Great transit and three blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The commercial floors have 16 ft. ceilings and wonderful light @ approx. 3600 sq ft. Building is 25′ x 80’ft. on a 100ft lot. New plumbing, electric and mechanicals – all have been upgraded. This is a great opportunity to create a business in one of the most desirable and connected areas of Brooklyn.
This beautiful lower duplex has it all! Two large bedrooms and two baths on the parlor floor with great light, high ceilings and wonderful original details. The master bedroom has an en-suite master bath. The huge living room is on the garden floor with a original decorative fire place and second bath. Gourmet kitchen has a dishwasher and a Washer/Dryer too. The eat in kitchen leads out to a wonderful green oasis in the backyard with room to grill and relax with friends. Entrance on the garden and parlor level works well for a home based business or office. Fully renovated basement provides and extra den or play room with fantastic storage. Cobble Hill is a wonderful neighborhood with great restaurants like La Vara and Libertador right around the corner. Wonderful shopping and zoned for PS 29. A short distance to the F -G train at Bergen St or 2-3 & 4-5 & N & R at Boro Hall. Other area highlights include being close to the Cobble Hill theater, Trader Joe’s. Pets are accepted upon approval. Lease date is August 1st.
Call today or send me a message on my contact me page today.
Cobble Hill, New York Rental $6495 | Last updated: 6/25/2019 | ID: 19596427 Residence InformationType: Duplex | Rooms: 7.0 | Bedrooms: 2 | Bathrooms: 2.0 Decorative Fireplace: 1 | Air conditioning: Window Period: Post-War | Built: 1901 | Building Type: Townhouse
Luxury real estate is about experience, not aesthetic, according to New York-based designer Andrew Kotchen of architecture and design firm Workshop/APD.
The emphasis on experience as a defining part of luxury helps explain why more luxury condo developers are pouring money into wellness amenities like rooftop running tracks and private spas.
Luxury properties are no longer all about marble floors and French doors.
According to New York-based designer Andrew Kotchen, founding principal of architecture and design firm Workshop/APD, luxury is more about experience than aesthetic. Kotchen’s firm has designed everything from urban lofts and homes to city buildings and restaurants across London, the Bahamas, Miami, Nantucket, Aspen, and New York City.
“It’s about comfort,” he said in a recent interview with Mansion Global. “A beautiful hotel, for example, is not luxury if it’s not relaxing. It’s not just about rich materials spread throughout. The world we live in thinks the more money you throw at it, the more fancy materials, the more luxury it is. It’s not true.”
He continued: “Certainly there are baseline conditions of quality and craft, but it’s really an experience. That’s what it means to me. It’s not a place, a thing, or a product.”
The focus on experiences explains why luxury condo developers are pouring money into “well-being” amenities. Consider boutique Los Angeles condominium 1030 Kings, which has an outdoor yoga deck, and Arbor18 in Brooklyn, which boasts not only a zen garden but also an infrared sauna with built-in chromotherapy.
It also explains why luxury buyers are downsizing, prioritizing quality over space. But the evolution of luxury real estate is part of a bigger shift in the overall luxury industry: The wealthy are increasingly spending money discreetly and on experiences instead of items that once signified status.
Entire industries are developing or adjusting their services to cater to consumers’ heightened interest in the experience behind the brand. As Business Insider’s Lina Batarags reported, “Wellness is increasingly regarded as a modern embodiment of luxury, and accordingly, an array of spas and studios offering treatments like cryofacials, weeklong retreats, and vitamin IV drips are delivering those experiences.”
Plans have shifted quite drastically for a prominent development in Downtown Brooklyn.
In a surprise twist, a developer has abandoned already approved plans to build a 44-story apartment tower and instead will construct a 23-story office building, Building Department records show. The currently empty lot at 141 Willoughby Street was once the site of an early 20th century printing plant. It was demolished at the end of 2018.
The current plans are roughly half the size of what the developer, Savanna Partners, had originally envisioned. The switch could reflect a softening market for luxury rentals in the borough. Savanna declined to comment to The Real Deal, which was the first to write about the change in plans.
In 2014, there were plans for a proposed 49-story glass tower, which required a zoning variance. The City Council voted to rezone the site but with modifications.
They allowed a FAR of 15, rather than the 18 requested, enough to create a roughly 44-story mixed-use building. The Real Deal reported at the time that the building would include 203 apartments with 61 at below-market rates to comply with the mayor’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.
It’s unclear whether the developer plans to build housing nearby instead. Savanna owns two neighboring lots, located at 383 and 385 Gold Street, the former being a parking lot and the latter public open space, purchased from New York City’s Economic Development Corp. Two of the three lots are currently surrounded by a construction fence, but no plans have been filed for the two lots on Gold Street.
Rendering via Savanna Fund
Morris Adjami was the original architect on the project; new plans list SLCE Architects as the architect of record.
The previous building at 114 Willoughby was designed by architect Frank H. Quinby and constructed in 1919 as the printing plant of the American Law Book Company. The factory was constructed on a small plot of land created with the extension of Flatbush Avenue around 1906, according to a 1919 story about the then-new building in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The company eventually moved to Manhattan and the building was used for storage.
The building in 2017
The property is right across the street from Brooklyn Point, which, when completed, will be the tallest building in the borough. Less than a block away, construction is in full swing on another office tower, located at 420 Albee Square.
Almost half the money spent by New York City home buyers in the first quarter of 2019 went toward the most expensive properties. That wasn’t always the case.
Nearly half the money spent on residential real estate in Manhattan during the first quarter of 2019 (45.4 percent, to be exact) was spent on the most expensive homes — those that sold for more than $4 million — according to information collected by Jonathan J. Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
As for the most affordable homes — those priced under $1 million — only 14.5 percent of the money spent on real estate went toward buying them.
That might not seem surprising, but rewind to the third quarter of 2001 and you’ll find that ratio nearly inverted: 14 percent of the money spent went toward properties over $4 million, while 42 percent went to those under $1 million. (The share spent on homes in the middle, between $1 million and $4 million, has remained relatively unchanged.)
Why the huge growth at the top? Simply put, the high cost of land combined with easily available capital made building anything but the highest-end properties unappealing to investors and developers, said Mr. Miller, who began charting the dollar distribution among these price ranges in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, anticipating that the event might affect the market.
One-time payment is preferable to once-a-year tax, brokers say
Rate would top out at 4.15% on home purchases over $25 million
The tax, included in the new state budget and replacing an annual pied-a-terre levy, would be a one-time payment that’s less likely to scare buyers away, brokers say. It’s just the entry fee into New York’s exclusive market.
“We probably dodged a bullet here,” Steven James, chief executive officer of Douglas Elliman’s New York City division, said in an interview. “It’s not the catastrophe we thought was going to happen.”
New York’s powerful real estate industry succeeded in killing the pied-a-terre tax that some considered “class warfare” against the rich, and a measure likely to hurt already-slowing luxury sales. While the higher mansion tax would apply to most buyers of homes costing $2 million or more, it won’t be a deal-killer for many people, brokers say.
Counting Pennies
Elizabeth Stribling-Kivlan, president of Stribling & Associates, said a client from Europe had canceled a house-hunting trip for an apartment above $25 million because of the pied-a-terre tax, which would have been levied each year based on the value of the home. The agent is hopeful he might now change his mind.
“It’s a lot easier to pay one time than every year,” Stribling-Kivlan said. “It’s easy to look at someone who makes an enormous purchase and say they have a lot of money. It does matter to them. But a lot of people get wealthy by counting their pennies and spending wisely.”
The pied-a-terre proposal, which had support from Governor Andrew Cuomo, collapsed after real estate professionals complained that it would damage sales and city tax officials said they didn’t have the resources to assess properties or determine who was an absentee owner.
Lobbyists also questioned the constitutionality of treating second-home buyers differently than permanent residents and whether legal challenges could arise when adjacent properties were assessed at different values.
Simpler Tax
The mansion tax has the benefit of being simple.
New York buyers already pay a flat 1 percent tax on home purchases of $1 million or more. Now, there would be a scale of graduated levies that would start at 1 percent. The rate would increase at $2 million and continue to rise until it reaches a top of 4.15 percent on any amount over $25 million.
The tax is expected to raise $365 million this year, money that would secure about $5 billion in bonds for mass transit.
Bess Freedman, chief executive officer of Brown Harris Stevens in New York, said she’s not happy about the new tax — but she’s relieved.
“Do we love it? No,” she said. “But we can digest it.”
If the levy had been in place for 2018, it would have affected about 26 percent of Manhattan’s residential market, or anything above $2 million, according to Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. In Brooklyn, just 8.1 percent of deals were in that price range, he said.
‘Don’t Live Here’
To Pamela Liebman, president of brokerage Corcoran Group, the mansion tax is damaging to the whole market and a loud-and-clear message from officials that it doesn’t matter if the barrier to entry becomes unreasonable for big-spenders. In the past weeks, the brokerage has lost deals in the $25 million range over concerns about taxation.
“It’s particularly onerous on the high end, and these are people who have choices — they could buy here, but they don’t have to,” she said. “I have no issue with a small increase, but a 4 percent tax on expensive apartments is basically saying: Don’t live here.”
James Parrott, the economist whose proposal was the basis for the pied-a-terre tax legislation, says the mansion tax is both good and bad. On one hand, it will help pay for transit. But he also worries that it will be difficult to use the revenue for bonds because levies on home sales are lumpy, rising and falling from year to year.
Also, there’s the matter of fairness. Foreign buyers, for example, don’t pay income taxes, but the transit system and the city’s services contribute to the value of their properties, he says. The industry argues the opposite, saying wealthy second-home buyers spend money in the city while they’re in town and that bolsters employment from doormen to shop clerks on Fifth Avenue. And they don’t add kids to the schools or burden the transit system.
Still, it’s hard for the industry to declare victory, according to Parrott.
“They had to accept an increase in the mansion tax,” Parrott said. “If you call that a victory for them, OK.”
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was down nearly a quarter point this week from a week earlier, its biggest drop in over a decade
Mortgage rates are fast approaching 4%, a rate low enough that economists and lenders believe it will help jump-start the housing market again.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.06% this week, its lowest since January 2018, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giant. The rate was down nearly a quarter point from a week earlier, its biggest drop in over a decade.
Need to refresh your home for the market. Below are just a few inexpensive upgrades I can assist with to present your home in the best possible light.
Updating a Kitchen by changing the color of your cabinetry can be a cost-effective way to brighten up your Kitchen.
Here we’ve taken two basic IKEA bureaus and added a glass top one side and a wooden cap on the other – which give the chest of drawers a high end look.
Want to learn more about the real estate market or how I can navigate the process of buying, selling or renting a home?
Please feel free to contact me . Look forward to hearing from you— Dena.
Upcoming Open House
Saturday, April 06, 2019, 12:00 – 1:00
128 Kane Street, Apt. 2
This large 1BR/1Bth apartment enjoys the entire second floor a lovely brownstone on Kane St in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The apartment has a great kitchen with large refrigerator, dishwasher and plenty of counter and cabinet space. Original tin ceilings and great light from six windows with north and south exposure. Good closets and large new bath too. Approx 800 sq ft. Heat and hot water included. New central A/C split systems.
Quiet tree lined street with open gardens in the back. Fantastic location near all the great shops and restaurants of Cobble Hill – including , La Vara, St Julivert Fisherie, Avlee and Union Market. Near the F-G at Bergen St or 2-3 4-5 & N-R at Borough Hall. Pets Upon Approval. Broker Owner. Zoned for PS 29
Cobble Hill, New York Rental $3,050 | Last updated: 4/2/2019 | ID: 19525236 Residence InformationType: Duplex | Rooms: 3.0 | Bedrooms: 1 | Bathrooms: 1.0 Kitchen: Eat In | Air conditioning: Central Air Period: Pre-War | Built: 1840 | Building Type: Townhouse | Laundry in building: Yes
Great transit and three blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The commercial floors have 16 ft. ceilings and wonderful light @ approx. 3600 sq ft. Building is 25′ x 80’ft. on a 100ft lot. New plumbing, electric and mechanicals – all have been upgraded. This is a great opportunity to create a business in one of the most desirable and connected areas of Brooklyn.
