Wanted: people with money looking to live in luxury new rentals or condos in downtown Brooklyn!
That’s the cry as thousands of rentals and condos are either currently being marketed or set to be marketed in the near future.
According to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, 1,902 condos and 2,294 rentals have either come online since 2006 or will be online shortly.
On the condo end this includes such projects as the 303-unit Oro Building at 306 Gold Street and the 197-unit Toren at the Flatbush Avenue Extension and Myrtle Avenue.
While none of the Toren units have closed yet until the project is completed, the Oro last week dropped their price ranges on their studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units as much as 25 percent last week.
Studio units, previously priced from $357,000, will now be offered from $295,000. One and two bedrooms are now in the $500,000 to $700,000 range.Three bedroom homes are now offered at slightly over $1 million.
They’ve had five sales in the past week since they dropped their prices.
“The fact that we have five apartments now under contract suggests that the price adjustments reflect today’s market. The building is complete people live there — it is very tangible. It is a good combination of product and price which is what buyers are looking for these days,” said Robert A. Scaglion, senior managing director for Rose Associates, Inc., which is marketing Oro.
Not all condo developments are doing as well. The BellTel Lofts just off Willoughby Street and the MetroTech complex reportedly are renting unsold units, and the 108-unit Forté Tower and the 246-unit be@schermerhorn have been taken back by the banks.
Boroughwide median sales prices for condos was $496,860, down 1.7 percent from one year ago at this time, while condo sales overall in Brooklyn were down 29.7 percent during the second quarter of 2009 from the same period in 2008.
On the rental side, The Clarett Group is expected to start leasing the borough’s tallest building — the 54-story, 490-unit apartment tower dubbed The Brooklyner, also near the MetroTech complex.
At the same time, Forest City Ratner Companies is expected to begin marketing its 365-unit rental at 80 DeKalb Avenue. Already renting is the nearby 650-unit Avalon Fort Greene building at 343 Gold Street.
Clifford Finn, managing director of new development at Citi Habitats, which is marketing Forest City’s DeKalb Avenue tower, is not worried about the competition of having three high-rise rental buildings in the area.
“I don’t look at it as problematic. I like competition because it brings people to the neighborhood,” said Finn. “Each building has its own style and we certainly have our own.”
Finn projected the market-rate rents in the building to be around $1,894 for a studio, $2,250 for a one bedroom, and $3,395 for two bedrooms, but noted the prices aren’t finalized.
“We will not lower security deposits, but everyone gives incentives and we will as well,” he said.
A spokesperson for The Clarett Group could not be reached at press time, but co-founder Veronica Hackett told Crain’s that despite the competition, the company is in it for the long term.
