By Matt Chaban 9/07/12 10:49am

In the Rezone

11 Photos

Keeping It Contextual

Keeping It Contextual: City Planning Commission Approves Rezonings in West Harlem, Bed-Stuy

It was a busy day at the City Planning Commission Wednesday. Not only did the commissioners debate the upzoning of the Chelsea Market, which they unanimously approved, but they also approved the downzoning of two historic neighborhoods, West Harlem and Bed-Stuy. The contextual rezonings seek to limit development on side streets, which tend to be chock-full of 100-year-old brownstones, while directing new development—with affordable housing!—to the broad avenues running through the neighborhoods. Read More

By Kim Velsey 7/16/12 6:51pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Rejoice! Bed-Stuy gets a new affordable housing development.

Rents Are Rising, But At Least Bed-Stuy Has a New Affordable Housing Development

Late last week, a new 48-unit affordable housing development opened at 926 Madison Street in Bed-Stuy, Brownstoner reports—which is good news for residents in a once-rough neighborhood where the locals’ biggest fear is now likely rising rents.

Rents in the Brooklyn neighborhood went up 6.5 percent between April and May of this year; the neighborhood has seen steadily rising rents since the beginning of the year. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 2/21/12 1:50pm

The Plan

1078 Fulton Street.

1078 Fulton Street

When Nechama Levy began her search for retail space last July, she took advantage of years of experience as a bicycle shop employee to inform her real estate decisions, and then Colliers International brokers Charles Goldberg and Hank Widmaier sealed the deal at 1078 Fulton Street.

Beside ample basement space, Ms. Levy also considered floor plates large enough to install what she described as ergonomically correct racks and other bicycle-specific design flourishes. After the jump, Geoffrey Prisco of Brutus Park Architecture and Ms. Levy review the floor plans with The Commercial Observer and discuss what, exactly, convinced the first-time business owner to open her 5,800-square-foot shop, Bicycle Roots, in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Read More

By Matt Chaban 11/09/11 12:28pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

The_Bradford_Bed_Stuy_2

Lloyd Blankfein's Bed-Stuy Pet Project Rising Fast

It was less than a year-ago that Lloyd Blankfein’s set his loafered foot in Bed-Stuy, for the groundbreaking of the Bradford, a middle- and low-income development being constructed on Fulton Street. It was an unusual place to find the banker, but Goldman, capable of making money anywhere, had made a $45 million investment in the project. Brownstoner recently passed by the project, and, as you can see, it’s come a long way in a short amount of time.The whole shebang is due to open next summer. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 10/25/11 9:59am

power broker

Mr. Riney, a navigator of Brooklyn's shifting landscape.

The Multifamily Guy

To look at the buildings neighboring it, 567 Vanderbilt Avenue is a typical four-story, mixed-use apartment building in Brooklyn. From the bricks it was built with to the upwardly mobile professionals and strollers it presumably houses, the structure is nearly identical to the other assets in that corner of Prospect Heights.

With a recent shift on the ground—characterized by relatively new restaurants like James, Cornelius and, inevitably, the Vanderbilt—sales prices in the neighborhood are rising.

But over on Vanderbilt Avenue in particular, where trendy bars and cafés pop up each week, prices are absolutely surging, in part because of Nostradamus-like predictions of basketball fans flooding the zone once the Nets start playing inside the proposed Atlantic Yards arena and, ultimately, exiting en masse from doors leading directly to the street. Read More

By Staff 11/16/06 4:35pm

The Afternoon Wrap: Thursday

  • London’s wonderful mayor Ken Livingstone wants to charge gas-guzzling cars £25 to enter London’s “congestion charge zone.” What will Mayor Mike do in response? One can only hope that he bans Hummers, at least those yellow ones. [Times of London, via Streetsblog]
  • The crawl toward gentrification out in Bed-Stuy is speeding up thanks Read More

    • By Staff 11/10/06 1:41pm

    Empowerment Convention in Debt

    The Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention of 2006 has been a fascination of mine since I got my hands on the first email about it…which referred to David Yassky as a white individual and threw a spotlight on the racial implications of his congressional race.

    Then we found out about a not-so-publicized meeting of Read More

    By Staff 9/05/06 5:14pm

    Marty Markowitz, Montauk Washout

    A trip to the East End last week was met with rain, wind and cold eating away the last full week of summer. Sad for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, whose Monday-through-Thursday vacation in Montauk was washed out.

    “It rained every day,” he said, after a press conference in Bed-Stuy on Tuesday. He sounded a Read More