A sign welcomes visitors to Brooklyn
A new, 600-page book that details every aspect of every neighborhood in Brooklyn has hit bookshelves, the New York Post reported.
The “Brooklyn Neighborhood Report,” was produced by non-profit Brooklyn Community Foundation, in conjunction with the Center for the Study of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College, because they found that trends in Brooklyn were often over-shadowed, or got lost in larger statistical reports about New York City as a whole. [more]
Construction is progressing rather quickly at the new Steiner Studios sound stages for the Brooklyn Navy Yard, slated to be complete next spring, Brownstoner reported. The film and TV studio will add 11 sound stages and 280,000 square feet at Building 1, at 25 Washington Avenue, to its current 310,000-square-foot space at 15 Washington Avenue that includes five sound stages. Within the next 10 to12 years, Steiner expects to have about 6,000 people working at the studio.
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Brooklyn cinephiles will soon have a new academic option. Brooklyn College is set to open a Graduate School of Cinema in the Brooklyn Navy Yard beginning in the fall semester 2013. The school, which will operate inside Steiner Studios’ production lot, will be the first in the country to be incorporated into a professional movie studio. The school, which will offer nine different degree programs, is expected to include roughly 275 students on two floors of 25 Washington Avenue, a seven-story building in the yards. TRD
It’s a month into 2010 and a couple of New Jersey savings banks and local credit unions are helping real estate investors in the New York metro area secure much needed financing for commercial real estate. Robert Familant, CEO and treasurer of Progressive Credit Union, which has assets of over $500 million, said that credit unions are increasingly venturing into the business loan market, primarily secured by real property. In 2009, Progressive participated in financing the first dormitory for a private developer less than two blocks from the Brooklyn College; the construction of a condominium on Park Avenue in Manhattan and a number of Brooklyn gasoline stations. New York state credit unions are active and willing to provide financing, yet they are limited to the amount of financing they can provide due to government regulations. Lobbyists for credit unions are pressing Washington to lift the lending cap for commercial business. Credit unions now can only lend 12.5 percent of their assets to businesses. They are lobbying Congress to lift the cap to 25 percent of assets. Short Hills, NJ-based Investors Savings Bank is now providing lending for commercial real estate in the tri-state region. The bank, in business since 1926, has over $8.0 billion in assets and a network of over 58 branches in the Garden State. [more]
