From left at the Brooklyn Real Estate Summit: Tim King of CPEX, Joe Chan of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Michael Phillips of Jamestown; Michael Zazza of the Zazza Development Group and Susan Pollock of CPC Resources

Though the price disparity in their residential markets may be narrowing,
Brooklyn still lags far behind Manhattan in the number of big national
retailers. That was a major discussion point at the 2011 Brooklyn Real
Estate Summit held yesterday at St. Francis College in Downtown
Brooklyn. Not coincidentally, commercial real estate veterans pointed
to the very neighborhood where the conference took place, Downtown
Brooklyn, as crucial to landing those retailers.

“Brooklyn is too spread out to achieve national retailers in every business
district in the borough,” said Michael Phillips, managing director at
real estate investor Jamestown, which has stakes in Be@Schermerhorn in Downtown Brooklyn and four Manhattan buildings. But, by trumpeting Downtown Brooklyn, where retail traffic is already evident, Brooklyn
can lure the big-box national retailer willing to be a pioneer. [more]

Closings have begun at the Residences at the Williamsburg, the condo portion of the Williamsburg Hotel (note:correction appended) . Two apartments have sold, according to public records, both one-bedroom units, one for $445,000, the other for $456,000, according to Curbed. Another 910-square foot apartment is on the rental market for $4,200 a month after being marketed for sale at $727,000. Another one-bedroom is available for rent for $2,600 a month. The residences were developed by KM Construction and Development Group. [more]

From the April issue: To the transformation of Williamsburg’s waterfront, add one more luxury residential building: 175 Kent Avenue. The 113-unit rental — which was developed by the Chetrit Group and is being marketed by aptsandlofts.com — officially launches this month. And if the new and nearby rentals that it’s following to market offer any sort of indication, the developers of 175 Kent may be breathing a sigh of relief. [more]

Warehouse 11 and Karl Fischer

Warehouse 11, the Karl Fischer-designed Williamsburg condominium that once looked to be on its way to poster child-status for the neighborhood’s boom and bust, has sold out, a little over a year after its brush with foreclosure. Brooklyn-based brokerage aptsandlofts.com told The Real Deal today that the last remaining apartment at the 120-unit building has just gone into contract, wrapping up an ambitious sales effort that began on the heels of a bankruptcy filing by the developers. TRD [more]

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From the March issue: Two years ago, the Magic 8-Ball for Williamsburg condo developers would have read, “Try Again Later.” With condo inventory peaking at almost 700 units in February 2009 (according to StreetEasy), developers and brokers in the throes of the recession were grappling with a stock of residential units roughly three times the size of early 2007′s. It wasn’t a good time to open a building. But now some brokers say the dust has settled, and inventory in the neighborhood, once the poster child for the condo glut, is actually tightening. “I’m seeing my listings shrink; I’m seeing my inventory shrink,” said David Maundrell, president of aptsandlofts.com. [more]

The leasing office at Chetrit Group’s 175 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg will open early next month, marketing long-awaited high-end rental apartments across the street from the super-successful 184 Kent Avenue, where 340 luxury rentals were recently snapped up in less than a year. According to Crain’s, starting prices for the units will range from $2,343 per month for studios to $3,413 for two-bedrooms. David Maundrell of Aptsandlofts.com, which is heading up the leasing efforts at 175 Kent, quelled rumors that the project is yet another example of condominiums-turned-rentals in the wake of Brooklyn’s condo bust, noting that he’s been working with Chetrit for three years with the intent of launching rentals at the site. [more]

Although Williamsburg development Warehouse 11 endured a rocky road since launching sales in November 2007, including a brief brush with foreclosure in 2009, sales are looking up, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Ninety-nine of the 120-unit building’s apartments are sold, according to David Maundrell, president of aptsandlofts.com, Warehouse 11′s exclusive marketing brokerage. [more]

David Maundrell

From the December issue: It’s no wonder that David Maundrell’s eight-year-old frm aptsandlofts.com is based in Williamsburg. The 36-year-old grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood in a brick three-family owned by his grandparents well before the neighborhood was a hipster magnet. Tucked inside a former zipper factory not too far from his grandparents’ home, the frm evokes the dot-com heyday, as many of its 43 employees huddle over computer screens in a largely open 5,000-square-foot space. Sneak a peek at Maundrell’s desk here.

Andrew Barrocas

From the May issue: While the real estate community is inundated with statistics about sales activity and prices when it comes to the condo and co-op market, there’s one stat that’s rarely bandied about in public: commission fluctuations. In this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal talked to brokers and firm principals about how take-home pay and commissions have changed since the market went into freefall in September 2008. For more on the new types of commission splits that some firms are using and on new development versus resale commissions, we turn to our panel of experts. [more]

From the May issue: Prospective buyers playing hard-to-get? How about sweetening the deal with an iPad? Some developers and brokers are turning to quirky giveaways, hoping the extra incentives will help fill buildings during this tough economy. The freebies, often tacked on to traditional incentives such as fee eliminations or coverage of certain taxes, are the latest trend in attention-getting promotions.

In one online ad, a broker with Platinum Properties offered to throw in two custom suits worth $2,000 each with the keys to a penthouse apartment. The broker could not be reached to say if the penthouse had been rented.

Last month, Alchemy Properties gave away iPads and 42-inch high-definition televisions to anyone who signed a contract to buy units at the Griffin Court Condominium in Midtown. More than 150 people stopped by the property during the promotion’s first two weeks, said the president of Alchemy, Kenneth Horn. [more]