The Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood

A landmarked historic district, a close-knit community and of course, affordability are making Prospect Lefferts Gardens one of the city’s most desirable up-and-coming neighborhoods, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Proximity to Prospect Park doesn’t hurt either, as young families have begun hunting for condominiums and townhouses in the traditionally West Indian community as they seek refuge from the high prices on the other side of the park in the tony Park Slope neighborhood. [more]

Fourth Avenue

From the August issue: Fourth Avenue — a wide boulevard wending its way from downtown Brooklyn to Bay Ridge — is still a far cry from the “Park Avenue of Brooklyn” that politicians predicted during its mid-2000s rezoning.
Development on Fourth Avenue, especially the section that skirts the western edge of Park Slope, did indeed take off during the real estate boom. Pioneering condo projects in the area, like Novo and the Crest, are now sold out. But as The Real Deal and others have reported, the area saw a number of projects stall mid-construction during the downturn. Plus, the notoriously unattractive area — known for garages and empty lots — still has more auto — shops than doormen. Recently, however, brokers say demand for residential properties on Fourth Avenue has spiked, with the help of post-downturn price cuts. And even more new construction is on the way, now that the worst of the downturn appears to be over. The Marketing Directors’ Jackie Urgo, who is handling sales at the Arias at 150 Fourth Avenue, said she knows of three soon-to-be-announced projects within 10 blocks of the Arias.

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While previous rezonings have transformed Fourth Avenue in Park Slope from an auto-oriented, industrial block to one ripe with residential development, the area still isn’t the “complete neighborhood” the city envisioned, the Department of City Planning said. Retail is still sorely lacking. As a result, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced she is submitting a new rezoning proposal for public review that would require new developments to have at least 50 percent of ground-floor frontage be literally transparent and occupied by retail uses. “Fourth Avenue is a wide, transit-rich corridor with new housing and residents, but often lacks an active pedestrian environment,” Burden said in a statement. “This new proposal will help ensure the continued transformation of the avenue into a dynamic commercial corridor and provide much needed services to its surrounding communities.” – Adam Fusfeld [more]

The real estate market is in flux in Brooklyn’s Greenwood Heights according to the Wall Street Journal. In the last few years, condominium and rental buildings have been substituted for wood-framed houses in the area, which is between Park Slope and Sunset Park. And Sixth Avenue, a previously quiet residential area, has morphed into a relatively trendy bar and restaurant scene.

The swift redevelopment comes as a result of an influx of young professionals in the last decade, the Journal said, after that demographic was priced out of longed-for Park Slope properties. The median listing price of a property in Park Slope is $673 per square foot, whereas a similar property can be snapped up for only $536 per square foot in Greenwood, according to data from Streeteasy.com. [more]

The model unit at Arias Park Slope, a 12-story, 95-unit condominium-turned-rental building on Fourth Avenue near Butler Street, has opened and a June 1 move-in date has been revealed. Developed by the Iconic Group and designed by Ismael Leyva Architects, the Arias has a brownstone exterior, a rooftop bar and grill with 360-degree views and is comprised of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments starting at $1,800 per month. TRD [more]

Prime 6, a bar set to open in May at the corner of Flatbush and Sixth avenues, one block from the Nets’ forthcoming Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn, caught flack from Community Board 6 yesterday for a 46-seat outdoor patio it intends to keep open, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Owner Akiva Ofshtein secured a liquor license, which permits alcohol service until 4 a.m., but neighbors fear a rowdy post-Nets game scene and want the patio closed by midnight on weekends. [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

The Brooklyn Free School has announced its purchase of a five-story brownstone at 372 Clinton Avenue between Green and Lafayette avenues in Clinton Hill, Brownstoner reported. While it’s not yet clear what the closing price on the 25-foot-wide building was, the most recent asking price was around $2 million. Before attracting the school’s attention, the 7,000-square-foot building had languished on the market since the middle of 2006. “We are extremely excited about the prospect of moving to a building of our own,” school representatives said on the Brooklyn Free School Web site. The school plans to renovate the building before moving in over the coming months. It is currently based at 120 16th Street in Park Slope. TRD

From left: Peter Riguardi, Don Capoccia, Frederick Peters, Roger Erickson and Daun Paris

Although many end-of-the-year residential and commercial real estate sales reports have yet to arrive, a new year grants the license to look back and evaluate how predictions and prognostications made last year panned out over the past 12 months. Many of the experts The Real Deal talked to last year had a bleak outlook for 2009 — and rightly so. But others missed the mark, either with too-optimistic predictions for recovery or overreaching pessimism that — if it’s possible — actually overstated how devastating the market would ultimately prove to be in 2009. Here, The Real Deal looks back at some of the top claims and predictions made in the beginning of last year to see who hit the nail on the head and who missed the mark.  More

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A slew of discounted Brooklyn brownstones is coming on the market. A bevy of three- to four-unit residential buildings in Bedford-Stuyvesant can be had for under $300,000, for example, according to Ofer Cohen, the managing director at TerraCrg Commercial Realty Group (see full report after the jump). “I’ve got a list of 10 of them right now,” he said. But investors looking for a steal in prime neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens or Park Slope may need to wait a little longer. According to a report released today by TerraCRG, 51 percent of non-residential mortgages that began foreclosure filings in the past year in Brooklyn were for three- to four-unit residential buildings, and 80 percent were for mortgages under $1 million. Cohen added that the majority of the foreclosures took place in lower-priced neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy and East New York. “The weaker neighborhoods are seeing more of this,” said Cohen, who recently sold a non-performing mortgage note on an eight-family building in Crown Heights for $400,000, a 50 percent discount. [more]