Riding the wave of reality television’s Faustian draw, developer BFC Partners’ Toren
residential development has launched a new ad campaign featuring
residents at the Downtown Brooklyn building “collectively and honestly
sharing their experiences at their new homes.” Residents at the
building were given flip cameras for two weeks, to document their
experiences in the 240-unit condo at 150 Myrtle Avenue. Since then, the
Toren team has posted the videos on its sales site, to “reach an
audience directly,” said Don Capoccia, managing partner with BFC.
Prices range from the mid-$300,000s to $1.7 million, according to the
developer, and the building is roughly 65 percent sold. Sales launched
March 2008, with Halstead Property exclusively handling marketing for
the development. In the video above, two neighbors cavort over a
haircut in a Toren unit. TRD

[more]

Downtown Brooklyn residential development Toren Tower at 150 Myrtle Avenue is drawing praise from World Architecture News, which described the 240-unit condominium as “worth waiting for,” due to its perceived aesthetic prowess. Almost a year after it was planned to be ready for move-ins, the Federal Housing Administration-approved Toren is aiming to receive a gold LEED certification. BFC Partners, Toren’s developer, told The Real Deal last year that the condo saw 40 of its units sold in a lottery.

Roberta Benzilio, an executive director of sales at Halstead, and Toren

The developer of Toren, the long-awaited condominium at 150 Myrtle Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, has applied for Federal Housing Administration financing and is scheduled to begin closings by the second week of December, officials said. FHA financing, if approved, would help individual buyers close their apartment contracts, with low down payments and less-than-perfect credit scores, said Roberta Benzilio, executive director of sales in Brooklyn for Halstead Property, exclusive broker for Toren. “I think the FHA approval will help with the buyers who were initially only looking to put 10 percent down,” Benzilio said. “Some people don’t have the cash available.” The FHA program allows new homebuyers to finance up to $729,750 for a new home. The buyers only need a 3.5 percent down payment compared to 20 percent or more required for most bank loans in the current market. [more]

189 Bridge is now partly rental

From the November issue: Like many other development firms, the Clarett Group rode the wave of
the real estate boom expertly, building successful condos in Manhattan
and other markets across the country. Like a host of other developers,
however, the company hit a damaging riptide in Downtown Brooklyn. A few
months ago, Clarett’s condo, the Forté, went back to its lender,
Eurohypo AG. The move was the most boldface example thus far of the
difficulties developers have encountered selling condos in Downtown
Brooklyn, generally defined as the section of the borough bounded by
Nassau Street to the north, Ashland Place to the east, Schermerhorn
Street to the south and Court Street to the west. That catch zone
encompasses several micro-neighborhoods, including the western edge of
Fort Greene. Several big developers are feeling pain in the saturated
area, which has been generating a lot of attention lately because three
new luxury rental towers are preparing to launch. [more]