Carroll Gardens Gowanus Expressway Building: Dramatic Views

When we first met the Gowanus Expressway Building at the end of Court Street in Carroll Gardens it was still under construction. Now, 562 Court Street is renting and doing so as "luxury rentals" on the market via Corcoran. It does look like some units are still available, and $2,900-$3,100 a month for 1,000 square foot 2BRs. Some come with balconies and/or terraces, including several with dramatic views of the congealed traffic on the expressway.
· 562 Court St, Apt. 5B [Corcoran]
· Meanwhile, Down at the End of Court Street [Curbed]

PriceSpotter Big Reveal: That's Why They Call it Great

Location: 39 Great Jones Street
Asking: $2,675,000

Not surprisingly, a lot of love for this Great Jones Street duplex loft. But as for the game, the second guesser nailed it, an anonymous visitor who suspiciously wrote, "$2,675,000 and not a penny more." The critiques on this beauty were minor (we agree that it's a little annoying to enter a duplex on the bedroom level), but we love how even the jaded among you were proven wrong. Like this, "Nice, looks like it's about 2200 sqft, perfect location, nice reno (although a bit neutral). Should probably sell for 2.6MM, but is probably listed for 3.595 or something like that."
· Listing: 39 Great Jones Street [Sotheby's]
· Curbed PriceSpotter: That's Why They Call it Great [Curbed]

Caledonia Apartment Lottery: Gotta Be In It

March 15 is the deadline date for anyone who wants to get in the game to win one of the "permanently affordable rental apartments" available in the Caledonia, a great deal that we told y'all about a few weeks back. There are 59 recession-beating units in this new building, which is connected to the High Line and just a bone's throw from the Meatpacking District. From the looks of things, the folks in charge of the lottery might change the rules any minute, so act fast!

Check out the rules.>>

First A Building Rental Hits the Market

The New York Times real estate listings are a treasure trove of great finds right now. First, the $27 million Palazzo Chupi reveal, and now, the first ever rental listing in the Upper East Village's one and only luxury condo development, the A Building. Closings in the building recently started, so it was only a matter of time before the rentals popped up. The price—$4,000/month—is in line with other new construction one-bedroom apartments and shouldn't come as much of a shock. The listing also provides our first glimpse inside the A Building, because this doesn't really count. It's a slightly underwhelming experience, if only because we don't get to see the rooftop pool, probably because the building is still nowhere near completion.
· Listing: 425 East 13th Street [NYT]
· 'A Building' Developer: Toll Brothers Who? [Curbed]
· East Village's A Building Gets Trimmed for Christmas [Curbed]

Forget the Toll Brothers, Here's 'Venice Springs Industrial Park'

This is not a joke. Well, the "Venice Springs Industrial Park" and cupid might be jokes, but it's an ad for actual space being rented on the Gowanus. It's been posted up on Craigslist, and the company's also posted ads for space in a "hip Gowanus locale." The pitch says, in part, "Perfect for working artists, sculptors, performance venues, unique dining concepts, bakeries, galleries, scrap processing, canal boating tour operators, shipping, light manufacturing, photography studios and alternative offices." Canal boating tour operators?
· Venice Springs Industrial Park--Work on the Water [Craigslist]
· It's Official: Gowanus is Having a Moment [Curbed]

Total Mindfuck: Philippe Starck Using BeaverMobile to Rent Wall Street Apartments

Yoo by Starck—the Philippe Starck-led design group team thingy that gave us Gramercy by Starck on fabulous 23rd Street—is set to unveil its first Manhattan rental building. And it's in the FiDi, of course. The Joseph Moinian-owned 95 Wall Street to be exact, now renamed Dwell. But here's where the story takes a funny turn, because everything going on in the FiDi comes back to the William Beaver House in one way or another. Writes a tipster:

I was walking around Water St. and Wall St. and noticed a new add on a building promoting Starck rentals downtown.

So I go to the Website to check it out, and sure enough comes an image of the beaver mobile cruising on wall street. Coincidence or conspiracy?

André Balazs, we don't know how you do it, but you do. And you do it oh so well. But let's not dwell on Beaver. The website says Citi Habitats will be handling the marketing, but there's no info on the CH site quite yet. What ridiculous amount of money will rents start at over at 95 Wall?
· Dwell [dwellonwall.com]
· BeaverMobile Not Respecting Rules of Parallel Parking [Curbed]
· Ladies and Gentleman, the BeaverMobile [Curbed]

Curbed PriceSpotter: Jane Ain't So Plain?

PriceSpotter is Curbed's asking price guessing game. We provide you with some details and pictures from an apartment listing, and you take a crack at the price in the comments. Tomorrow we reveal the answer. And hey, no cheating!

What/Where: 2BR, 2BA co-op on Jane Street btwn West 4th Street/Greenwich Avenue
Square Feet: 1,200
Maintenance: $1,470
The Skinny: This renovated West Village co-op talks up its "move-in condition" and "freshly skim-coat painted" walls and Valli & Valli fixtures and halogen lighting and Zzzzzzz. Check out that roof deck! Mmm, that's nice. It's not private though, so don't let it sway your thinking too much. This full-service building has laundry in the basement, so stock up quarters and give us your bid.
· Curbed PriceSpotter Archives [Curbed]

Jehovah's Witness Brooklyn Heights Hotel is Already Rental

That was fast. The old Standish Arms Hotel in Brooklyn Heights sold by the Jehovah's Witnesses in December has already been re-branded as 169 Columbia Heights and is on the rental market. McBrooklyn found posters for the luxe rentals that start at $2K and those, in turn, led to online info for the former Watchtower Society building. They're being marketed with the tag line "Live Grandly, Make History" and as being close to "trendy Montague Street." The building's history apparently includes residency by Superman in apartment 5G, plus serving as a setting in "Death of a Salesman." McBrooklyn points out that the marketing push doesn't include the "the spectacular Standish Arms Hotel Fire of 1966." From the look of some older photos on the site, some of the apartments may have excellent views of William Beaver House across the river.
· 'The Standish' Now Renting in Brooklyn Heights [McBrooklyn]
· 169 Columbia Heights [awayerealty.com]
· Jehovah's Witnesses Out, Yuppies In at Brooklyn Heights Hotel [Curbed]

Flip of All Flips: Edgar Bronfman Jr. Puts in His Two Weeks

In July, Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold his East 64th Street townhouse for over $50 million, a pretty good deal for the booze heir/record executive, who purchased the home in 1994 for $4.375 million. Because that deal wasn't audacious enough, perhaps because of the elapsed time between transactions, Bronfman has decided to up the ante. His latest acquisition is an 11-room spread at storied co-op 1040 Fifth Avenue, designed by Rosario Candela and onetime home of Jackie O. Bronfman has listed the apartment for $24 million, despite closing on it for just $19.5 million two weeks ago. A $4.5M markup for signing some papers? Genius. Bronfman never even climbed under the covers, and instead he'll move his brood to the Carhart Mansion on East 95th Street. Hey, aren't those famously stingy co-op board supposed to prevent stuff like this?

Slightly ridic floorplan porn after the jump. >>

Curbed RentChopper: Clock Ticking on This Lafayette Loft

Then: $16,000/month
Now: $10,500/month
You Save!: $5,500/month

Some call the block of Lafayette between Howard and Canal Streets Chinatown, and others call it Soho, but no matter what language you speak—Chinese or Fancypants—if there's one thing that's universal, it's a date with ... THE CHOPPER!!! Up on the ninth floor of 129 Lafayette Street, a brick and granite former printing building, this 2BR, 2BA loft checks in at a hefty 2,200 square feet. It comes furnished, with a washer/dryer and a private balcony. So why no takers and a huge cut? Maybe because the apartment appears to be available only until August. But what a six months it would be!
· Listing: Soho's Nicest Furnished Loft [Halstead]

Hope is Alive: NYC's 'Bargain Hoods'?

As part of New York Magazine's recession package this week, which recalls the glory days of the early '90s when a Tudor City one-bedroom could be purchased for $3,500, there's a sidebar on "Bargain Hoods" that covers everything from the best places to borrow a wifi signal to tips on how to rent a room in one's condo or apartment as a hotel room. There are also tips from brokers on places to look for good buys. A couple of samples:

1) $299K for a 750 square foot 1BR coop in Inwood, which is "way north, but enough pluses...to attract people priced out of Chelsea and the Village."
2) A 450-square-foot $1,900 rental in an elevator building on 46th Street west of Ninth Avenue.
3) A 500-square-foot rental, with a private deck, for $1,390 a month in East Williamsburg/Bushwick. More deals east of the BQE, it's said, because the housing stock "is more humble."

More on the list itself.

· The Everything Guide to Belt Tightening: Bargain Hoods [NYM]
· The Upside of the Downside [NYM]
· The Stench of '89 [NYM]