Cobble Hill
January 31, 2008
House of the Day: 10% Off at 155 Warren Street
A 10% price reduction might not sound like all that much, but when the original asking price was $8,750,000, as in the case of 155 Warren Street, it translates into "savings" of $875,000. Judging from the 134 comments this generated as a House of the Day in October, however, we're guessing that popular opinion will still be that the new number of $7,875,000 is still a pie-in-the-sky price. Given that it's still coming in at over $1,100 a foot, we'd tend to agree.
155 Warren Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP<--> P*Shark
House of the Day: $8.75 Million in Cobble Hill? [Brownstoner]
Strong Place Church Construction Update
Over the weekend, Michael Ingui of Baxt Ingui Architects sent in a progress report on the Strong Place Church conversion that the firm is overseeing. Below is a condensed version.
The Strong Place Church is going very well, but a little slow. It has been incredibly challenging to keep the church standing. The contractor and engineer devised an elaborate structural steel system that spanned the entire width of the church so that they could complete structural concrete work below. After the concrete foundation work was competed at the side walls the permanent structural steel above was installed. This was an incredibly time-consuming task, adding many weeks to the timeline, because the steel workers needed to carefully thread the massive pieces of steel through the maze of shoring steel. Once the steel was in place at the sides they removed the shoring steel so that work could commence in the center portion of the church.
January 30, 2008
Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up
Early Controversy Over Favela
Corner of South 5th and Wythe, Williamsburg
Eater's roving photographer, Will Femia, snapped this photo of the future home of a Brazilian restaurant called Favela, and The Gurgling Cod already has a beef with the restaurant's name: "Call me crazy, but I don't think you could get away with a soul food (or Polish) restaurant called 'Ghetto.'" Is something getting lost in translation here?
Opening on February 14: Amy Ruth's
372-374 Fulton Street (Fulton Mall), Downtown Brooklyn
"Amorous couples will dine on sauteed chicken liver and braised chitlens on Valentine’s Day at the new Amy Ruth’s on Fulton Mall — but if they need booze to get in a romantic mood, they’ll have to go somewhere else. That’s because the well-known Harlem soul food restaurant won’t have its liquor license when it opens its new location in the old Gage & Tollner site on Feb. 14." [The Brooklyn Paper]
Closed: Second Street Cafe
189 7th Avenue (at Second Street), Park Slope
"The women who work at Met Food said the rent was too high. Another local shopkeeper said that they weren't making any money. Maybe the renovation did them in. A neighbor saw the tall, white haired owner crying... So sudden. So strange. The block between 2nd and 3rd Street on Seventh Avenue has had three closings in two months (Tempo Presto, Seventh Avenue Books, Second Street Cafe). Park Slope Books will be out in March." [OTBKB]
After the jump: Trader Joe's progress report, a beer bar for Park Slope, a "jewel box" for Prospect Heights, brick oven pizza for Clinton Hill, and Harvey Wallbanger arrives in Williamsburg...
January 24, 2008
Time Equities CEO Weighs In On Amity Plan
Time Equities head honcho Francis Greenburger has responded to blog posts on Brownstoner (last week), the Historic Districts Council Newsstand, Lost City, and Gowanus Lounge about all the hoo-ha surrounding the developer’s plans for 110 Amity Street. In the statement, which seems legit, Greenburger says Time Equities and its development partner Lucky Boy “do not want to present a project that does not have community support” and makes it sound like the “mews” design is toast: “At this point, we will re-conceive the project in a traditional street wall approach and try to present a plan that is responsive to the input received at the most recent Landmark hearing.” Last year the Real Deal interviewed Greenburger, and the following Q&A seems like it has bearing on the 110 Amity situation:
Q: How do you deal with antagonists?A: It depends on what kind of antagonists they are. If they're bullies, I'm extremely stubborn and I'll fight them tooth and nail. If they're crazy people, then I try to figure out how to work around them and not waste my time with them. If they are people who have a reasonable point of view that's different than mine, I try to understand it and work with it.
Sounds refreshingly logical for a developer.
Amity Street Development Turned Back By LPC [HDCN]
The Closing: Francis Greenburger [TRD]
Sometimes They Hear You [Lost City]
Amity Street Developers Go Back to the Drawing Board [GL]
110 Amity Proposal Takes a Drubbing at LPC Hearing [Brownstoner]
Cobble Hill Association: 110 Amity Plan ‘Unacceptable’ [Brownstoner] GMAP
Opposition to 110 Amity Plans Grows [Brownstoner]
CB6 Tries to Avoid Amity Street Horror [Brownstoner]
Inset photo of Greenburger from TimeEquities.com.
January 18, 2008
Brooklyn House of Detention Plans Falter
Ideas for adding new uses to the Brooklyn House of Detention seem to be going nowhere. After the Observer reported that the city was giving up on its plan to allow for retail and condos jail because of a lack of developer interest, the Brooklyn Paper followed up last week with an article saying there’s been talk of putting a new middle school in the jail at Atlantic and Smith. This week, though, the paper files a story saying city has officially abandoned the school-jail proposal. The condo plan was originally floated because the city wants to make the jail's 2012 reopening and expansion (it's supposed to go from 749 to 1,469 inmates) more palatable to the surrounding community. Last week Marty Markowitz told the Daily News that he's still searching for "creative ideas for the site."
Sorry Bids Shove Shiv in City's Plans to Expand Brooklyn Jail [NY Observer] GMAP
Jail Middle School is Sentenced to Death [Brooklyn Paper]
Lock 'Em Up [Brooklyn Paper]
No go for new Condominium Complex [NY Daily News]
January 16, 2008
Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up
Closing Today: Pies & Thighs
351 Kent Avenue (South Fifth Street), Wiliamsburg
"I can’t figure out a cute way to sugarcoat the despondency with which I report this next bit of news, so I’ll give it to you straight: Pies ‘n’ Thighs, home to the finest pulled pork sandwich in New York City and an estimable bastion of down home dessert goodness, is closing... The ladies of Pies ‘n’ Thighs hope to reopen the restaurant soon, in a space where they can sell beer and be a little more restaurant-y about things, or, as their website puts it 'to build a bigger, better, more miraculous hole in the wall.'" [NYT Diners Journal]
Cheese Wars: BGH vs. Pacific Standard
Two new-ish Brooklyn bars, both known for their solid beer selections, have recently announced upcoming cheese tastings. Bar Great Harry (280 Smith Street at Sackett Street) will host theirs on Thursday, January 22nd and is already selling advance tickets for $50 a pop. That doesn't seem like a terribly steep price for good times, 6 Dogfish Head brews, and 6 perfectly paired cheeses from Stinky... until you read that Pacific Standard (82 Fourth Avenue at St. Marks) is pushing a "very modest $5 buy-in for the cheese tasting" for their beer-and-cheese night on Tuesday, February 5th.
Openings: Greene Grape Provisions and Dram Shop
"At their Fort Greene wineshop Greene Grape, partners Amy Bennett and Jason Richelson specialize in small producers and 'handcrafted' wine. This week, in a canny attempt to fulfill the rest of your dinner-table needs, they’ll open Greene Grape Provisions, a gourmet grocery up the block (753 Fulton St., at S. Portland Ave., Fort Greene; 718-233-2700)… 'Angry Wade' Hagenbart has opened his second Brooklyn bar, Dram Shop, with an emphasis on bourbon and Scotch, a shuffleboard table, and a Mexican-accented pub-grub menu (339 9th St., nr. Fifth Ave., Park Slope; 718-788-1444)." [New York Magazine]
After the jump: Chowhounders discuss which foods make Brooklyn better than LA, Union Market expands, and the Times shares a fun fact about fortune cookies.
Two Trees Rental on Atlantic Rises As TJ’s Treads Water
Two Trees isn’t wasting any time putting up its new rental next to the future home of Trader Joe’s on Atlantic Avenue. It's not clear whether the City Council has officially approved the building at 182 Atlantic Avenue, which is slated to rise 10 feet higher than what’s allowed in the Cobble Hill Historic District, but last week the DOB issued a permit for a six-story building. Even if Two Trees is waiting for the Council’s OK on those last 10 feet, though, the rest of the development (which is supposed to look like the rendering on the jump, per Curbed) is going up very quickly. At the same time, no work has been done on the Trader Joe’s building, a state of affairs that’s not sitting well with Lost City. The blog points out that Two Trees argued the new rental should be green-lighted because the developer was going to be a worthy custodian of the landmark former bank/future supermarket:
For the past couple weeks, the new structure has been a hive of activity, quickly rising floor by floor. Meanwhile, at the future home of Trader Joe's: tumbleweeds. No action since the interior was gutted months ago. Apparently, Two Trees has its priorities, and they're the exact opposite of the wants of the neighborhood, which doesn't crave the rental and is longing for the supermarket.
Of course, for all we know, the hold-up in renovating the bank building has to do with Trader Joe's and not Two Trees. Any insider perspectives?
Update: We've heard from Councilman de Blasio's office that the Council did not approve Two Trees' application to build 10 feet higher than what's allowed in the Cobble Hill Historic District. The Council sent the proposal back to the Planning Commission, and the plans were subsequently approved at 50 feet, conforming to the district's height limitations.
10 Feet for Trader Joe's Building Preservation: A Fair Trade? [Brownstoner] GMAP<-->
Will Two Trees Proposal for Atlantic Ave. Get Chopped? [Brownstoner]
Skewed Priorities [Lost City]
Does Walentas' Size Matter on Atlantic Ave.? [Curbed]
Continue reading "Two Trees Rental on Atlantic Rises As TJ’s Treads Water"
January 9, 2008
Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up
Endless Summer Arrives in Williamsburg
"They’re a couple of months later than anticipated, and they don’t yet have set hours, but bless 'em, Bad Wizard front man Curtis Brown and The Jewish front man Jeffrey Jensen have finally parked their Endless Summer taco truck on North 7th Street and Bedford." [Grub Street]
Now Open: Henry's Bagel & Espresso Bar
520 Henry Street, Cobble Hill
"The bagel shop on the corner of Union and Henry has been Aroma Bagel and Everything Bagel. The new owners are apparently banking on the addition of the word "espresso bar" to the spot now named Henry's Bagel & Espresso Bar... Anybody been? I found Everything Bagel to be only so-so and I never got the vaguely southwestern decor." [A Brooklyn Life]
Brooklyn's Own Winery?
Alie Shaper of BOE (Brooklyn Oenology) talks to LennDevours about her plans for a Brooklyn-based winemaking business:
"Right now the business consists of sales and distribution operations in Greenpoint, and the production operation on the North Fork. I will probably next open a small tasting room in Brooklyn, along with a warehouse, after the portfolio expands. Ultimately, I want to transplant the winemaking operation, and make bona-fide Brooklyn wine. Maybe I can even convince Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz to let me grow grapes in Prospect Park!"
Now Open: Fiore
284 Grand Street, between Roebling and Havermeyer, Williamsburg
Chowhound rumor: "I just heard today that the people who run Bianca on Bleecker has opened up an outpost in Willamsburg called Fiore."
Confirmed by Williamsboard: "We're opening on Moday, 1/7/2008... Try it out, it just might not suck."
After the jump: One fearless food writer finds the cheapest eats in Brooklyn, the Times talks up Salvatore Bklyn Ricotta and Fort Greene's restaurant scene, and the L Magazine hits up Radegast Hall
110 Amity Proposal Takes a Drubbing at LPC Hearing
Yesterday's afternoon session at the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing provided a lesson in the importance of building a consensus (or the risks of failing to) when trying to get a big project done in a landmark district. The topic at hand was the proposal by Lucky Boy Development and Time Equities for the existing Beaux Arts building known as the Lamm Institute and adjacent vacant lot at the corner of Amity and Henry Streets in Cobble Hill. After a presentation from the project architect detailing the proposal to build one new townhouse on Amity and five more on mews perpendicular to Henry Street along with a rooftop penthouse on the existing structure, a stream of close to two dozen speakers representing politicians like Councilman Bill DeBlasio and Assemblywoman Joan Millman and groups like the Cobble Hill Association, the Committee to Preserve the Historic Integrity of Cobble Hill, the Historic Districts Council and the Municipal Art Society spent more than an hour detailing the many reasons why the plans were objectionable. Towards the end of the public comment period, three area residents spoke in favor of the project. Then members of the Landmarks committee weighed in, echoing many of the objections brought up by the speakers. The two biggest issues, from where we sat, were (1) the mews layout that prevented the new townhouse entrances from being on the street and (2) the encroachment of the row of five townhouses into the rear yard "doughnut." In addition, some of the aesthetic choices of the townhouses, which we modeled on the Beaux Arts Lamm Institute rather than the townhouses that define the area, were cited as problems, most notably the mews gate and the balconies. In the end, the LPC sent the applicants packing with no particular timetable for their return, only the directive that the commission review the next set of plans before public review.
Cobble Hill Association: 110 Amity Plan ‘Unacceptable’ [Brownstoner] GMAP
Opposition to 110 Amity Plans Grows [Brownstoner]
CB6 Tries to Avoid Amity Street Horror [Brownstoner]
Continue reading "110 Amity Proposal Takes a Drubbing at LPC Hearing"
January 2, 2008
Opposition to 110 Amity Plans Grows
The fight surrounding Time Equities’ planned development at 110 Amity Street is heating up. Cobble Hill residents who oppose the plans, which include the construction of a rooftop bulkhead on the landmark Lamm Institute building and, more controversially, six townhouses behind 110 Amity, sent out an email blast today that included renderings of the development, like the one above (see others on jump). The email said, in part, that “the local community is vehemently opposed to this development that changes the block structure around to create a gated community shoe-horned into the block only to maximize profit. They call it a ‘mews.’” The development plans are going to be submitted at a Community Board 6 meeting tomorrow night (250 Baltic Street at 6 p.m.) and are scheduled to be presented for approval at an LPC public hearing next week.
CB6 Tries to Avoid Amity Street Horror [Brownstoner] GMAP
Local Residents Oppose New Development at 110 Amity [Bergen Carroll]