Working Their Way Through List of Over 3,000 Names, Brokers Report 70 Contracts in the Works
By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Real estate magnate Elizabeth Stribling of Stribling & Associates will be one of the first new residents at One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the former Watchtower shipping complex on the waterfront in Brooklyn Heights whose address used to be 360 Furman St.
First reported last week in the New York Times, and confirmed by the developer Robert Levine during a tour of the building yesterday, she has purchased two adjacent units with terraces on the 12th floor, which will be combined, plus a parking space in the garage. The Times reported the total purchase price as $6.6 million.
Levine did not confirm that price, however, and could not confirm a rumor that Trader Joe’s is taking a large core retail space.
“We have no commitments from them, and, frankly, retail is not the focus for us right now, not until everything is set with the park,” said Levine, referring to the status of negotiations involving the Brooklyn Bridge Park developers and his firm, RAL Companies & Affilates.
Stribling was quoted in the Times article saying “it was love at first sight” when she looked at the units on the upper floors.
At least 69 others obviously concur. Levine said there are 70 contracts out for signature, and the brokers are still working from the “infamous list” of over 3,000 names reported in the Brooklyn Eagle last year and are only showing the model units by appointment.
“We’re a little more than halfway through that list now,” he said.
The building will have its first open house for the general public from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 4.
Selected as model units in the 449-unit building are a studio apartment, a studio with home office, a one-bedroom apartment, a one-bedroom with home office, and a two-bedroom apartment.
All of the units have high ceilings and expansive windows that make them seem larger than the square footage would indicate.
Prices for a studio are starting in the $500,000 range, according to Levine, but an apartment with a home office viewed on yesterday’s tour .had an asking price of $795,000 for a little over 850 square feet.
All units additionally have a washer and dryer, eight-foot doors on every room, oversized walk-in closets and interesting ways of incorporating the industrial-size columns.
“A lot of detail went into including them in the apartments,” said Levine whose background is in design and architecture. “Some of them have been carved out and have recessed lighting.”
A lot of thought went into the corners of the building in the “H” where huge outside stairwells used to be. These stairwells have been removed, and rooms have been created on each floor with floor-to-ceiling windows.
“It was an unbelievable undertaking,” said Levine of the effort to remove the stairwells, “but in the end, it was really worth it.”
“The wall of windows just adds to the spectacular views, not just of Manhattan, the harbor and the East River, but the views all over Brooklyn,” he added as he pointed at the Downtown Brooklyn skyline and the hills to the south.
Levine estimates that the first closings will take place in October and November. He is proud that RAL uses only union labor, and much of the work is done in-house. Affiliate Creative Design Associates is providing architectural services, and Design Construction Consulting (in conjunction with Newmark Construction) is the contractor.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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