Results tagged “realestate”

Every year it's interesting to see the Smallest, Coolest Apartment contest winners at Apartment Therapy, but now the NY Post is claiming to have found the smallest apartment in all of the city. Zaarath and Christopher Prokop inhabit a 175-square-foot "microstudio" in Morningside Heights — and it all sounds very familiar.

Mayor Bloomberg has abandoned the most ambitious part of his plan to reduce greenhouse gases, which would have required the owners of the city's largest buildings to undergo mandatory energy audits to determine green renovations — and forced the landlords to pay for the improvements.

Since he's expected to become Good Morning, America's new co-anchor, former Clinton advisor and current "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos is naturally looking for new NYC digs. According to Page Six, he and "his wife, Alexandra Wentworth, were in town to house-hunt over Thanksgiving, and they're coming back next week to shop for a $40,000-a-month rental, reports The Post's Jennifer Gould Keil." Seriously, $40,000/month—we thought that was just A-Rod-style rental money.

Last December, the Empire State Development Corporation decided to use eminent domain to seize land in West Harlem for Columbia's ambitious Manhattanville development. (NY State officially "blighted" the 17 acres in July 2008.) But now a state appellate courts has overturned the use of eminent domain. The Observer reports, "The decision says, the clear beneficiary was Columbia, not the public. Columbia, by buying up property and not maintaining sidewalks, helped to create blight, the court found, and the university underwrote costs for the entire project, rather than the city or state committing funds." And here's text of the decision:

The Post reports that a proposed Meatpacking District high-rise got the go-ahead from the city's Board of Standards and Appeals: "Five zoning variances [were approved] for the project, but the OK only came after the developer agreed to reduce the building from 12 to 10 stories and to lop off part of the tower that would have jutted out over the High Line. The glass tower, intended for commercial and retail tenants, would rise on the site of a shuttered meatpacking plant at 860 Washington St., at 13th Street. The project is being developed by the Romanoff family, which has been in the meatpacking business for three generations." Previously, the family had claimed hardship if they weren't able to maximize their space.

The NY State Court of Appeals, the highest in the state, dismissed a lawsuit challenging the use of eminent domain for developer Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. The NY Times calls the lawsuit the "last major obstacle" for Ratner, "whose 22-acre development has been delayed for three years by a flurry of lawsuits, the collapse of the credit and real estate markets and a glut of luxury housing, plans to begin selling tax-free bonds next month to finance the development’s cornerstone project: an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues near downtown."

Back in heady days of 2007, real estate developers followed a simple algorithm: add the city's finite housing supply with the massive demand for housing and you could make money by building a condo on just about any property. Though the recession certainly changed that equation, seemingly out-of-place condo developments continue to pop up across the city as a result of that practice — and few seem more out of place than a luxury building in Gravesend at the corner of West 11th Street and Avenue V, just one block away from a housing project.

Oh, my: The city's new school zoning may split residents of the same Tribeca building into different schools. Of course, the building is already split with two addresses and lobbies—101 Warren for the luxury condos, 89 Murray for the rentals and affordable housing units—and the luxury condo owners' kids would go to acclaimed P.S. 234 just two blocks away while the other children would need to schlep across City Hall to Beekman Tower. The Downtown Express reports that one 89 Murray resident said "that unlike the families in the adjacent luxury condos at 101 Warren St., families at 89 Murray cannot afford a nanny to help make the trek over to the Spruce Street School every day if they can’t go to 234"

Another attempt to get New Yorkers across the Hudson! One company is claiming there's a "Mass Exodus to New Jersey Underway" in their new web ad. Headlines on their fake newspaper warn of tax increases in NYC, saying, "Your governor is trying to tell you something: Leave." But where should you go? A Jersey City residential and commercial development, of course — located on the same plot of land that, in the early 1980s, New York City officials described as a "toxic waste dump." [via CityRoom]

In the market for an arch? Who isn't. And now the historic Seaman-Drake arch at 5035 Broadway in Inwood is for rent. The Manhattan Times reports that the marble arch has been partially buried behind storefronts, but it was once the gateway to a hilltop estate owned by the well-to-do Seaman then Drake families in the 19th Century. The Inwood Journal provides some more history:

Even though Bernard Madoff's Montauk home went for above its asking price, the U.S. Marshals decided to lower the price of the Ponzi schemer's Manhattan penthouse by $1 million to $8.9 million. The U.S. Marshals said, "Based on the current market and out of the better interests for the sale of the property, it was reduced," and Bloomberg News notes it had been on the market for 59 days. The home is a duplex on East 64th Street and neighbors include Matt Lauer—maybe some Wall Street bonus baby will want to trade up to a den of infamy!

For a moment there, it seemed like the economic downturn was going to bring a much-needed reality check to the world of real estate. But no. The Daily News reports today on the efforts of real estate brokers to re-brand supposedly undesirable neighborhoods by giving them more marketable monikers — like "GoCaGa" for the area between Gowanus and Carroll Gardens, "BoHo" for the Bowery south of Houston, "SunSlope" for the streets between Sunset Park and Park Slope, and "iTri" for the Iron Triangle in Willets Point. "These names are great selling points for agents trying to bring clients into a neighborhood that wasn't so hip before but sounds a lot hipper now," said Jean Charles, a senior agent at Bond New York, a major sales and rental firm.

Remember that free building in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens? Unsurprisingly, the whole thing was a prank. Reportedly a local resident was fed up with the rundown building (located at 205 Parkside Avenue) and decided to put up a sign and a Craigslist ad advertising it for free. The prankster told the Daily News: "We want to see something positive happening with the building [not just a] festering rathole on what could be a lively thriving commercial strip."

Though the real estate boom is over in Williamsburg, it's apparently still roaring in Greenpoint. A first time developer and former attorney to Donald Trump revealed his plan this week to construct a 47-story high rise on the waterfront that would tower over nearby North Brooklyn skyscrapers like the Edge and Northside Piers by 17 floors.

If you've been looking for the silver lining in the recession, here it is: Thanks to plummeting industrial real estate values, the Brooklyn Brewery will be able to stay in Brooklyn. Just last summer, the Williamsburg-based lager-makers feared they couldn't afford to stay in their increasingly costly neighborhood when their lease expired, but dwindling property values and receding interest from non-manufacturing interests allowed the Brewery to sign a 15-year lease.

So let’s get this right. If you're a Moscow mogul looking to buy the New Jersey Nets and move them to Brooklyn, you don’t have to do any of the legwork that comes with finding an apartment in the bustling borough?

What do you do after being dropped by Fox 5? Well, close more than $15 million worth of real estate deals with Prudential Douglas Elliman, of course. That's right, former reporter Penny Crone, is cleaning up on the Manhattan real estate front. Douglas Elliman president Steven L. James told the NY Times, "She takes no hostages. That was one of my worries, but I watched her on a complicated deal where her personality just couldn't be at the forefront, and she did it. She actually pulled it off. She took the back seat, the quiet role, which I'm sure was very unfamiliar terrain for her."

Do you want 14 residential units and 3 commercial units in beautiful Brooklyn for the low low price of: Free? The blogger at Hawthorne Street points to Prospect Lefferts' 205 Parkside Avenue, "an abandoned rathole" that has been vacant since 1979 and is now being advertised as free (though they doubt it's really free). There's even a Craigslist ad backing up the sign on the building. Any takers? UPDATE: The new rumor is that this is a prank. We still bet squatters could get in a few months of free rent, however. [via Curbed]

   

Click through to read about Kidrockers, Cruel Black Dove, Bridges & Powerlines, this year's Gothamist House, and a CMJ Fail at Brooklyn Bowl.

Oh you Bushwickians and your tent cities. The latest in neighborhood tent news comes by way of a Craigslist posting, written by some younger folk who possibly have Where the Wild Things Are fort envy:

While Bernie is busy making new friends in federal prison, the U.S. Marshals have announced that the deal on Madoff's Montauk home is officially closed. And the final selling price is $650,000 over the asking price! The $9.4 million deal was made back in September, but the Government was not allowed to reveal the final selling price until after the deal closed. Pamela Liebman, Corcoran CEO, told ABC News "Buyers were extremely enthusiastic about the location of the house and its potential and not at all put off by the fact that it was Bernie Madoff's house." Because really, look at that view!

Mayor Bloomberg's $7.5 billion plan to build or preserve city-financed residences for low-, moderate-, and middle-income families has constructed and protected 94,000 units over the past seven years — but over the same period the city's richest man has been unable to prevent rents from skyrocketing on some 200,000 other "affordable" units.

The Pepto pink palatial palace on Garfield Place is now off the market! That's not because it sold, either — the Brooklyn Paper reports that 92-year-old owner Bernie Henry's grandson is now "under investigation for forging key documents that have put a cloud over who has legal ownership of the building." Yikes! Some neighbors may be pleased to see the house stay pink for longer — one told the paper, “At first, you hate it because it’s new. But then you come to love it. And then you don’t want it to ever change.”

Step right up, this beauty could be yours. Owner Bernie Henry coated his four-story brownstone on Garfield Place with this Pepto-pink color just three years ago (about 47 years after he moved in). The retired tailor told the Daily News, "I'm 92. It's time to get rid of it. It's a lot of money to keep it up ... I'm going to buy a smaller house around the corner." He says his new home will not get the same color treatment; in fact, he tells the paper he never meant to paint this one in such a garish hue, saying: "They sent me the wrong paint. It was painted this color accidentally."

Former governor Eliot Spitzer is really working on the next chapter of his life. When not pundit-ing on talk shows, being discussed as a 2010 candidate, or teaching at City College, he's working at the family biz, his dad's multi-million dollar real estate empire. Now it's been confirmed that Steamroller himself oversaw a pricey Manhattan real estate transaction.

It's not all Brownstones and haunted mansions in Brooklyn; a luxury condo called the Venetian has just been unveiled in all its hideousness! Brownstoner reports that the attempt at classical opulence, located in Gravesend, "looks a lot better in reality than we had expected." Be that is it may (is it?), this doesn't look at all like Brooklyn. But is it better than the "Williamsburg Grey" Karl Fischer creations?

Third quarter real estate data for Manhattan showed that sales for condos and co-ops improved from the second quarter... but sales still trail 2008 third quarter numbers. So, is the glass half full or empty?

You don't have to browse the Craigslist "Rooms for Rent" section very long before realizing that there are many tenants out there looking for "not just a roommate, but a FRIEND." This weekend's Times Real Estate section follows the journey of one 3BR LES apartment trying to figure out the right balance between being friendly roommies, but not BFFs. One tells them of a horrific summer she had where a roommate was seldom home, “and I got really lonely,”

Of course: Some real estate marketers are bandying about a new neighborhood name for a sliver of already pretty tiny TriBeCa—it's "North TriBeCa"—and they tell the NY Times that North TriBeCa has turn-of-the-last-century buildings (or facsimiles of them); eastern TriBeCa has the high risey buildings which a broker says "feels more like the financial district." But another broker says, "As a marketing ploy, I’d say buyers who come to TriBeCa are among the more sophisticated, and they’re not going to fall for it."

Brownstone Brooklyn, you never cease to amaze us. Long story short: Man buys brownstone in recently landmarked district of Prospect Heights from old woman. Old woman continues to live in the garden apartment. Man decides he wants to put a garage in there. LPC says they have no applications for Landmark approval for the address.