Project rendering (credit: CityLand NYC)

The construction and redevelopment of nine townhouses on a single Cobble Hill block will move forward, now that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved plans for 110-128 Congress Street in the Cobble Hill Historic District; the plans include the ground-up construction of five townhouses and the renovation of four existing ones. [more]

From left: G. Esposito & Sons, P.J. Hanleys and D'Amico Foods

While large companies opting to buy their real estate spaces has been a boon to development in Manhattan, the same decision made years ago by smaller firms is preserving mom-and-pop charm in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. There, Crain’s reported, on 13 blocks of busy Court Street between Warren Street and Fourth Place, more than 20 longtime, mostly Italian small businesses are thriving while gentrification rears its head in nearby residential real estate and the Trader Joe’s and Union Market that have moved in recently. [more]

From left: Ellen Israel of JRT Realty Group and 71 Smith Street (credit: PropertyShark)

A Boerum Hill parking lot ripe for residential development has hit the block for about $40 million, the New York Observer reported. The 71 Smith Street site can legally accommodate 206,530 square feet of residential space and another 105,271 square feet of commercial space, the Observer said.

The land is being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield and JRT Realty Group. The site is owned by a joint venture between Hamlin Ventures and Time Equities. [more]

From left: Gerard Longo and photos of the site at 118 Congress Street (credit: Google and PropertyShark)

A pair of developers is planning to renovate four historic townhouses, built before the Civil War, and to build from the ground up five more — all on a single Cobble Hill block, The Real Deal has learned. The project, which has yet to win approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, is a joint venture between 184 Kent developer JMH Development and Madison Estates. Morris Adjmi is the project’s architect. [more]

Home prices in Brooklyn have held steady in the second quarter, but the market is characterized by a steep decline in inventory and a notable uptick in the sales prices of brownstone properties, second quarter market reports from leading brokerages show.

“Pricing didn’t do a whole lot,” in the second quarter in Brooklyn, said Jonathan Miller, president of real estate analytics firm Miller Samuel and author of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s market report. The more compelling statistic, Miller said, is the 18 percent decline in inventory in the borough year-over-year, which is “firming up the market by stabilizing prices.” Inventory has also declined in Queens, and to some extent in Manhattan, Miller said, but the precipitous drop in Brooklyn is a result of the market peaking earlier there, and the recession hitting harder. [more]

241 Carroll Street (credit: PropertyShark)

A 3,750-square-foot, three-story residential brownstone building located at 241 Carroll Street in Carroll Gardens collapsed early this morning with six people inside, DNAinfo reported. There were no reports of injuries.

“I could see the whole wall was gone,” Ed Mannix, a resident who lives nearby, told DNAinfo of the partial collapse, in which two sides of the building sustained damage. “You could see into every floor. It looked like the whole wall peeled off.” [more]

Church of the Redeemer

The Church of the Redeemer — a 150-year-old building located at 561 Pacific Street near the rising Barclays Center — will soon be bulldozed to make room for new development, the Brooklyn Paper reported. Church leaders say the current building is structurally unsafe so they plan to partner with a private developer to erect a new sanctuary on the site along with residential or commercial space above. As it currently stands, zoning permits a structure to rise to 120 feet at the site, although few details of the actual plans were available. [more]

Atlantic Yards

Construction isn’t the only thing irking neighbors of the Atlantic Yards development site, according to the New York Post, it’s the people carrying out that work, too. Neighbors complain that construction workers have overtaken nearby Dean Street public playground and made it unfriendly for children. The workers curse loudly, smoke cigarettes and harass neighbors who complain, they said.

Park Slope and Prospect Heights residents fear this is just a foreshadowing of far worse problems to come when fans flood their streets before and after Nets games. [more]

Bruce Ratner and Atlantic Yards construction

Like Atlantic Yards’ affordable housing component before it, the Long Island Rail Road train yard Forest City Ratner promised to build to win approval for a basketball arena and residential development is experiencing delays. The Wall Street Journal reported that construction on the rail yard was supposed to begin June 30, but Forest City reached a deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to push back the start date to Dec. 31, 2013. This comes on top of a previous deal to reduce the size of the promised rail yard. [more]

Steiner Studios Chairman Douglas Steiner and 204 Huntington Street

Steiner Studios paid $24.5 million in cash to land a 60-unit Carroll Gardens rental building, Crain’s reported. The building, at 204 Huntington Street, was sold by an investment team led by Area Property Partners, which acquired it along with an adjacent building at 505 Court Street, that has since been converted into a 124-unit condominium, for $50.5 million. [more]