L+M's Ron Moelis and 149 Kent Avenue

L+M Development Partners, the developer behind Williamsburg’s Northside Piers, has purchased a 40,000-square-foot warehouse just across the street from the mammoth 450-unit residential project.

The development firm, which partnered with Toll Brothers, City Living and RD Management on Northside Piers, paid $19.98 million for the commercially zoned property at 149 Kent Avenue on the corner of North 5th Street. It was previously owned by WB Acquisition, a company headed by Alan Henick, CEO of a Brooklyn rug company. The deal for the warehouse closed July 31, according to public records filed with the city. [more]

Timothy King of CPEX Real Estate Services

Even though Williamsburg is being transformed into a polished landscape of luxury developments with high rents, the neighborhood’s tattoo parlors remain open in the moneyed area and report that business is strong, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal. After all, ink has a certain caché among hip neighborhood residents, and artists can charge as much as $350 an hour for their services.

“It’s one of the businesses that thrives,” Gene Coffey, a tattoo artist at Tattoo Culture on Roebling Street, told the Journal. “Bars, tattoo shops and prostitution pretty much don’t take a dip during a recession.” [more]

Average price per square foot of sold condos in Long Island City (source: Modern Spaces)

Condominium prices in Long Island City have responded to a dwindling inventory, especially of smaller units, and are rising for studios and one-bedrooms while falling for larger homes, a market report released today by the brokerage Modern Spaces showed.

Just 6 percent of the existing condominium inventory is currently available for purchase. Modern Spaces, which has spoken with developers such as TF Cornerstone and Rockrose Development about their forthcoming projects, expects just 250 more condo units to be delivered in the next 24 months, which would further depress supply. [more]

From left: Sweetleaf co-owner Rich Nieto, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Modern Spaces CEO Eric Benaim and COO Ted Kokkoris (credit: Donna Dotan)

Guests gathered last night at the new Modern Spaces Williamsburg location, at 135 Kent Avenue, to celebrate the official opening of the brokerage’s newest office. Even at first glance, the new office is far different from your typical real estate strorefront: Modern Spaces shares the open space with Sweetleaf, a coffeehouse that occupies the entrance area of the first-floor location. Like the brokerage, it marks the first foray into Brooklyn for the Long Island City cafe. Click here to see the photos and more.

338 Berry Street

Loft residents in Williamsburg, who claim to be the some of the original gentrifiers of the neighborhood, are fighting their eviction from a mostly vacant building, citing a new law that allows lofts to be rent-regulated. “The people like us who made Williamsburg cool are now the ones being given the boot,” resident David Opdyke who moved into the building in question, at 338 Berry Street, in the 1990s, told the Post. [more]

The former Pfizer plant

Fermented tea company Kombucha Brooklyn, Brooklyn Soda Works, and Steve’s Ice Cream have all inked leases at a new 660,000-square-foot culinary production facility on Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg, Grub Street reported, a former Pfizer pharmaceutical plant.

The eight-story Pfizer plan shut up shop in 2008, a blow to the neighborhood. But the site was purchased by real estate investment firm Acumen Capital Partners last year; its plan to turn the plant into a food production center has attracted support from local politicians. [more]

Williamsburg retailers are up in arms about partially shut down service on the L train on a dozen weekends since July, reaching out to community leaders and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to work out alternatives. The shutdowns have resulted in massive drops in sales for many of them, Crains reported, most dramatically on Black Friday, the stores’ biggest day of the year.

“Nobody was here,” said William Norton, owner of an apparel store Peachfrog in the vicinity of the L closure. “I lost 80 percent of my business, compared with last year.”

Since 1998, the L train’s ridership has increased by a massive 141 percent thanks to development of the now-trendy Williamsburg area, but local businesses are now suffering so much from the unreliability of commuters’ lifeline to the neighborhood that something must be done, they said.
… [more]

East Williamsburg’s 291 Devoe, an eight-unit boutique condominium between Catherine and Olive streets, is 100 percent sold after just over a year on the market, according to MNS, the exclusive sales and marketing firm for the project.

The developer of the project is Chicago’s Builders Bank; the bank was originally the construction lender on the project before ultimately taking over at the property, according to Lyon Porter, vice president at MNS.

“With many of the homes sold to first-time homebuyers, this is a great indication that buyer confidence is returning and that a well developed building will not last on the market long,” said Dave Behin, partner at MNS. – Katherine Clarke… [more]

MySpace NYC ad

MySpace NYC, a Brooklyn-focused residential real estate firm, recently started an eye-catching company advertising campaign, as the Greenpoint/Williamsburg-based blog New York Shitty spotted on Bushwick Avenue (see ad above). MySpace NYC was founded in 2008, has offices in Williamsburg and Prospect Heights. It rents and sells units throughout the borough. This is not the first real estate company to employ sex to sell real estate. The Real Deal reported in 2007 that spicy real estate advertising had been picking up in frequency in New York City. According to its website, MySpace NYC currently has two properties for sale in Prospect Heights, a loft for $579,000 and a two-bedroom apartment for $789,000.  [New York Shitty]… [more]

The developer of the Lotus condominium in Williamsburg has agreed to hand over 10 apartments to the condo board, settling a private lawsuit and investigation by the attorney general amid complaints about structural defects at the building and thousands of dollars in unpaid common charges.

Developer Steven Kohn signed a “confession of judgment” at Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office June 3, giving the 10 unsold apartments to the condo board, according to documents obtained by The Real Deal. The board will be able to rent out the units to help cover the costs of fixing the building. The developer also signed a personal guarantee, backing up promises made in the settlement. … [more]