A new boutique condo is sneaking up fast on the giant residential towers — the Edge and Northside Piers — being constructed along Kent Avenue on the waterfront in Williamsburg.
The developers of the seven-story condo known modestly by its address, 111 Kent Avenue, are betting there are at least 62 buyers willing to forgo the indoor pools, screening rooms and golf simulators offered by the neighboring high-profile towers for a cozy waterside residence selling for about the same price, on average about $1,000 a square foot.
Having topped out in June, the condo will be ready to close way ahead of the Edge, which is scheduled for occupancy next summer, and just after the first of the two Northside Piers towers (see Watching sales at Two Northside Piers), which is already beginning occupancy.
The Edge, a mixed-use project on Kent Avenue between North 5th and 7th streets (see The Edge is smooth, from the January 2008 issue) should be the heavyweight contender on the Williamsburg waterfront, according to Douglaston Development’s long-range plan. Now under construction on a 7.5-acre waterfront site, the Edge will be anchored by three towers containing 1,085 condos with 40,000 square feet of amenity space.
Residents at that Goliath will get an indoor pool with Manhattan views from the outdoor terrace, two fitness facilities, yoga studio, spa with whirlpool, co-ed sauna, Turkish steam bath, heat pit, private treatment rooms, two movie theaters, virtual reality game room with golf simulator, residents’ lounges with demonstration kitchens and billiards tables, private party room, and a children’s playroom. Over 60,000 square feet of retail space is planned, with a public park, waterfront promenade and new piers with a water taxi landing.
“If you want 40,000 square feet of amenity space, the Edge is for you,” said Christine Blackburn, the Prudential Douglas Elliman agent heading the marketing team at 111 Kent. Her buyers, she added, “don’t need the yoga room and instead want custom high-end finishes.”
“We’re not competing with the Edge,” agreed Charles Scharf, one of the developers of 111 Kent. “A different buyer wants to be in a 500-unit building as opposed to a development with 62 units, where you’ll know most of your neighbors on a first-name basis within the first couple of months.”
Blackburn said the developers are targeting “people who want waterfront and views, but want it West Village-style, something that’s a smaller building.
“We’re the Superior Ink of Williamsburg,” she added, referring to the Related Companies’ 69-unit waterfront condo at 70 Bethune Street in the West Village.
The principals claim 111 Kent will contain more refined and stylized finishes than the nearby mega-towers, but their real edge on the Edge, they boast, is the views.
The patch of waterfront between their site and the river has been designated a state park. “Eighty percent of the units have permanently unobstructed park, skyline and river views,” said Blackburn. “In the towers [at the neighboring high-rises], maybe 25 to 30 percent of the buildings have unobstructed views because other towers could obstruct their views. And they’re tall and narrow, so three-quarters of their buildings face the other side. We’re wide along Kent Avenue.”
Of course, 30 percent of the 370 apartments in the initial tower at the Edge would still dwarf the number of units in 111 Kent that will offer views. But, insisted Scharf, “our size is the integral part of what will make this building a success. Massive towers are somewhat overwhelming, almost like walking into someone else’s building until you walk into your apartment.”
“A lot of people move to Brooklyn because they want a more boutique building,” added Blackburn. “They don’t want to feel like they’re in a building that could be in New Jersey.”
Unlike the glass high-rises coming up on the waterfront, 111 Kent will have a brick façade. “There are enough glass towers in Williamsburg,” said Blackburn. “We wanted to do something that incorporated some brick, reflecting more of the surrounding buildings, which are brick and frame. If somebody wants an all-glass tower, that product exists for them.”
Blackburn said 111 Kent interior architect Andre Kikoski “did a lot of scouting work, walking the neighborhood, getting the feel of Williamsburg, which is very eclectic in the culture and visually, containing brick buildings, old frame buildings, loft buildings, different colors, glass towers. It’s not consistent like other parts of brownstone Brooklyn.”
Hallways will contain floor-to-ceiling abstract photographs of the neighborhood.
The lobby will be high-tech modern meets turn-of-the-century rustic, containing sheets of diacrylic glass which change colors from purple to green to blue and go from reflective to opaque to transparent, depending on the viewing angle. The glass is juxtaposed against 10-inch strips of rough, knotty old barn wood bought from a company in Colorado that reclaims wood from barns in Austria. At least, said Scharf, “that’s what they’re telling me.”
Sixty percent of the building’s units are two-bedrooms between 1,100 and 1,200 square feet; there are some one-bedrooms, a handful of ground-floor duplexes between 1,500 and 1,800 square feet, and a few three-bedrooms. The 720-square-foot one-bedroom units on the south side are the apparent value plays, starting at $575,000.
The living rooms in the waterfront two-bedroom units jut out from the building façade, said Blackburn, so residents can position furniture toward the Midtown Manhattan skyline, which is slightly north of the building. The layouts are “winged,” with bedrooms on either side of the living rooms, so all windows face the river. Finishes include textured, leather-like tiles in the bathrooms.
The building is set back at the top floor, so the four penthouses, between 1,200 and 1,300 square feet, have terraces ranging in size from 700 to 1,000 square feet. Though not listed yet, they are “priced like the top floors of Northside Piers,” said Blackburn.
Penthouses at Northside go for upwards of $1,200 per square foot.
The condo will have a rooftop outdoor pool with two south-facing sundecks and private cabanas for sale, a gym, window-walled lounge, underground parking with valet service and a 3,000-square-foot private garden in the back.
Marketing for 111 Kent begins this month, with a sales office opening just across the street from the project. Closings are scheduled for winter 2009.
While the first tower at Northside has sold around 70 percent of its apartments so far, the new contender in the brick trunks is trying to come out swinging.
Scharf reports that one of the units at 111 Kent has already been sold and contracts are out on two others, the result of marketing to Prudential Douglas Elliman’s “friends and family” clients.
Elliman has 1,000 inquires on a waiting list for the project, Blackburn said.