Brooklyn Boro

On the waterfront: Developments at North Brooklyn’s ferry stops

Eye On Real Estate

March 1, 2017 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
There's a new tower being built on the North Brooklyn waterfront, and it's called The Greenpoint. Rendering by Neoscape
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A new tower is rising up on the North Brooklyn waterfront.

As we speak, a gleaming glass façade is being installed on a skyscraper that’s being constructed beside the Greenpoint ferry dock.

The new tower is called The Greenpoint. You can find it at 21 India St. — but it’s best seen from the water.

For those of us who don’t own sailboats — plus those who find winter sailing on the East River too frosty for their liking — a ferry boat offers an ideal vantage point from which to look at the 40-story residential development.  
In honor of this statuesque addition to the shoreline, we took to the water the other day to cast our eye on developments at all four of North Brooklyn’s ferry stops.

Changeable weather meant that the skies were sometimes gray over Brooklyn while at the same moment they were azure over Manhattan. The scenery was stunning in every type of light.

Brooklyn Bridge Park-DUMBO ferry stop

The Watchtower headquarters isn’t the only eye-catching building at the Brooklyn Bridge Park-DUMBO ferry stop now.

The famed building topped with a red-neon “Watchtower” sign, which has frontage on Furman Street, is across the street from glass-covered 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge at 60 Furman St.

Toll Brothers and Starwood Capital Group just built the hotel and are finishing the construction of adjacent Pierhouse at 90 Furman St.

As real estate-obsessed Brooklynites know, this is the condo complex that stirred controversy because of legal disputes about whether it blocks part of the protected view plane between the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights and Brooklyn Bridge.

Real estate-obsessed Brooklynites also know that the Watchtower complex now belongs to the Kushner Cos., which was headed until recently by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The younger man resigned from his leadership post at Kushner Cos. to serve as an advisor to the president.  

A stone’s throw from the ferry dock, there’s Buzz O’Keeffe’s famed River Café, which has made a comeback after suffering dire damage from Superstorm Sandy.

Around the corner from the former headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, progress is being made on the restoration of landmarked 1830s-vintage rowhouses at 11-13-15 Old Fulton St. They’re among just a handful of Greek Revival-style commercial buildings still standing in New York City.

The Old Fulton Street buildings belong to an LLC with real estate investor Abraham Leser as a member, city Finance Department records indicate.

Schaefer Landing-South Williamsburg ferry stop

The Luv Guv is building a residential complex thisclose to the Schaefer Landing-South Williamsburg ferry stop.

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, so nicknamed because of his scandalous carryings-on with hookers, has taken charge of his family’s real estate firm.

The framework of 416 Kent Ave. was several stories high the day we saw it. It will be 22 stories tall and have 252 apartments, city Buildings Department filings indicate.

It will be one of three buildings in Spitzer Enterprises’ waterfront development, whose main address is 420 Kent Ave. An LLC with Eliot Spitzer as manager bought the development site for $165 million in 2015, Finance Department records show.

Spitzer’s site is right up the street from handsome 450 Kent Ave., a residential complex that stands beside the ferry dock.

Nearby, workers are finishing the construction of the Oosten, a luxury condo project built by XIN Development, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Beijing-based Xinyuan Real Estate Co. Its address is 429 Kent Ave.

In 2014, we took a hard-hat tour of the Oosten site with photographer colleague Rob Abruzzese. The place looks dizzyingly different now.

This ferry stop and the surrounding developments are located just south of the Williamsburg Bridge.

North 6th Street-North Williamsburg ferry stop

Another Kushner Cos. property is an eye-catcher at the North 6th Street-North Williamsburg ferry stop.

It’s called Austin Nichols House.

The century-old property at 184 Kent Ave. was designed by Cass Gilbert, the Woolworth Building’s architect.

Kushner Cos., LIVWRK and Morris Adjmi Architects are converting it from a rental-apartment building into condos. Asking prices range from $680,000 for studios to $2.6 million for three-bedroom apartments, an email sent by the sales team in mid-February indicates.

Austin Nichols House shares the waterfront beside the North Williamsburg ferry dock with the Edge and Northside Piers residential towers.

Douglaston Development is constructing a tower there at 2 North 6th Place. It is 40 stories tall and will have 554 apartments, Buildings Department filings indicate.

A block inland from the ferry dock, at 149 Kent Ave., there’s a newly constructed rental-apartment building. It’s called Fifth & Wythe because it has frontage on North 5th Street and Wythe Avenue.

The building also uses 55 North 5th St. as an address.

An LLC with L+M Development Partners exec Ron Moelis as authorized signatory bought the development site for $19.98 million in 2012, Finance Department records show.    

India Street-Greenpoint ferry stop

And, as we mentioned at the outset of this story, The Greenpoint is under construction beside the India Street-Greenpoint ferry landing.

The developers are Mack Real Estate Group and Palin Enterprises in conjunction with Urban Development Partners.

Ismael Leyva Architects designed the 40-story tower and an adjacent five-story building, which will have a combined total of 463 condos and rental apartments.

The Greenpoint’s 95 condos will be located at the top of the tower, starting on its 28th floor. There will be 287 rental apartments on the lower floors of the tower plus 81 rental apartments in the nearby low-rise building.

According to a spokesperson for the development, the condo sales launch is set for this spring. And rental apartments are expected to be ready for occupancy in first-quarter 2018.

Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group will handle condo sales at The Greenpoint.

 

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