Downtown Brooklyn condominium building be@schermerhorn is now
100 percent sold, Curbed reported, after numerous construction delays, drama and two rounds of price cuts. German-backed Jamestown
Properties had resumed construction on the 246 unit building at 189 Schermerhorn Street in December of
2009 and put 34 units on the market
with prices ranging from $345,000 to $1.1 million.
Listings on Streeteasy.com show that most of the recent sales that brought
the building to its sold-out state were below their asking price, such as one apartment that closed at $355,000, 11 percent off its asking price. The
building was the city’s top seller in 2010. In May 2010, Michael
Phillips, marketing director at Jamestown Properties, told The Real
Deal the hope was for the building to be sold out in 30 months. [Curbed]

Be@schermerhorn

Downtown Brooklyn’s long-awaited be@schermerhorn condominium has
received preliminary approval from the Federal Housing Administration,
a first step toward the project’s ability to accommodate FHA-backed
mortgages. The approval comes on the heels of its recent third relaunch at
selling out the building. There are executed contracts for over 20
percent of the apartments in the 246-unit two-building complex at 189
Schermerhorn Street, putting it near the 30 percent mark needed for
closings to begin under FHA guidelines. Be@schermerhorn has studios and
one-, and two-bedroom units starting at 444 square feet and $265,950. TRD

[more]

The Downtown Brooklyn condo slashes prices in wake of mortgage buy-out

A model unit at be@schermerhorn

A year-and-a-half behind schedule, Downtown Brooklyn’s long-awaited be@schermerhorn condominium is launching its third attempt at selling out the building, armed with slashed pri [more]

Construction has resumed at the troubled development Be@Schermerhorn, after being purchased by Jamestown Properties, an Atlanta-by-way-of-Germany real estate investment firm, in November. Meanwhile, sales have been completed at 90 First Place in Carroll Gardens, according to a press release sent today from developer the Brody Group, which built the brownstone conversion project, and its exclusive marketing firm Halstead Property, and groundbreaking on the new Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island has been scheduled for Jan. 2010, thanks in part to a $10 million gift awarded today from the Alphawood Foundation of Chicago. Click here for more. TRD [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]