"Disaster" Housing Headed for Downtown

A prototype for emergency housing is going up in Downtown Brooklyn, right next to the Office of Emergency Management. Designed by Dumbo’s Garrison Architects for manufacturer American Manufactured Systems and Services of Vienna, Va., it’s a three-story, three-unit building with two three-bedroom apartments over one one-bedroom, handicapped accessible apartment. What makes the housing suitable for emergency situations is how quickly it can be built. Each unit is 40 feet long and comes preassembled. A contractor clips the units together and hooks up the utilities. They even have balconies and photovoltaic panels on the roof to generate electricity. The design meets all city codes, and the concept could eventually be used for permanent high-density housing of no more than four stories, said the architect.
Source: Brownstoner.

330-334 Saint Marks Avenue - Available For Sale

Massey Knakal has been exclusively retained to market the sale of the development site located at 330-334 Saint Marks Avenue. The subject property is located on the south side of Saint Marks Avenue between Underhill and Washington Avenues in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The subject property is a 50' x 100' development site located in a R6B zoning district, consisting of approximately 10,000 buildable square feet. Currently there is a 5,000 square foot one-story warehouse on the site. The asking price is $2,200,000.

For additional information please follow the link below:
Massey Knakal Realty Services - 330-334 St. Marks Avenue

Verizon to Move 1,100 Workers From Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn

 

Verizon's headquarters at 140 West Street in 2008

Verizon announced on Tuesday that it would move 1,100 employees out of its headquarters and switching center at 140 West Street in Lower Manhattan and offer half of the 31-story tower for sale or lease.
The employees, most in customer service, will join 300 colleagues next year at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn. Over all, there are about 10,000 Verizon employees in New York City. That will not change, the company said.
For the time being, the company’s headquarters will remain at 140 West Street, a designated New York City landmark that Verizon has meticulously restored twice in the last 12 years: after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and again after Hurricane Sandy last year.
As for the slightly longer term, Richard J. Young, a company spokesman, said, “Our headquarters will remain in New York City.”
Source: The New York Times 

Stephen Palmese's 1Q13 Downtown Brooklyn Property Sales Report

As the leading advisor to property owners and investors in Brooklyn's commercial real estate arena, I would like to share with you my 2013 first quarter sales report for Downtown Brooklyn, as well as Massey Knakal's Brooklyn Property Sales Report. Some highlights of the first quarter:

• In the first quarter of 2013, the Brooklyn investment sales market saw 165 closed transactions with an aggregate value of $470M;
• The Downtown Brooklyn investment sales market saw 12 transactions with an aggregate value of $92M;
• The Brooklyn Navy Yard re-development;
• City Point - Phase II;
• Atlantic Yards - Phase I, Part II.

 For more information on each sale, including a full market recap, please click the following links:

Stephen Palmese's Downtown Brooklyn 1Q13 Property Sales Report

Massey Knakal's Brooklyn 1Q13 Property Sales Report

If you would like to discuss any of this information at length, or if you would like Massey Knakal to create a Complimentary Opinion of Value for any commercial property that you own, please do not hesitate to contact me, Stephen Palmese, at 718-606-7052 or spalmese@masseyknakal.com.

Thor Equities pays $23 Million for Barclays-adjacent properties

Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities closed late last week on a residential and retail portfolio adjacent to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for $23 million in an off-market transaction.

The mixed-use development, known as Atlantic Gardens, consists of 24 rental units and nine retail shops along Atlantic between Third and Fourth avenues, says seller Bennat Berger of BCB Properties. BCB and Arik Lifshitz of DSA Management had purchased the assets, 525-541 Atlantic Avenue, for $10.93 million just two years before, according to city records, but Berger said the actual price was closer to $11.25 million.

Why did the seller opt to unload now? “Because we made a lot of money,” Berger said.
DSA, a Manhattan-based family-owned developer, and Berger bought the properties in a joint venture with the intention of holding them after making improvements, Lifshitz said. But the unsolicited offer from Thor was “too good to pass up,” he said. “We decided to go ahead and reallocate our equity and our time to new projects.”

Sitt plans to “reposition” the retail, Berger said. Sitt was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this year, Thor bought the mixed-use property at 292-294 Atlantic Avenue, down the block at the corner of Smith Street, for $5.2 million – well over the $4 million ask, reports show.
The area has seen retail rents rise in the shadow of the Barclays Center, which opened last October. Michael Pintchik of local landlord Pintchik Development said rents on Flatbush Avenue have risen from $50 or $55 per square foot to more than $175 per square foot while the Barlcays complex was under construction.
Source: The Real Deal 

Winick Team Exclusively Markets 14,000 Square Feet of Retail Space at 1 Flatbush Avenue

A team from Winick Realty Group is exclusively marketing 14,000 square feet of retail space at 1 Flatbush Avenue.

Winick Vice President, Darrell Rubens, and Senior Managing Director, Diana D. Boutross, are marketing the space on behalf of Capstone Equities. It includes 7,000 square feet on the ground level, 7,000 square feet on the second floor. There is also a 5,000-square-foot basement.

The address, which Winick describes as the “Gateway to Fulton Mall,” is on the highly trafficked corner of Flatbush Avenue and the Fulton Street pedestrian plaza lined by stores including Armani Exchange, Century 21, H&M, Macy’s, Target and Victoria’s Secret.

“Williamsburg is cool, but it doesn’t have big box retailers like this area,” said Mr. Rubens. “And every major tenant there is expanding.”

1 Flatbush Avenue is located right by the entrance to the 2, 3, 4 and 5 train subway station at Nevins Street. More than 11,000 passengers use that station each day, and over 78,000 cars pass by the site daily. It’s also near the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “I can admit that I hadn’t been to this part of Brooklyn much before the Barclays Center opened. It was under construction when this project began and has had an amazing impact since it opened.”

“There’s huge visibility,” Mr. Rubens said. “Including 200 feet of frontage and 8,000 square feet of illuminated signage. It’s not only a retail location, but also a billboard.”

Mr. Rubens said there was a strong push at the property for apparel and major restaurant tenants. A Shake Shack–the first in Brooklyn–opened in the Fulton Mall in December 2011. Danny Meyer‘s burger empire will expand to 170 Flatbush Avenue, right by the Barclays Center, this fall.
Source: The Commercial Observer 

Technically, Brooklyn's Booming

Downtown Brooklyn has gone from a 99-cent-store haven to a residential hub -- and now a techie hot spot. With nearby DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard so packed with tech firms as to create long waiting lists, Downtown has benefited from the spillover.And now, the city’s fastest-growing residential neighborhood since a 2004 rezoning is reinventing itself again — as a destination for start-up and established Web-design and other high-tech companies.

In the last eight months, 11 more tech firms have arrived — including four leasing a combined 100,000 square feet of space at the MetroTech complex, said the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

Among the newbies are MakerBot, which makes 3-D printers, and Homer, a creator of early-childhood apps. And at least six other firms are in the pipeline to arrive by June at two other nearby buildings, 325 Gold St. and 33 Flatbush Ave.

“We are seeing strong interest here, about three to four calls a week from new businesses,” said Thomas Conoscenti, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s executive director for planning. “These companies especially love the mass transit.”

Brooklyn Tech Triangle
Source: The NY Post

Plans for Associated Supermarket Site Revealed

The environmental remediation plan for the Myrtle Avenue development site that currently houses an Associated Supermarket has been released. Included in the report are plans and an elevation for the two buildings planned for the site at 490 and 504 Myrtle Avenue. One of the two buildings will house the Associated market and a TD Bank; it will go to seven stories and take two years to build. The other building will rise to eight stories and house a dry cleaner, but the post office will leave. The residential apartments will be built on the site. Building materials will include light gray cast stone and dark gray metal. The architect is Aufgang & Subotovsky Architecture and Planning PLLC.

Source: Brownstoner

A Green Market Planned for Brooklyn Bridge Park

Exciting news: A farmers market is coming to Pier Six at Brooklyn Bridge Park! On April 15, the green market organization Down to Earth presented to the Community Board Two Parks Committee a proposal for a market on the upland portion of Pier Six. Down to Earth runs markets upstate, in Park Slope, and in Greenpoint’s McGolrick Park. If they are shooting for a launch this summer, they will join a number of food vendors also slated to set up around the park. Fornino Pizza will serve pizzas from the Pier Six concession stand, as well as beer on the rooftop beer garden.  
Source: Brownstoner

Permits Granted for Catsimatidis' Fleet Place Build

Expect construction soon at 81 Fleet Place, right off Myrtle Avenue, the second build of billionaire John Catsimatidis’ four promised buildings on Myrtle between Ashland Place and Flatbush Avenue. The Department of Buildings just issued a new building permit for a fifteen-story mixed-use building. When a rendering surfaced last fall, the DOB had disapproved the first round of building plans. This 205-unit build will hold ground-floor retail space and studio, one- and two-bedroom units. There will also be a landscaped terrace on the third floor. Construction is expected to last until next year.
Source: Brownstoner

NYC Opens Urban Tech School Downtown

New York University’s new Center for Urban Science and Progress officially opened Thursday, April 18, at 1 MetroTech Center on the 19th Floor. The high-tech school will have graduate programs in engineering, planning and design. Research will focus on how to improve living conditions in big, crowded cities, from energy efficiency to better planning and infrastructure. “That research is expected to be crucial in the coming decades when most of the world’s population migrates to cities,” said the Daily News. The facility includes 26,000 square feet of office space and two visualization labs. The center will spin off hundreds of new companies and create thousands of new jobs, said Mayor Bloomberg at Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.  There are already more than 500 tech companies in the downtown area, he added. NYU plans to remodel a building at 370 Jay Street into a permanent campus for the school, pictured in the rendering above. The goal is to move the school there by 2017.
Source: Brownstoner