TerraCRG and aptsandlofts.com are continuing much-needed efforts for Hurricane Sandy Relief, in a partnership with “United Way Rallies NYC Real Estate Industry Support for Storm Victims.” The commercial real estate brokerage with its partners is launching a fund-raising effort to facilitate and encourage donations from the real estate community to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy through a secure webpage created to gather the donations.

All proceeds will be used by local United Way chapters to address near and long-term hurricane recovery needs in communities that FEMA has declared disaster areas, with “aggressive monetary goals to help aid those in need. The goal of this effort is to unify the New York City real estate community to make a difference in the lives of the many people who experienced devastation and have been severely affected by the storm.” Both TerraCRG and aptsandlofts.com have each contributed $10,000 to the effort.

Ofer Cohen, founder & president of TerraCRG, and David Maundrell, founder & president of aptsandlofts.com are directing the efforts. Cohen notes, “We would like to see the entire real estate industry in New York come together. While our lives in North Brooklyn and Manhattan have been slowly returning to normal, many residents and businesses in the hard hit area of Southwest Brooklyn and Staten Island, Queens and Long Island are dramatically impacted and will remain so for months.”

The webpage, www.NYCREUnited.com, is linked directly to the United Way’s website infrastructure.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51848

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