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Brooklyn Heights, Real Estate

Here We Go Again: 20 Henry Street & Magic Johnson Just Can’t Score

July 18, 2012

Magic Johnson is back in the news regarding his alliance with the agonizing completion of 20 Henry Street—and it’s as ugly as ever. The Real Deal reports that a labor dispute has erupted between Hudson Meridian Construction and the baller’s Canyon Johnson Urban Funds. The contractor has threatened to walk off the job at the 20 Henry condo conversion, leading the investment firm to request they be kicked off the Brooklyn Heights site.

In a July 13 filing in Manhattan Supreme Court, the investment firm claims the project is more than five months behind schedule because of the construction company’s failure to supervise its workers and subcontractors. Canyon Johnson also says Hudson Meridian is submitting inflated charges. Lawyers for the investment firm allege that the construction company is demanding an additional $700,000 in payments or it will walk off the job by July 19, while 72% of the building’s 39 units are in contract and were scheduled to begin closing in June.

“Hudson Meridian’s efforts to extort additional payments from CJUF recently culminated with its audacious and unlawful threat to abandon the project,” Cole Schotz attorney Leo Levya, representing the developer, wrote in the filing.

The developer says it plans to bring in Staten Island-based A&D Construction to complete 20 Henry in place of Hudson Meridian, if the current dispute is not resolved.

Read more, including the background at The Real Deal here.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44354

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Open Thread Wednesday, July 18, 2012

July 18, 2012

Good day, BHB minions. It’s Open Thread Wednesday for July 18, 2012. Feel free to beat the heat and exercise your right to express what’s on your mind. And despite the ongoing heatwave, please, let’s be cool. (Dude practicing Pilates on Promenade: Chuck Taylor)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44339

From the Web

Brooklyn’s First Pier 1 Imports Coming To Atlantic Avenue

July 17, 2012

Pier 1 Imports has signed a lease for a space just beyond Brooklyn Heights at 252 Atlantic Avenue and Boerum Place, a block past Court Street. The home furnishings chain will set up shop in a new two-story commercial building called Atlantic Galleria, along with gym chain Retro Fitness. It’s the retailer’s first location in Brooklyn. Read more on the Cobble Hill blog here.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44331

From the Web

Pier 1 Imports Coming To Boerum Hill: 252 Atlantic Avenue & Boerum Place

July 17, 2012

Pier 1 Imports has signed a lease for a to-be-developed space at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Boerum Place. The home furnishings chain will be setting up shop at 252 Atlantic Avenue, along with gym chain Retro Fitness, in a new two-story commercial building called Atlantic Galleria.

Brownstoner reports that an application for a building permit was filed last week and is awaiting review. Pier 1 currently has five stores in the other boroughs, but this will be its first in Brooklyn. Retro Fitness has one location in Williamsburg and one in Brownsville.


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7597

From the Web

Boerum Hill Speed Limits To Be Reduced

July 17, 2012

The Boerum Hill neighborhood is about to slow down. Last week, the Department of Transportation signed off on a measure to reduce the speed limit from 30 to 20 miles per hour in the largely residential area bounded by Smith Street, and Union, Third and Atlantic avenues. The “slow zone” approval—which, perhaps not ironically comes two months before the Barclays Center arena opens nearby—is meant to deter drivers from using the neighborhood as a short cut to and from the East River bridges.

According to The Brooklyn Paper, the Boerum Hill Association formed a task force to put the new law in place. “It’s an important safety issue. There’s been a significant amount of cut-through traffic here,” says BHA President Howard Kolins.

The zone will be marked with blue signs at all streets entering the area, while the city will paint the new speed limit across the roadway and use speed bumps to encourage motorists to lay off the gas, according to the city.


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7593

From the Web

Downtown Brooklyn

Bye Bye To Daffy’s In Downtown Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal

July 17, 2012

Clothing discounter Daffy’s, which has pervaded New York for 50+ years, is closing all of its stores, including the location in Downtown Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal, at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. The Secaucus-based retailer announced Monday that its 19 metro-area stores will shutter over the next few months, as the company liquidates, according to Crain’s New York Business.

In a statement, Daffy’s said it “deeply regrets that this action was necessary due to the impact on its business of the uncertain economy and weak consumer spending and a lack of viable financial and business alternatives.” Other Daffy’s locations include Herald Square, SoHo, the Upper West Side and Times Square.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44324

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Heights History: A Collective Of Awesome Promenade Construction Pics

July 17, 2012

Most of us Brooklyn Heights denizens have seen dozens of pics of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in its early days, but there are actually a couple here that were new to a guy who loves to scour the webbie for Heights history. How about you? Via Gothamist here.

Here’s the text that accompanies the Gothamist slideshow:

The idea of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade had been bounced around since Hezekiah Pierrepont proposed it in 1827 (decades later, in 1864, Abraham Lincoln declared, “There may be finer views than this in the world, but I don’t believe it.”). The idea didn’t happen in Pierrepont’s lifetime, but he “lived and died in the belief and desire, that the Heights some day be made a public promenade.” Over 100 years later, enter Robert Moses.

Moses originally proposed that the BQE go directly through Brooklyn Heights, but was talked down from this crazy idea by the powerful residents of the neighborhood. The idea for the design with the promenade on top was actually proposed by one such resident “whose private garden would be destroyed by the arterial highway”—he suggested that the BQE be two levels, and have a “cover” on top protecting the gardens from smog and noise. The “cover” became the promenade, and the space was dedicated on October 7th, 1950, when Moses announced: “I don’t know of anything quite like this in any city in the world.”


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44319

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

NY1 Offers Brooklyn Bridge Park Update; Prez Regina Myer Defends Hotel/Rez Development

July 16, 2012

NY1 offers an upbeat 2-minute report on the progress of the 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park, which it says now attracts 60,000 visitors each weekend. Reporter Jeanine Ramirez offers: “Designs changed over the years. So did the oversight of the property. The Port Authority transferred it to a state entity called the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. It was later transferred over to the city.”

Regina Myer, President of BBP, comments, “Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson agreed that the city would take the project over because the state just didn’t have the money to put into the park and they realized the city would be a much better steward of the park site.”

Regarding the imminent controversial 200-room hotel and 159-unit residential building, Myer says they are necessary to raise funds to sustain the park: “The condominium [One Brooklyn Bridge] has been paying ground rent and payment in lieu of taxes since 2008 and all of the maintenance and security and upkeep is paid for by the funds we’ve received.” She insists the new multi-use development, which was approved in late June, “will be done with good taste.”


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44305

From the Web

Arts and Entertainment, Brooklyn Heights

New CBS Drama ‘Elementary’ Set In Brooklyn Heights, Filmed In Harlem

July 16, 2012

Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes has been transported to 21st century Brooklyn Heights in a new CBS Thursday night drama, “Elementary,” which premieres September 27 during prime time after its hit detective series “Person of Interest.”

Buzz about the show is mounting, according to The New York Post, not only from advertisers, but from the geek squad at Comic-Con in San Diego, who were zealous after being shown a sneak peek last week.

The Rob Doherty series stars British actor Jonny Lee Miller “as the funny and eccentric Holmes who, in his capacity as consultant to the NYPD, can deduce all manner of things the rest of us wouldn’t think of to solve a murder. He does it all with panache, great wit and peculiar style,” the Post reports. Lucy Liu stars as Watson.

While Holmes supposedly lives in his father’s Brooklyn Heights brownstone, the pilot was filmed in Harlem, with interiors shot at a studio in Long Island City. Setting the show in New York seemed like a natural fit also because of the city’s similarities to London. “If you’re going to transplant Sherlock Holmes to an American city it has to be New York,” Doherty says. “There’s a texture to the place that’s reminiscent of London and both have Victorian elements.”

Read more here.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44294

From the Web

Mountain of Garbage at Clark and Hicks Streets in Brooklyn Heights

July 15, 2012

At about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, we spotted this mountain of garbage surrounding the mailbox on the southwest corner of Hicks and Clark Streets. Another passerby was already on the phone with 311 to report the pileup which was made up of some household items and mattresses.

What happened? Someone moved and just got tired of putting garbage in the right place?

On another note, all public garbage cans along Hicks towards Joralemon (we were on our way to Pier 6) were also overflowing with trash.

Photo: Mrs. Fink


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44279

From the Web