From left: renderings of Three Northside Piers, 388 Bridge Street and 88 Willoughby Street

As space for residential development dwindles in Manhattan, developers are turning to Brooklyn, the Wall Street Journal reported, but they must be careful if they want to appeal to the different sensibilities of Brooklyn renters.

Citing a report by Nancy Packes, a consultant to some of the city’s largest developers, the Journal said 14,000 new residential units are being planned for Brooklyn in the coming years, compared to just 5,000 in Manhattan. [more]

From left: Rendering of 388 Bridge Street and 88 Willoughby StreetThe Brooklyn skyline continues to grow, as two planned towers are vying for the title of tallest building in the borough, according to the Wall Street Journal, after the mark was set last year by Equity Residential and the Clarett Group’s the Brooklyner.

Early next year, the Stahl Organization will break ground on a 590-foot residential tower, at 388 Bridge Street in Downtown Brooklyn, that would surpass the height of the Brooklyner, at 111 Lawrence Street, by 76 feet. That building was the first to rise taller than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, which was built more than 80 years ago to 512 feet tall. [more]

The Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York held its 101st annual dinner dance to honor achievements and contributions from notable members of New York City’s real estate community last night. About 200 members filled the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Battery Park City to take part in the celebration.

This year’s honorees were: Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly as Public Servant of the Year; George McDonald, founder of the DOE Fund, as Jerome Belson Humanitarian of the Year; Fred Harris, senior vice president of AvalonBay Communities, as Development Company of the Year; and Massey Knakal Realty Services Chairman Robert Knakal for leading the Brokerage Company of the Year. – Marc Becker [more]

Sam Zell and an Archstone building at 800 Sixth Avenue

Sam Zell’s Equity Residential has emerged as the leading bidder in a race to buy 53 percent of rival Archstone, offering more than $2.5 billion in cash for the stake, currently held by Bank of America and Barclays, the Wall Street Journal reported. The rest of the company, a real estate investment trust, is owned by the bankruptcy estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings.

The proposed sale to Equity Residential would value Archstone at about $16 billion, the Journal said. If sold as a whole company, Archstone currently could be worth as much as $18 billion.

Real estate giants the Blackstone Group, Brookfield Asset Management, Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities have all submitted bids for Archstone in recent months, it was previously reported. [more]

Long Island residents are warming up to rental-apartment project proposals as it becomes increasingly difficult to find financing for a single-family home, according to the Wall Street Journal. AvalonBay Communities is in the process of receiving rezoning that would allow them to build more than 300 apartments on a 26-acre in Huntington Station — the area’s first new apartment complex in a decade. Though initially rejected by a community board in September, the developers have adjusted their specification from 490 units to 379 units and are slated to get approval today. “The big need on Long Island is different types of housing,” said Frank Petrone, Huntington’s town supervisor. “It’s very easy to say, ‘no, no, no, people don’t want it.’ But if you don’t change with the times, the area will change, it will deteriorate, no question.” [more]

A settlement between a developer and the U.S. government has landlords across the city worried that they’ll be forced to make changes at tens of thousands of apartments to comply with a federal law preventing discrimination against the disabled, the Wall Street Journal reported. Until recently, New York landlords felt that they were meeting the federal law by complying with a 1987 city ordinance, but upgrading kitchens, bathrooms and common areas to comply with a law that took effect in 1991 could cost tens of millions of dollars. In 2008, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan sued owner AvalonBay Communities and sent notices to 10 others warning that their buildings were not sufficiently accessible to wheelchairs. Now that the government has settled with AvalonBay, the other developers who got notices — including the Related company, the Durst Organization and Silverstein Properties — are in negotiations with the government. “This settlement ensures that thousands of apartments will be made accessible to people with disabilities and that victims of unlawful discrimination will be justly compensated,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. [WSJ]

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Avalon Chrystie Place

AvalonBay Communities has settled the federal discrimination lawsuit against its 361-unit Lower East Side apartment building, Avalon Chrystie Place, which accused the developer of violating the Fair Housing Act, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced yesterday. Filed in August 2008, the suit had said the rental building, at 229 Chrystie Street, was not constructed to be accessible to disabled people and had sparked fears amongst other developers and landlords across the city that they too, would soon be targeted by the city. AvalonBay, which had originally argued in response to the suit that its building was, in fact, in compliance with accessibility codes and laws, agreed in the settlement to inspect and retrofit Avalon Chrystie Place, as well as its six other New York City properties. The developer will pay more than $2.2 million in building improvements, compensation for victims and civil penalties. TRD

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Fred Harris, vice president at AvalonBay Communities, which is constructing its first Brooklyn project, a 631-unit tower on Gold Street in Fort Greene.

From the March issue: A handful of major real estate management and development firms that have long avoided Brooklyn — even as housing prices in the borough shot up and brokerages rushed in — are finally venturing across the river.

The reasons are twofold. First, new high-rise, high-end construction in Brooklyn fits their business model. And second, values of these new Brooklyn buildings appear to have tumbled further and faster than their Manhattan counterparts, according to brokers and developers. “Developers are looking for opportunities, 100 percent,” said David Maundrell, a Dumbo resident and the president of aptsandlofts.com, a brokerage with a Brooklyn focus. “But they are willing to do that because there is a viable market here. It’s become a destination as opposed to an afterthought for Manhattanites who want a cheaper place.”

Jamestown Properties is one of the developers that recently upped its bet on the borough. In early 2007, the firm had a 60 percent equity stake in be@Schermerhorn, a troubled condo in Downtown Brooklyn, which was developed by SDS Procida and saw construction and sales suspended last year. But in December, Jamestown bought the balance of the mortgage from a consortium of banks. The consortium had originally lent $100 million to SDS Procida.

From the August issue: Developer AvalonBay Communities filed a permit application with the
Department of Buildings for a 58-story residential building, the
Brooklyn Eagle reported. The 596-foot tower will have 860 rental units,
as well as retail space and parking for 345 cars. Demolition of the
existing buildings on the site, on Willoughby Street between Bridge and
Duffield streets, is expected to begin within a year. TRD [more]