Well, the people running the 21st Century Street design competition didn't cop out and go for some easy Brooklyn spot. They could have always picked a tougher spot, but the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street is by no means an urban oasis, even though the avenue has been insanely optimistically referred to as Brooklyn's Park Avenue. The contest, which is open for the public and sponsored by Transportation Alternatives, is looking for "new conceptual and physical approaches to the planning of public streets...The street will be re-imagined as a healthy, safe, and sustainable 21st Century street." It's steps from the Fourth Avenue Station whose own redesign was recently tossed into the trash bin by the MTA. The registration deadline is July 18, entries are due by August 18 and there will be a public show in December. The top entry chosen gets a $6,000 prize. Everybody else, maybe, gets to envision what it might be like to cross Fourth Avenue without risking being pancaked by a turning truck.
· Designing the 21st Century Street [21centurystreet.org]
People can finally move into the Novo Park Slope. Repeat...The long delayed Shaya Boymelgreen development on Fourth Avenue finally gained a temporary certificate of occupancy on Friday. Apparently it was just in time, as buyers would soon have been allowed to walk away from contracts. The certificate is only good through the 25th, though, and there are 23 requirements to be met before the building really gets the green light. [Brownstoner]
The weekend storms, particularly Saturdays big blow, were not kind to Gowanus where manhole covers have been known to blow off spewing geysers of sewage into the streets. There are no reports of that this weekend, but there was plenty of rowboat potential, including stretches of Fourth Avenue where all those new condos are going up. The photo on the left comes from Ninth Street near the Smith-Ninth Station and the Gowanus Canal. The photo on the right is Fourth Avenue & Carroll Streets, where the water was almost thigh deep. Surf's up.
· After the Storm: Behold the Ninth St. Lagoon [GL]
· Over the Weekend, a Flood on Carroll Street [Brownstoner]
There are two schools of new buildings on the boom Fourth Avenue corridor with the bricked out Novo Park Slope look being at one end and the new Karl Fischer revealed recently being at the other. The new building, which will be going up at Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street (formal address 202 8th St.) definitely falls into the latter category. It will actually be good friends with the Argyle, which is under construction. It comes from DJ Associates and will clock in with 12 stories and 43 apartments. Our tipster says the plans "show underground parking, gym/lounge on 1st floor, and two large outdoor garden spaces. they already poured a piece of the foundation so they have 421a," meaning buyers will still get a big property tax break. Brownstoner had an earlier, even glassier, version of the building a while back.
· Slope Getting a Big Hot Karl: Novo's Friend Revealed [Curbed]
· Curbed Price Chopper: Everything Left at Novo Park Slope [Curbed]
To refresh the memory, the building rising on First Street in Park Slope just off Fourth Avenue (next to the McDonald's drive through window) was tentatively supposed to be called The Gowanus. No longer. It is now....Elan Park Slope with the marketing slogan "Style & Substance," which is all well and good except that Elan is right next to McDonald's and could lead to a profusion of jokes about instant Big Mac and Egg McMuffin deliveries being one of the building's many amenities. Oh, but wait, Gramercy by Starck has a McDonald's on the ground floor, so Elan and McNuggets might go together after all.
· Elan Park Slope [elanparkslope.com]
· Rendering vs. Reality: Park Slope's Gowanus Condo [Curbed]
· Park Slope #2: Big Mac Tower on First Street [Curbed]
All the residents of the Argyle, Novo Park Slope (well, someday), the new Fourth Ave. Hot Karl and other buildings going up on Brooklyn's new Park Avenue are going to have to wait a long time for the local subway station to gets its extreme makeover. As it turns out, the Brooklyn Paper reports the ambitious plan to "renovate the shabby Fourth Avenue station in Park Slope into a glittering, light-filled, Euro-styled stunner" is getting moved to the trash folder. Was it only last fall that the reno was trotted out as one of the few pieces of good news about the work that will close the Smith-9th Street Station and leave Slopers that use the F Train thinking warmly about commuting by L Train? Yup. Alas, the overall $250 million project has gotten a BudgetChop from $250M to $187.8M and the Fourth Ave. plans have been deleted.
· Fourth Avenue left waiting at the station [Brooklyn Paper]
· Slope's Fourth Ave. Station to Offer Views of New Park Avenue [Curbed]
The big, boxy collaboration between architect Robert Scarano and developer Isaac Katan on Fourth Avenue in the South Slope is filling out. The building clocks in at 12 stories and will have 135 units. It was rumored early on to be the site of an Olive Garden, but that dream has been squashed as the building has gone up. In the meantime, a name and marketing campaign, plus a retail tenant, await this more southern representative of the Fourth Avenue boom.
· Construction Watch: Scarano Looming Large on Fourth Ave. [Curbed]
· Park Slope Goes Downhill to Fourth Ave. [Curbed]
Don't look now, but real estate types say that a lot of people buying on Fourth Avenue (aka Brooklyn's New Park Avenue) are from up the hill in Park Slope. Specifically, Bradley Hope reports in today's Sun that sales directors say that half of the first buyers in 20 new buildings come from the more traditional Park Slope parts of the Slope. The story notes that Fourth Avenue "is on the verge of becoming one of the densest new residential areas in Brooklyn." There are close to 1,000 apartments under construction on "a 1.4-mile stretch of six-lane road known for its car repair shops, gas stations, and big box stores." One buyer at the Argyle says he blew a shot at a two-floor apartment in Park Slope for $110,000 in the 1990s and that he bought on Fourth Avenue because he's "tired of missing opportunities." His sixth floor 1BR at the Argyle cost $500,000. Not all is good, though. The story notes that only 40 percent of the units at the Novo Park Slope are sold and the recent PriceChopping. $110K for two floors in the Slope? Make the pain go away, please.
· Park Slope Residents Head to Fourth Avenue [Sun]
· Interesting Question: Does Brooklyn's New Park Avenue Suck? [Curbed]
· Brooklyn's Fourth Avenue as the 'Next Park Ave.' [Curbed]
There is major PriceChopping action at the Novo Park Slope on Fourth Avenue. Just last week, it was revealed that the ground floor tenant wouldn't be a retailer or a restaurant, but an ambulatory care center for Methodist Hospital. The tipster who pointed out Ye Olde PriceChops wrote that it "looks like having a Methodist Hospital on-site is bearish to property value." In any case, the carnage on streeteasy is mere hours old in most cases, but ten of the 12 units still listed at the building have gotten a serious shave. A 3BR, for instance, has gotten a $105,000 PriceChop down to $905,000. A 2BR takes a $50,000 hit down to $799,000. A 1BR gets a $30,000 trim to $565,000. Big discounts, plus medical help will only be steps away.
· Novo Park Slope Listings [Corcoran]
· Full Novo Park Slope Splendor Finally Revealed [Curbed]
It's been a while since we considered The Argyle, the big condo rising on Fourth Avenue in what's being marketed as Park Slope but is definitely on the Gowanus side of the DMZ. The thing that surprises about Argyle is the slow pace at which it's been rising. The building has seemed stuck for weeks, with only a few stories showing above ground on Fourth Avenue, but there might be a reason: it's been hobbled by on-and-off Stop Work Orders, most recently for a couple of weeks in February. When it's finished, the building from Meltzer/Mandl will have 59 units on 12 floors. Units have sold at a fair clip, but there's a waiting list for parking spaces, whose prices have actually increased over time.
· Argyle Gets Park Slope Storefront [Curbed]
The crew over at Streets Blog, which normally spends its time on topics like congestion pricing, takes a look at the new Fourth Avenue between Park Slope and Gowanus and decides that, in a word, it pretty much sucks despite the fact that Borough President Marty Markowitz called it "a grand boulevard of the 21st Century." They say the Novo Park Slope "looms fortress-like over the playground next door." The Crest, on the other hand, "greets passersby with man-sized industrial vents." And, Hotel Le Bleu? It "meets the sidewalk with a parking lot fit for a suburban dentist's office." Oh, and there's also discussion of streetscapes, livability, mixed use development and whether the development cycle might peter out before Fourth Avenue has a chance to become the next Park Avenue.
· New York Can Do Better Than the "New Fourth Avenue" [Streets Blog]
· Brooklyn's Fourth Avenue as the Next Park Avenue [Curbed]
While rumors of this building at Fourth Avenue and Thirteenth Street in the South Slope being the future site of an Olive Garden have had all the oil brutally squeezed from them, the building itself is making quite the boxy statement. It's one of the bigger buildings to result so far from the Fourth Avenue building boom and comes from two beloved Brooklyn players, architect Robert Scarano and developer Isaac Katan (who is one of the people behind the huge New Domino plan in Williamsburg). The massive 12-story building will have 135 condos and we're waiting on a name and a marketing effort. As for the Olive Garden, well, one will still have to go to Manhattan for the pasta supply.
· Fourth Avenue #1: Olive Garden Building Grown Tall [Curbed]
· An Olive Garden Grows Quickly in Brooklyn [Curbed]
· Olive Garden: South Slope Restaurant Rumor is BS [Brownstoner]
First, come things like Hotel Le Bleu and the condos. Then, come the comparisons of Fourth Avenue to...Park Avenue. This analogy comes from Le Bleu owner Joe Tonacchio, who tells the Daily News, "Mark my words, within five years Fourth Ave. will be the next Park Ave." This is either the kind of thing that in retrospect will look visionary or, well, a little bit of a stretch. (Also, it is not to be confused with Hotel Le Jolie next to the BQE in Williamsburg "being right here before it all happens.") An employee at the taxi depot next to Le Bleu offers: "We are up and coming."
· Hotel Le Bleu: New luxury hotel features a gritty Park Slope view! [NYDN]
· Time for Haters to Rethink Gowanus' Hotel Le Bleu [Curbed]
· The New Look Fourth Avenue, Park Slope Side [Curbed]
The Gowanus side of Park Slope-Gowanus DMZ known as Fourth Avenue is about to get a serious, serious dose of glass. The tipster who hit us off with the renderings of this building that will be going up at Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street offers that it "looks a lot better than some of the other crap on 4th ave." The building, which our tipster says is designed by DJ Associates, is destined for a site that was the subject of a Rumblings item a few weeks ago. It will be a 12-story building with about 50,000 square feet. It's a definite departure from some of the brick-heavy buildings that will be its nearby neighbors.
· Rumblings & Bumblings: 12 Stories for G-Slope, Cigar for EVill's Green Monster, More [Curbed]
That was really fast. The building on Fourth Avenue in that is rumored to the be future home of an Olive Garden and was only a couple of stories tall as recently as July, has ended its growth spurt at 12 stories. The structure we've called the Olive Garden Building (it could be seen sticking up in the distance in this photo of the view from the Hotel Le Bleu) is at 13th Street and Fourth Avenue, and is on the southern flank of the Fourth Avenue building boom. It's a collaboration between architect Robert Scarano and developer Isaac Katan. The building has racked up 51 complaints with the Department of Buildings, including a number of gripes that construction work has been starting at 6AM and that things are falling on its neighbors.
· An Olive Garden Grows Quickly in Brooklyn [Curbed]
· The New Look Fourth Avenue, Park Slope Side [Curbed]
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The Gowanus side of Park Slope-Gowanus DMZ known as Fourth Avenue is about to get a serious, serious dose of glass. The tipster who hit us off with the renderings of this building that will be going up at Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street offers that it "looks a lot better than some of the other crap on 4th ave." The building, which our tipster says is designed by DJ Associates, is destined for a site that was the subject of 
