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Commercial Real Estate

Downtown Brooklyn, History, Real Estate

Boomtown: BK’s Fulton Mall Revival A Bona Fide National Story

September 3, 2012

When The New York Times pens a story on the revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall, it heralds a watermark moment: sort of like, if the Times sniffs it as a reality, the revival has got to have credence. Its August 28 piece announced “National Retailers Discover a Brooklyn Mall.” Mind you—to toot our own horn—the Brooklyn Heights Blog has been heralding the Mall’s shift from low-budget chains to national retailers month by month, and more recently, week after week, for the past year.

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s $300 million public improvements initiative to remake the once-flailing shopping mecca got the ball rolling at the beginning of the decade after 30 years of neglect, with newly paved streets and traffic patterns, wider sidewalks, new streetlights and bus terminals. Much credit also has to go to Shake Shack, whose opening in December 2011 was perhaps the landmark launch of a chain willing to take a chance on the promise of Fulton Mall.

And just look at it now. This year alone, the 17-block walkway has welcomed (or soon will): Gap Factory Outlet, Brooklyn Industries, Starbucks, Raymour & Flanigan, Victoria’s Secret, Express, Armani Exchange, Nordstrom Rack, H&M, TJ Maxx, Aeropostale, Seattle’s Best, Century 21 and the mammoth City Point’s 1.6 million square foot retail, commercial and residential project, due for completion in 2018. Add to that the development of Willoughby Square Park. Albee Square abutting City Point, new restaurants along Adams Street and the coming of the Downtown Tech Triangle… So are you paying attention Apple?

Meanwhile, the ink keeps on flowing about Downtown Brooklyn’s rejuvenation. Racked posted a piece, “National Chains Are Still Racing to Open on Fulton Street,” which discusses Raymour & Flanigan furniture store’s 28,000 sf lease for the second floor of 490 Fulton Street, scheduled to open in February and notes an undisclosed developer that’s close to signing a 45,000sf lease with a major apparel retailer.

In addition, The Real Deal wrote about “How Fulton Street is attracting national retailers,” pointing out that Century 21 is the first department store to open in the neighborhood in some 50 years. The Daily News noted the area’s revolution, “long home to neon-lit sneaker shops, hot dog stands and cell phone stores” to its reincarnation as “state-of-the-art Brooklyn, complete with skyscraping condo towers and flowery landscaping along Flatbush Ave. Extension.” Curbed remarked, “Fulton Street Mall Gets Popular,” while The New York Observer profiled Michael Weiss, CEO of Express, which opened a new outlet in August at 490 Fulton Street. Even AP alerted its press members about the in-the-works story. And let’s not forget one of the primary reasons for the area’s boom: a revolution in Downtown highrise housing.

BHB minions, we are indeed eyewitnesses to a truly historic urban revival—just steps away from our homes in Brooklyn Heights—which is destined to forever change the texture of the neighborhood… literally week by week. Hey, who needs Manhattan, anyway?

(Photos: Downtown Brooklyn Partnership/Century 21 rendering by Cook + Fox Architects via WSJ)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46864

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn

Furniture Retailer Raymour & Flanigan Joins Fulton Mall Revolution

August 29, 2012

One after another… The big boom continues in Downtown Brooklyn, with yet another national retailer signing on to set up digs on Fulton Mall’s 17-block stretch from Boerum Place to Flatbush Avenue. Furniture chain Raymour & Flanigan will occupy a robust 28,000 square feet on the second floor at 490 Fulton Street.

As BHB readers well know, Raymour & Flanigan joins upcoming Century 21, H&M, T.J. Maxx, which are now under construction in the neighborhood; alongside the recently opened Gap Factory Outlet, Áeropostale, Starbucks, Brooklyn Industries, Seattle’s Best and Express. And around the corner on Adams Street, Potbelly just joined the burgeoning “Restaurant Row,” which will soon encompass Panera Bread, Chipotle, Sugar and Plumm, and American BBQ and Beer.

Scott Milnamow, a senior VP of real estate development at Raymour & Flanigan, told the New York Times that this will be the largest furniture store in Downtown Brooklyn. “We looked at a number of different neighborhoods, but felt like other national retailers are going to Fulton Street, and we wanted to be a part of that tenant mix.” The store is scheduled to open in February.

The Times says that Armani Exchange, Victoria’s Secret and Nordstrom Rack have also been sniffing around Downtown Brooklyn. “I’ve been doing deals on this street for 20 years, and only recently are we starting to see a real shift toward national retailers,” noted Barry Fishbach, an EVP at RKF.

The Times offers an overall look at Downtown Brooklyn’s rejuvenation, in an article titled “National Retailers Discover a Brooklyn Mall” here. While NYT is coming late to the party in discovering what BHB readers have been reading for months regarding Fulton Mall’s rejuvenation, the story does offer interesting details about the anatomy of retailer deals.

(Photo: Chuck Taylor)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46569

From the Web

Downtown Brooklyn

Fulton Mall Welcomes Another Major Retailer: Say Hello To Express

August 20, 2012

A shiny new Express store at 490 Fulton Street along Fulton Mall has opened in the rapidly gentrifying Downtown Brooklyn shopping destination. Michael Weiss, CEO of the men’s and women’s clothier and a Brooklyn native, was present for the festive “block party” opening last Wednesday. He tells the New York Observer that he began his career as a management trainee and associate buyer right along the corridor, at former Fulton Mall department store Abraham & Strauss, now the home of Macy’s.

Express occupies 10,000 square feet in a building that was originally also going to house a 40,000-square-foot Filene’s Basement/Syms hybrid, before the chain went bust. Still planned: dorms on the upper floors for Long Island University students.

Express joins the recent coming of Starbucks, Brooklyn Industries, Gap Factory Outlet on Fulton Mall, and future retailers H&M and Century 21, with new tenants being announced seemingly every month.

The Observer reports that Weiss grew up in Fort Greene. He recalls Fulton Mall in the late 1960s and early 1970s: “It was just the greatest place to be. So much activity. So much action. Brooklyn was it,” that is, before Brooklyn, along with the rest of the city, began its precipitous decline into bankruptcy and decay. “It was very different than it is today. It was very optimistic. Brooklyn was quite a place in those years. It was a place of expectation and aspiration. It was solidly middle class, everyone sort of felt like they had a shot if they worked hard,” he adds.

Weiss says he always believed Fulton Mall would gentrify: “I knew that street had to be rejuvenated at some point. The big question was when a company could afford to get into the place and make it work. You don’t want to be too early, and you don’t want to be late. I really think now is the time.”

The new Downtown Express store unveils a new interiors concept, designed by Japanese architect Masamichi Katayama of the firm Wonderwall: “We want to elevate the retail experience for national stores, really take it somewhere new,” Weiss tells the Observer. “The whole art, bohemian community, has added to the fashion profile, the creative fashion profile of the borough. They’re not high-fashion dressers, they’re creative dressers.”

(Photo: Chuck Taylor)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/46142

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Fuming 200 Hicks Street Rez Take Hotel Conversion Grievances To NY Daily News

August 14, 2012

The group of concerned residents who reside at 200 Hicks Street and voiced their concerns to BHB last Friday about the Bossert Hotel’s conversion back to a hotel have now shared their grievances with the New York Daily News. Brooklyn Heights rez Elizabeth Bailey and her comrades believe the plan before the Bureau of Standard and Appeals could create serious noise, traffic and safety issues in the area.

The Daily News, with typical bravado, writes: “A bar battle is brewing in Brooklyn Heights where residents are foaming mad over a developer’s plan to open a rooftop suds spot and restaurant at a historic hotel. Locals living near the Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street are afraid the bar and event space will lead to noisy crowds partying late into the night.”

Bailey, who has lived at 200 Hicks Street for 27 years, is quoted in the story, saying, “We want to work with the developers to make sure there are enforceable restrictions around noise.” She and the other unhappy residents “are pressing the city’s BSA to reject or greatly restrict the hotel’s application to change its zoning to allow the bar and restaurants, the News says. A hearing is scheduled September 11.

They have also employed the services of attorney Al Butzel, who met last month with representatives of the hotel’s developers, David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit, to voice the group’s concerns, including traffic jamming the narrow one way street out front: “It’s a tiny little street taken over by Key Food trucks and kids walking with their parents. The developers have referred to the Carlyle as being their prototype but this is not Madison Avenue,” he says.

Kathleen Cudahy, a spokeswoman for the hotel’s new owners, says a “design consultant” is working to make sure “there’s no adverse impact due to any noise. This is not going to be a big destination place for large events such as wedding or a bar mitzvah.”

The developers bought the 14-story hotel for an estimated $90 million although the official price hasn’t been formally listed. They plan to expand the number of rooms from 224 to 302, with a $300 a night room rate, Bistricer said during a recent real estate luncheon. The hotel is slated to open in a year.

Read the Daily News story here. The New York Observer also writes about the Bossert conversion here.



Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45612

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights, Real Estate

The Latest On 172-174 Montague’s Street Future Residential Highrise

August 14, 2012

So we were apparently a little tardy in our weekend post about the closing of Montague Street’s Hallmark store. Let’s make good by sharing the latest on the building planned for 172-174 Montague, which will replace the two-story structure that once held Eammon’s and Hallmark.

First, the Brooklyn Eagle reveals that new owner “BH 1 CD LLC,” is operated by principals Eli Stoll and Charles Dayan. A little more digging by BHB shows that the company is based at 499 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. As previously reported, the 8,150/sf building (and 5,000/sf lot) sold for $12 million. The current 50-foot wide and 95-feet deep structure—which also has a cellar—was originally constructed in 1925, and does not fall within the Brooklyn Heights Landmark District and thus is not subject to its 50 foot height limit. According to Property Shark, the building was most recently assessed at a value of $1,699,650.

With a C5-2/DB zoning designation, the property is approved for 60,000 buildable square feet and “significant air rights,” with a demolition permit already issued by the Department of Buildings, the Eagle says. Originally, an application was filed to construct a 19-story, 66-unit mixed-use residential building—but was nixed by DOB July 10.

Besen & Associates, which brokered the deal, says the seller Robar, LLC (a private investor) “resisted the temptation to sell his air rights on several occasions after receiving unsolicited offers,” according to David Davidson, who represented the seller with Besen’s Lynda Blumberg. That includes a bid from the developer of the 34-story Archstone luxury rental next door, at 180 Montague Street. It was built in 1999, and sold in 2006 to residential REIT Archstone Smith for $101 million.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45576

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Hallmark Closes, Following Eammon’s Bye Bye At 172-174 Montague Street

August 11, 2012

As previously reported by BHB, the two-story commercial building and its air rights at 172-174 Montague Street were sold in June, with plans to turn it into a highrise condo development. As we also noted, Irish pub & restaurant Emmonn’s In Brooklyn at 174 shuttered June 17.

As expected, the Hallmark store next door at 172 Montague has now officially closed its doors, as well. The shop opened in 1991. Here’s some gruesome trivia: In 2003, 37-year-old co-owner Barry Curwin killed himself with a handgun inside the Hallmark store.

The 8,150-square-foot property at 172-174 Montague sold for $12 million, according to the New York Observer. The building has a C5-2/DB zoning designation, giving it air rights of up to 60,000 square feet. Residential rental building The Archstone next door at 180 Montague Street, built for $101 million in 2000, is 33 stories. Its 186 units range from $2,497-$3,037/month for 1 bedrooms, and $3,903-$4,128/month for 2 bedrooms.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45475

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Residents Of 200 Hicks Street Concerned Bossert Hotel Conversion Will Create Noise, Safety Issues

August 10, 2012

A group of concerned residents who reside at 200 Hicks Street are taking to task the new owners of the Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street. Brooklyn Heights rez Elizabeth Bailey and her comrades believe the conversion plan currently before the Bureau of Standard and Appeals could create serious noise, traffic and safety issues in the area.

She writes to the Brooklyn Heights Blog: “Although residents of Brooklyn are happy, mostly, about our borough’s resurgence, or rather, emergence, those of us who live here because it is a quiet, safe place to live and bring up children, are worried that these developers are showing little regard to neighborhood concerns.”

New owners David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit are seeking a variance to convert the hotel to a “commercial transient facility,” from its status as visitor housing for previous owner Jehovah’s Witnesses. The BSA has scheduled a hearing on the application September 11.

The group of residents at 200 Hicks, located at the northwest corner of Montague, say that the plan could deter the Heights’ peaceful persona “if it is done without regard to the nature and character of our residential community.” Bailey points to a New York Times feature on the Bossert from November 2011, in which Brooklyn Heights Association executive director Judy Stanton notes concerns about upkeep, “since Watchtower society placed a premium on maintenance, including the surrounding sidewalks and parks.” Stanton also intimates that the neighborhood may become livelier if the Bossert is converted into a high-end hotel.

Bailey writes, “The developers are proposing to increase the number of rooms from 224 to 302. Although they speak of creating a boutique hotel, over 300 rooms is a pretty big boutique. They also have plans to build a ground floor restaurant, event spaces (weddings and bar mitzvahs, etc.) and a bar on the rooftop. The developers contend that the increase in traffic on the busy corner of Montague and Hicks from their proposed hotel will be negligible.” She finds this “hard to believe.”

“There have been many articles in the New York press about the negative impact of noisy bars—particularly rooftop bars—on residential neighborhoods,” Bailey adds, citing Times’ stories here and here.

“We understand from press reports that both Chetrit and Bistricer have been publicly criticized for various aspects of their past real estate ventures. Among other controversial matters, Chetrit is one of the investors in the Empire Hotel near Lincoln Center, which has been the subject of a three-year battle that a West 62nd Street coop had to wage in the courts over ‘torment’ from the noise from its rooftop bar well after midnight,” Bailey says. “The developers are also involved with the Chelsea Hotel, which has been the subject of recent controversy. Noise and traffic: That’s what Brooklyn Heights residents are worried about.”

The 200 Hicks Street group proposes that restrictions be put in place on the proposed hotel/bar: “The aim is to limit the increase in noise and traffic that would compromise the safety and the character of this neighborhood.” Bailey invites public discourse of the issue, and is available via email at Elizaabailey@mac.com.

Comments from the BHB community?


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45367

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Commercial Real Estate Flourishes Jan-June 2012

August 9, 2012

Commercial real estate in Brooklyn remained robust throughout the first half of 2012, according to a report from commercial realty group TerraCRG. Some 563 sales worth more than $1.23 billion were recorded, an increase of 50% in dollar volume over the period last year.

Downtown—which includes Brooklyn Heights in the report—and Park Slope led with the highest dollar volume of total sales ($341M, 78 transactions); while Williamsburg & Greenpoint region were second ($334M, 75 sales). Perhaps more surprising, the neighborhoods of Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, and Crown Heights had the largest amount of trades overall ($195M, 191 sales), also boasting 2.3 times the number of multi-family transactions over any other region of Brooklyn.

The TerraCRG report’s largest transaction in Brooklyn Heights from January-June 2012 was 75 Clinton Street, which sold for $50.825M, over $1,100/SF. As BHB reported in July, the new rental property at the corner of Montague Street (above Rite Aid) is now 90% leased, with 66 of the 74 units spoken for.

South Brooklyn, including the Heights, had the highest dollar volume of all commercial retail sales in the borough during the first half of 2012, with more than $50 million among a mere 11 transactions. See a round-up of the TerraCRG report here.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45321

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights, News

Bistricer Taking Minimalist Approach to Bossert Conversion?

August 8, 2012

Your correspondent wished he could attend today’s real estate luncheon at the Brooklyn Historical Society, but a day job interfered. Fortunately, The Real Deal was on hand to give us the straight skinny. First off: very few changes are being made to the interior, “which w[as] meticulously maintained by the [Jehovah’s] Witnesses [the building’s previous owners].” Mostly, new owner David Bistricer said, what is going on is upgrading electricity and plumbing. What is being done is so unobtrusive that it doesn’t bother the four long-term residents of the building who predate the Witnesses’ acquisition of it and whose continued right to live there is guaranteed by law.

Bistricer also said that any rooftop lounge would be “private.” We’re not sure what this means. Will it be accessible to hotel guests only, or be a private club, like the Casino? In our view, this would be unfortunate. Many of us would like to have a neighborhood “Top of the Mark” where we and our guests, visitors to the neighborhood, and hotel guests, could enjoy drinks, low volume music, and amazing views.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45228

From the Web

News

Brooklyn Heights Cinema Gets Reprieve

August 5, 2012

Yesterday evening your correspondent took his own advice and saw Farewell My Queen at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema. Owner Kenn Lowy was at the ticket booth, and gave me the happy news that the Cinema will be occupying its present quarters at 70 Henry Street (corner of Orange) at least through October. We’ll keep you posted on his search for a temporary location to last until the new building is completed.

As for the movie, I’ll repeat here what I wrote in a comment on an earlier post: Not heavy on plot, but the acting was superb, as were the atmospherics. It conveyed a convincing impression of what it may have been like to be part of the royal court at Versailles as the Revolution inexorably built toward its climax.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45187

From the Web