Developer blogs to sell Carroll Gardens condo

Hudson Companies has been using a unique strategy to market its latest project, Third and Bond, a 44-unit development at 103-115 Third Street and 404-406 Bond Street on the eastern edge of Carroll Gardens. Since August 2007, Alison Novak, a senior project manager at Hudson, has been blogging on Brownstoner about the process of building and marketing the development, according to the New York Times. Last Thursday marked the 132nd week of Novak’s entries on the site, chronicling the building’s progress. The commenters have served as a kind of focus group for the project. “I’ve frankly been really surprised at how transparent it is,” said John Payne, a landscape designer who recently signed a contract for a one-bedroom at Third and Bond. “If something doesn’t go well, guess what, they lay it out there.” The transparency approach seems to be effective, although it is hard to verify. The project is now 20 percent sold after opening early this spring, said Leslie Marshall of the Corcoran Group, who is handling building sales with a fellow Corcoran senior vice president, James Cornell. Prices per square foot are in the $720 range, with unit prices ranging from $311,500, for a studio, to $1.38 million for a three-bedroom. [NYT]