Italian restaurant Rucola recently opened at 190 Dean Street.From the May issue: Developer Abby Hamlin knew she was taking a risk when she bought a block of Boerum Hill properties in 2004 in a joint venture with Francis Greenburger’s Time Equities.

But Hamlin, a longtime Brooklyn resident and the founder of Hamlin Equities, felt confident in her plan to build 23 new construction townhouses there.

“Boerum Hill was thought to be somewhat edgy at that time,” she recalled. Still, “I didn’t need any convincing. It was within walking distance to everything, had 14 subway lines and was five minutes to Wall Street.” [more]

From left: Trish Martin, director of sales at Halstead Property, Scott Klein, vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Brian Lehner, senior vice president at Brown Harris Stevens, and Sofia Song, vice president of research at StreetEasy

From the April issue: There’s no shortage of neighborhoods that real estate brokers have attempted to coin with catchy names, from widely used newer names like Nolita (North of Little Italy) to names that haven’t caught on with the public yet like SoBro (South Bronx). But one thing even brokers can agree on in Brooklyn is that few who really know the area actually use the term “BoCoCa” when referring to Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. Still, the term does serve as a handy shorthand when discussing market conditions in the trifecta of popular neighborhoods clustered together just south of Downtown Brooklyn. [more]

Eighty-nine-year-old Brooklynite Mildred Fuyira stands to make a 11,744 percent profit from the sale of her currently listed Boerum Hill brownstone, the Post reported. She and her family paid $16,000 for the 19th century townhouse at 299 State Street, between Smith and Hoyt streets, in 1967. That same property is now asking $1.895 million.

The neighborhood has changed a lot in the 44 years Fuyira has lived there, she said. When she and her husband first moved in, the block was home to drifters and prostitutes. Now it’s full of upscale families and young professionals with children. [more]

After years of pleading with the owner of 374 Pacific Street, a Boerum Hill brownstone that had gone into decay, neighbors of the decrepit structure may soon see it restored to its former splendor, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Bruce Marlow, who let his property rack up more than 23 open violations, had pledged to make repairs — including mold removal and a roof upgrade — but had failed to do so time and again, community members say. After taking the erstwhile owner to court, the five complaining neighbors watched the property head onto the auction block in June, where it fetched around $1.3 million. The new owner, Forest Park Properties, will likely give the building a complete overhaul, according to Raymond Mordekhai, a partner with the firm. “We’re in the process of planning exactly what we’re going to do,” Mordekhai said. “It’s in pretty bad shape — one of the worst you’ll see in that area.” [Brooklyn Paper]

[more]

Trout restaurant

Three restaurants started by Brooklyn’s most prolific restaurateur, Jim Mamary, and one of his partners, Richard Krause, were abruptly closed last week with no warning to employees. And another of their Brooklyn eateries, the troubled seafood spot Trout, is unlikely to reopen after it shuttered early this fall due to slow business.

Employees at Fly Fish in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Bueno in Boerum Hill said they were stunned to hear at staff meetings Dec. 1 that the shift would be their last.

Bueno, a European bistro that Krause opened three months ago at the intersection of Smith and Pacific Streets, is part of a complex that also included Trout, Since 1963, also closed last week, and Pacifico. Pacifico, a Mexican cantina that Mamary no longer owns a stake in, will remain open.

“They said they needed to pull in $17,000 by week’s end and they were only pulling in $13,000,” said an employee at Bueno, who requested anonymity. “Now I’m back to square one, looking for a job on the holidays.” [more]

From the October issue: New York City is at a peculiar crossroads. For months, investors have
marshaled unprecedented amounts of capital, salivating at the prospect
of snapping up distressed properties. “We’re fortunate this cycle to
have the most dry powder in our
history,” Blackstone Group president Tony James said last month at the
Barclays Capital Global Financial Services Conference, which was held
in Manhattan. The firm has about $28 billion in unspent capital, he
said. About $12 billion of that is earmarked for real estate. “We’re
just beginning what will be the best period in decades for private
investing,” he said. Dan Fasulo, a managing director at Real Capital
Analytics, estimated
that $50 billion has been raised and is ready to be deployed into
distressed real estate. Paradoxically, investors have found very little
worth buying so far, in large part because banks continue to hold
troubled loans on their books, hoping conditions will improve. [more]