2280 FDB, located at 2280 Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem

A new 12-story Harlem development, 2280 FDB, has been approved for Federal Housing Administration’s financing, according to a release sent by developer RGS Holdings and Halstead Property Development Marketing, the development’s sales team. Meanwhile, Daniel Hollander, the former senior managing director of the Clarett Group, has launched a new, nationwide investment and development consulting firm headquartered in New York City and Sheldon Good & Company is set to auction off a one-bedroom, one-bathroom condo at 1600 Broadway on March 19, one of seven residences set to be auctioned as part of the High Country Club’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. Click here for more. TRD [more]

From the December issue: Rental projects were long considered bulletproof, a safe backup for
more profitable and risky condos. But with the precipitous drop in New
York City rents — perhaps on the order of 30 percent from the top of
the market once incentives are factored in — it’s clear that they are
no longer a surefire bet.
“Nobody who’s got anything under construction is kidding anybody by
not admitting that rents are less than where they were when we all
underwrote these transactions,” said Veronica Hackett, cofounder and
managing partner of the Clarett Group, a developer of condos and
rentals that began leasing at the 490-unit Brooklyner at 111 Lawrence
Street in Downtown Brooklyn a month ago.

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]

The Forte in Fort Greene

From the October issue: Few buyers who bought fancy condos in the last few years could have
predicted that their building would end up as a poster child for the
failed real estate market in the city. But at some buildings that’s
exactly what’s happened. Satian Pengsathapon, who is 30 and works in the advertising industry,
purchased a unit in the Forté tower partly because he liked that the
well-known architecture firm FXFowle designed the building. And having
gone to school at the nearby Pratt Institute, he was also a fan of the
neighborhood, Fort Greene. “I haven’t had buyer’s remorse,” Pengsathapon said. “If anything, I wonder why people aren’t buying in this building.”

[more]

The Clarett Group has ceded control of the Forte Condominium at 230 Ashland Place to Eurohypo Bank, which now controls 72 of the long-struggling building’s 108 units. The $42.3 million deed transfer was recorded last week. The deal, originally reached in April, closed a few weeks ago, Brownstoner reported. [more]

The Clarett Group has completed construction on the Brooklyner, a
51-story, 491-unit development at 11 Lawrence Street in Downtown
Brooklyn. The building includes studio, one- and two-bedroom units. As
the tallest building in Brooklyn, the Brooklyner features unobstructed
views of the East and Hudson rivers and the Brooklyn and Manhattan skylines
and a 24-hour concierge service. Occupancy is slated for late 2009 or
early 2010. TRD
[more]

From the December issue: Some real estate ads shouldn’t be left
lying on a coffee table when there are young children around. That’s
because real estate developers know sex sells — and they are
increasingly marketing their projects with explicit sexual images, or
at least sexual undertones, even at the risk of offending older buyers.
Spicy advertising has picked up in frequency in New York City in the
last few years, as the number of units coming online has increased and
developers have sought ways to distinguish themselves. At the William
Beaver House in the Financial District, there was a backlash against
ads that were deemed too racy. [more]