Well, the PriceChopper may not be coming to get all of Kensington, but the old axe is definitely falling hard at a couple of developments in the neighborhood. First up for the heavy duty chainsaw treatment is 235 Ocean Parkway, which is new to market and is the site of 12 PriceChops, some of them fairly dramatic. Let's take a 1BR unit on the market for $405,000. According to streeteasy, it's taken a $94,000 hit since coming on the market a few weeks ago. All the units in the building have gotten hit by the axe, except for a handful that appear to have been listed for the first time a few days ago at the lower price structure. Next, we move along to the Park Circle on Prospect Park, a building on Coney Island Avenue where many of the units have been moldering on the market for two years and have been slashed by the axe, some quite recently. Take for instance, a $495K 1BR that's been on the market for a whopping 753 days and just took a $50,000 chopping. Not satisfied? There's always the $885K 2BR that's taken a $75,000 chop to $810K. It's only been on the market for 705 days. Timber!
· 235 Ocean Parkway [streeteasy.com]
· 346 Coney Island Avenue [streeteasy.com]
Webster Hall and some other important Manhattan landmarks might have gotten most of the attention yesterday, but Brooklyn got some love from the Landmarks Preservation Commission with the creation of the Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Historic District. The new district will be bounded by Foster Avenue on the north, Avenue H on the south, Ocean Avenue on the east and the subway line carrying the Q and other trains on the west. There are more than 250 homes in the district. We're talking about, in the LPC's words, "Colonial Revival and Shingle Style houses are largely intact, asymmetrically massed and feature spacious porches, elaborate projecting towers, oriels and bays, Palladian windows and deep eaves." The developments date from the late 1800s and there's been a lot of development pressure on the neighborhood, leading Brownstoner to write that the designation is "not a moment too soon."
· Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park (Warning: PDF) [nyc.gov]
· LPC Designates Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park [Brownstoner]
· Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Designated [Flatbush Gardener]
If there's a moral to this story it's: be careful about joking about neighborhood names because someone might believe it. The neighborhood in question is Caton Park, which is part of Victorian Flatbush on the south side of Prospect Park. There was a New York Times story this weekend about the neighborhood and historic preservation efforts, in which it was noted that "preservation-minded residents" are "seeking to keep intact the area they call NoProPaSo (North of Prospect Park South). The only trouble is that the Crazy Stable blog did it as a joke.
FLATBUSH—Hipsters rocking keffiyehs is so 2006, so it makes sense that the trend would finally find its way to real estate ads. But one observer is not pleased: "When most of us think of Flatbush, Brooklyn, we think of it as a largely Jewish and Caribbean community. Recently, the Flatbush Gardens apartments began featuring an ad with five smiling young adults. The ad is probably targeting the hipster class. One of the figures in the photo is wearing a keffiyah as a scarf. Forget about Che Guevara, the Yasser Arafat scarf is the latest in ignorant hipster couture. Terrorism is not cool! Besides, a keffiyah is traditionally worn only by men. Brooklyn is the most Jewish place outside Jerusalem, and for a developer to feature an Arafat scarf in its ads sends the wrong message to the public. I hope this ad appears on your blog. Be sure to forward it to your blogging friends in Brooklyn." Brooklyn blogging friends: you have been alerted. [CurbedWire Inbox]
HARLEM—An update on the Rhapsody on 5th apartments at 2056 Fifth Avenue from the developer, AFC Realty Capital: "AFC is also preparing for the Grand Opening of a new fully-furnished on-site sales center and model at 2056 Fifth Avenue. The state-of-the-art facility – which debuts with more than 50% of the luxurious homes already sold -- will be located on the second floor of the magnificent building. The noteworthy announcements do not end there. The condominium plan for 2056 Fifth Avenue has recently been accepted as effective by the Attorney General and initial occupancy at the building will begin in April." [CurbedWire Inbox]
TRIBECA—Hey, this Tribeca thing has legs! Stribling is expanding their presence in the 'hood, and here's an excerpt from the press release: "Stribling & Associates and Stribling Marketing Associates, premier residential real estate firms in Manhattan, celebrate the grand opening of their new, greatly expanded Tribeca office. The celebration will take place on January 31st at 32 Avenue of the Americas, the famed art deco AT&T building. The office will accommodate 40 of Stribling’s residential sales professionals engaged in resales and new development/project marketing representation." Noted. [CurbedWire Inbox]
Those crazy kids at the Municipal Art Society have put together a vid to promote the neighborhood planning effort that's underway called "Imagine Flatbush 2030." It's one of those planning exercises where everyone breaks into groups and talks about the future of the neighborhood. MAS bills it as an attempt "to incorporate more Jacobsonian ideals of livability" in the city's PlaNYC 2030. Maybe next they can talk Sir Ian McKellen into narrating the next one?
· Imagine Flatbush 2030 [YouTube]
· Imagine Flatbush 2030 [Municipal Art Society]
There are many contrasts between new and old in Brooklyn like, for instance, this, this and this. Some of the best, however, are between brick "Fedders Buildings" and their neighbors. (Not that Brooklyn has all the fun, especially when certain architects come to Manhattan.) Anyway, these very close friends come from Flatbush. Blogger Brooklyn Junction says of the match, "These two go together just like peas in a pod. I don't know what to call this exactly, but whatever it is should be outlawed... immediately...and retroactively, so as to apply to this situation."
· Construction Double Take [Brooklyn Junction]
· Scarano Comes to East Village, Pukes [Curbed]
Don't look for any shows at the famous Loew's Kings Theater in Flatbush because the theater will remain a spectacular mess for some time to come. Last year, the city asked for developers interested in redoing the old theater, which is one of the five original "Wonder Theaters." The original goal was renovating the theater by 2009. That's not going to happen, says today's Daily News, which raises the possibility that nothing may happen for a long, long time. The 3,000-seat theater has been shut for 30 years and its chandeliers and mahogany paneling have been rotting in place. In any case, 13 months after the flurry of activity, the city won't say how many responses it got or what was the proposals were. They also say they still have to study how much it will cost to renovate and repair the trashed theater. Renovation plans have been kicking around for a long time and fallen through in the past. Sometime around 2012ish, then?
· Famed Loew's Kings movie palace remains shut despite efforts [NYDN]
· Loew's Kings Theater: Is There Hope? [Brooklyn Junction]
· Loew's Kings Tagged Photos [flickr]
1) The market is in that weird gray area where buyers think they should be getting deals, and sellers think they should still be getting record prices. So buyers are sticking to rentals and waiting it out, and sellers are keeping fingers crossed for their knights in shining armor (foreigners) to swoop in and give them piles of cash. ['Between Buyers and Sellers, a Stalemate'/Christine Haughney]
2) Buyers are trying to flip their Plaza apartments for huge markups even though the building is, gasp, not sold out. The one-bedroom apartment pictured at right (which is listed as a two-bedroom for some reason) was bought for $3.21 million and is now on the market for $4.995 million, and it doesn't even face the park! [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
3) Some rich old guys—including a billionaire investor, a former ambassador to Venezuela and Mike Wallace—are worried that the restoration conversion of the Seventh Regiment Armory into a full-on performance space will ruin their sleepy little burg known as the Upper East Side. They've formed a group called Save Park Avenue’s Residential Character to do ... something. It's not very clear what they want to do, other than be cranky and complain about parking their cars. [The City/Alex Mindlin]
It's been so long since we took at new Brooklyn blogs that some of the ones we would have listed are, well, old. In any case, here are a few newish ones:
1) For the last couple of months, Brooklyn Junction--which takes its name from the intersection of Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues--has been keeping an eye on news in Flatbush and environs. Check out this item about extending the 2 and 5 Trains and this one taking a look at the new Target mall in the neighborhood for a taste of what they're up to. [Brooklyn Junction]
2)Bed-Stuy Banana, which has been doing posts since October, describes itself as being written by "A yellow girl raised in a white suburb shacked up with a white boy and had a tan kid in a primarily black NYC borough." Today's photo post "Local Colour," features exactly that. [Bed-Stuy Banana]
3)Easy Being Greene has been at it in Fort Greene for a bit, but we haven't taken note of it previously. There's heavy coverage of the neighborhood retail and food scene in addition to real estate and slice of life stories. [Easy Being Greene]
1) It's that time of year again, when a reporter sets out to find NYC apartments for under or around the national median price (which is now $224,000). This go-round's winning neighborhoods: Inwood, Jackson Heights, Forest Hills, Flatbush—and the place you're really not moving to—Riverdale. ['Even in New York, Affordable Apartments'/Vivian S. Toy]
2) Urban anthropologist Fred Kent chips in his two cents on some parts of our fair city and how to improve them. Washington Square Park: almost perfect. Brooklyn Borough Hall: "Brooklyn could be defined by this space." Bleecker Street: no cars! Battery Park City: "a mishmash of stuff that doesn’t fulfill human needs."
3) In Suzanne Slesin's latest real estate porn column, she heads to the 650 Sixth Avenue gallery because she's married to an art dealer, and she checks out 151 Wooster (right) because the architect once designed an addition for a house she and her husband owned. The New York Times, everybody! Oh, and apparently those 151 Wooster penthouses weren't combined, because they are still on the market. [Window Shopping/Suzanne Slesin]
4) "The carriage house was almost like a status symbol, and all my friends loved going there," she said, "but now I realize that while the house is very inward looking, this apartment, with the weather constantly changing out the windows, is expansive." A 16-year-old said that. Wow, rich people are weird. [Habitats/Stephen P. Williams]
5) "Something that made sense to us, where we could see our energies flowing in and out very naturally." A 22-year-old said that. Wow, NYU hippies are weird. [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]
6) A peek at Fiske Terrace and Midwood Park in Central Brooklyn, which will most likely be landmarked as a historic district on October 18. [The City/Jennifer Bleyer]
Don't look for any shows at the famous 
1) The market is in that weird gray area where buyers think they should be getting deals, and sellers think they should still be getting record prices. So buyers are sticking to rentals and waiting it out, and sellers are keeping fingers crossed for their knights in shining armor (foreigners) to swoop in and give them piles of cash. [
It's been so long since we took at new Brooklyn blogs that some of the ones we would have listed are, well, old. In any case, here are a few newish ones:
1) It's that time of year again, when a reporter sets out to find NYC apartments for under or around the national median price (which is now $224,000). This go-round's winning neighborhoods: Inwood, Jackson Heights, Forest Hills, Flatbush—and the place you're really not moving to—Riverdale. [
