One Brooklyn Bridge Park

Sorry to tell you man, One Brooklyn Bridge Park is hardly Brooklyn Heights, no matter what the developer's agent told you.

So true lintintin. It is at least 15ft from Joralemon, aka the most quintessential cobblestone Brooklyn Heights street.

Hubby and I checked this out today, just did a walk by. From the outside and location, I just don't see the appeal of living in this warehouse district. Inside could be great but we wanted to think about the area first and didn't cut it.

Warehouse district? Is is definately in Brooklyn Heights. All the benefits of a new development coupled with all the benefits of being in cobble stoned street neighborhood. Plus, when the park is there, which it will be, in whichever form it takes, it will be one of the best locations in the city. You have to have vision! You won't be able to touch the apartments in this building when that happens and you'll be kicking yourself!

chues- how much did you pay?

"So true lintintin. It is at least 15ft from Joralemon, aka the most quintessential cobblestone Brooklyn Heights street."

Yes, just cross under the HIGHWAY. The view will be nice, but that thins is so cut off.

Not to mention, are you kidding about Joralemon being the most quintessential BH street? The expensive stuff is nowhere near...

Quintessential doesn't mean expensive. Pierrepont st (ie 3 block north) has more expensive properties but doesn't have the cobblestone charm and "old feel' of Joralemon, that was the point.

This is truly a stretch.

This is exactly the type of project that has trouble in times like these.

Usually pioneers get bargains for the risk they take, e.g. before the park, etc. But not at these prices.

I agree. I think the water-facing apartments will have some great views. But the half facing the bqe (and I mean FACING, not overlooking) are a whole different matter. You are talking a considerable walk from bars/restaurants/everything in the neighborhood. The park will be nice some day, but the part they don't tell you is that they will be REPLACING the bqe. Yes, replacing it. Meaning the entire park is going to be a staging area for these giant pieces. This park has years (decades?) to go...

The price point is just way too high for that. I totally agree that taking risks to get in early can make sense if you get a great deal. But they're being priced as if everything is hunky-dory. There is no reason to get in early, you're not getting any discount off what they'd be when everything is finished.

We moved into the building this past weekend, and the experience has been positive. Not sure whether this project will continue to be successful in this market, but the building itself is very cool. It is a gigantic building - awesome for residents, not so good for the delivery folks. The corridors alone are massive, if you like that sort of thing. For the apartment itself, this is my 2nd time living in a loft apartment, and I guess I'm a just a sucker for those things. The ceiling heights, views and open floorplan works well. The finishings were also delivered as promised, which is all you can ask for.

Only problem so far is I found some minor issues with my floor which I did not notice during my walk-tru, but the building patched up the flooring within 2 days and shut me up. I take the train every morning, and the trudge to the subway stop has not been too horrible...it takes me about 8 mins (at a pretty brisk pace) to get from the building to the train station, and about 20 mins door to door to my office in downtown. The walk is quite pleasant past the brownstones. Btw, you cross furman street to reach joralemon, which is under the bqe, for those wondering if one has to pull a death defying stunt of crossing a high way on foot. The proximity to amenities has been better than my expectations, which I had coming from manhattan.

All in all, a quality product - best of luck to everyone out there looking for a place to crash...we are thrilled w/ ours and wanted to share.

I'm assuming that you lived in a more cramped place in Manhattan before...

There is definitely a wow factor when going from white boxes in Manhattan to some of the suburban-proportioned loft-like spaces in Brooklyn... 1BBP, older DUMBO buildings, etc. Night and day difference.

Glad you are having a positive experience.

My old manhattan apartment was smaller and had normal proportions. Even though it faced an empty parking lot it didn't get much light. I do think the high ceilings add quite a bit of value (and light). I agree about the warehouse conversions vs. white boxes...it seems in manhattan most of the loft conversions are amazingly expensive, as they get more rare. In brooklyn now the buyer has some choices ... you have 1BBP, 20 Henry, and 166 Montague in the Heights, and Beltell and One Hanson further in. Not cheap by any stretch but much more affordable relative to manhattan.

We moved in one week ago as well. Agree with mongol the finishes were exactly on par with what was advertised. The bathrooms in particular are stunning. We were also very impressed with how responsive the staff was to usual move-in issues. Much more of a white-glove feel than the union square coop I just moved out of. Positive experience as well. Going back to the initial comment on this thread streeteasy lists 230 sales. So this means the building is over 50% sold correct?

StreetEasy shows 236 previous LISTINGS, 27 completed sales, though more than 27 contracts have been signed. 150 or so was the number discussed on the last building thread, but some time has passed.

There is an article on this building in Bloomberg today...

One Brooklyn Bridge Condo Demand `Killed' as NYC Market Slides
2008-11-03 05:01:15.1 GMT

By Sharon L. Lynch and Jonathan Keehner
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Nowhere is the high-water mark of New York real estate more visible than the former Jehovah's Witnesses distribution facility at One Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The 14-story condominium complex shattered the borough's price ceiling when real estate entrepreneur Elizabeth Stribling agreed in March to pay $6.05 million to live there. Now, two- thirds of the 449 units in the 1.2-million-square-foot building remain unsold, testament to the financial excesses brewed up across the East River in the Wall Street canyons framed by One Brooklyn's floor-to-ceiling windows.
``We were killed,'' said Robert Levine, chief executive officer of RAL Companies & Affiliates LLC, who masterminded the $550 million waterfront project with views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, along with amenities such as virtual golf, a movie theater and a planned 85-acre park. ``We have negotiated and done some contracts, but people are clearly much more aware of the current economy.''
So are his backers. Levine's partner in the Brooklyn Heights development, 10 blocks south of the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters that abuts the Brooklyn Bridge, is a $300 million fund run by American International Group Inc.'s real-estate investment unit, a business that is itself on the block as New York-based AIG sheds assets to pay an $85 billion government loan.

Wall Street Layoffs

Just when sales at One Brooklyn should have taken off after New York real estate's annual June-August lull, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt, Merrill Lynch & Co. was forced to sell itself and Congress authorized a $700 billion bailout of the nation's financial system. About 160,000 New Yorkers may lose their jobs, including 45,000 in finance and related businesses, according to an estimate by Governor David Paterson.
The result: Stribling Marketing Associates, exclusive broker for the property, has sold just 18 units since March, compared with an average of 14 a month in each of the prior 10 months.
Levine, 56, is seeking about $1,684 a square foot for the most expensive unit, triple the average price in Brooklyn and higher than the $1,240 average for Manhattan's Upper East Side.
The building itself is among the most eye-catching on the waterfront, occupying roughly the same space as the Chrysler Building, the art deco skyscraper on 42nd Street in Manhattan, according to www.mrofficespace, a real estate data site.
One Brooklyn faces a particular challenge because it's cleaved from the rest of Brooklyn Heights by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, said Cliff Finn, director of new development marketing for the New York real-estate brokerage Citi Habitats. The Robert Moses-era beltway spews fumes and noise 24 hours a day from cars and trucks heading between the Verrazano Bridge and La Guardia Airport. The nearest subway, at Brooklyn's Borough Hall, is more than eight blocks away and accessible by shuttle bus.

Not `Prime' Heights

``I didn't consider that to be prime Brooklyn Heights,'' said Finn. ``If it's not enough of a discount from Manhattan, they are going to have a little bit of a problem.''
Buyers at One Brooklyn can expect to pay anywhere from $525,000 for a 782-square-foot studio overlooking the highway to
$7.75 million for a 4,600-square-foot penthouse with wraparound views, four bedrooms and terraces that approach 1,000-square-feet.
They can pick from about 40 different floor plans in the 1928 building, most including 14-foot-high ceilings, oversized doorways and towering circular columns that flair out at the top like mushroom caps, part of the building's original support structure.
Built as a warehouse, the structure housed light manufacturing businesses until the Jehovah's Witnesses bought it in 1983 and used it to package and ship religious literature, according to Richard Devine, a spokesman for the group.
``The construction is very, very high quality and that's what drew us to it,'' said Theresa Ortolani, a fashion and portrait photographer who paid $575,000 in July for a 900-square-foot studio with her stuntman husband, Ian McLaughlin. ``We love being on the water and the proximity to Manhattan.''

`My Manhattan'

Stribling, who founded the closely held New York real-estate brokerage Stribling & Associates in 1980, chose her penthouse apartment during a tour with Levine even before he bought the building. She is combining two units into a 3,400-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment with a library, three fireplaces and a wrap-around terrace.
``This is the most dynamite view I've seen,'' said Stribling, who plans to move to Brooklyn from her Upper East Side Manhattan townhouse. ``It's like I'm looking over my Manhattan.''
Levine bought One Brooklyn for $205 million in June 2004 through 360 Brooklyn Investors LLC, a joint venture with the AIG real estate fund. It was envisioned as an anchor for Brooklyn Bridge Park, whose sports fields, kayaking docks and bike path will replace the otherwise barren waterfront below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The park is scheduled to be 90 percent complete by 2010, Levine said.

Wine, Salmon Tartare

The purchase and development of 360 Brooklyn, named for the project's address at 360 Furman Street, was funded by $290 million in mortgage debt and $40.2 million in mezzanine funding from Deutsche Bank AG, according to public records on the New York City Department of Finance Web site. Mezzanine loans typically carry higher interest rates and are for shorter time periods than first mortgages. John Gallagher, a Deutsche Bank spokesman in New York, declined to comment.
Stribling's marketing company invited brokers from Brooklyn and Manhattan to tour One Brooklyn's five model units on Oct. 29 over wine and salmon tartare. The tour ended with coffee and dessert in a $2.9 million-dollar, four-bedroom apartment overlooking the water.
Equally impressive to the brokers may have been a tweak to push more sales. Agents who sell a second unit now stand to reap a commission of 4 percent, up from the standard 3 percent, and the fee rises to 5 percent for subsequent sales, said Evelyn Cole, one of Stribling's on-site sales managers.
Levine said he recently backed out of plans to buy the Bossert Hotel, a Brooklyn Heights landmark also owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses, after agreeing to pay $85 million. He said he's not interested in cutting prices at One Brooklyn.
``We work very hard to maintain the price integrity of our properties,'' he said. ``I have not ever greatly reduced the price to move a unit.''

sorry, I missed this....

curbed is calling the building 2/3 unsold...

I am actually surprised that the bldg. is 1/3 sold at that price range! Not only is it not "Brooklyn Heights proper," BQE--THE worst, busiest, and noisiest highway in the entire nation in my opinion--practically runs through your living room.

I really liked the apartments I saw there, with impeccable finishes and the view (on the water side, not the BQE side). But the moment I walked out of the bldg., I had to face the reality that I was in a less-than-nice area of Brooklyn. In addition, the apartments were rather small for Brooklyn.

Perhaps I would have considered buying at $500/sf, but definitely not for double that amount...

Well, figure half the building faces the BQE (maybe more, if the apartments are smaller on that side). I don't know who'd be picking those up in any market, because that just leaves you in a building with no view far from the subway and the stores and everything else you move to BH for...

I knew they'd have some problems, but 1/3 does sound crazy low to me.

Well, figure half the building faces the BQE (maybe more, if the apartments are smaller on that side). I don't know who'd be picking those up in any market, because that just leaves you in a building with no view far from the subway and the stores and everything else you move to BH for...

I knew they'd have some problems, but 1/3 does sound crazy low to me.

He said he's not interested in cutting prices at One Brooklyn.
``We work very hard to maintain the price integrity of our properties,'' he said. ``I have not ever greatly reduced the price to move a unit.''

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Seriously, good luck with that. So they're just gonna turn everything else to rentals for like $2800 for 588 sf space? And this is a building that's eight blocks away from a subway? It's delusional.

They are also going to work even harder to pay the interest every month.

"The park is scheduled to be 90 percent complete by 2010, Levine said."

Umm, right...

What they don't tell you..

When the finish the park, THEN they start deconstructing the BQE. The park area will be used as the staging ground. Meaning add another 5-7 years of construction to it.

No BQE work after all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/bqe-will-be-under-constru_n_1187044.html