Real Estate

Panelist Says “We Need a Good Five Years”

By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — “It’s still early for Bushwick as the next hot spot,” said Lori Raphael, director of Real Estate and Development (RED) for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, at the conclusion of the RED panel last week at St. Francis College, focused on the neighborhood.

Panelist David Maundrell of AptsandLofts.com, seemed to agree, commenting that “Bushwick is still in its infancy” and “Bushwick today is what Williamsburg was 10 years ago.”

WILLIAMSBURG — The Edge, the mixed-use residential development on the waterfront in Williamsburg, will be getting a supermarket.

As reported in The Brooklyn Paper, the food-seller is said to be a gourmet organic and natural products store. It will open on the groundfloor of the complex’s south tower on the corner of North Fifth Street, according to the report.

A spokeswoman for the condo complex told The Brooklyn Paper that a market will open in the coming weeks, but would not reveal its operator.

Attempts to confirm the report by the Eagle were unsuccessful at press time.

BOROUGH HALL — City Councilman Brad Lander will sponsor an additional property tax seminar for those who missed the one held earlier this year by the NYC Department of Finance (DOF).

The need for the seminars was based on the DOF’s publication of the tentative property assessment roll for fiscal year 2013.

“Because many homeowners have seen a change in how their properties have been valued and have questions about these changes, I worked with the Department of Finance and Tax Commission to bring an additional outreach session to Brooklyn,” said Lander.

The earlier session took place during work hours making it difficult for many residents to attend.

Representatives from both agencies will be on hand to answer questions from the public.

By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — If and when Tom Caruana, owner of the building that contains the Brooklyn Heights Cinema at 70 Henry St., gets the OK to build a new apartment house at the site, he plans to provide space for the well-known cinema within the new building.

So says Kenn Lowy, owner of the cinema, who bought the theater last year.

“The details still need to be worked out,” he said. “We would have a lobby on the first floor and the cinema in the basement. We do have to find a temporary home later this summer.”

By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

CLINTON HILL — Ground has been broken on a new affordable supportive apartment complex  in Clinton Hill, Martin Dunn of Dunn Development told members of the Land Use Committee of Community Board 2 (CB 2) last week.

Dunn was making a courtesy presentation on the as-of-right six-story, 59-unit building at 40 Putnam Ave. at Irving Place, to be known as Putnam Court.

By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
 
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — The second of eight properties currently on the market by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society — three listed with Massey Knakal Realty Services and five with The Corcoran Group Brooklyn — has been sold.

The property, a carriage house at 165 Columbia Heights, was sold by Corcoran for $4.1 million, according to PropertyShark.com.

As reported in the Eagle last fall, the property, which originally had an asking price of $4.5 million, was configured as two apartments plus a four-car garage.

ATLANTIC YARDS — A real estate investment firm has acquired an empty industrial building near the new Barclays Center arena and Atlantic Yards development site near Downtown Brooklyn.

First reported last week in The Wall Street Journal, Waterbridge Capital bought the 40,000-square-foot building at 700 Atlantic Ave. for approximately $7 million.

Waterbridge is planning to transform the industrial facility into a retail center, according to the report. It was previously occupied by a manufacturer.

The site is situated within what Forest City Ratner identifies as the second phase of its Atlantic Yards development.

By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

CLINTON HILL — A new townhouse-style development in Clinton Hill that has been largely under the radar is selling well, according to its developer and sales team.

A project of Brooklyn-based HLN Developers LLC with design by Karl Fischer Architects, the development is comprised of two phases on two adjacent streets.

FLATBUSH — Men’s Wearhouse, a well-known U.S. men’s apparel retailer, has opened a 9,200-square-foot store in Flatbush.

According to RealEstateRama.com, where the lease was first reported last week, broker Doug Weinstein of Sholom & Zuckerbrot Realty represented the tenant in the long-term lease, along with  Frank Zuckerbrot, president.

The new store will be in Brooklyn’s Triangle Junction Shopping Center (known more familiarly as “The Junction”) at Flatbush and Nostrand avenues and adjacent to the campus of Brooklyn College. It is a recently completed retail project anchored by a 225,000-square-foot Target store.

NEW YORK CITY —   Brooklyn has the most entries in the recent list of “200 Worst Residential Buildings in New York City,” released by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

With 107 buildings and 735 units, Brooklyn had more than the four other boroughs combined, according to a published statement from HPD Commissioner Mathew Wambua, who said the 200 residential buildings have been placed into the agency’s fifth round of the Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP). The AEP, which was originally signed into law in 2007, is aimed at increasing pressure on the owners of the most distressed buildings to bring them up to code so that the residents are not forced to live in substandard and hazardous conditions.