Downtown Brooklyn

July 16, 2014

Mayor Bill De Blasio Proposes to Transform Downtown Brooklyn

Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to make a proposal on Wednesday that will launch an initiative to transform Downtown Brooklyn into a community that will rival some of its brownstone counterparts. The area has undoubtedly grown significantly over the last decade with new restaurants and cultural institutions that have attracted an influx of residents. However locals feel that the area still feels a bit disconnected. De Blasio’s plan aims to create a greater sense of community in the neighborhood.
Find out more about the proposal here

Real Estate Trends

July 4, 2014

This Two-Story Belltel Loft Is Just Steps Away from Heaven

By Aisha Carter

Let’s just say you have $23,500 weighing you down and you’re looking for a way to ease your burden. Why don’t you try renting this spectacular apartment at the Belltel Lofts? 365 Bridge Street Apartment 26B is a 2,800-square-foot, 3BR/3BA stunner that just gets cooler as you go along. This two-story loft manages to give you modern amenities in a prewar building, with surprises around every turn, and views to spare, all while putting you right in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn. Sound like something you want to see? Well then come closer…
A little closer... now click here

Distinctive Homes

June 30, 2014

From Gilded Movie House to University Gym: Uncovering the Past of the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre

By Dana Schulz

We're thinking of becoming local college basketball fans — not necessarily because we love the sport, but because we're dying to get inside this Long Island University gymnasium that was once the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre. Commissioned in 1928 by Paramount Pictures, with a sister theatre in Times Square, this regal venue was the largest movie theatre in Brooklyn, second largest in the city, and the first theatre designed for talking pictures. Noted theatre architects Rapp and Rapp designed the rococo-style palace with 4,084 burgundy velvet seats, a ceiling painted with clouds, a 60-foot stage curtain decorated with satin-embroidered pheasants, huge chandeliers, and tiered fountains filled with goldfish. Movie houses struggled during the depression years, and by 1936 the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre had lost $1.5 million since opening. In 1950 Long Island University purchased the building, and twelve years later they renovated the auditorium as their gymnasium keeping the original, ornate details of the space intact. The LIU Blackbirds played their first game in 1963, and in 1975 a second renovation occurred thanks to funding from local businesses.
We uncover the storied past of this grand movie palace

June 18, 2014

City Approves $3 Million Streetscaping Plan for Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District

By Aisha Carter

The city has officially approved a $3 million streetscaping plan as part of the overall plan to create a cultural district on the border of downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene, according to Crain’s New York. The plan, which will transform public spaces along several streets including Fulton Street, Ashland Place, Lafayette Avenue, will include ripping up the existing sidewalks and replacing them with dark stone slabs embedded with a sprinkling of lights. There will also be new seating and landscaping along a number of blocks north of Atlantic Avenue where patrons of popular institutions like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and BRIC arts and media gather. The idea is to turn that area into a cultural epicenter in Brooklyn, much like Lincoln Center in Manhattan, but comprised of several independent entities.
Find out more about Brooklyn's new cultural epicenter here

Real Estate Trends

Growth Spurt: Brooklyn’s Tallest Tower at 333 Schermerhorn Will Soar Even Higher Than Expected

L to R: Williamsburg Savings Bank (One Hanson), The Brooklyner, 388 Bridge Street, Avalon Willoughby West, The Hub

June 17, 2014

Growth Spurt: Brooklyn’s Tallest Tower at 333 Schermerhorn Will Soar Even Higher Than Expected

By Ondel Hylton

Construction filings from the Department of Buildings have revealed that Douglas Steiner's mixed use tower at 333 Schermerhorn Street, dubbed the Hub, will soar 30 feet higher than previously reported; making it the top contender for Brooklyn's tallest building at 607-feet. For more than 80 years, the title of Brooklyn's tallest belonged to the 512-foot Williamsburg Savings Bank tower at 1 Hanson Place. With its beloved 4-sided clock tower and its majestic banking hall, the tower has stood in relative isolation since its construction in 1929. Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards centerpiece building nicknamed "Miss Brooklyn," was the first to challenge the tower's dominance and was slated to soar more than 100-feet above the bank building's dome. The proposal incited uproar from Brooklynites, leading to its eventual downsizing in 2006 to 511-feet, just one foot shorter than the neighboring bank building.
More about The Hub and Brooklyn's tallest this way

May 28, 2014

Field Trip to the American Dream (Via the Bronx)

By Andrew Cotto

My English composition class at a CUNY school resembles a Benetton ad minus the posing and singular fashion aesthetic. I could run the numbers, but I don’t need to make like Nate Silver to prove my class is almost entirely of immigrants or first generation Americans from a wide range of backgrounds. This makes things particularly interesting when we study the 'American Dream', for it’s far more relevant to my students than it is to, say, me — all snug and secure in my status as a second-generation American not living with the hope for citizenship nor the fear of deportation of myself or my loved ones. One of the materials I use when teaching the American Dream is an article from September of 2013 in The Times about Marco Saavedra, a young man brought here illegally as a toddler in the early ‘90s by his Mexican parents who own and operate a restaurant in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. Under the auspices of his parents’ emphasis on education, Marco was able to thrive in the public schools’ of NYC and secure full scholarships to Deerfield Academy and then Kenyon College, from where he graduated in 2011. Impressive.
But then it all went south. Literally. More of Andrew's Story here

May 21, 2014

Call Me Halal: Palatable Advice Straight from the Streets of Downtown Brooklyn

By Andrew Cotto

One of the saddest things I heard in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 was told to me by the wife of an acquaintance. She said, with a smug sense of pride, that her family — in an act of patriotic protest to the recent attacks on America — would be ending their long-standing Thanksgiving tradition of serving assorted meat and vegetable pies from Damascus Bakery on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It was a heartbreaking statement of staggering stupidity, offensive on so many levels, not the least of which was personal. I lived next door to Damascus Bakery in my first Brooklyn apartment. This was before Barney’s, Urban Outfitters and Trader Joe’s arrived. It was when that section of Atlantic Avenue was overwhelmingly Arabic, and I frequented the eateries as often as I could, feasting on delicacies from the Middle East, learning some geography and culture and a little Arabic along the way. And, of course, I met many wonderful people, including the family who owned and operated Damascus Bakery.
Read the rest of Andrew's story here

May 19, 2014

Downtown Brooklyn Continues to Boom: Tallest Residential Tower in the Borough Now 50 Percent Leased

By Diane Pham

Downtown Brooklyn is booming across the board, and buyers are keen to get in on the changes afoot. Five months after hitting the market, Brooklyn’s tallest tower is filling out fast, with half of the units now leased. The SLCE Architects-designed residential skyscraper at 388 Bridge Street rises 590 feet, with 234 rentals and 144 […]

May 14, 2014

Plans to Convert the Jehovah Witness Watchtower Complex Into a High Tech Incubator Revealed!

By Ondel Hylton

Leeser Architects, designer of the Museum of the Moving Image expansion in Astoria, seems to be single-handedly upping the architecture ante in the outer-boroughs. Fresh off the heels of demolition commencing on the site of their multi-faceted 30-story Marriott Autograph Collection tower in the BAM Cultural District, Leeser may also be busy in the conversion of DUMBO's five-building Jehovah Witness Watchtower complex into a high tech incubator and residential tower.
See the renderings we've uncovered after the jump

May 7, 2014

Will Brooklyn Be Home to a New Ace Hotel?

By Stephanie Hoina

Considering GFI Capital Resources' recent acquisition of several Bond Street parcels at the corner of Schermerhorn Street, downtown Brooklyn continues to be ripe for development in the vicinity of the Barclays Center. According to sources close to the deal, hotel developer Allen Gross, president and CEO of GFI, may be looking to bring Ace Hotel’s unique brand of lodging to the location, joining a growing list of hotels already planned for the area.
Read on for possible plans for the site

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Brooklyn Point

between Gold Street & Flatbush Avenue Extension

Downtown Brooklyn

Tax-abated condos with panoramic NYC views Studio - 3-bed condos starting from $1M Immediate Occupancy | Call to schedule your tour

Studios starting at $985,000
1 beds starting at $1,200,000
2 beds starting at $1,885,000
3 beds starting at $2,675,000

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Downtown Brooklyn

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