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]

From left: Jeffrey Levine, chairman of Douglaston Development, and his condo the Edge, developer Louis Greco, and his be@Schermerhorn

[Updated June 6, 2011 at 1:45 p.m. with detailed sales figures] Sales at the the Edge in Williamsburg have picked up rapidly, and in the past four months alone, the condominium has sold more units than any New York City residential building did in all of 2010. According to MNS, the brokerage formerly known as TDG/TREGNY which is exclusively marketing the development, the Edge garnered 144 signed contracts between Jan. 1, 2011 and June 1, 2011, including an average of more than 32 per month between February and May (see chart after the jump for a breakdown of sales by month). Granted the Edge is more than twice as big, but those sales numbers already shatter the figures posted by last year’s fastest selling building, according to PropertyShark.com, be@Schermerhorn, which sold 121 units out of 246 in the calendar year.

Now, 234 of the Edge’s 565 units have closed, and 61 are in contract, according to MNS. The firm told The Real Deal that the building’s location and amenities package, which includes an array of sports and spa facilities, have appealed to buyers.

[more]

Though the recovering market has brought a new wave of buyers snapping up high-priced homes in luxury condominiums, down at sea level that tide hasn’t turned. According to the New York Times, retail space on the ground floor of these new developments has been slow to find tenants. River Lofts in Tribeca, 165 Charles Street, 100 11th Avenue, One Jackson Square, 111 Central Park North and be@schermerhorn are just a few of the relatively new developments saddled with significant retail vacancies. But the Times said that fact is not necessarily a bad thing. [more]

This week, new model residences at the Manhattan House landmark condo conversion drew close to 600 prospective buyers to the Upper East Side, where they viewed the decorating work of James “Ford” Huniford, Celerie Kemble and Rita Konig, according to the Wall Street Journal. Developer O’Connor Capital Partners has sold 12 model units since spending $2 million to create them in 2009, after a year of dismal sales at the 200 East 66th Street building. Another 20 units have sold with similar layouts to those of the model units. With the New York City residential real estate market picking up, and several formerly-stalled projects now hitting the market — including the Aldyn on the Upper West Side and be@schermerhorn in Brooklyn — developers are increasingly trying to give their new condominiums an edge with pricey interior designs intended to help buyers envision themselves in the fashionable model apartments on display. [WSJ]

[more]

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]

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.

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]

Matt Bronfman, COO of Jamestown Properties and be@Schermerhorn

Jamestown Properties has purchased the mortgage for be@Schermerhorn at 189 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The asset management company, which has headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. and Germany, said that it was in a unique position to invest in the 246-unit condominium, developed by SDS Procida and scheduled to be completed early next year. The building, which is between Smith and Hoyt streets, will definitely be going condo, not rental, according to the spokesperson, despite speculation otherwise. The Real Deal reported in its November issue that the condo’s sales figures were lagging, while other media outlets reported this month that the development was 90 percent vacant. “We are committed to the Brooklyn market,” Matt Bronfman, COO of Jamestown Properties, said in a statement released today. “We believe our ability as a highly liquid investment company, coupled with the seasoned market knowledge of SDS Procida, will deliver a successful project.” [more]