Developer Selected For Navy Yard Supermarket

 

The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. has chosen Blumenfeld Development Group to build out a 74,000-square-foot supermarket along Admiral’s Row with manufacturing space on top, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Blumenfeld will also develop other buildings with retail and restaurants for the site. The company’s founder said they’ll be developing what is “really a suburban shopping center” and plans to negotiate with retail tenants in the new year. (In other locations, Blumenfeld has developed space for Costco, Target and Old Navy.) This is the second developer selected for the $60 million project — the first one didn’t work out after one of the principals was charged in a political corruption case, although those charges were ultimately dropped. Blumfield plans to break ground in 2013. There has been a little reinforcement work happening on site, but only two of the seven historic structures will be restored in the redevelopment.

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/12/a-developer-selected-for-the-brooklyn-navy-yard/?stream=true

Condo's Planned for Landmarked Montague Street Bank

Big news for the beautiful bank building at 177 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights: The owners are planning to build out condo units there. According to the Community Board Two land use minutes, the architecture firm on the project, Barry Rice Architects, presented the land use board with renovation plans in November. The plans include building a one-story rear addition, removing air conditioning units, cleaning the exterior, replacing the skylights, and adding new insulated wood windows. Thirteen condo apartments will go in at the rear annex building; the main building bank hall (currently a Chase branch) will remain as is. The architects will add an entrance canopy for the new residential portion, as well as a “miniature grand hall” at the entryway. The architects received the blessing of the Community Board Two Land Use Committee, and the project is on the Landmarks Preservation Commission agenda for this afternoon.

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/12/condos-planned-for-landmarked-bank-building/?stream=true

Brooklyn Bridge Park Seeks Residential Developer

 

The latest vision for Dumbo: Waterfront apartments in and overlooking Brooklyn Bridge Park. Today Brooklyn Bridge Park requested proposals for a residential development at the vacant lot on the north end of the park, at John Street. According to the BBP press release, the site is approximately 9,600 square feet and located within a vacant 147,460 square foot lot just east of the Manhattan Bridge. Also, “It allows for up to 130 residential units comprising up to 101,000 square feet with a maximum height of 130 feet, up to 110 parking spaces and ground floor retail.” They have requested that developers submit proposals that are financially feasible, include green elements, incorporate flood protective measures, and are sensitive to the existing public space and community. The BBP also announced big news about the Con Edison site near the residential development site in question. The BBP is currently working with Con Edison to transfer over their property in Dumbo. Once the ownership has transferred, the BBP will build out a 1.5 acre park space with pedestrian bridges, pathways and a huge gathering lawn. It’s fully funded and should take a year to create. The residential development proposals are due on March 11. As the Observer pointed out earlier today, competition was fierce for the first residential and hotel development at Pier One, and although this is a smaller parcel there will likely be proposals from all the big-name developers. The folks at BBP will hold a site visit and information session on Jan. 23.

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/12/brooklyn-bridge-park-seeks-a-residential-developer/?stream=true

The Future of Fowler Square

 

Tomorrow the Department of Transportation will visit Community Board Two’s Transportation Committee to discuss the future of Fowler Square, which is slated become a permanent fixture in the neighborhood. The DOT installed the pedestrian plaza in Fort Greene this summer using temporary materials. They promised to study the traffic and pedestrian flow with the green street in place and come back to the community board with their findings this winter. Because of some neighborhood resistance against the closing of South Elliott Place, they are still looking for community feedback after the fact. (Last month Streetsblog reported that many surrounding businesses supported the plaza there.) Have any Fort Greene residents noticed negative impacts to the block closing? If you’re interested in attending, the meeting is at St. Francis College at 180 Remsen Street in the first floor board room at 6 pm.

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/12/tomorrow-find-out-the-future-of-fowler-square/?stream=true

Do Twinkies Have an Expiration Date? Lessons from Hostess’s demise and what Congress can do for our entitlement programs

 

By: Robert Knakal

Goodbye Twinkies, or at least Hostess Twinkies. It appears as if the iconic baking company will be liquidated, after the largest union representing Hostess employees decided to play chicken with management and lost. The result is that 18,500 jobs will be vaporized. While reading about the plight of Hostess, one can draw an analogy between the maker of Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Drake’s Cakes and Wonder Bread and our entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. 

            Since the national election a couple of weeks ago, I have been asked by reporters from various media outlets what the impact of going over the fiscal cliff would be on the commercial real estate market. While there are several possible outcomes of going over the cliff (none of which is good for commercial real estate), the more important issue in all of the things Congress must address is entitlement reform. All of the other items, whether is be a payroll tax holiday or capping a certain expense item, are merely parsley on the plate. Without someone having the courage to deal with entitlement reform, we are simply kicking the can down the road, and these programs may end up like Hostess, in bankruptcy and unable to do much for anyone who was relying on them. 

            Hostess, which has been around since the 1930s, had previously been in and out of bankruptcy, and in its most recent slide was able to negotiate concessions from some of its many unions. Last year, Hostess had gross revenue of about $2.5 billion, but posted a loss of $341 million. Clearly, the national trend away from junk foods did not help its performance, but some of the work rules created redundancies in operating expenses. For instance, bread and cake products had to be packed, delivered and unpacked by three different people and on two different trucks, as those who touched bread were not allowed to touch cake. Additionally, on many delivery routes, another different employee was required to move the products from the back rooms out onto the shelves. 

            In all, Hostess had 372 collective bargaining agreements, which mandated that the company maintain 80 health and benefit plans as well as 40 different pension plans. On top of last year’s $341 million loss, its numerous labor agreements required $31 million in increased costs in 2012 and even more next year. Hostess asked for an 8 percent concession on wages and a higher contribution to the health plan from members of several of its unions. Many agreed, but the members of the Bakery Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union voted not to agree to the concessions. Hostess, having no other choice, obtained approval from the court to modify collective bargaining contracts, and the union members opted to walk out and go on strike rather than accept the court’s decision.

            Many of the members who voted to reject the proposal said in interviews that they thought the company “could make a better deal” for them. This was clearly a gross miscalculation, given the precarious position the company was in from a cash-flow perspective. The numbers were so bleak that the company was unable to sustain the strike, a reality that should have been very clear to stakeholders given the existing debt, revenue and expense metrics that Hostess was facing. The numbers for an operating business must make senses in order for the business to succeed. Businesses, after all, exist to make money, and if they don’t make money, they eventually fail to exist. 

            While our entitlement programs are not “businesses” that exist to make money, there is a lesson to be learned from Hostess. Its fate illustrates that a system of any kind, if unsustainable, must change with changing conditions, or ultimately it gets wiped out. Our entitlement programs are paying out more than they are taking in, and each year when the Congressional Budget Office recalculates the numbers, the estimate of how many years each has until it runs out of money shortens significantly. And those calculations are based upon the growth rates that are fictional, meaning that they are more underfunded than we think.

            Let’s hope that these programs are reformed so that they are allowed to exist for as long as folks need them. We can learn from Hostess and all of the other entities that were unable to adapt to new realties and were therefore unable to exist.

Number of stalled NYC construction sites jumps to January 2011 levels

From left: Building Congress President Richard Anderson and a stalled construction site

Back to the drawing board, New York City. The number of stalled construction sites in Gotham has risen 17 percent since February—effectively eliminating progress made in getting construction going again in the last year, a new report from the New York Building Congress shows.


The Department of Buildings began tracking the number of stalled sites in the five boroughs in July 2009, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers the previous September, which resulted in widespread construction delays. This month, 691 sites were identified as stalled, up from 592 in February of this year. The November total marks the seventh highest number of stalled projects since the report’s inception, and the highest since January 2011.

Of the sites deemed stalled, 45 percent have been on the DOB’s list since it began, and 26 percent were added this year. The New York City Department of Finance estimates that stalled sites, including vacant land, have an aggregate market value of $883 million, the report said.

Brooklyn fared the worst of all the boroughs, with 47 percent of total construction projects — 323 in all — stalled as of today’s report.

“It is interesting to note that while the raw number of stalled sites has increased, the estimated market value has dropped by nearly half a billion dollars,” Building Congress President Richard Anderson said in the statement. “This suggests that the luxury residential market was home to an outsized percentage of the projects that have resumed in 2012.” –Guelda Voien

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/11/28/number-of-stalled-nyc-construction-sites-jumps-to-january-2011-levels/

Two-Trees Bringing 32-Story Apartment Tower to Downtown Brooklyn

 The transformation of the BAM Cultural District is barreling forward. Two Trees is beginning the public review and approval process for a 32-story tower (right, click for big) in Downtown Brooklyn, just across the street from Atlantic Center. The site is currently a parking lot bound by Flatbush, Ashland Place, and Lafayette Avenue, and we last talked about it way back in 2008 when news first broke that Two Trees would be developing the project. Back then, the building was going to have 180 apartments and 187,000-square-feet of cultural space, but now it will have 300-400 apartments, 20 percent of which will be affordable, and just 50,000-square-feet of cultural space.

It will also have a sprawling 16,000-square-foot public plaza along Flatbush Avenue and 23,000-square-feet of ground floor retail. Enrique Norten of Ten Arquitectos is still the project architect, and the arts space will be shared by BAM, 651 ARTS, and the Brooklyn Public Library.

In partnership with the Gotham Organization and DT Salazar, the HPD is developing another new apartment building and cultural community space on a lot bound by Fulton Street, Rockwell Place, and Ashland Place. This building will be 515,000-square-feet, and it will contain a whopping 600 apartments, plus 40,000-square-feet of cultural, retail, and office space. Half of the apartments will be affordable, and 40 percent of the affordable units will be two-bedrooms. The HDC expects to finalize financing for the project late next year, and construction will begin shortly after.

And last but not least, the HPD has released an RFP for the development of the final parcel of the BAM Cultural District. The site is located at Ashland Place and Lafayette Avenue, and the RFP calls for 100,000-square-feet of floor area, with a minimum of 15,000-square-feet being dedicated to cultural groups. The building can also include apartments and/or commercial space. Proposals are due February 1, 2013.
With the Atlantic Yards towers also going up, this area of Brooklyn is getting kind of crowded, not to mention that all these new residents will be living in a perpetual construction site.

by Jessica Dailey

Real Estate Forum's Top New York Investment Brokers

For the full article, please click here. Massey Knakal proudly congratulates Stephen Palmese for being named to Real Estate Forum's Top New York Investment Brokers. Thus far in 2012, Palmese handled 18 transactions for a total dollar volume of over $118,000,000.

Hurricane Sandy Rallying Cry For Anti-Development Crowd in Brooklyn

The Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn has been billed as one of the city’s most up and coming areas for the better part of a decade despite the literally toxic nature of its namesake canal.

Now, development-wary locals are viewing the surge of dirty water that Hurricane Sandy brought to the Superfund site as a rallying cry in their restrained fight against Gowanus’ residential and commercial rehabilitation.

The corner of Third Street and Third Avenue, near the Whole Foods site in Gowanus. (Courtesy Flickr user Wojohowitz)

Residents of the 39^th District encompassing Gowanus, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, among other neighborhoods, addressed their concerns in a letter to the Lightstone Group, which is planning a $257-million, 700-unit rental apartment complex between Bond Street and the canal along First Street.

“As you are no doubt aware, the site of your proposed development was under several feet of water during the storm,” wrote City Councilman Brad Lander in a letter urging Lightstone to “reconsider—and, for the time being, withdraw” plans for the site.

But Lightstone, led by David Lichtenstein, dismissed this criticism and said the company, aided by FEMA maps, had already taken potential storm damage into account when it designed the project.

“I think we’ve got a development here that’s going to be fine,” architect David West told The Wall Street Journal. “Maybe we’ll find we want to raise the level a little more, but it will be relatively easy to do that. I don’t foresee there being any serious design changes.”

The battle for rough-hewn Gowanus has also swirled around the construction of a 52,000-square-foot Whole Foods store on Third Avenue at Third Street–catty-corner and just across the canal from Lightstone’s project. The healthful grocery behemoth appeased locals anxious about increased traffic with plans to refurbish The Coignet building, a nearby landmark from 1873 that had fallen into disrepair. In a made-for-in-and-by Brooklyn twist, the retailer also pledged to stock the store’s shelves with products native to locavore-crazed Kings County.

Work on the Whole Foods foundation is slated to begin by the end of the year, with a projected opening in the summer of 2013. Meanwhile, Lightstone is scheduled to seek building permit approval from the city’s Planning Commission this month.

By: Billy Gray

http://commercialobserver.com/2012/11/sandy-rallying-cry-for-anti-development-crowd-in-brooklyn/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The%20Commercial%20Observer%20NOW&utm_campaign=CO%20NOW%2011%2F20