Fort Greene

Fort Greene’s got dueling open houses and a brownstone Ingrid Bergman’s granddaughter bought

Eye On Real Estate: Welcome to the neighborhood

October 22, 2014 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Welcome to formidable Fort Greene, which is full historic brownstones.
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Obsessed as we are with the cherished brownstones of Brooklyn Heights (is it because Arthur Miller lived there? And Norman Mailer? And Truman Capote?) we sometimes forget to give the historic homes of nearby Fort Greene the admiration they deserve.

The neighborhood boasts block after tree-lined block of stunning 19th Century rowhouses — a goodly number of them built before the Civil War — and Brooklyn’s most eye-catching landmark, the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower at 1 Hanson Place, which is topped with four clock faces.

Some intriguing people have been brownstone-buying recently in Fort Greene, including Ingrid Bergman’s granddaughter, Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann. See related story.

Fort Greene residents of course share their neighborhood with the BAM Cultural District (AKA the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District), with its dozens of arts institutions including the iconic Brooklyn Academy of Music and the terrific Shakespeare-centric Theatre for a New Audience.

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The presence of Fort Greene Park is a major plus, especially for fitness-minded folks who prefer hilly jogging paths.

“Anybody is going to love the neighborhood — it has so much to offer,” Jed Marcus, who lives on Vanderbilt Avenue, told Eye on Real Estate. “The culture, the recreation, the diversity, the restaurants, the shopping.”

Marcus and his wife bought their 1870s-vintage brownstone in 1976. Wasn’t Fort Greene a little bit on the rough side back then? we wondered.

“It was way on the rough side,” he recalled. But their house was in good shape, with lots of its original plaster work intact. There had only been three owners before them.


VANDERBILT AVENUE MANO A MANO

Two side-by-side brownstones with two different owners are up for sale at the same time. Their brokers have even scheduled dueling open houses on the same day.

There’s 394 Vanderbilt Ave., which hasn’t been on the market for more than 70 years, as its online listing by Fillmore Real Estate notes. The asking price is $2.375 million for the eight-bedroom two-family house, which has seven fireplaces.

In 2011, long-time owner Morna Brodie deeded 394 Vanderbilt to Reuben Kashi, city Finance Department records indicate.

Brown Harris Stevens has the listing for 396 Vanderbilt Ave., which has a $2.3 million asking price. The six-bedroom two-family house has seven original marble mantels and two wood-burning fireplaces.

The current owners, Thomas Clapperton Sill Cushman and Melanie Jean Meyers-Cushman, purchased the property for $1.125 million in 2009, Finance Department records show.

Also, a few houses away, a brownstone that received a high-end renovation, 384 Vanderbilt Ave., has a signed sale contract, according to listing broker Halstead’s website. The asking price was $3.5 million.

The Stuyvesant Group, the developer that did the makeover, had purchased the house through LLCs for $925,000 in 2012, according to Finance Department records.

The three Italianate/Neo-Grec brownstones were constructed around 1877 to 1879 by builder-architect Thomas P. Jackson, according to the city Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Fort Greene Historic District designation report.


GREENE AVENUE MANO A MANO

A Brooklyn developer and an Australian investment firm are facing off, figuratively speaking, on a landmarked Greene Avenue block.

Brodmore, the developer, is offering the single-family brick rowhouse at 67 Greene Ave. for sale for an asking price of $3.8 million. The exterior has a 19th-Century look, but Brodmore recently built the house on a vacant lot.

Next door, an Italianate brick rowhouse built around 1860, 69 Greene Ave., is also for sale. According to City Finance Department records, it belongs to an LLC affiliated with Dixon Advisory USA, whose US Masters Residential Property Fund is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

The asking price is $2.35 million. A web posting by listing broker Halstead says the house is an SRO (a single-room occupancy residence) with a certificate of non-harassment in place.

A Dixon affiliate, Newtown Jets LLC, had purchased 69 Greene for $1.8 million in April 2013, city Finance Department records indicate.

The seller in that deal was an LLC with Yossef Ariel as a member. That entity had purchased the property for $999,900 in March 2013.

P.S. The word on the street is that a buyer has been lined up for 67 Greene.

 

 


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