Clockwise from top left: ANM Group President Moses Gross, 100 Luquer Street and David Behin, principal of MNSANM Group has pulled its Carroll Gardens condominium from the sales market in hopes of selling it to an investor seeking to capitalize on Brooklyn’s booming rental market, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Karl Fischer-designed 11-story, 20-unit building took years to build thanks to financial difficulty and community opposition that ultimately forced a reduction in height. The homes finally hit the market with MNS brokerage in October, with asking prices starting at $599,000. This week the listings were pulled. [more]

A row of brownstones on First Place in Carroll Gardens

The Department of Buildings is issuing a stop-work order on a new Carroll Gardens restaurant after getting word that the owner was planning to pave over the 150-year-old garden in the front yard to make way for outdoor seating. According to the Post, which takes credit for having tipped off the DOB, the gardens that line the brownstones of First, Second, Third and Fourth avenues are for “courtyard use” only, though the city hasn’t always enforced that rule. Some homeowners in the area have gotten away with illegal curb-cutting so that they can use their gardens, which date back to 1846, as parking spaces. [more]

A portion of the map

City Council member Brad Lander has launched an interactive map tracking stalled construction sites in his district, which comprises portions of southwestern Brooklyn, including Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Gowanus and Windsor Terrace, according to Brownstoner. The map includes demarcations for vacant development sites, existing building conversions with stop-work orders, stalled construction sites and those vacant buildings that are in so-called “derelict condition.” The survey found that a total of 39 sites had applied for demolition or construction permits, before halting progress for an extended period of time. The Real Deal’s 2010 Data Book, now available for purchase, also includes a list of stalled construction sites in New York City. TRD

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]

Four year-old Realty Collective, a Brooklyn brokerage, has purchased Frank P. Manzione Real Estate, the veteran Red Hook/Carroll Gardens firm. Realty Collective will take over Manzione’s Columbia Street offices, though Manzione plans to stay on with his new colleague, 28-year-old founder Victoria Hagman, a former music industry booker who seeks out creative real estate agents who aren’t “creepy” and promises to walk her clients’ dogs. The merger tripled Realty Collective’s listings. “It’s like we bought the Yankees,” agent Tina Fallon said of the move. [Brownstoner] and [Brooklyn Based]

After eight weeks on the market, the Brody Group’s five-unit
condominium at 90 First Place in Carroll Gardens is 80 percent sold
out. The renovated brownstone features three two-bedroom floor-through
homes and two duplexes, ranging from 1,205 to 2,210 square feet. Prices
are between $925,000 to $1.15 million. The one remaining unit is a
floor-through residence with a balcony, on the market for $985,000.
Halstead Property is the exclusive sales agent for the building, and
closings are expected to start in October. TRD

Brooklyn’s Community
Board 6′s land use committee approved the rezoning of 86 blocks in
Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Street Waterfront District, which will
establish height limits on new construction in the brownstone
neighborhoods. One criticism the committee had in the rezoning plan is
about one L-shaped section on Clinton Street from Degraw Street south
to First Place and east to Court Street that could permit building
heights of about seven stories. The committee adopted an amendment
calling for the city to change that part of the plan and cut the
allowed height. “The community spoke with a fairly unified voice and no
one actually seemed to object to the overall acknowledgment that the
neighborhood was worth protecting through a contextual rezoning,” said
Craig Hammerman, the district manager of the board.

The City Planning Commission today launched the public review for an 86-block rezoning in the Carroll Gardens and Columbia Street areas of Brooklyn, according to a press release from the planning commissioner’s office. Community members have criticized the existing zoning for allowing construction that is out-of-scale with the neighborhood’s existing buildings. The rezoning would set height limits of between 50 and 80 feet in various parts of the rezoning area. The proposed rezoning area is bounded in Carroll Gardens by Degraw Street, Warren Street and Douglass Street to the north; Hoyt Street, Bond Street and Smith Street to the east; 3rd, 4th and 5th streets, Centre Street and Hamilton Avenue to the south and Hicks Street to the west. The rezoning area also includes about 14 blocks of Columbia Street. The current zoning regulations put no height limits on buildings. The community board has 60 days to review the proposal. TRD [more]

Gerard Longo is expanding his business to brownstone Brooklyn.

Marine Park-based residential brokerage Madison Estates and Properties
is expanding into brownstone Brooklyn and is planning a leap into
Manhattan. The 60-agent firm will open a new office in a renovated brownstone at
53 Douglass Street in Carroll Gardens by mid-June, according to Gerard
Longo, the firm’s president. The move doubles the number of company
offices from its lone location at 2922 Avenue R in Marine Park in the
southeastern section of Brooklyn. Longo said his aim is to take advantage of the down market to grow the name brand in the rest of Brooklyn. [more]

Residents of
Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Street Waterfront District and City
Planning officials presented a plan to Community Board 6′s Land Use and
Landmarks Committee Thursday, which would prohibit the construction of
high-rise buildings in South Brooklyn. Neighborhood residents have been fighting for the rezoning for more than a year. At the
meeting, members of the
community claimed that the
high-rise buildings, which have been popping up in the community, are “out-of-scale” with neighboring buildings. The plan would create a
maximum building height of 50 to 70 feet on many blocks, and an 80-foot limit on Tiffany
Place.

[Brooklyn Paper]

[more]