Crib Wars: Midtown East Rudolph House vs. Greenpoint Chateau

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This week’s “Crib War” is being waged by two foes which could not be anymore diametrically opposed to each other. The properties in comparison are the Paul Rudolph House of Midtown East (23 Beekman Pl.) and a “Brooklyn-style chateau” in Greenpoint at (28 Broome Street).

23 beekman rudolph house 28 broome street crib war

(Taken from Brown Harris Stevens website) The Paul Rudolph House at 23 Beekman

In the land of fitted suits, hedge-funds and other “American Psycho” cliches sits the Paul Rudolph Home at 23 Beekman Place in Turtle Bay, Midtown East. The 4 unit townhouse constructed by Paul Rudolph in a modernist fashion has already been landmarked by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee.

Apart from its historically convention defying architecture, the townhouse is crowned by a 4,000 sq foot penthouse which was previously listed at $14,000 per month and sits above a wall spitefully constructed by one of its immediate neighbors.

The owner of the Paul Rudolph house, who purchased the townhouse for $ 6.325 million in 2002, is listing this iconic Midtown East spectacle at $27.5 million.

The Greenpoint Chateau

In perfect contrast to its stereotypically audacious and pricier rival across the East River, sits a very lucid and stoic “Brooklyn-esque chateau” at 28 Broome Street in Greenpoint.  This cylinder 5 unit walk-up is relatively new in its construction with a 2008 completion date.

23 beekman paul rudolph house 28 broome street crib war

(Taken from ResidentsTeam.com) Views of 28 Broome Street

Offering rooftop terrace views to all 5 tenants, 3 car garage access, green space (for all but one unit), full stainless steal appliances, central air, and even jacuzzi tubs for select units, this building is of course quite the bargain with a listing price of $2.8 million.

Crib War Winner

The Blocksy pick is (drumroll….) 28 Broome Street. With the Brooklyn housing market heating up despite a global recession, the value of this property will only increase.

While both modern and prestigious, the Rudolph’s $27.5 million asking-price and prick-ish neighbors seem to have brought the demise of this townhouse in this week’s Crib War.

When it rain’s it “pours”…

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55 Water Street

At 9:40 am Saturday morning emergency, fire crew responded to a fire at 55 Water Street, which was just one of many Lower Manhattan office buildings rendered powerless after it’s electrical system was damaged by Hurricane Sandy flooding.

For Lower Manhattan, it seems to pour when it rains. Just a month after Hurricane Sandy, the business district is still struggling to get back onto its feet.

The 53 story 55 Water Street is “home” to the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s, insurance company Emblem Health, and the New York City Department of Transportation.

The fire at 55 Water Street has been reported, by FDNY spokesperson Frank Dwyer, to have been caused by a short in a feeder cable, which was re-energized earlier that morning in order to complete post-Hurricane repairs to damaged cables as part of post Hurricane Sandy  repair work to electrical cables damaged during the storm.

Slow Lower Manhattan Revival

This latest blow to 55 Water Street is simply symbolic of the difficulties lying ahead of the Lower Manhattan. As reported by the Associated Press, much time is expected to pass before a substantial recovery is completed in the region.

After a month from Hurricane Sandy, some high-rises have reemerged quickly while other buildings remain eerily dark and vacant.

Numerous Lower Manhattan landlords have told tenants that full power won’t be back for weeks, and in some cases, months, causing displaced businesses and residents to be uncertain of their return. JP Morgan Chase, the Daily News and the American Civil Liberties Union are some of the tenants currently operating in satellite locations after being flooded out of their downtown headquarters.

(Taken from WSJ.com) Water being pumped from Verizon's 140 West Street headquarters

After Sandy, the city’s Buildings Department declared just nine buildings in lower Manhattan to be unsafe because of structural damage from the storm, while Consolidated Edison has restored electricity and steam power “access” to all buildings

Yet still, real estate consulting firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, says that 49 of the 183 office buildings in the Financial District were closed because of mechanical failures. By their latest count, at least 50% of these buildings were back in full operation, even if relying upon temporary power.

 

 

Councilman Lander seeks to halt Lightstone Group’s Gowanus development

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New York City Council member Brad Lander, in an open public letter released Tuesday last week, asked the Lightstone Group CEO, David Lichtenstein, to forgo all plans on its multi-million dollar Gowanus development.

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Councilman Lander

In light of the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy to low lying neighborhoods in New York City, Councilman Lander of the city’s 39th district, asked that Lichtenstein and the Lightstone group to withdraw a proposal it made earlier this year to the New York City planning commission to construct 700 new rental units on the banks of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

Councilman Lander is not the only one seeking to halt future development in Zone A, which includes Gowanus, in light of Hurricane Sandy. The Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG) also released a statement asking the City Planning Commission to place a halt on the Lightstone development proposal.

History of Contention

The appeals of the Councilman and FROGG are just the latest troubles developers have encountered in the Gowanus region, which received several feet of water water from Hurricane Sandy.

In 2010 ,the Environmental Protection Agency halted a development at the very same Gowanus canal site due to concerns of early 20th century pollution of the canal.Now safety concerns surround issues of tropical storms and not old factory waste.

http://cdn.brownstoner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/lightstone.jpg

Interestingly, as pointed out by critics of Councilman Lander raised no opposition to the 2010 Toll Brothers proposal which was halted by the EPA. Lightstone for the time being remains committed to their development project of Gowanus as indicated in a public statement where in Lightstone states that it will “move forward to build a high-quality, environmentally-sound residential complex.”

With both sides of the aisle committed to their positions, it will be interesting to see who will win this battle. Profits vs. Storm Safety: both are rather important in New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

“Rooftop generators are one solution,” argues Mayor Bloomberg

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In light of Hurricane Sandy-related generator failures in Manhattan below 34th street, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has suggested that New York buildings should consider rooftop generators. Such rooftop generators would not be affected by any future tropical storm flooding.

Although current New York City building codes disallow from building owners from placing generators on their roofs, Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes such flexibility in municipal building codes should be present. Instead of being located in building basements, the NYC mayor contends that generators and even their fuel source, should be placed on roofs.

Mayor Bloomberg recently proposes rooftop generators for NYC buildings to avoid tropical storm damage. Skeptics find the logistics to be off.

Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), in a statement to The Real Deal said: “REBNY agrees with the mayor that we need to identify a safe way to locate generators and fuel somewhere other than below grade. We will be working with the city to identify such safe options that would offer a greater opportunity to keep pumps running and generators going to better serve our tenants.”

Skepticism of Bloomberg’s rooftop generator idea

Like many of the mayor’s beliefs, his new and unconventional position on the location of building generators has met critics and skeptics alike. While acknowledged by many as a great mayor, not all are sold on his architecture.

The city’s Fire Department is one of those skeptics. One of the main issues Frank Dwyer of the New York Fire Department has with the mayor’s proposal is rather intuitive: safe storage of fuel for these generators. Moreover, any new convention of rooftop generators complicates any future rescue efforts for fire firefighters.

To date, rooftop generators are relatively uncommon, but allowed by the FDNY in certain cases, wherein the specified safety measures are implemented.

New York City calculates Sandy property damage

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Following Hurricane Sandy’s savage attack on Lower Manhattan and the rest of the tri-state area Monday evening, real estate experts are now tallying the current and expected costs of storm on the City’s commercial and residential property stock.

In an analysis presented by Adam Pincus of the Real Deal, 17.3 million square feet of office space remains out of commission due to flooded basements from Sandy’s madness. These buildings will need a city inspector to give permission to reopen or a certified architect to deem the building as being able to pass inspection, meaning that, among other thing, there is no standing water in the building.

nyc sandy property damage

Graph taken from The Real Deal

Impact on New York City Residents

For New York City residents, however, the pain of losing their living spaces has been far more painful, with thousands, especially in Staten Island and Queens, losing their homes.

While still too early to give sound estimates of the level of home damage caused in the tri-state area by Hurricane Sandy, some experts have projected losses that range from $7 billion to $20 billion.

Financial District Property Damage

Damaged apartment in the Financial District

So far, AIR Worldwide projected insured losses at $7 billion to $15 billion while Eqecat has its estimates at $10 billion and $20 billion. The estimates of both firms now exclude residential flood losses which are insured by the federal National Flood Insurance Program.

Some in that program estimate that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will receive over 80,000 claims for Sandy-related damage.  According to EQECAT, 30-40% of those 80,000 cost claims incurred by Sandy are expected to be from New York City damage with FEMA expected to cover up to 75% of the city’s losses.

Crib Wars: Woolworth Mansion vs. “Robert De Niro Apartment”

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The ever-elitist Upper East Side Woolworth mansion, formerly owned by the one time retail magnate Frank Woolworth, can be yours for a cool $90 million. But if that’s too expensive for your tastes, “downgrade” to Robert De Niro’s next door $14.5 million 7 room apartment on Central Park West.

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Rooms in the Woolworth Mansion (Taken from CNBC.com)

Since the beginning of September, the Woolworth mansion located at 4 E. 80th St., has been available for $150,000 a month. However, the property has now been placed on the sales market for that grand $90 million sum as of September 27th.

This renovated 20,000-square-foot and 35-foot-wide property, rumored to be owned by fitness queen Lucille Roberts, possesses eight fireplaces, a wood-paneled library, parlor floor, grand master staircase and elevator that services all levels of the townhouse.

“Renovated houses always sell for more than unrenovated,” said Ms. Del Nunzio to the Real Deal, who sold the Stanford White Mansion located at 973 Fifth Ave. for $42 million.

On the other Side of the Park

However, given the $90 million price tag of the Woolworth mansion, an acquisition of the “De Niro apartment” at 88 Central Park West would be relatively more fiscally responsible.

Woolworth mansion 4 E. 80th St Robert De Niro Apartment 88 Central Park West

(Taken from NYCurbed.com)

The Brentmore, located 88 Central Park West, as reported by the Wall Street, has an apartment just next door to Robert De Niro. For just $14.5 million, you can have a 32-foot wide living room with large picture windows looking out over Central Park (“eye-level with Snoopy” during the Thanksgiving Day parade), a grand guest bedroom with a full bath, a master suite and other living quarters. The unit also still has its original floors as well as restored stained-glass paneling above the doors (Fancy!).

So yea the economy sucks, unemployment keeps fluctuating around 8% (14% according to Forbes), 1 in 2 Americans are one paycheck away from poverty, and we have no understanding of where the global debt crisis could go. But what’s $14 million or $40 million to a “1 percenter”?  Townhouse or Apartment, choose your treat. Get them before they’re gone!

Rent Stabilization? Seriously, no takers?!

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As a young New York City resident, I would confidently posit that many like myself would argue that their rent is simply too high and is not worth the money they pay every month. Thus you would think that if any New Yorker were offered a chance to get their rent stabilized, most would jump at the offer. Well, think again.

The latest city effort by Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan and Paul Newell, a local democrat district leader, to increase the number of rent stabilized apartments in the Financial District has failed, to the surprise of many.

421-g Tax Credits

Through a 421-g tax credit designated for the development of Lower Manhattan into a residential neighborhood following the tragic events of 9/11, all units in the Financial District were able to become rent stabilized for a period of 14 years.

Following a court case in which Judge Bruce Scheckowitz cleared away any ambiguity regarding the full reach of the 421-g tax credit for Lower Manhattan residents, many like Paul Newell thought for sure that tens of thousands of residents would come forward for these credits.

When you can afford a pad like this, who needs rent stabilization

Failed Effort

However to date, only ten residents in all of Lower Manhattan have positively responded to the publicity campaign by filing applications for and securing rent stabilization for their home. Mind you, the Financial District saw a 17% increase in rents last year.

The campaign waged by Community Board 1 and Paul Newell was intended to be a catalyst for more residents of the Financial District to sow roots into the redeveloping neighborhood. The neighborhoods composition of recent college graduates and twenty something professionals is likely a strong variable in the disinterest in seeking rent stabilization.

However, with continued development and renewal of Lower Manhattan, we at Blocksy are that this “free meal” may eventually attract a very healthy appetite from new residents.

Almost there: Domino Sugar Factory site one step closer to development

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Last Friday (September 21st) the Supreme Court of the State of New York dismissed a law suit filed by the Katan Group against the Community Preservation Corporation Resources (CPC). In the suit, the Katan Group was seeking to block the sale of the 11.2 acre site to Two Trees Management (owned by the Walentas real estate family) for $185 million in order to construct a projected $2 billion mixed use community.

The Decision

In the decision announced by the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Kings County, the suit was dismissed. Court documents stated that Kattan did not possess a “right of first refusal on the property, a contract provision that was not a part of the second operating agreement.”Whether Katan will take this matter to the appellate division is unknown.

In a statement CPC stated that they are “extremely pleased that the court has once again found Katan’s allegations meritless,” and no look “forward to closing the transaction with Two Trees.” Meanwhile, still one additional lawsuit persists in seeking to block the sale of the Domino site to Two Trees.

Background

The battle between Katan and CPC over Domino dates back to March 2012 when Katan sued CPC for mismanaging the development project. At that point Katan petitioned the courts to block CPC’s earlier plans to let its lender Pacific Coast Capital Partners convert the CPC loan on the project into an equity stake.

In the opinion of Katan, such a maneuver would weaken its on stake in the site. The New York Supreme Court judge, however, decided against Katan in that suit.

The original deal struck between CPC and in 2007 Katan included a joint $55 million purchase of the Old Domino Sugar Factory site which would have later been converted into mixed-use space with 2,200 apartments, with 30% of these apartments to be reserved for “affordable housing.”

No word on affordable housing has been given from Two Trees or CPC.

Moving Forward

For years now, those in New York City’s real estate and development community have waited to see what would come of the development controversies at the old Domino Sugar Factory site in Williamsburg Brooklyn where rents have climbed 10% in just the last year.

However, while there is quite likely a good bit of merit to the claims made in court by the Katan Group, most of us onlookers want them to just sit down and shut up. After all, we want condos and townhouses…sweet ones, and we really don’t care who builds them.

With sound financial backing and proper lending, the increase in housing supply should also offer more variety to both potential buyers and renters.

While we have little idea of what Two Trees Management has in mind for the old Domino Sugar Factory site, we at Blockhawk know one thing for sure: new housing won’t get built in court.

Goodbye False Real Estate Info. Hello Blocksy Trust-O-Meter!

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They say good things come in small packages. Call us biased but we tend to think they’re right as rain, particularly after Blocksy’s latest feature launch, coming at you today, on this fine New York Autumn Monday: Say hello to the Blocksy Trust-O-Meter (feel free to read that last sentence out loud doing your best Scarface impression):

Simply put, the Trust-O-Meter is designed to address one of the greatest frustrations faced by home seekers and apartment hunters today: false and/or misleading data.

We all know the scenario too well: After scouring realty sites, we find a listing of interest and fire off an email or make a phone call. By the time we hear back, we discover either the place is no longer available or something was inaccurate in the listing (including price or other serious details). In some cases, it seems a broker may have deliberately posted a listing that was never available in the first place, only to get a call so he or she might attempt to sell us something else.

Those days are over.

While some sites allow users to flag listings that may be inaccurate, there’s seldom any transparency around flagging functionality. Specifically, it’s never clear whether other users have submitted flags and/or what the nature of those flags may be. Why? Why must each new user spend the time and energy to discover that a listing is inaccurate in some way and have to submit new flags themselves? Where is there any evidence that user flags are reviewed or processed in a meaningful way by the website? Anyway, the pipeline of false or misleading data seems to endlessly flow, so the problem hasn’t been resolved.

Enter the Blocksy Trust-O-Meter

 

 

 

From here on in, any time you land on a Blocksy listing, you’ll be notified if a certain number of other users have also flagged the listing. We’ll also provide information about the nature and quantity of other user flags, so that you can determine whether it’s worth your while to continue researching a given spot or simply move on.

The result? By spending less time looking at the wrong stuff, you can spend more time looking at the right stuff. And the sooner you find the right stuff, the sooner you’ll be done your house hunt. And the sooner that happens, the more time you’ll recover for things like watching TV, going shopping, or posting pictures of adorable cats online, which seems a rather popular pastime these days.

…All of which takes us back to where we began: great things coming in small packages.

(Oh c’mon. You thought we were somehow above the shameless use of adorable cat pictures to tug at your heart strings?!)

Barclays Center raises both Brooklyn’s profile and its Rents

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Neighborhoods such as Boerum Hill and Fort Greene have long been symbols of gentrification and urban renewal. But while the newly constructed Barclay Center will bring a number of new jobs to Brooklyn, we at Blocksy are sure that higher property values shall also come to this yuppy borough.

As reported by Adam Fusfield of The Real Deal, there may be a strong correlation between a upward trend of rents in neighborhoods adjacent to the new Barclays Center and the building of the new mega-entertainment complex itself. According to Fusfield, rents in Boerum Hill and Fort Greene rose by 3.4 % and 3.0 % respectively between the months of August and July this year.

Brooklyn Barclay's center Fort Green Boerum Hill rents

Taken from TheRealDeal.com

Whether the latest increase in Brooklyn rents is a direct outcome of the new arena is a reality that cannot be proven. For as every college freshman in their introductory statistics course learns, “correlation does not equal causation.” After all, Brooklyn rents were on the rise long before the notion of “the New Jersey Nets becoming the Brooklyn Nets” ever entered our imaginations.

Gentrification: A rising tide that should lift all boats

However, a much larger and concrete lesson can still be taken away from the recent construction of the Barclays Center and increasing rents in West Brooklyn: The rise of Brooklyn is very real.

For much of the early 2000s, Brooklyn was simply a fad for many curious Manhattan-ites. Only your crazy bohemian (and later, “hipster”) friends dared to make the trans-river trek to the distant shores of Williamsburg, Cobble Hill and even Red Hook. Today, West Brooklyn’s once sparsely populated neighborhoods are once again thriving as cultural meccas and young, family friendly communities.

Brooklyn Barclay's center Fort Green Boerum Hill

Merchants in nearby Boerum Hill and Fort Greene will all be looking forward to the increased foot traffic from the Barclays Center

And even with higher rents, all is not doom and gloom for the young and hip paupers of New York City. The rise of Brooklyn has led to an improved and larger housing stock. Moreover the increased supply of housing in Brooklyn should, in theory, lead to some price competition for landlords in Manhattan, especially in Manhattan neighborhoods south of 14 Street.

Thus, all in all, this rising Brooklyn tide should lift all boats.