We have been hearing a lot lately about how attractive Queens is getting: Astoria, Jackson Heights, Ridgewood. These are neighborhoods with reasonably-affordable high-quality housing, convenient transportation and a wealth of authentic ethnic dining options, they tell us. Young people are moving there! Interesting, edgy ones!
Still, we at The Observer remain skeptical about the cool quotient of a borough that will remain forever in our minds as the land of Frank and Estelle Costanza. And Steve Bodow, Executive Producer and former Head Writer at The Daily Show, seems to agree. He and his wife Katherine Profeta-Bodow are planning to flee their home in Jackson Heights for a borough with better-established creative-class bonafides, according to city records, having just purchased a $1.65 million townhouse in the co-op complex at 75 Henry Street, in Brooklyn Heights.
The complex includes a 33-story apartment tower and 18 distinct townhouses, which stand nearby, Douglas Elliman broker Madeline Williamson told us. “I think they’re still very undervalued,” Ms. Williamson, who has herself lived in one of the townhouses since 1985, said of the buildings. “I have three houses. One in Amagansett, one in East Hampton and this one. This is by far the best. You don’t get the chance to live in a house and not have to take care of it.”
A zealous advocate for the co-op’s property management services, Ms. Williamson told us that Mr. and Ms. Bodow’s new home features a finished basement; a “highly-renovated” first floor, with an open floor plan incorporating cooking, dining and entertaining space; and two sizable upstairs bedrooms, one of which, she believed, would be divided to accommodate the couple’s children. Each townhouse also boasts private outdoor space—brick-walled backyards that Ms. Williamson estimated at at 18 by 15 feet, and smaller lawns in front, garnished with cherry trees. The spring foliage before the Bodows’ home—which belonged previously to Arnold and Phyllis Ogof—Ms. Williamson said, is particularly dense: “There are tons of tourists every year taking pictures.”
Prior to his job as Jon Stewart’s right-hand-man, Mr. Bodow worked as a director for the off-beat theatrical troupe Elevator Repair Service, which recently garnered rave reviews for staged full-text readings of The Great Gatsby (Gatz). And though 75 Henry Street might not be quite glamorous enough to attract the Daisy Buchanans of the world, we feel sure that his wife and two daughters will like it just fine. Ms. Williamson certainly does: “I love everything about it,” she told us. “You can have a dog here. The location is fabulous. I don’t think there’s anything quite like it.”
