From left: Douglaston Development Chairman Jeffrey Levine (top), Patricia Dunphy, senior vice president of Rockrose Development (bottom left), the Riverpark farm, the DeKalb Market and the Brooklyn Flea

With more than 600 stalled construction sites currently blighting the city thanks to the recession, developers have begun renting out their vacant lots, sometimes free of charge, to ventures that can lure foot traffic to the area. According to the New York Times, the developers hope the increased traffic will improve the neighborhood — and sales and leasing figures — in advance of their projects breaking ground.

For example, Alexandria Real Estate Equities has fostered a farm on the stalled site of the second Alexandria Center for Life Science tower. Chef Tom Colicchio’s adjacent restaurant Riverpark uses produce from the farm, a set-up that has attracted interest to what would otherwise be a construction fence. [more]

Edge developer Douglaston Development has taken the lead on building a nearby site at 3 Northside Piers in Williamsburg and plans to break ground on a $300 million project in March, the Wall Street Journal reported. Douglaston, led by CEO Jeffrey Levine, intends to build a 40-story rental tower where rents range from $55 to $60 per square-foot.

The tower was originally supposed to be part of a three-building complex developed by Toll Brothers, L&M Development Partners and RD Management, but after sales were slow — even after price cuts — in the first two Northside Piers buildings, Toll Brothers backed out of the project. L&M and RD will help on Douglaston’s version of the tower. [more]

From left: Douglaston’s Jeffrey Levine, the Edge and Frolic! logo

Frolic!, a rock ‘n’ roll-inspired play space and enrichment center for children, has signed a 10-year lease for 5,000 square feet of retail space at Brooklyn development the Edge, Douglaston Development announced today. The terms of the lease were not immediately available.

“As Williamsburg mothers and homeowners, we’ve seen first hand the growing need for a spacious and enjoyable destination for the entire family” said Frolic! co-founder Carey Balogh, “and the Edge was an obvious choice for us.”

The space, in the 565-unit condominium at 34 North 7th Street and being marketed by Robert Greenstone, chairman and CEO of Greenstone Realty (see: correction appended), will feature an open 1,500-square-foot indoor playground and over 1,000 square feet of classroom space. – Katherine Clarke [more]

From left: Stonehenge Partners COO Andrew Hoffman, Jeffrey Levine, principal of Douglaston Development, Michael Gubbins, vice president at the Albanese Organization and Joseph Sbiroli, principal of Ventura Land

After a major evacuation, extensive preparations and a two-day mass transit shutdown, New
Yorkers have emerged after Hurricane Irene to find their city mostly unscathed.

“It was a remarkable non-event,” said Andrew Hoffman, COO of Stonehenge Partners.

Stonehenge, which manages approximately 2,500 apartments in 20 buildings, avoided the
evacuation orders with buildings like Midtown’s Ritz Plaza and 10 Downing.

Hoffman said they geared up for the storm by supplying each building with plywood, water
pumps, water vacuums, flashlights, batteries and thousands of glow sticks. [more]

(source: MNS)

New development condominium sales are up year-over-year in both Manhattan and Brooklyn for the second quarter of 2011, according to a second-quarter new development report released today by residential real estate firm MNS.
In Manhattan, condo sales prices were up 18 percent on an average compared to the second quarter of 2010, the report says. Compared with the first quarter of 2011, the average Manhattan new development price was virtually flat. Even though some condo sales are seeing strong sales, several real estate professionals told The Real Deal earlier this spring that many challenges lie ahead. [more]

New development condominium sales are up year-over-year in both Manhattan and Brooklyn for the second quarter of 2011, according to a second-quarter new development report released today by residential real estate firm MNS.
In Manhattan, condo sales prices were up 18 percent on an average compared to the second quarter of 2010, according to the report. Compared to the first quarter of 2011, the average Manhattan new development price was virtually flat. Even though some condo sales are seeing strong sales, several real estate professionals told The Real Deal earlier this spring that many challenges lay ahead. – Miranda Neubauer [more]

The pool at 15 Central Park West

From the July issue: One of the selling points emphasized by brokers at the Edge condominium in Williamsburg is the major weekend scene at the pool, with lots of sunbathing, picnicking and socializing. At 20 Pine’s pool in the Financial District, neighbors regularly practice yoga and host parties.

But there will be no pool parties at 15 Central Park West this summer. Even as the weather heats up, the atmosphere at the über-exclusive condominium remains subdued, residents say, and the pool area is often deserted.

The Robert A.M. Stern-designed building has become the condominium of choice for hotshot celebrities like Denzel Washington and Sting, and finance bigwigs such as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Citigroup Chairman Emeritus Sanford Weill. [more]

New York City home sales prices inched upward, while sales activity blossomed in the second quarter of 2011, according to a report released today by the Real Estate Board of New York.

Sales activity increased 10 percent from the first quarter of 2011, but is down four percent from the same period a year ago due to “unseasonable fluctuations” caused by the looming expiration of the homebuyer’s tax credit, according to Steve Spinola, REBNY’s president. Meanwhile, sales prices increased 2 percent from last quarter and 3 percent from the same period a year ago. In the second quarter “we saw a return to normal cyclical market patterns,” Spinola said. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

From the June issue: Shortly after the financial crisis of 2008, experts worried that the market was in even worse shape than it appeared. The culprit? Thousands of stalled and vacant condo units that were being held off the market — so-called shadow inventory — threatening to add years to New York City’s real estate recovery.

In today’s improved economy, many in the industry are wondering what happened to all that inventory. With sales picking up and some new condos morphing into rentals, everyone agrees that the number of shadow units has dropped. But no one knows by exactly how much. [more]

From left: Jeffrey Levine, chairman of Douglaston Development, and his condo the Edge, developer Louis Greco, and his be@Schermerhorn

[Updated June 6, 2011 at 1:45 p.m. with detailed sales figures] Sales at the the Edge in Williamsburg have picked up rapidly, and in the past four months alone, the condominium has sold more units than any New York City residential building did in all of 2010. According to MNS, the brokerage formerly known as TDG/TREGNY which is exclusively marketing the development, the Edge garnered 144 signed contracts between Jan. 1, 2011 and June 1, 2011, including an average of more than 32 per month between February and May (see chart after the jump for a breakdown of sales by month). Granted the Edge is more than twice as big, but those sales numbers already shatter the figures posted by last year’s fastest selling building, according to PropertyShark.com, be@Schermerhorn, which sold 121 units out of 246 in the calendar year.

Now, 234 of the Edge’s 565 units have closed, and 61 are in contract, according to MNS. The firm told The Real Deal that the building’s location and amenities package, which includes an array of sports and spa facilities, have appealed to buyers.

[more]