NY Observer > Downtown Brooklyn

Newest Downtown Brooklyn Renters

Tom Acitelli — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:48:35 -0500

From Curbed: "So, on to the stats assembled by Ideal Properties Group LLC about tenants who moved to (or within) Downtown Brooklyn (so-called) during the Q3 2008. For starters, their average age is 29.5 years, which is suspiciously short of the Big Three Zero. Also 83 per cent do not rent alone--they have significant others, families or rommates. Fifty-two percent of the renters are women. They make on average $72,342 a year and (rather bizarrely) work 'freelance in the entertainment industry.' The average rent they pay is $2,592."

City Wants Walking Tour, Play, Exhibit to Mark Underground Railroad in Brooklyn

Eliot Brown — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:23:57 -0400

After receiving community pressure last year after it wanted to raze some Brooklyn houses that may or may not have been part of the Underground Railroad, the city has announced the outline of a $2 million commemoration of abolitionist efforts in Brooklyn.

The result, a year after the city announced the $2 million commitment, will be a project called "In Pursuit of Freedom," which will have an "artistic installation," a self-guided walking tour, a theatrical performance, "interpretative exhibits," and a Web site.

The controversy arose when the city had targeted for demolition houses on Duffield Street as part of the downtown Brooklyn rezoning that may have been used as part of the Underground Railroad. The city said in December that it would not destroy the houses. read more »

Hard to Imagine Double Strollers on Downtown Brooklyn Streets

Tom Acitelli — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:26:34 -0400

"I worked in downtown Brooklyn for many years and am now retired. I had a few errands to do there this week and, after having been away for months, I noticed for the first time how genuinely unpleasant an area it is. Metrotech is a small oasis of green with one OK lunch choice, but otherwise, what a pit! It's hard to imagine the buyers of all the spiffy new condos pushing their double strollers down the grimy, littered streets of Downtown Brooklyn on summer evenings after dining sumptuously at Popeye's." ["Downtown Brooklyn, Boomtown"]

Boar's Head Experimental Storefront Opening in Brooklyn

Dana Rubinstein — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:45:17 -0400

Boar's Head -- purveyor of all manner of sliced deli meats -- will open an experimental retail shop on Court Street in downtown Brooklyn, according to an article on BrooklynPaper.com.

Boar's Head will use the so-called "F. Martinella delicatessen," to be opened at the end of this month near State Street, as a laboratory in which to examine consumer habits, according to the report.

RuthAnn LeMore, a Boar's Head spokeswoman, told the paper that, "We want to understand the retail environment and to test new products, test new concepts, and bring them out to our retail distributors and partners.”

The name for the deli may sound like your typical Italian-American moniker, but interestingly enough, it's a composite name derived from those of Boar's Head executives:

"‘F.
read more »

Downtown Brooklyn Dog-Owners Demand Doggie Real Estate

Dana Rubinstein — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:37:29 -0400

Citing sanitary concerns, the Metrotech BID has barred dogs from frolicking on the Metrotech Commons, depriving Downtown Brooklyn pooches access to one of their favorite pieces of real estate, reports The Brooklyn Paper.

“[We are] certainly willing to have people sit there on a blanket — that’s not prohibited — but it conflicts with the dog thing because if the dog is doing his number on the lawn, it could be unsanitary,” Michael Weiss, executive director of the BID, told The Paper. “You can just clean up so much, and you can’t clean up wet stuff.”

According to the reporter:

As new residents move in to the predominantly commercial area, so too are residents’ dogs, and, in an area unaccustomed to the needs of a 24-7 population, there are very few places where residents can walk — and relieve — their Fidos and Fifis. read more »

News You Can Use! Brooklyn's Priciest Nabes for Condos

Lysandra Ohrstrom — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:15:14 -0400

The intrepid condo buyers who took a gamble on a modestly priced spread in Brooklyn Heights in April 2007 probably had no idea that they would be living in the borough's most expensive neighborhood for condos a year later.

The average condo price increased 170 percent annually, from $613,750 to $1.65 million in April 2008, according to the report from the Real Estate Board of New York.

Other condo price results results by neighborhood: read more »

After Eight Decades, Brooklyn To Finally Get Taller

Eliot Brown — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:19:01 -0500

A venture of Acadia Realty Trust, MacFarlane Partners, Rose Associates, P/A Associates and Washington Square Partners seems to be moving forward with the redevelopment of Albee Square into the City Point development, with plans to build a 65-story, Greenberg Farrow-designed mixed-use tower in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle writes today. read more »

Underground Railroad Home Saved

Matthew Schuerman — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:10:30 -0500

The city has changed its plan for downtown Brooklyn to eliminate the need to take a home on Duffield Street that had some connection to the Underground Railroad.

A spokeswoman for the city Law Department, Kate O'Brien Ahlers said in a statement,

"The city is pleased that this litigation was resolved in a manner favorable to all the parties involved, and is now looking forward to proceeding with its plan for commercial and residential growth in downtown Brooklyn, together with the Mayor’s initiative to commemorate the area’s abolitionist history."

A press release from South Brooklyn Legal Services, which represented one of the home's owners, Joy Chatel, is after the jump. read more »

Rose Associates Heads to Brooklyn

Matthew Schuerman — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:44:11 -0500

The planned City Point building--a.k.a Albee Square, a.k.a. The Gallery at Fulton Street--has brought another residential developer on board, according to Joe Chan, the president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a public-private entity overseeing the neighborhood’s development. read more »

Dreams of Brooklyn Central Business District Dashed

Matthew Schuerman — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:29:39 -0400

Joe Chan, the head of the public-private Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, is scaling back expectations that downtown Brooklyn will ever achieve the dizzying heights of central business district-dom once imagined way back in 2004.

“You are not seeing historically what has happened in downtown Brooklyn, which is exclusively commercial office towers being built,” Mr. Chan told a gathering of reporters this morning in one of those exclusively commercial office towers at MetroTech. “I think you are going to see smaller increments of office space being built within what we call hybrid buildings, like the City Point building, a mixture of residential, retail, in some cases hotel, and office.”

Mr. Chan has sounded this note before, though never so definitively. The partnership now says that it expects just 1.6 million square feet of office space to be built in the next five years, compared to 4.5 million square feet that the city Economic Development Corporation estimated would be built when it proposed a massive downtown Brooklyn rezoning three years ago. read more »