737 Drew Street

From the January issue: Minority and working-class Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy,
Canarsie and East New York have been suffering from high concentrations
of foreclosures since before 2007.
But recent statistics indicate that distress is creeping into
gentrified neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Fort Greene and
Brooklyn Heights now, too. The Williamsburg-Greenpoint area saw a 141 percent quarterly
increase in foreclosure filings during the first three quarters of 2009
compared to 2008, while Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights saw a 71
percent jump. Brooklyn-based appraiser Sam Heskel counted 99 distressed real
estate listings in Williamsburg, including 44 condominiums that are in
“pre-foreclosure.”

Hayden Cummings, the mind behind the artist community trailer park slated to open in Bushwick this spring, has reportedly expressed an interest in opening a similar spot in Chelsea at a $9 million-a-year, 270,000-square-foot space. The space, once home to designer Marc Ecko and 50-Cent’s G-Star line, consumes half a street block at 28 and 40 West 23rd Street, would be a big step up for Cummings, who currently pays around $24,000 per year for his Bushwick warehouse lease. Still, the entrepreneur plans to borrow money for the spot, which has been wanting for tenants, according to Rented Spaces. [more]

The development of the Broadway Triangle, a 31-acre site in Brooklyn bordering Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, has been temporarily halted due to a court order from a Manhattan judge. The injunction was handed down yesterday, after Monday’s City Council approval of Bloomberg’s plans for the site. The ruling came down after a lawsuit was filed Tuesday, alleging that minority groups in the region were left out of the rezoning process. The city will be barred from taking further actions to develop or rezone the region until a hearing in March.

While artsy lofts were once en vogue on the Brooklyn arts scene, an indoor make-shift trailer park has emerged in the Nut Factory in Brooklyn, hoping to create an artists’ community in Bushwick. In a 6,500-square-foot warehouse, founder Hayden Cummings has assembled six recreational vehicle campers for use as “private artist studio space.” Cummings plans to collect around 25 to 30 of the 250-square-foot campers by spring 2010, and charge a $590 per month membership fee for use. “Folks who believe in the vision and are excited to contribute ideas, share knowledge, help organize, decorate and bring in others to make this something extraordinary,” will be allowed into the community, Cummings said, after a lengthy approval process. “There’s no affordable private space for artists to create art together, so now it’s come to campers in warehouses,” Cummings added. The video below contains footage of the trailer space.

A final vote on the city’s Broadway Triangle proposal is expected for Oct. 19, despite the widespread community opposition to the rezoning plan for the vacant space that borders Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick. According to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the rezoning would allow for 1,850 new apartments, about half of which will be reserved for affordable housing. A coalition of around 40 local groups has been adamantly protesting the project, arguing that it was unilaterally conceived and didn’t take community concerns into account. “The HPD is always doing this and it has to stop,” Ward Dennis, chair of the land use committee under Community Board 1, said. “It’s a good plan, a good contextual plan, the kind we’ve been advocating for. The problem is, the process stinks.”

Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood is about to get its first apartment
building with a swimming pool, according to David Maundrell, president
of Aptsandlofts.com. The soon-to-be-finished 65-unit apartment building
at 550 Irving Avenue will also include a sauna and rooftop Jacuzzi,
gaming lounge and fitness center. Maundrell said that the amenities
package would aim to recreate the kind of amenities seen in Manhattan
and Long Island City buildings, but at a lower price point. “The idea
here is to create a friendly building environment with a strong social
network,” Maundrell said. “When residents arrive home from work or
school, they have an entire array of amenities that can really satisfy
every mood.” The Irving Avenue building is one of two new large condo
additions to the Bushwick neighborhood — the other is at 38 Wilson
Avenue. Combined, the buildings will bring 80 new units to the
neighborhood. [more]

Joseph Hoffman, president of developer Bushburg Properties, hopes that
Bushwick’s new mini-mall, the Loom at 100 Thames Street, off
Knickerbocker Avenue, will make the neighborhood a stronger retail
destination. The 20-store mall held its soft opening May 9, and the
place was packed, said Israel Hirsch, a vice president at Bushburg.
Hoffman wants the mall to be the cornerstone of a neighborhood that is
part Williamsburg, part Bushwick. Only about 30 percent of the mall’s
storefronts, which range from 600 to 1,000 square feet and rent for
about $1,500 per month, have been rented. [more]