The New York Observer reports that British author Martin Amis will be moving into a 5300 square foot brownstone on Strong Place: Continue Reading →
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Ideas for Improving BQE Trench Revealed
Several ideas were presented at Monday’s meeting to discuss improving the area around the BQE trench. They include planting trees along Hicks Street, installing sound barriers, building new bicycle and pedestrian bridges over the trench, and installing an energy-generating canopy (see photo above). The estimated cost for these changes total over $100 million and the city currently has no timeline or source of funding in place for them.
What do you think? Is it a good idea, or just a dream?
The full story, and more renderings, can be viewed on Curbed.
Final BQE Enhancement Workshop Scheduled for 11/15
The third and final BQE Enhancement community workshop will take place on Monday, November 15th from 6:30 to 8:30pm. There will be a presentation of refined options, cost estimates for each and a discussion of next steps. The meeting will be held at Long Island College Hospital Conference Center, Rooms A & B (399 Hicks Street).
To view the flier click here. RSVP to BQE@nycedc.com.
Atlantic Ave. BID closer to reality?
Brownstoner reports that an Atlantic Ave. Business Improvement District (BID) is gaining steam and could become a reality in July 2011.
After a couple of years of consensus-building, the effort has started to make some very concrete progress in the form of public support from Community Boards 2 and 6 recently… Once established, the BID would cover all properties fronting Atlantic Avenue from the BQE to 4th Avenue and one block north and south on all side streets within the district. (Properties from Court Street to Smith Street on the north side are excluded—they’re in the Court-Livingston-Schermehorn BID.)
According to the Atlantic Ave. BID web site, the organization would provide
marketing and promotion services to bring additional foot traffic to the Avenue, beautification and streetscape improvements, sanitation and improved advocacy work.
The BID committee next has a tentative meeting with the City Planning Commission on December 1st.
via Brownstowner
Vintage Cellars Closing Up Shop?
This just in from the tips line: Vintage Cellars on Smith Street is closing up shop. Says tipster L:
Just stopped by Vintage Cellars on Smith between Union and President and they’re closing today after 13 years! The landlord wanted to triple the rent. It’ll probably become another f****ing tanning salon. Customers are coming in and hugging the owner, Margaret, as she and family pack up the last of the wine. It’s really sad. One more Smith Street local business bites the dust.
DEVELOPING…
Big Dumpster at 149 Kane Street
Brownstoner photo
Brownstoner reports that the “Rat Squirrel House” at 149 Kane Street is now sporting a huge dumpster out front.
Brooklyner is Tallest Building in Borough, Wants You to Move In
The Daily News plotzes today about the Brooklyner:
NY Daily News: Modeled after a 1940s Aspen-style ski chalet, the Lodge has wood paneling, a kitchen, a billiards table and two Skee-Ball machines. In downtown Brooklyn a short walk from Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill, the building has only 140 units left to sell before it’s full. “Its pretty simple; we’re in a great location near just about every subway imaginable,” says David E. Perry, director of sales and leasing for the Clarett Group, a New York-based development firm started 11 years ago by Veronica Hackett. “We also think our amenities are better than our competitors.”
What are the apartments like? Eric Gillin posted this video:
And so did amubarah:
Talk Stoop Host and Hubby Talk Reno and Real Estate
The NY Post profiles Cobble Hillbillies Talk Stoop host Cat Greenleaf and her news producer husband Michael Rey. Mostly, they talk about the schweet deal they got on their townhouse, which we’re not mad at:
NY Post: At a time when even badly run-down brownstones in the area were going for $1.3 million, he asked the couple for only $850,000. For that amazing price, they got three floors and a full basement — a total of 2,300 square feet — and a garden.
Greenleaf and Rey opted to convert the ground floor into a two-bedroom rental, and they and their 15-month-old adopted son, Nick (whom they call Primo), have taken over the top two floors. On one floor is the open living space, which includes the living room, dining area and kitchen, as well as one bathroom. The top floor has three bedrooms, one bathroom and a laundry room. (An added patio and the updated 100-foot-deep garden are shared with their tenant.)
New Neighbor: Ideal Properties Group
Ideal Properties Group has opened an office at 232 Court Street. The realtor has offices in Gowanus and Park Slope as well. And now a tidbit from the official press release:
Ideal’s human resources director Henry Tsaur announced that the Cobble Hill office will start serving the area with 20 brokers and salespeople. Built on solid technological grounds, and with an enduring commitment to research and design, Ideal’s highly developed infrastructure could support — according to the company’s business development team — in excess of 1,000 agents in the area.
“With our passion for the area, and with our clients’ interest and needs in mind, the opening of the Cobble Hill office seems like an intuitive fit,” Ideal’s CEO concluded.
Cobble Hiller – Fears Realized by Window Flap
The Brooklyn Paper reports on the threat to the look of Cobble Hill landmarks as more residents try to pull a “Norah Jones” by adding windows to their brownstones – the latest request is for 227 Clinton Street -
Brooklyn Paper: The proposed renovations to the Clinton Street crib echo the controversial seven windows that singer Norah Jones’s had punched into a blank wall on the side of her Amity Street house, which is only one block away.
Jones managed to get city approval for her renovations without presenting them to the local community board late last year — and, as a result, many Cobble Hill preservationists feared that the neighborhood’s aesthetic would soon be under assault. “Jones’s windows established a precedent,” said Roy Sloane, the president of the Cobble Hill association and a passionate preservationist. “Our fears have been realized.”
The Landmark Preservation Commission will review the application on July 13.
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