Michael Campbell at 65 Fen, a wine shop he opened in December in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.

From the March issue: Prospect Lefferts Gardens, the Brooklyn neighborhood that hugs the east side of Prospect Park (effectively mirroring Park Slope on the west), has been touted as an up-and-coming neighborhood for more than a few years now. But somehow it’s never quite caught on in the way that some other neighborhoods have.

Though the area is full of tree-lined streets dotted with well-priced limestone townhouses that sit back on their own lawns, there are only a few restaurants, cafés, boutiques and other stores to speak of.

“Amenities like restaurants and stuff [are] definitely sparse compared to other neighborhoods,” said Victoria Hagman, owner of Realty Collective and Manzione Real Estate. “But I think people are beginning to realize that it’s an untapped market.”

PLG residents, however, don’t seem interested in waiting for others to appreciate their “untapped market.” Instead, they are taking matters into their own hands, determined to help transform their neighborhood. [more]

From the December issue: If real estate brokers occasionally suffer from a bad rap, attorneys are surely afflicted with the same problem. But according to Joseph Ferrara, an attorney specializing in real estate and intellectual property for 28 years, those two professions can make a winning combination. That’s the idea behind Ferrarra’s New York Real Estate Advocates, a new residential brokerage group — with a tentative early 2010 launch date — that will be run by real estate attorneys, with licensed agents making the sales. “We’re trying to model it after a law office somewhat [and] we’re coming to the table with legal knowledge that other brokers don’t have,” Ferrara said. “Because we know real estate law, we know how to save [clients money] on transfer taxes, et cetera.”