Downtown Brooklyn’s Oro condominium, the 40-story tower at 306 Gold Street, has closed more than 200 of its 303 studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units, bringing the building to roughly 65 percent sold and occupied, according to an announcement today from Rose Associates, which is handling sales. That’s a significant spike from last November, when PropertyShark.com reported that 63 units had closed; even then, it was ranked as the city’s seventh-best-selling building of 2010. It wasn’t always smooth-sailing for Oro, though, which was originally developed by controversial United Homes owner Yaron Herscho. – Sarabeth Sanders [more]

While the rent-to-own sales plan showed little momentum in many New York City developments recently, Downtown Brooklyn condominium Oro may be finding some success in the strategy. The 303-unit building at 306 Gold Street has sold 20 apartments through the rent-to-own program, according to Robert Scaglion, a senior managing director at Rose Associates, the building’s exclusive sales agent. Oro, which launched sales in February 2007, first began offering the rent-to-own option a year ago. TRD [more]

Fred Harris, vice president at AvalonBay Communities, which is constructing its first Brooklyn project, a 631-unit tower on Gold Street in Fort Greene.

From the March issue: A handful of major real estate management and development firms that have long avoided Brooklyn — even as housing prices in the borough shot up and brokerages rushed in — are finally venturing across the river.

The reasons are twofold. First, new high-rise, high-end construction in Brooklyn fits their business model. And second, values of these new Brooklyn buildings appear to have tumbled further and faster than their Manhattan counterparts, according to brokers and developers. “Developers are looking for opportunities, 100 percent,” said David Maundrell, a Dumbo resident and the president of aptsandlofts.com, a brokerage with a Brooklyn focus. “But they are willing to do that because there is a viable market here. It’s become a destination as opposed to an afterthought for Manhattanites who want a cheaper place.”

Jamestown Properties is one of the developers that recently upped its bet on the borough. In early 2007, the firm had a 60 percent equity stake in be@Schermerhorn, a troubled condo in Downtown Brooklyn, which was developed by SDS Procida and saw construction and sales suspended last year. But in December, Jamestown bought the balance of the mortgage from a consortium of banks. The consortium had originally lent $100 million to SDS Procida.

Roberta Benzilio, an executive director of sales at Halstead, and Toren

The developer of Toren, the long-awaited condominium at 150 Myrtle Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, has applied for Federal Housing Administration financing and is scheduled to begin closings by the second week of December, officials said. FHA financing, if approved, would help individual buyers close their apartment contracts, with low down payments and less-than-perfect credit scores, said Roberta Benzilio, executive director of sales in Brooklyn for Halstead Property, exclusive broker for Toren. “I think the FHA approval will help with the buyers who were initially only looking to put 10 percent down,” Benzilio said. “Some people don’t have the cash available.” The FHA program allows new homebuyers to finance up to $729,750 for a new home. The buyers only need a 3.5 percent down payment compared to 20 percent or more required for most bank loans in the current market. [more]

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 Oro tower in Downtown Brooklyn has just cut prices on its unsold condominium units, some by as much as 25 percent. Since it began marketing units two years ago (the development closed its first deals last October) developer Greenfield Partners has sold just 90 of the 40-story building’s 303 condos. Greenfield also announced that it had recently changed listing brokers, swapping out Prudential Douglas Elliman for Rose Associates. Matthew Faris, vice president of Greenfield, said that he expects the new prices and sales team to lure cautious buyers. “The pricing will drive sales,” Farris said. “Right now it’s good to have a cohesive sales and managing team. Buyers need a lot more handholding.”

Between the thousands of condominium developments in various stages of development and the reduction in sales volume, it is not surprising to learn that lenders are taking back the keys for high-rise condo projects or forcing developers to turn their condos to rentals. During the first week of the month, Fortress Investment Group took over the defaulted mortgages and acquired possession of the Sheffield 57, the condo conversion of the 50-story building at 322 West 57th Street. The property was purchased in 2005 for $418 million by a partnership of Kent Swig, Yair Levy and Serge Hoyda.  [more]

Condominiums in Brooklyn, including BellTel Lofts, One Hanson Place and Oro, still have empty retail spaces. Two of the buildings have lost out on national retailers — BellTel was in discussions with Starbucks, and One Hanson Place lost Borders as a tenant — and now retail brokers are focusing on attracting local tenants. According to Lawrence Lee, vice president with Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Bracha Group, which represents BellTel, said they are looking for a locally owned lounge, restaurant or small grocer. Paul Rich of TerraCRG, who is marketing Oro’s space, said people have approached the company to open a diner or restaurant in the space. And at One Hanson Place, the 15,000-square-foot ground-floor space is being rented for weddings and special events. According to Caroline Pardo, director of leasing at Two Trees Management, “There are definitely more mom-and-pops looking right now than big national tenants.” [Post] and [Post]