Results tagged “condo”

According to The Real Deal, Judge Charles Ramos told lawyers for Corcoran to "read the riot act" to their client, finding the company "grossly negligent" for failing to preserve and turn over e-mails revealing that Corcoran agents canceled appointments with prospective buyers on rainy days. Apparently, the flooding in the three-bedroom Park Slope duplex was so bad that it was like "the side of a swimming pool has come down," Einstein tells the Daily News. Well, it doesn't take a genius to see that Corcoran's in a bit of hot water here.

It's not all Brownstones and haunted mansions in Brooklyn; a luxury condo called the Venetian has just been unveiled in all its hideousness! Brownstoner reports that the attempt at classical opulence, located in Gravesend, "looks a lot better in reality than we had expected." Be that is it may (is it?), this doesn't look at all like Brooklyn. But is it better than the "Williamsburg Grey" Karl Fischer creations?

Third quarter real estate data for Manhattan showed that sales for condos and co-ops improved from the second quarter... but sales still trail 2008 third quarter numbers. So, is the glass half full or empty?

With most of Williamsburg's condos in purgatory at the moment, some are taking advantage of the empty spaces (particularly those gutter punks). Miss Heather informs us of a new gym that's opened up in the ground floor of the vacant 117 South 3rd Street condo, and the membership is only 29 bucks a month. Everyone wins! But wait, a tattle-tale tipster goes and ruins the deal, saying that while the building's retail space is rented to John Suarez, who is running a gym out of it called Cutting Edge, "there are many problems here."

This week NY Mag takes a harrowing look at the Williamsburg condo implosion—harrowing, that is, if you're a developer who's losing your shirt because nobody's buying the luxury units you started building before the economic collapse. The in-depth article highlights how the city's requirement that all new buildings, no matter how small, devote 20 percent of their units to affordable housing, backfired.

Bad news for squatters and survivalists: Instead of just letting abandoned condo developments turn into illegal havens for trespassers, the city is starting a $20 million pilot program to turn unsold condominiums, unrented apartments and stalled construction sites into affordable housing for middle-income families. Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced the plan, called the Housing Asset Renewal Program (HARP), in which the city will negotiate with developers and banks to turn the unoccupied units into affordable housing.

Back in 2005, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council rezoned a large swath of Williamsburg and Greenpoint to spark a boom in residential construction, and developers immediately raced in to begin work on luxury high rises. Then the economy curled up into a fetal position, and north Brooklyn is now littered with half-finished development. A team of building inspectors have found 143 stalled construction sites around the city, with the highest concentration in Brooklyn, which boasts a total 63 vacant lots and rusting steel building frames—18 in Williamsburg alone. Residents are increasingly outraged about the degentrication, which is attracting squatters and creating a fin de siècle atmosphere of urban blight. Philip DePaolo, who moved from The Bronx to Williamsburg in 1979, tells the Post his adopted neighborhood now reminds him of his old neighborhood: "It looks like I never left." And it's true—the artisanal cheese, the American Apparel, the burning buildings; life on the mean streets of Williamsburg these days makes the '70s-era Bronx seem like Greenwich, CT.

Photographer Katie Sokoler went shopping for a sympathy card at a 99 cent store in Williamsburg today but she says all she found were "tons" of "Congratulations on Your New Condo" cards. Does this mean more people are buying condos than dying? We thought condos were dying; according to The Real Deal, 1,841 condos are expected to enter the Williamsburg market by the end of this year.

After publishing that quintessential degentrification story about a new luxury condo in Crown Heights being converted to a homeless shelter, the Daily News reports that after reading the article, at least four homeless people "flocked" to the building yesterday.

Instead of boarding up an unoccupied luxury condo in Crown Heights and letting it fall into disrepair, the owner has done the unthinkable: arranged to let homeless people live there. The new apartments, which were originally priced up to $350,000, seem pretty nice; one resident who moved in with his wife and two young daughters tells the Daily News, "When I first saw it, I was like, 'Damn, everything is brand new.' It has marble counters and marble floors in the bathrooms, too. I like the big kitchen. That's my favorite." Another new resident, an out-of-work truck driver from Miami who's living with his teenage son, crows, "The closet in the main room is so big you could put a twin bed in there." Lucky homeless!

It's a scary world out there for those developers who sank millions into new luxury rental buildings, and the desperation has begun to manifest itself in increasingly entertaining ways. Take the dispiriting new Truffles TriBeCa over by the West Side Highway; this 291-unit eyesore has been trying to lure tenants with an increasingly "offbeat" marketing push, replete with half-naked models lying ass up on a sofa in what could be your totally boss apartment, brah. Truffles's latest gambit is to liven up the place with a bunch of lifeless, albeit stylish, mannequins, seen here lounging smugly on the balcony. Because nothing dispels an atmosphere of sterile desolation better than a pair of faceless white human replicas. Doesn't it kind of remind you of that scene in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" where Indian Jones finds himself in a nuclear testing "village" populated by mannequins about to be annihilated? (Or did we just needlessly confess to watching "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"?) Either way, fire at will. [Via Runnin' Scared/The Landscape]

Uh, it's time to rent, maybe? Crain's New York reports that all over the city, "maintenance fees and common charges for co-ops and condos, respectively, are rising at the highest rates in years."

Architect Daniel Libeskind is taking a cue from the urban gardening minds and "has unveiled a proposal for his first New York building: a glass tower dripping with sky gardens." NY Mag reports that his vision for One Madison Avenue would surpass the 700-foot Met Life tower in height, and that "Initial designs show a glass-curtained tube with cutaways spiraling up and around the façade to reveal segments of terraced verdure, like cultivated patches on the side of a steep alpine slope." How poetic. Libeskind says that the gardens are balconies and that the design will make it "as if nature has come back into the city.” As Curbed notes, "very expensive and exclusive nature."

        

The fourth New York City location of The Palm restaurant opened on Friday in Tribeca. This outpost is located in a luxury condo on 200 Chambers Street, and some residents there are none too thrilled about their proximity to the popular steakhouse. One gripes on the Wired New York board: "The Palm Restaurant is ruining my life...The entire lobby smells of the exhaust of the Palm Restaurant. Also certain hallways in the building and interiors of apts are also complaining about the smell."

PropertyShark analyzed Harlem condo sales data, finding a 76% drop in sales between third quarter 2008 and 3Q 2007. Oddly enough, prices increased 3% in 3Q 2008 vs. 3Q 2007. The Observer remarks upon "oversaturation in the Harlem condo market," and PropertyShark CEO Bill Staniford says, "This almost looks like a complete crash; prices are going to have to drop." However, there could be a bright side: The "possibility of substantial Harlem and East Harlem price chops has potential apartment buyers giddy at the reintroduction of a nearly extinct New York species: the newer $300,000 (and under) Manhattan condo." (Curbed wonders if the million-dollar studio has "gone the way of the dinosaur"?)

After a long, bitter public battle, St. Vincent's hospital has won permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to raze the distinctive O’Toole Building in the West Village and build a 299-foot-tall medical tower. The hospital applied for, and was granted, a “hardship-status” exemption, which allows nonprofit landlords to demolish landmark buildings if they can prove that the building is preventing them from carrying out their charitable mission. Community groups, preservationists and local celebrities like Susan Sarandon have opposed the scope of the project, which also calls for a 235-foot-tall luxury condominium (in partnership with the Rudin Management Company). In a statement, hospital officials said they can now take "another step forward to building a 21st century, technologically advanced hospital for Manhattan’s West Side and Downtown."

Retired school principal Elizabeth Mulvihill moved from Long Island to South Williamsburg a couple years ago because she's old and doesn't want to drive anymore. So she dropped $1,040,000 on a two-bedroom apartment in Schaefer Landing, a development on the East River that opened in 2006. At first life was grand, with the New York Water Taxi whisking her away to Manhattan for doctor appointments in 15 minutes. But then the boats stopped running in the winter because the line wasn't profitable. And with the L train a mile away, Mulvihill says she's "stranded" and "depressed." Other tenants at Schaefer Landing are deciding against renewing their leases because of the lack of transportation, and with Depression 2.0 well underway, many are wondering what ever will become of all these optimistic new condos. New York Water Taxi wants a subsidy from the city to keep the South Williamsburg line afloat, and Mulvihill just wants an easy way to get to the doctor. She tells the Times, “I thought this was a safe investment, given the stock market.”

The Landmarks Preservation Commission met again yesterday to deliberate on St. Vincent's Hospital’s “hardship-status” application, which, if approved, would let the hospital raze the distinctive O’Toole Building in the West Village and build a 299-foot-tall medical building and a 233-foot tall luxury condominium. Unlike previously rowdy sessions that featured protest from local celebrities, there was no public comment this time. Instead, the commission heard from outside experts like Michael Meola at the city’s Economic Development Corporation, who testified that no other sites “would be a viable alternative to the O’Toole Building.” Developer William C. Rudin added, “Now more than ever, the city needs a project like this as an investment in our future.” No decision was made yesterday, but Andrew Berman at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation tells the Times, "A lot of people are questioning whether they will actually stick with this."

Everyone is talking about the Herzog & de Meuron's 56 Leonard reveal, the apartment complex that looks like it was designed by a Gehry-influenced Dr. Seuss. The building will be a 57-story residential complex in Tribeca, housing 145 residences, each with its own unique floor plan and private outdoor space. The architects describe the units as “houses stacked in the sky,” but they aren't for those scared of heights.

A controversial 7-floor condo going up at 360 Smith Street – which some see as emblematic of Carroll Gardens's "rampant out-of-scale development." The local community board's Public Land Use committee voted to deny developer Billy Stein an extension allowing him to finish the building's foundation. Lost City was at the meeting, which featured an MTA worker's assertion the Carroll Street subway station couldn't support the bulk of 360 as proposed: "Stein, meanwhile, leaned against the lip of the auditorium's stage, a study in negative body language. To my eye, he was a picture of ingrained smugness. If there had been a button in the room that triggered a trap door to make the crowd disappear, he would have hit it, then breathed on his fingernails and polished them against his lapel."

Time, once again, to break out the tiny violins. It's hard living in luxury condos with commanding views! The Wall Street Journal has a long article on the trials and tribulations bravely endured by those whose floor-to-ceiling windows are turning their high rise apartments into hot boxes. It seems that some people don't realize that their expansive view of the Hudson also comes with too much damn sunlight! Can't the local community boards do anything about this sun business? Surely it's violating the zoning laws. And it's making the inside of Sara Antani's $1.5 million apartment stinking hot, bleaching her $20,000 sectional and forcing her to wear sunglasses just to read her Panache magazine. Your heart better be bleeding, because the only alternative for these unfortunates is to throw around a lot of money – Antani dropped $12,000 – installing expensive motorized shades. Who says the poor pay more? [Via Curbed]

Further evidence that Top Chef contestants are staying at one of the fabulous new Williamsburg condos at McCarren Park was obtained this weekend when production assistants were seen loading cameras and equipment into 20 Bayard. A laminated sign on the dashboard of one of their vans read "Magical Elves," which is a production company that often works for Bravo. The fifth season of the popular reality show is being filmed in New York, but Bravo is understandably tight-lipped about details. Nevertheless, contestants were spotted at Whole Foods yesterday and Craft this morning.

Susan Sarandon and husband Tim Robbins testified before the Landmarks Preservation Commission today in protest against St. Vincent’s proposal to raze the distinctive O’Toole Building in the West Village, as well as four other buildings to make room for a 299-foot-tall medical building and a 235-foot-tall luxury condominium (in partnership with the Rudin Management Company). For the former Bull Durham stars, all that would mean a lot of noise and dust soiling the air near their building, which is a block away.

After reviewing a new design that one commissioner promised would “rival the Tate,” the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved revised plans for a massive residential and retail development at the disused Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg. One bit of good news is that the iconic Domino sign, which had been missing from previous designs, is now preserved. Brownstoner was liveblogging the hearing and reports that LPC chairman Robert Tierney called it a "brilliant adaptive plan." Groundbreaking is expected to occur in the fall of 2009. See more approved renderings here, none of which beat the gingerbread designs.

In presenting their argument for a massive demolition and construction project in the West Village – one that would raze the distinctive O’Toole Building (pictured) – representatives of St. Vincent’s hospital told the Landmarks and Preservation Commission yesterday that it will have to shut down if their proposal is not approved. Last month the commission unanimously rejected the hospital’s $1.6 billion development plan, which would demolish nine buildings to make room for a 329-foot-tall medical building on the O’Toole site and a 265-foot-tall luxury condominium in partnership with the Rudin Management Company.

The Sun has it that their new pitch would still demolish the O’Toole building, but the new hospital would be 9% shorter than previous plans, rising to less than 300 feet. Rudin Management Co., which would buy eight buildings from the hospital to finance the project, would also build a somewhat smaller luxury condominium once they tear down the buildings – it would drop to 233 feet from 265 feet and be 60 feet less wide. Rudin would also spare four of the purchased buildings.

     

Today the Landmarks Preservation Commission is holding a public hearing to consider the largest proposal in its 43-year history: An application by the St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center to demolish eight structures in Greenwich Village on West 11th and 12th Streets, near Seventh Avenue, and construct an $800 million, 21-story, 329-foot-tall hospital and condominium tower. Falling to the wrecking ball would be the 1963 O’Toole Building which houses the hospital. The plans are strongly opposed by local residents, The Municipal Art Society, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff:

It’s historical censorship. The O’Toole Building was one of the first buildings in the city to break with the Modernist mainstream as it was congealing into formulaic dogma… It represents a moment when some architects rebelled against Modernism’s glass-box aesthetic in favor of ornamental facades… In patronizing fashion, hospital officials have suggested that preservationists are choosing buildings over lives, as if the two were in direct opposition. This is the kind of developer’s cant that is ruining our city. The addition of up to 400 co-op apartments is about money, not saving lives. There are plenty of other ways that the hospital could upgrade its facilities.

A pit bull named Tyrus is described by the New York Post as being "The Bitch of West 72nd St." and a 'Hell Hound.' Neighbors of the dog's owner at the former Olcott Hotel on the Upper West Side say that Tyrus is a menace who runs wild, poops in the hall and mauls other pets.

The Trinity School, a private school on the Upper West Side that charges annual tuition of $30,000 a year, is prepared to cash in on the rise in property values by opting out of the Mitchell-Lama housing program. That program was designed to reserve housing for middle-class tenants in New York through government subsidized loans and tax breaks. The disparity in below-market rents required by Mitchell-Lama and the value of the building that houses the...