In an effort to raise cash for construction of a residential complex where a lumber warehouse currently stands in Williamsburg, developer Isack Rosenberg will convert the warehouse into lofts and rent them out. According to the Brooklyn Paper, Rosenberg will pay $3.1 million to convert the top two floors of the warehouse, at 490 Kent Avenue, into 30 units, while he awaits financing for a proposed 754-unit, three-tower complex that is projected to cost $400 million. He will offer month-to-month, market-rate leases as a stopgap measure to generate revenue for the project, which has shown no progress since being approved in March 2010. [more]

484 Kent Avenue (source: PropertyShark)

It seems there’s even more housing on the way for Williamsburg’s booming Kent Avenue. According to Brownstoner, a permit was recently filed with the Department of Buildings for a new residential conversion at 484 Kent Avenue, between South 11th and South 10th streets. The three-story industrial building, part of the would-be site for developer Isaac Rosenberg’s 800-unit Rose Plaza on the River, is slated to get 30 units on the second and third floors, though the first floor will remain a warehouse. Property records show that Rosenberg, the formerly bankrupt developer of the nearby Warehouse 11 condominium, is still behind this project, though it’s unclear what the latest plans mean for Rose Plaza. It’s also unclear whether condos or rentals are planned for the conversion. Lender Capital One filed a lis pendens at the property on Rosenberg’s $3.76 million mortgage in 2009. . [Brownstoner] [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]

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]

From left: Andrew Cuomo, Cory Zelnick, Jeff Winick and the Dexter House

The Real Deal has already revealed its picks for the Best of New York City Real Estate
2010 and a list of our top 10 hottest real estate topics of the year is on the way, but first, here’s what you thought. After the jump, there is a list of the 10 most popular Web stories
from TheRealDeal.com in 2010, ranked by number of page views between Jan. 1 and Dec. 26. Also be sure to check out our December issue for the year’s most popular stories
from the print magazine. [more]

Clockwise, from top left: the Toren, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Forte and Warehouse 11

New condominiums in Brooklyn are leading the way in sales activity so far this year, according to PropertyShark, which released a list of the top-selling New York City apartment buildings so far this year (click here to see the full list). The Toren and One Brooklyn Bridge Park, both in Downtown Brooklyn, saw the first- and second-most units sold in the first three quarters of the year, unloading 99 and 88 units, respectively. TRD [more]

From left: Christine Blackburn of Prudential Douglas Elliman, the Edge, Highlyann Krasnow of the Developers Group, Northside Piers

For all the flack it gets, Williamsburg is still a hot place to live — at the right price. But even developers and brokers, perennial optimists even during real estate’s darkest hours, seemed a bit surprised by a recent spike in activity at some new buildings.
Northside Piers, the 450-unit waterfront project that has consistently been a top seller citywide since broadcasting aggressive price cuts early last year, just logged its best month since opening during the boom year of 2007, said Scott Avram, senior project manager for Northside Piers developer Toll Brothers City Living.
Forty contracts were signed in the past four weeks. Avram wondered “if everyone was having the same experience.”
So, The Real Deal made some calls around the neighborhood. While nobody quite scored 40 buyers in one month, it does seem like sales and leasing activity has been strong at projects with some combination of the following three winning characteristics: “location, price and the finishes,” as broker Christine Blackburn of Prudential Douglas Elliman put it. [more]

Developer Isack Rosenberg has agreed to cut down the size of his proposed Williamsburg mixed-use development, Rose Plaza, to 776 apartments from 801, as a concession to the City Council members who will vote on his plan this month. Rosenberg’s olive branch also comes with an 8 percent uptick in the number of affordable housing units, resulting in 28 percent of the development earmarked for low-income units. But this isn’t enough to Council member Steve Levin, who wants to see 30 percent of the residential units set aside for low-income use and is demanding the inclusion of four-bedroom units, which aren’t on the docket at the moment. “The community board and the borough president specifically asked for this,” Levin said at a council land use committee meeting today. Rosenberg, who saw his Warehouse 11 evade bankruptcy last month, will likely see the committee vote before April 14.

One of the developers of Williamsburg’s Warehouse 11, the 120-unit luxury condominium at 214 North 11th Street, has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The deal cut down the debt load of developer Isack Rosenberg and his partners at McCaren Park Mews to $35 million. The partners, who defaulted on their $50 million mortgage with Capital One Bank last summer, hope to pay off their remaining balance through sales of the remaining 36 units in the Karl Fisher-designed building. Sales had come to a halt during the bankruptcy process, but relaunched with verve in January as the developers slashed prices and raced against the clock to raise cash by a lender-imposed deadline. Aptsandlofts.com, which is marketing the building, expects the remaining units to go quickly now that the developers have worked through the bankruptcy. [Brooklyn Paper]

Warehouse 11

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge rejected on Friday a settlement agreement
that would have extended until next month the deadline for the
developers of Williamsburg’s Warehouse 11 to buy the property’s
discounted debt from lender Capital One. Under the original agreement, which still stands unless an appeal next
week is successful, the developers had until Dec. 21 to find an outside
investor who would purchase the $50.8 million note at an undisclosed
discount. Otherwise, Capital One could resume shopping it to an outside
party. The 120-unit condominium at North 11th and Roebling streets appears to
be the most valuable asset one of the developers, Isack Rosenberg, has
an interest in out of at least six under siege by 10 creditors in
Brooklyn’s bankruptcy court. Rosenberg had hoped to use any profits from selling the condos toward
settling his other debts, which have as collateral a lumberyard and
adjacent warehouse on Kent Avenue; the rental portion of Olive Park in
Williamsburg; a banquet hall on Flushing Avenue; and a home renovations
center in Boro Park. [more]