Greenpoint

Between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. in North Brooklyn on this Election Day, young artists and professionals managed to carry themselves out of bed a tad bit early, and hit the voting booths, in some cases for the first time.

"What do you think, man?" asked Matthew Achterberg, a 25-year-old video producer outside of P.S. 017 on North Fifth Street in Williamsburg. "It's all about fucking Barack Obama over here."

Mr. Achterberg wore a beanie and a hoodie. He was holding a cup from Oslo, the popular Williamsburg coffee shop, and a copy of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

"I've been waiting for this ever since the Democratic primary ended," he said.  read more »

Welcome to the buyer's market: Supply is up, demand is down, and prices are teetering. Brokers say buy now – after all, there are deals to be had! But what if you waited?

Here’s four areas (and one borough) where buyers would be fools to rush in now.

1. MANHATTAN
In Manhattan, prices are falling. But several gauges indicate that, in the months ahead, they'll fall even further.

For one, new development – which accounted for 30 percent of sales in the borough last quarter – continues to skew prices, according to the third-quarter market report from Miller Samuel and Prudential Douglas Elliman.  read more »

Since 2002, Williamsburg-Greenpoint has lived without a movie theater. The absence is especially surprising given the area's history of film exhibition: At one point, the neighborhoods boasted six movie theaters in less than five square miles. But since the 1950s, the theaters have been slowly disappearing, converted to other uses or demolished.

"If you're making some amount of money showing movies there," said Patrick Crowley, the co-founder of CinemaTreasures.com, a Wikipedia-like site devoted to cinema preservation, "and a developer says, 'I can give you a ton of money to have development on top of the theater,' then it's hard to say no to that.  read more »

Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents may soon feel like they are living on the set of a reality TV show. The cast of the Apprentice-style MTV show starring 50 Cent is moving into a three-story, newly renovated loft building on the Greenpoint waterfront, a well-placed source has informed us.

The series will follow 16 aspiring rap moguls as they compete in a series of challenges to determine their "savvy, street smarts, manipulation, power and the art of winning"--"the skills that took 50 Cent from the streets to corporate America." At the end of each episode, 50 Cent will eliminate a contestant. The winner will get a full scholarship to an undergraduate or graduate business program.  read more »

Home prices in Williamsburg and Greenpoint grew more in the last 12 months than prices in any other Brooklyn area, according to a new report.

The average sales price in the two neighborhoods increased 12.7 percent from the second quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2008 to $663,946; and the average sales price per foot increased 20.3 percent over the same period to $445.

These annual increases were greater than those in other Brooklyn neighborhoods. The Williamsburg-Greenpoint median price also increased annually, though by a relatively small 9 percent.  read more »

The report, an inaugural Brooklyn market report from brokerage

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 »

Though I spent three years living in Greenpoint, I often found myself shunning the local nightlife—aside from a few restaurants and my local watering hole the Pencil Factory—for cozy nights in on my quiet residential street. Especially during this time of year. But despite no longer residing there, I've recently found myself traveling north to Williamsburg and Greenpoint for a night out more often and apparently, I'm not alone!

On a recent Thursday, I headed to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch a few bands play. On my walk toward the venue, which stands just short of the East River, I bypassed the Thai restaurant Sea, now North 6th Street's bridge-and-tunnel capital. Patrons were falling out of the doors, the line for a table immense, while a DJ boomed hip hop to a crowd donning their Sunday (or Thursday) best. Similarly, up the street, Planet Thai was packed to the brim with people seeking a lounge, restaurant and bar feel all in one.  read more »

“You used to have career video-store clerks,” said Leah Giblin, a diminutive 29-year-old  read more »

When Larry Meagher was a boy growing up in Depression-era Greenpoint, the copper steeple of St.  read more »

• Clarett Group breaks ground on Brooklyn condo.
[GlobeSt]
• Brooklyn mall sells for around $125 million.
[Crain's]
• 51-building Bronx portfolio trades hands. [2nd item]
[NY Post]
• A "colder place" at site of 10-alarm Greenpoint fire.
[NY Times]
• Vote today could settle fight for Equity Office.
[NY Times]
• Should city fast-food joints post calories on menu boards?
[NY Post]
• Prospect Park getting new ice-skating center.
[NY Post]
• Famed Sheepshead Bay eatery closes--again.
[Daily News]
• Developers submit plans for Kingsbridge Armory.
[Daily News]
• Starrett City draws $1 billion bid.
[NY Sun]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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Every gentrifier that has packed his or her bags to move to Williamsburg, Greenpoint or Bushwick is met with some degree of dread on weekends. That's because everyone's favorite portal to Manhattan, the L train, seems to be disrupted with all sorts of service work or shut down all together.

Well, hipsters, rejoice! The MTA Advisory that previews upcoming damage to its train lines every weekend has delivered inexplicably good news this Friday afternoon

from: Advisory@mtanyct.info 2:14 pm to: jkoblin@gmail.com date: Dec 15, 2006 2:14 PM subject: MTA NYCT Weekend Advisories

L No diversions scheduled.

Not to suggest that anyone would actually want to leave Brooklyn. But, yeah, you get the point.

- John Koblin

Is Morgan Stanley That Dumb?    read more »

Is Morgan Stanley That Dumb?  read more »

Is Morgan Stanley That Dumb?    read more »

Is Morgan Stanley That Dumb?    read more »

Plans afoot to supplant Madison Square Garden "Four architectural firms presented plans to developers in closed-door meetings late last month for a redesigned Penn Station - with Madison Square Garden chopped off the top and moved one block west." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman Presenting the priciest downtown single-family sell "A 55-foot-wide townhouse at 11 West 10th Street has gone into contract. The asking price was $37.5 million. If it closed near there, this 1847 mansion would be the most expensive single-family residence downtown." Go to story by Max Abelson Brooklyn building booming - is that a good thing? "There's a building boom underway across the East River, in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. This is a good thing. Or so you'd think." Go to editorial  read more »

Our friends at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation sent us a little note today about the anticipated ruling by the city whether to allow "condo-hotels" in manufacturing zones. At particular issue is Donald Trump's planned 45-story condo-hotel at 246 Spring Street.
Now, the nub of the matter is this: Hotels can reside in manufacturing zones; Mr. Trump, with a speculator's glint in his eye, wants to develop these condo-hotels there too. Opponents like the GVSHP claim that these new developments will not be transient in nature, like the law says they must be.
The GVSHP's main concerns are:

1. It will encourage high-rise development of luxury residential and hotel units in these areas
2. It will help push out area businesses, which are supposed to be protected by zoning from competition from residential development, thereby changing the character of these neighborhoods
3. It will circumvent the possibility of these communities considering zoning changes to only allow residential development which is appropriate for the area in terms of height, size, and location
4. It will undermine hard-fought-for provisions to encourage the creation of affordable housing in recently rezoned neighborhoods like West Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, and Williamsburg/Greenpoint, by opening up new areas of these neighborhoods to luxury housing development without the agreed-to affordable housing incentives attached

To us it seems to be a short-sighted ploy to grab a quick buck in the ferocious go-go 2000's real-state orgy. But how long will it last? And what happens when the bottom drops out? (Oh, c'mon, you know it will)
Check out the GVSHP's Web site for more info.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

• Ages ago Greenpoint was diagnosed with Condoitis, the irreversible condition in which old Brooklyn warehouses are sold to residential developers until there's no neighborhood left. Thankfully, the city is now offering "counseling" to industrial companies who have suffered from the illness--especially in hotspots like Greenpoint or Williamsburg or Sunset Park or Red Hook. (NY Daily News)
• A little more on the Freedom Tower fun: Columbia's Elliott Sclar points out "the absurdity of using taxpayer money to bail this thing out one more time." What does he mean? Government agencies were the primary tenants when the World Trade Center opened in the 1970s--which helped cause the citywide real estate depression. But of course that would never ever happen again. (NY Times)
• The next historic district created by the Landmark Preservation Commission will probably be a 471-house chunk in northern Crown Heights. It's not only the commission's biggest move in a decade, but it's also a big step away from the old landmarks of old-money Manhattan. Yet the Brooklyn neighborhood has mixed feelings--because the designation has been many years in the making, and because residents fear a loss of independence over renovations and construction. (NY1)
• Yesterday marked another loss for rich people who believe there shouldn't be waste transfer stations in rich neighborhoods. Horror! A State Supreme Court justice will allow construction at the East River and 91st Street, which will help minimize the amount of garbage trucks barreling to outer boroughs (and to already-trashy Jersey). (NY Times)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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Early in August, the Housing Works Thrift Shops flagship at 143 West 17th Street reopened after a sad two-month absence.

Why? "What we did was open it up, took everything out, ripped up the carpet" said H.W.T.S. President Matthew Bernardo. "We found the original floor," which is gorgeous hardwood.

Now it's an open 4,000-square-foot space for antique furniture, hip clothing and hipper shoes. "The old space had so many log jams," Mr. Bernardo admitted.

In one week--on September 7 at 5 p.m. sharp--the space will be filled with a new fall collection (the press release is after the jump). And come January 2007, H.W. is opening its seventh shop. "We're looking at the Heights and Cobble Hill," said Mr. Bernardo.

What about Williamsburg or Greenpoint? "You need shoppers, but you also need donors for high value stuff." Of course.

Until then, New Yorkers who can't make it to Chelsea can shop online at an auction.

On the other hand, shoppers closer to 17th Street know it's become a thrift shop mecca: there's Angel Street steps away from the renovated flagship, and 17@17 down the block. But: "We consider ourselves the father!" Mr. Bernardo said.

It's true. This year the stores will gross $11m, the highest number yet. Where does the money go? The shops bring in a third of the revenue for Housing Works, which is the largest American "community-based AIDS service organization."  read more »

Update: The store was closed for 2 months, not 12. - Max Abelson

Chic in chic Greenpoint

The ultra-modern, ultra-chic architects at Meltzer/Mandl are conquering Brooklyn, one warehouse- to- condo conversion at a time. First came the curvaceous Vanderbilt in Clinton Hill. Up next? A pair of "strikingly modern" apartment buildings, with 130 units, at 110 Green and 133-137 Huron Street.

The concrete and glass condos will be "contextual with the scale of the surrounding buildings"--Meltzer and Mandl sure know how to sweet talk--yet the firm promises to bring dynamism to the defunct Greenpoint manufacturing district.

As for that vibrancy, there will be a 360-foot window of colored spandrel glass, plus 16 new trees, a public roof terrace and pool. Spandrelific!  read more »

The full release, as always, is after the jump.

- Max Abelson

231 Norman Avenue will soon be home to Greenpoint's first (and thus "flagship") business condo, The Greepoint Lofts. Sales have officially started for the building's sixty-eight 600- to 1,150-square-foot units, which will run from $295,000 to 570,000 each.

A PR release says prices have been cut a bit, which means the average square foot of chic commercial condo will cost about $450--a bit less than the area's $750 standard.

And are those roof-side pools? Probably not.

The PR release is after the jump.  read more »

The Municipal Art Society sent us this postcard "to inform ... of the untimely passing of the Greenpoint Terminal Market, the Long Island City Power House and the former Con Edison Power Station .... They are survived by the endangered Domino Sugar Refinery, Sohmer Piano Factory and, in gravest danger, the Austin Nichols & Co. Warehouse."
The M.A.S. wil hold a memorial on Tuesday, June 27, at 6:30 p.m. "to memorialize the lost and discuss the precarious fate of the remaining." Let's hope they sent an invite to City Councilmember David Yassky.
-Matthew Grace  read more »

Beth Dickey and Luke Gebhard   Met: February 2005 Engaged: Jan. 6, 2006  read more »

Feb. 9, 20065:05 a.m.

6 pounds, 10 ounces  read more »

Home

Feb. 9, 2006 5:05 a.m. 6 pounds, 10 ounces Home    read more »

The dailies puzzle over why either Joshua Guttman, the owner of the Greenpoint Terminal Market, or Baruch Singer, who wanted to buy it, would want to burn down the complex. The Times paints a potential landmark designation to be pretty unlikely, while the Sun, which broke the story of Singer's failed transaction yesterday, says that demolition of a half-burned building would cost more than demolition of a standing one.

In any case, the main reason why property owners would set fire to industrial buildings located near gentrifying neighborhoods--to ease a conversion to residential--doesn't make sense, since the Greenpoint waterfront was rezoned last year. All which means that if there is a motive, it hasn't been unearthed yet.

-Matthew Schuerman

The Politicker's Nicole Brydson sends in some photos from yesterday's huge fire in Greenpoint.

Not surprisingly, arson is suspected. However, the owner's attorney told the New York Times that his client had nothing to do with it.

A lawyer for [owner Joshua] Guttman, Joseph Kosofsky, said the developer had no idea how the fire began. "It's the last thing in the world we need right now," he said. "He's a very substantial guy. If someone set fire to it, it could have been squatters, it could have been anybody. How in the hell can you watch 21 acres of industrial property?"

Investigations wil surely continue to determine the cause of blaze. More photos after the jump.  read more »

The Times said the investigation into the February 2004 fires on Water Street in Dumbo, at a property owned by the same Joshua Guttman who owns the Greenpoint Terminal Market, was inconclusive. -Matthew Schuerman

Before Mayor Bloomberg began his afternoon press conference, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes stood on the sidelines talking arson and Satmar arrests.

While fire marshals are still determining the cause of yesterday's 10-alarm fire, Hynes noted that besides motives like "spite" and "kicks," arson is often perpetrated for profit.

At that point, Hynes was asked whether the fact that another of the owner's buildings went up in flames in 2004 was a coincidence. "We'll see how coincidental it was," he answered with a hint of skepticism.

Hynes then switched his attention from Greenpoint to Williamsburg, and confirmed the arrest yesterday of a member of the Satmar community for "assault and disorderly conduct" relating to last month's scuffle in the Rodney street Synagogue.

He also said that he suspected "we will have another arrest today" in connection with yet another fight between the supporters of warring brothers Aaron and Zalmen Teitelbaum.

"And there will be more," said Hynes. "It has to be made clear to the leadership of both sides that if you come to commit crime in the county you will be arrested."

—Jason Horowitz

• The landlord wants to evict Hot 97. Too many shootings. (The New York Post)
• Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki horn in on Ground Zero. (The New York Post)
• Iacopo Falai is the new Wylie Dufresne. (The New York Times)
• Expect to hear more about the ten-alarm fire in Greenpoint. (The New York Sun)

- Tom McGeveran

NY1 reports that the Greenpoint warehouse that is/was burning in what fire officials are calling a suspicious fire is owned by one Joshua Guttman (also spelled Gutman). Why is that name familiar? He owned a property in Dumbo that also burned down two years ago. That fire was investigated for arson. We have a call into the fire department to see if that investigation ever wrapped up.

The Municipal Art Society meanwhile says it had been advocating landmark protection for the burning complex, known as the Greenpoint Terminal Market.

(We should note the city deed for the Greenpoint property does not mention Guttman, though that doesn't mean he doesn't own it.)

-Matthew Schuerman

A blaze broke out in a vacant waterfront warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn early this morning. About 170 firefighters headed to the scene from as far away as Flatbush and the Bronx, fighting what became an eight-alarm fire.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta told NBC News that is was the "largest fire in the city in more than a decade, excluding the World Trade Center attack, and said the cause was suspicious."

No word yet on how the fire started, but the building is believed to be empty. However, Curbed has renderings of condos that were to be developed nearby.

—Nicole Brydson

More photos after the jump.  read more »

Jan. 11, 20062 p.m.

8 pounds, 11 ounces  read more »

New York University Hospital

Jan. 11, 2006 2 p.m. 8 pounds, 11 ounces New York University Hospital    read more »

• Bill Weld, former Massachusetts governor running in New York, compared eminent domain to "Communist China." (The Real Deal)
• A real-estate guide to Bob Dylan. (Gothamist)
• Niche marketing has created gay ghettos. (Matrix)
• Perhaps before one invests in a Honduran island that Americans know little about, one must think about resources. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Next in home decoration tips: where to put your Oscar. Frank Sinatra used his as a doorstop. (The New York Times)
• When the Church sells off property to make cash, others call for accountability in business. (The Walk-Through)
• New Jersey has a gas problem. And it bothers the financial district to the point of evacuation. (Gothamist)
• Because the neighborhoods are on the rise for residential sales, a $4 million Greenpoint-Williamsburg Industrial Fund will be used to help manufacturing firms relocate. (The Real Deal)
• Apartment Therapy holds a contest for cool apartments under 650 square feet, because, well, that takes creativity. (Apartment Therapy)
• Priorities in development: Office of Emergency Management to be replaced by Basketball City. (The New York Sun)
• Although the store is closed in Soho, Prada's " mistress of us all" premieres in Paris this week. (International Herald Tribune)

- Riva Froymovich

More than one person asked, during last year's rezoning of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, What is going to happen to all those carpenters and metal workers once the condos come?

Oh, we'll think of something, came the response. How about $4 million?

Late last fall, Paul Moses discovered that the $4 million still hadn't arrived but that industrial tenants were being shoved out.

Today, the Department of Small Business Services announced that the $4 million has arrived.

Or has it? Looks like you will have to check back with the Mayor's Office for Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses "in the coming weeks ... to find details," according to the press release. What the administration has done is figure out, along with the City Council, how to divvy up the pot.

-Matthew Schuerman

Factory buildings in Williamsburg and Greenpoint made it on this year’s “Seven to Save” (now the 12 or 13 to save) list of endangered properties of historical significance, as determined by the Preservation League of New York.

And what, in the face of last year’s residential rezoning, will that do? Well, previous designee 2 Columbus Circle ended up under the knife—while the High Line got away with a face-lift.

--Matthew Schuerman

By popular demand, a final installment from the Busta Rhymes section of yesterday's Bloomberg-Kelly press conference. Here's Kelly's monologue, in which he displays surprising ease in using the word like "remix" and "cameo."

" I can tell you what we know about that shooting. There was a filming, as you know, in- going on in Greenpoint in an industrial complex on the ninth floor. Busta Rhymes was a- in one of his songs, 'Touch It,' it was a remix of his song, various hip hop stars were going to make cameo appearances in that film. Apparently a dispute broke out and a dispute moved to the street. Around 12:30 in the evening there was some pushing and shoving going on. We believe that Busta Rhymes was there with his bodyguard, Mr. Ramirez. The shoving, as I say, took place. An individual took out a gun, fired at least eight shots, and Mr. Ramirez was struck, and he expired. We're in a process of questioning people who were there. We did hold onto- as the police arrived they held, I believe, over 20 people there, spoke to them, got information. The information- the investigation obviously is going forward aggressively. We believed that Busta Rhymes may have been on the street when the shooting took place. Don't know if he was a target."

Maybe someone can get a recording of this and put a beat behind it.

The Château des Thons.

What we're reading this morning:

• Many New Yorkers choose a commute over a closer location to save money. The Brookings Institute has created the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, which "prices the trade-offs that households make between housing and transportation costs." (Matrix)
• The MTA recycles. (Gothamist)
• The city wants a plan for Governors Island. Really, this time they really do! (The New York Times)
• Love ain't getting any, and the West Village might soon see its share of noise-level activists. (The Villager)
• Where to complain and who to nag about your local problems. (Manhattan User's Guide)
• A new campaign aims to revive the Tompkins Square Park band shell. (The Villager)
• For sale: The Château des Thons, listed at $6.995 million, was part of an 18th-century French mansion that was taken apart in the late 1920's and reassembled in Upper Brookville, Long Island. (The New York Times)
• The lastest effort to find a new peg on the Harlem real-estate story: For Harlem aspirants who can't afford a whole townhouse, a condo and coop market emerges. (The New York Times)
• The war in Iraq has become a selling point. (Curbed)
• As Cindy Adams might say, "Only in New York." Ahem ... Are your sofa cushions taking up too much room? (Apartment Therapy)
• A family was forced to evacuate its home of five generations in the middle of the night when construction on a luxury unit next door damaged an adjacent building so much that they feared it would knock down their house. Welcome to Williamsburg and Greenpoint. (The Village Voice)
• Inman News Publisher Bradley Inman has become a filmmaker with TurnHere.com, a new Web site that captures neighborhoods in the United States with short videos that feature the businesses and people who really live there. (Inman News)
• Purportedly, Eliot Spitzer prefers the Four Seasons and Andrew Cuomo likes Bergdorf’s while on the campaign trail. (New York)

- Riva Froymovich  read more »

When I found a new apartment last month, there wasn’t much about the old one I feared I’d miss.  read more »

When I found a new apartment last month, there wasn’t much about the old one I feared I’  read more »

Jerry Skurnik, who keeps better track of this stuff than anyone else I know, emailed over some bits of analysis of the primary vote that caught his eye.

Here they are:

Either Ferrer & Weiner carried every Assembly District but 1.

Field won 70 AD (barely) over Ferrer. That's her home district. (And two others. Jerry corrects here.)

Miller came in 2nd in only 3 ADs - 65 & 73 (in his Council District) and 50 (Williamsburg-Greenpoint).

Christopher Brodeur finished 2nd in 72 AD (Washington Heights). He received 1,024 votes out of 9,860 cast. Ferrer received 6,596.

Norman Siegel won 3 ADs: 39 (Jackson Hts-Corona), 52 (Brooklyn Heights), 57 (Ft. Greene).  read more »

Joe Hynes won 12 ADs -- John Sampson won 9.

Scott Stringer won 4 ADs. Lopez, Moskowitz, Perkins & Espaillat each won 2.

Senator Hillary Clinton headed out to the meatpacking district today to announce she had "helped secure" $18 million in federal taxpayer money for the 6.7 acre High Line park. Not bad, considering that the transportation bill has just about $25 million for all the other greenways in New York put together, including the Hudson River Park, Red Hook, Greenpoint, Coney Island and Sunset Park.

But the feds will far from cover the $100 million needed to turn the abandoned west side elevated freight railway into a Diller Scofidio & Renfro playground. Another $50 million is coming from the city, and the remaining $30 million will be coming from .... YOU!  read more »

That's right. The Friends of the High Line will be raising the balance privately, its leaders said today. So get out your checkbooks—and add an extra zero, will you? This baby's going to cost $340 a square foot.

Careful, now, don't step on the grass. &mdash:Matthew Schuerman

As she strode to the front of the Polish and Slavic Center auditorium in Brooklyn, Amanda Burden, ch  read more »

A waterfront lumberyard in Brooklyn's Greenpoint section would seem an unlikely place for a Manhatta  read more »