Williamsburg

Cool places on Kent Avenue

Eye On Real Estate

July 29, 2015 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
An office building called the Williamsburg Generator is planned for a massive site at 25 Kent Ave. Rendering by Gensler
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You don’t have to be a hipster to love Kent Avenue.

Williamsburg’s waterside avenue has lots of spots that charm non-hipsters, with the landmarked Domino Sugar Refinery being Numero Uno on the Hit Parade, of course. Even the avenue’s graffiti is nifty-looking.

Here are just a few of the cool places that caught our eye the other day when we rode the ferry over to the waterfront neighborhood.

* Heritage Equity Partners’ development at 25 Kent Ave. may not look like much at the moment — think bulldozers and bare earth behind a construction fence.

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But it’s going to be the first new-from-the-ground-up speculative office building to be constructed in Brooklyn in 40 years.

The firm, headed by Toby Moskovits, calls the planned 400,000-square-foot building the Williamsburg Generator. It’s expected to draw creative arts, tech and maker firms as tenants. We’ve included a rendering so you can see what it will look like when it’s finished.

By the way, this site, which we’ve been keeping an eye on for a good long while, previously used 19 Kent Ave. as its address. Moskovits signed the Real Property Transfer Report on behalf of the purchasing LLC that bought the site for $31.75 million in 2012, city Finance Department records show.

* New York Waterway’s ferry dock at Kent Avenue and N. 6th Street is Selfie Central — a superb spot to snap shots with Manhattan skyscrapers including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Citigroup Center in the background.

* The as-yet windowless walls of the seven-story mixed-use residential and retail building now under construction at 149 Kent Ave. are interesting architectural eye candy. We’re including a rendering so you can also see what it will look like when the work is done.

L +M Development Partners’ project will be a 164-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail space. Twenty percent of the apartments will be affordable units.

An LLC whose authorized signatory is L+M co-founder Ron Moelis bought the site for $19.98 million in 2012, Finance Department records indicate.

* Ice cream shop Odd Fellows at 175 Kent Ave. is drawing crowds. It’s summer. Some people realize they don’t really have to eat kale and nothing but kale 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

* A classic brick rowhouse with a pale blue front door at 231 Kent Ave. looks so pretty in summer sunlight.

Its long-time owners are husband and wife Gregory Steinberg and Maria Contreras, Finance Department records show.

* Before its makeover, 237 Kent Ave. was a one-story building with an auto-body shop in it.

But recently, its owners added three stories to the building and turned it into an eye-pleasing multifamily property with six apartments, city Buildings Department filings indicate.

According to Finance Department records, an LLC whose sole member is Mendel Gold is the 87.5% owner of the property; an LLC whose sole member is Isaac Bistritzky is the 12.5% owner. The two LLCs paid a combined $3 million for it in 2013.

* Motif Lover, a clothing and accessories shop at 240 Kent Ave., sells purses that look like kitty cats with big eyes. Really, really big eyes. These shoulder bags are much cooler than we’re making them sound.


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