Brooklyn’s real estate boom has reached a new plateau — the
$1,000-a-square-foot condominium apartment.
But according to an executive brokering sales at the building that is
setting the new market high, what is surprising is not that wealthy New
Yorkers are willing to fork over all that moolah to live here — a
walkup on Columbia Heights along the Brooklyn Heights promenade fetched
$9 million this year and another on that skyline-view stretch is on the
market for $20 million — it’s where this new peak is cresting.
No, it’s not the waterside loft-ridden DUMBO, where recent open houses
held by The Developers Group and Leviev Boymelgreen Developers had buyers
waiting for a peek at an offsite model home in overnight queues around
the block. Nor is it in the tree-lined brownstone colonies of Park Slope
or Brooklyn Heights.
Instead, it is leafy, hilly Fort Greene.
Known for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a slew of French restaurants
and a burgeoning African-influenced strip of stores and restaurants along
Fulton Street, the once crime-ridden and still edgy neighborhood, settled
around a landmark park, features quaint architectural variety, a thriving
art scene and a rich ethnic mix of residents.
Jerry Minsky, senior vice president with Corcoran Properties, said the
Greene House condominiums, at 383 Carlton St. at Greene Avenue, started
listing units on Nov. 30, and since then, 22 of the 27 units have sold,
the majority at more than $1,000 a square foot. The three penthouse units
sold for more than $1.2 million each.
Paul Palazzo, an executive member of the Fort Greene Association, said
he and several residents of Carlton Street organized demonstrations outside
of the building during weekend open houses.
The association asked the Department of Buildings to audit the design
for the 11-story Greene House, which towers over its walkup brick and
brownstone neighbors.
While the Buildings Department audit, completed early last year, did provide
a kind of community-level review of architect Marvin Metzler’s design,
Palazzo said that in the end it mainly served to address minor aesthetic
and safety issues.
“There were some things that did come up in the audit that [the architects]
needed to verify and change,” he said. “Their response was to
make it go higher.” The Greene House sits literally just outside
the Fort Greene Historic District, which bars such a tall building, so
its views will never be hampered by future developments.
“The historic districts were drawn very poorly in the 1978 designation,”
said Palazzo, who chastised Greene House developers David Weiss and Jonathan
Jacobs — who made their name with developments in TriBeCa and the
East Village — for being “incredibly belligerent and not responsive
to any requests from the community.”
Minksy said, however, it was their responsiveness — to buyers, at
least — that was able to lure such high prices in Brooklyn.
“They did understand this process, and they did understand because
they’d been in the East Village before they’d been here,”
he said. “I’ll admit it’s not cheap, but you’re getting
something, you’re actually getting something for your money. They
will sit down, literally for hours. to design the unit with [buyers].
They really don’t have that Brooklyn kind of mentality.
“It was a slightly foreign concept, but these developers were ahead
of their game,” said Minsky, the exclusive agent for the condominiums.
A stalwart of the “brownstone generation” that bought up Downtown
Brooklyn neighborhoods more than 20 years ago, Minksy — who lives
in Fort Greene — said he hedged when first offered the listing.
Calling it “originally conceived of as a slightly ambiguous project
for this area,” he said he was eventually reassured after meeting
the developers.
“What first seemed to be a little anxiety-producing for me —
because I’m on the brownstone end — has turned out to be a very
pleasant experience,” he said, adding he came very close to buying
one of the unit’s himself.
Each of the 27 new units, which are situated three per floor, feature
10-foot ceilings, central air conditioning and heat, new appliances and,
says Minsky, “phenomenal” views of the neighborhood, the park
and the distant harbor.
The glassed-in entrance will have a “very lounge-like feel,”
and the building will have a 24-hour gym. The south-, east- and west-facing
views make for sunny one- two- and three- bedroom apartments for the new
owners, who Minsky said were “experienced, high-end Manhattan people
who understand visible signs of growth in the area [and] they don’t
feel like they’re compromising what they would have a few years ago.”
Palazzo called those same gorgeous views the reason the neighboring buildings
would depreciate in value.
“When the historic district was designated, the boundaries were done
very poorly,” he reiterated. “As a result there are three houses
that were in the historic district that have basically degraded because
of that building.”
Though he said the Fort Greene Association would remain vigilant with
respect to future developments, and noted that a demonstration last weekend
showed the neighbors’ “unified stance,” they had no plans
to abdicate their welcoming-committee responsibilities, either.
“We are going to welcome the people in the building into the community,
because it is now in the community. We don’t like the fact that the
building — the edifice of it — is not sympathetic to the community;
we hope that the people in the building are,” he said.
Chris Havens, marketing manager of Two Tress, the DUMBO-based development
company of David and Jed Walentas, said that occasionally some of the
company’s more established DUMBO properties, “on some special
new units,” sell for $1,000 per square foot.
Developers Group Executive Vice President Highlyann Krasnow said that
four weeks ago, it listed penthouse and ninth four units in DUMBO for
over $1,000 a foot. She said she expects the trend to increase.
Minsky said the Greene House condo has raised the bar for standards of
design and construction, adding that he has had “so many Brooklyn
developers call me on the sly to see how they did it.”
“You’re not going to be able to put together a sloppy building
after this one,” said the broker. “These are very, very sophisticated
apartments.”
