By Stephen Jacob Smith 3/26 2:14pm

Manhattan Transfers

32 South Portland Avenue might not be as elaborate as its next-door neighbor, but that didn't stop it from setting a Fort Greene record.

Indie Production Designer Sets Fort Greene Record With $3.75 M. Brownstone

“I made my career on films that probably shouldn’t have been made, economically,” production designer Mark Friedberg once told Capital New York. Either things have recently changed for Mr. Friedberg or he was being awfully humble: his movies might not have made sense economically, but they made enough for him to make what appears to be a record-breaking townhouse buy.

Mr. Friedberg and his wife, Lydia Pilcher, just picked up a three-story brownstone at 32 South Portland Avenue for $3.75 million, blowing past the record 181 Washington Park, which sold last spring for $3.28 million. Read More

By Kim Velsey 9/26/12 3:20pm

Lists

The patchy, ragged grass only adds to Fort Greene's trying but not trying to hard appeal.

The Beginning of the End For Fort Greene, Brooklyn’s Most Livable Neighborhood

Do you live in Fort Greene? Enjoy sipping seasonal cocktails outside of Roman’s, playing fetch with your dog in Fort Greene park, bragging to all your friends about how low key and undiscovered and underrated Fort Greene is? Well, if you rent you should probably start skimming the real estate listings right now, as Fort Greene has been declared Brooklyn’s most livable neighborhood by The L Magazine.

Of course, its hard to tell if readers of the hipster glossy will take the ranking to heart, following the prevailing counter cultural fashions of the day, or if they will display a contrarian streak, as they are sometimes wont to do, and seek out the next industrial wasteland to remake in their tattooed image. Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/28/12 5:25pm

Manhattan Transfers

11 Photos

Fort Greene townhouse sells for $3.1 M.

Fort Greene Townhouse Fetches $3.1 M., Narrowly Missing Neighborhood Record

It has been a summer of stunning performances, victories and defeats, and titles won, lost and held. And no, we’re not talking about the Olympics, but the Brooklyn brownstone market.

In Fort Greene, this summer saw two record-high townhouse sales, with 152 Lafayette Avenue, a four-story Greek revival home coming in a close second to the five-story Fort Greene Park-facing 181 Washington Park, which closed this spring for $3.28 million—setting a record for the neighborhood. Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/15/12 10:08am

Brooklyn Academy of Music

14 Photos

BAM's New Building

How AmBAMitious! BAM’s Newest Space Seeks To Transform Performance Offerings, Brooklyn

Besides the distinctive red brick arches, there is very little left of the old Salvation Army citadel that stood for years, vacant and crumbling, at 321 Ashland Place.

The citadel, like so many other parts of Fort Greene, has been transformed. A seven-story building—the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s new performing arts hall, the Richard B. Read More

By Thornton McEnery 9/07/11 1:57pm

House Porn

11 Photos

The floorplan.

You Can Live in This Stunning Fort Greene Brownstone for $120K a Year… With Just One Small Catch

We at The Observer pride ourselves on being able to tag these virtual house tours with a little witticism, which we think pokes fun at the property itself, and thus gives depth to its role in the circus-like New York City real estate scene. That said, we are finding ourselves at a loss for a snarky bon mot while taking in this seemingly flawless Fort Greene listing from Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Then again, we are also fans of having equity, so here goes nothin’… Read More