Some reader-submitted rumors are so staggeringly amazing that they can't be held back for end-of-day CurbedWire or quicklinking. Nay, they must be unleashed on the world immediately where they can climb into your eyeholes and start eating away at your brain. This, friends, is one of those brain-eaters:
A New York city architectural firm is designing a tower with a giant wind turbine for its top. While the windmill's fate is somewhat uncertain in terms of DOB approvals, this 32-story tower on 34th Street is planning on having either a 30-foot-tall vertical-spinning ribbon turbine or a more conventional 30-foot diameter "fan." The developers of the tower (responsible for probably the most obnoxious ad campaign currently on the market) have shown that they are willing to spend money on green features with their past projects. For this project (a hotel), currently being designed for an international franchise, the fan will only provide a green facade. The fan will generate such a minute portion of the building's electricity that it is functionally irrelevant.
Up yours, waterfalls! And here is where the speculation starts. In terms of developers who love the "green" thing, we instantly think of the Durst Organization, but what that "most obnoxious ad campaign currently on the market" business is about, we're not sure. But who cares about the guessing game right now? Tur-bine! Tur-bine! Tur-bine!
· Hipsters Attempt to Harness Williamsburg Wind [Curbed]
· Red Hook is Getting Windmills [Curbed]
We always knew that Philadelphia would be the New Brooklyn, but we never knew that it would literally be the case. Yesterday, we noted the opening of the Nu Hotel on Smith Street, across from the Brooklyn House of Detention. What we didn't notice then, but a Curbed commenter did, is that one of the images used on the hotel's website was a little strange. That's a screencap of it on top with the, uh, Philadelphia skyline instead of the Brooklyn one. The image of the Nu Brooklyn has since been updated with one of the the Un-Nu Brooklyn that includes the Brooklyn Bridge.
· Brooklyn Hotel Wars Begin: Nu vs. Le Bleu [Curbed]
· Nu Hotel [nuhotelbrooklyn.com]
Today is the quiet start of an era in the Brooklyn hotel wars, with the Nu Hotel having its soft opening and ratcheting up the competition in the once hotel starved market. Yes, there have been Comfort Inns and Holiday Inns and there's even a growing Gowanus Hotel District, but the Nu, despite being across the street from the Brooklyn House of Detention is aimed at a more upscale, cool market. (You have been put on notice, Andre.) One floor of Nu is open (with a full opening planned in August) with the room rate being $349 and an introductory rate of $199. Le Bleu, meanwhile, which is on Fourth Avenue, seems to have come down a bit in price again, with rooms ranging from $279-$389. (But, do check out the "Serenity Package" for $499/night.) Le Bleu offers "uber chic glamor and luxurious living" nestled between a taxi depot and staple. The Nu Hotel "blends high style and luxury with New York City flair" across from the Brooklyn House of Detention. Le Bleu has dramatic glass showers in the room; Nu has hammocks. Also, they rhyme.
· Bklyn's Nu Hotel Schedules Soft Opening for Monday [Brooklyn Eagle]
· Nu Hotel [nuhotelbrooklyn.com]
· Nu Hotel Ready to Face Off Against Ye Olde Hotel on Smith St. [Curbed]
One thing that can be said about the Nu Hotel, which is supposed to be opening in July on Smith Street in the same building as the 75 Smith condo, is that some guests will be able to lounge in hammocks and that many will have picture postcard views of a different kind of accommodation. Also some of the rooms at the Nu will apparently have bunk beds, just like the jail across the street. It doesn't look like the Nu Hotel has set prices yet, as the reservation page just produces error messages, but it's safe to say that it'll be a lot more expensive than its friend across the street from which checking out was always a lot harder. The hotel's website says that "Nu Hotel is a lifestyle hotel in the heart of downtown Brooklyn that is designed with physical comfort in mind – like wearing your favorite t-shirt with a beloved pair of jeans. The Nu Hotel will have 93 rooms, be operated by Hersha Hospitality and probably have much better room service than its neighbor, protests about whose pending reopening and expansion are ongoing. The Hersha website said it will open in July but the hotel's site just says "Summer."
· Nu Hotel [nuhotelbrooklyn.com]
· The Shock of the Nu, Hammocks Included [Brownstoner]
· Nu Hotel [hershahotels.com]
Look, we have no idea who in their right mind would sink their life savings into a building just because it's home to seven drunken idiots for a few months, but the BellTel Lofts team apparently thinks these people are out there. An ad printed in yesterday's Post real estate supplement (complete picture after the jump) for the Downtown Brooklyn building makes it perfectly clear why developers were jockeying to be the winner of the great Real World Brooklyn sweepstakes of 2008: so they can slap that familiar logo on their product and draw some eyeballs. Will it pay off?
The press event that the growing opposition to the reopening and enlargement of the Brooklyn House of Detention had been planning went off yesterday, and it provided an opportunity for them to blast the city's plan. How it will effect the $440 million redevelopment is unclear, as the city says it intends to pick a developer by the end of next month. A spokesperson for the StopBHOD group, which has been plastering the Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens with anti-jail fliers, said the city is "trying to railroad it through without going through the process." The jail at Atlantic Ave. & Smith Street was closed in 2003, and it's increasingly surrounded by luxe condo and other development. The city wants to reopen, double its capacity and add retail at street level. It may hold the distinction of being one of the few properties in the development-sensitive neighborhoods that residents actually want to see sold to a developer for a big condo or rental building.
· Brooklyn Jail Opponents Speak Out [Sun]
· As the Brooklyn Jailhouse Turns: Sell Cells & Build Condos? [Curbed]
· Brooklyn's Jail with Retail is Back with a Lot More Jail [Curbed]
At one time, 110 Livingston Street—Two Trees Management's condo conversion (plus glassy addition) to the old Board of Education building designed by McKim, Mead & White and built in 1926—was the hottest project in Downtown Brooklyn, and perhaps all of Brooklyn. The 300-unit building was a bona fide phenomenon, becoming the most commented upon topic in Curbed history and launching DoBro into a new stratosphere of high expectations. But buried in a Times story yesterday about Brooklyn developers turning Manhattan-style luxury condos into Manhattan-style luxury rentals, a stunning reveal: Two Trees ended up renting out 40 units at 110 Livingston. By our advanced calculations, that's over 10% of the building! Now, we knew that some apartments went rental, and when those embarrassing subway ads went up, we knew it was probably more than the initially announced crop of six. But ... 40? What happened to the pre-release interest list of over 1,800 names? Why, when the building "sold out," did a Two Trees rep tell the Brooklyn Eagle, "It's done. It's completely sold out. We sold 300 units in 11 months." Two Trees is making solid bank off the rentals, sure, but we hate it when young phenoms don't live up to their potential. Wake us when the Real World hits the 'hood.
· 110 Livingston Getting Some Culture via Gowanus [Curbed]
· CurbedWire: 110 Livingston Gets Graphed [Curbed]
· All 110 Livingston coverage [Curbed]
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN—The city's proposal to double the size of the currently closed Brooklyn House of Detention at Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street and add retail at the ground floor, has a new friend. There's already one group fighting the plan and a new one called Stop BHOD is starting up. They email to say "The members of this Association strongly believe that the City's plan to expand and open Brooklyn House of Detention (BHOD) represents bad public policy." The group isn't worried about Nike setting up shop, but takes issue with the city spending "$500 million on an obsolete jail that will threaten the remarkable revitalization of Downtown Brookyn." They argue the city should sell or lease the site for development. And, they cite "inhumane" conditions at the jail, which were the subject of much litigation before it closed. [CurbedWire Inbox]
STUY TOWN—Of course, the Oval at Stuy Town is getting a summer concert series sponsored by Verizon (gotta recruit those FiOS customers!). Music on the Oval is billed, per the press release that arrived this morning, as "a unique outdoor summer concert series" that "will bring the sweet sounds of samba, rock, funk, jazz, and reggae to Stuyvesant Town." Music on the Oval is every Wednesday nights starting at 6pm. This is not to be confused with the movie theater. [CurbedWire Inbox]
HARLEM—There is some building activity, per a reader email: "Vacant lot behind my apartment and located on 133 between broadway and amsterdam seems to be getting built on, clearing the grounds and put up wooden wall around perimeter but no idea what is being built... backhoe there currently on the grounds." [CurbedWire Inbox]
The "Brooklyn Day" Atlantic Yards rally sponsored by Forest City Ratner happened yesterday afternoon. Curtis Sliwa showed and spoke, but Rev. Al Sharpton was said to have been stuck in transit trying to get back to New York and was a no show. The developer's crowd estimate, quoted in the Daily Newswas 3,000 and it jumped to 3,500 in the Post, but Atlantic Yards Report noted it might actually have been 2,000 and suggested that it included people shopping at the Greenmarket. Many people working in the area might have been drawn by free food and Nets freebies. As for the party-like atmosphere, AYR writes:
Despite decent weather, free t-shirts, a full-page ad in the Daily News, an E-newsletter, requests from union bosses to attend, and promises of free food, free transportation, and “international recording artist Maxi Priest,” the disparate and soon-diminished crowd was often subdued, even bored, and a passel of Forest City Ratner operatives monitoring the event looked somber, despite the billing as a “fun day.”
Is the bike lane on Adams Street in Downtown Brooklyn on the left, in the middle or on the right? McBrooklyn writes:
Bikers take their life into their hands on the Adams Street service road, in front of the Marriott in Downtown Brooklyn. The cars were right on this guy's back after this picture was taken. Lots of cars and lots of bikers streamed through the lane as we stood there, about 8 a.m.
Sorry, Williamsburg, you're not hip enough or cool enough and you certainly don't have a space good enough to serve as the set of Real World BK. Even though rumors were being floated as late as Friday that the Belltel Lofts in Downtown Brooklyn was too small, the producers are bringing the show to the building, which beat out 24 other locations. The winner is a $6 million, two-story penthouse. There will be two terraces, five bedrooms and 10-foot windows. "A Jacuzzi and other amenities are also on the way," but there will be "safegaurds in place to make sure the reality show's stable of rowdies don't irritate the 100 families who call Belltel home in real life." And there won't be any shooting in the gym or other building common areas. The developer David Bistricer, was on the losing end of a bid to buy Starrett City last year. The real question, though, is will there be conflict with the building's budding Stroller Mafia?
· Real World BK: The Candidates [Curbed]
· Stroller Mafia Goes to the Mats at BellTel Lofts [Curbed]
· Belltel Lofts [belltellofts.com]
Some reader-submitted rumors are so staggeringly amazing that they can't be held back for end-of-day CurbedWire or quicklinking. Nay, they must be unleashed on the world immediately where they can climb into your eyeholes and start eating away at your brain. This, friends, is one of those brain-eaters:
Comments
At one time, 110 Livingston Street—Two Trees Management's condo conversion (plus glassy addition) to the old Board of Education building designed by McKim, Mead & White and built in 1926—was the hottest project in Downtown Brooklyn, and perhaps all of Brooklyn. The 300-unit building was a bona fide phenomenon, becoming the 
