goal of bringing a sausage parlor and beer hall to Red Hook, but as was the case for many in her 'hood, Hurricane Sandy had other plans. After a long (and expensive) rebuilding effort, Erin finally opened the doors to Grindhaus in 2013. Things may not have gone as planned, but even so, she managed to create something that went far beyond her dreams. Today, Grindhaus is one of the city's best restaurants, luring in the most discerning of food critics, from the palates over at Zagat to New York Times restaurant critic Peter Wells (who, by the way, even had her dish him seconds). But beyond food, Erin is all about her waterfront neighborhood and the colorful characters that make it one of the most inimitable places in all of NYC. We recently caught up with Erin to get an insider's look.
Read our interview with Erin here

December 16, 2014

Brand New NYC Water Taxi Stop Makes It Easier to Explore Red Hook

By Diane Pham

Those who've been dying to check out up-and-coming Red Hook will now have a much easier, much more comfortable way of getting to the cozy, cute nabe. The New York Water Taxi Commission has just added a brand new stop that will ferry passengers to Van Brunt Street from Lower Manhattan, DUMBO and Midtown on the West Side. Locals residents have been championing for a stop for the last few years, citing that it would be a boon to business development in the area, particularly for those still hurting from the effects of Superstorm Sandy.
Find out more here

Transit

Neighborhood Revival: Brooklyn’s Columbia Street on a Comeback

Image: rutlo cc

November 8, 2014

Neighborhood Revival: Brooklyn’s Columbia Street on a Comeback

By Bonnie Clark

It’s not a shocker that some Brooklyn neighborhoods are outselling their Manhattan counterparts. What’s a bit of a surprise is that the Columbia Street Waterfront District, a quirky 22-block enclave wedged between Red Hook and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, is one of them. Until recently, Columbia Street was known as a far-flung and largely forgotten strip that fell victim to Robert Moses’s highway expansion project—the BQE—which, when built on a below-ground slice of Hicks Street in 1957, severed the area from the rest of Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, breaking up what was then “South Brooklyn” into distinct neighborhoods.
More on Columbia Street's Comeback

Coffee Culture: Are Neighborhood Cafes the First Sign of Gentrification?

Photo: Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint by Premshree Pillai cc

September 3, 2014

Coffee Culture: Are Neighborhood Cafes the First Sign of Gentrification?

By Michelle Cohen

From “coffices” to lab-like minimalist gourmet coffee meccas to cozy neighborhood hangouts, neighborhood cafes are a fine example of the essential “third place” mentioned in discussions of community dynamics: that place, neither work nor home, where regulars gather and everyone’s welcome. Along with yoga studios, art galleries, community gardens, vintage clothing shops, restaurants with pedigreed owners and adventurous menus and, some say, a change in the offerings on local grocery shelves, cafes are often the earliest sign of neighborhood change. The neighborhood cafe serves as a testing ground for community cohesiveness while adventurous entrepreneurs test the still-unfamiliar waters around them. Beyond the literal gesture of offering sustenance, cafes provide a place where you can actually see who your neighbors are and appreciate the fact that at least some of them are willing to make an investment locally.
Get a fleeting glimpse of old New York City cafe culture in the West Village, meet the future of coffee distribution in Red Hook.

June 25, 2014

Before DUMBO Had a Dumb Name: Eamon Loingsigh’s New Novel References the Neighborhood’s Seamy Past

By Andrew Cotto

There’s been a lot of novels set in New York City (guilty myself, two times). When done right, such work can serve as a portal to the past, when New York was a distinctly different place, one often defined by its era and often in direct contrast to the current conditions. In Eamon Loingsigh’s powerful new novel, Light of the Diddicoy, reference is made in the very first line to the area “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.” Of course, any New Yorker worth his/her salted caramel custard from Shake Shack knows DUMBO, the Brooklyn nabe known for its pricey lofts and tony boutiques, its art galleries and swank eateries and a grassy park that sprawls along the water’s edge below the span of East River bridges. Lovely. The characters in Loingsigh’s novel aren’t so privileged, for they lived in DUMBO 100 years ago, long before any clunky acronyms, when the waterfront was a war zone, and the novel’s narrator, Liam Garrity, a displaced and desperate Irish immigrant, all of 14 years, fell in with a brutal gang as a matter of survival.
More about 'Light of the Diddicoy' here

May 19, 2014

Pickett Furniture’s Brann Hanging Lamp Casts a Cool Shadow

By Patty Lee

If you're looking to turn your apartment into a peaceful retreat from New York City's noisy, overflowing streets, start by installing these zen, bamboo-covered light fixtures. Designed by Jeremy Pickett of Brooklyn's Pickett Furniture, the Brann hanging lamps seamlessly blend modern minimalist with fine, old-world craftsmanship.
Details on the design here

May 8, 2014

Uhuru Design Turned Coney Island Boardwalk Planks Into a Rollercoaster Chair

By Patty Lee

When Coney Island was torn up in 2010 to make way for the glitzy new Luna Park, a part of its history was ripped out: the weathered, decades-old planks of the beach's iconic boardwalk. Luckily, two Red Hook-based designers — Jason Horvath and Bill Hilgendorf of Uhuru Design — took in the landfill-destined wood and used them to build functional pieces for the home.
Check out more of the cool pieces

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The 74

201 East 74th Street

Lenox Hill

Gracious Upper East Side condos with Central Park and skyline views

2 beds starting at $3,380,000
3 beds starting at $4,850,000
5 beds starting at $11,950,000

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