How’s it going at the Hoxton?

Eye on Real Estate: Plus other Williamsburg construction updates

February 8, 2017 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Construction is progressing at the Hoxton, a British hotel on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

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What a difference a half-year makes.

In that short lapse of time, the site on the corner of Wythe Avenue and North 9th Street in Williamsburg has changed from a hole in the ground to a property with a windowless building rising seven stories above a construction fence.

This building in the making is the Hoxton, a 175-room hotel that London-based developer Ennismore is constructing.

We stopped by 97 Wythe Ave. the other day for a look at the progress that has been made on the construction of the hotel. This will be the lodging chain’s first U.S. location.

The Hoxton is set to open this year, its website indicates.

As we’ve previously reported, the hotelier bought the site for $10 million from Rosenwach Tank Co., the wood water tank manufacturer. Rosenwach had a wood mill on the property.

The hotel builder also paid $2.65 million for air rights from a contiguous property.

There’s a lot of development going on in Billyburg these days. So what if it’s winter? Stalwart construction crews just keep working.

Here are some other Williamsburg construction projects we checked up on:

The Williamsburg Hotel

Tea For Two.

Or sip solo if you wish.

The Williamsburg Hotel is offering high tea the way the British serve it on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as a way of introducing itself to the neighborhood.

The 150-room hotel at 96 Wythe Ave., built by Toby Moskovits’ Heritage Equity Partners, just opened the third week of January.

A downstairs bar has opened in the hotel on the corner of North 10th Street.

Another bar, which Brooklynites have been talking about for eons, is planned for the roof of the eight-story hotel. It will be built inside a structure that looks like a giant wood water tank — an interesting reference to Rosenwach Tank Co., whose business was located across the street for many decades.

At this point, the structural skeleton of the rooftop bar has been built, but it doesn’t have walls yet.

When we checked the Williamsburg Hotel’s website recently, prices for available rooms started at $230 per night.

A shout-out to Brooklyn Brewery

Beer Here.

Wythe Avenue developers got some good news recently: Their neighborhood’s most famous denizen, Brooklyn Brewery, is not leaving after all.

Brewery owner Steve Hindy decided not to decamp to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, as he’d previously announced. He told the New York Times his landlords were interested in extending his leases beyond their 2025 expiration.

Brooklyn Brewery is located on the block bounded by North 11th Street, Wythe Avenue, North 12th Street and Berry Street.

City Finance Department records identify the owner of one property where Brooklyn Brewery is located, 79 N. 11th St., as an LLC controlled by Gladys Harmanoglu and Hikmet Harmanoglu.

The other property where Brooklyn Brewery is located — together with Brooklyn Bowl — is 61-71 Wythe Ave., which is also known as 97 N. 11th St. Atlas Capital Group bought this property in October through an LLC for $37.41 million, Finance Department records indicate.

The office and light-manufacturing development at 25 Kent Ave.

The bulldozers are chugging away at 25 Kent Ave.

Last fall, there was a ceremonial ground-breaking at this site, where Brooklyn’s first brand-new spec office building in 40 years is being constructed.

Heritage Equity Partners and Rubenstein Partners are building the $400 million project, which will include space for light-manufacturing businesses.

The development’s massive full-block site is bounded by Kent Avenue, North 12th Street, Wythe Avenue and North 13th Street.

The Pod Hotel

The Pod Hotel is taking shape down the street from Williamsburg’s new Apple store.

The hotel, which is in the throes of construction, has a façade on North 3rd Street just like Apple.

The Pod Hotel, whose address is 626 Driggs Ave., will have small rooms of about 100 square feet in size. Richard Born — a big player in Manhattan boutique hotels — is the hotelier, the New York Post has reported.

An LLC with Charles Blaichman as authorized signatory bought a portion of the hotel site for $15.125 million, Finance Department records indicate. The site also includes an adjacent lot; there’s no price recorded on the deed for that lot.

Blaichman, whose company is called CB Developers, has collaborated with Born on past developments.

Domino Sugar Refinery’s 325 Kent Ave.

Now you can see it — this building really is shaped like a giant donut.

For a long time, the frame of the first new building to be constructed at the Domino Sugar Refinery mega-development looked like two towers standing side by side.

But connecting floors were recently constructed at the top of those two towers. So 325 Kent Ave. is starting to look more like the renderings of SHoP Architects’ design for the building.

Also, the lower floors of the South 4th Street side of the mixed-income rental-apartment building have been covered with coppery-hued metallic cladding.

Two Trees Management, the Walentas family’s company, is the developer of the 11-acre waterfront project — which includes the makeover of landmarked sugar refinery buildings at 292-314 Kent Ave. into techie-friendly office space.