Novelist Ariella Papa and her husband, Michael Greaney, a television producer for Nickelodeon, are often greeted with puzzled faces when they tell their friends about their new neighborhood of Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
New to you, too? Expect to hear more about it.
Prospect Lefferts Gardens sits east of Prospect Park, and traveling from Manhattan, is just a stop beyond Park Slope on the Q train line. But even recent converts like Papa and Greaney took a while to discover the area. The couple said they knew little about their new neighborhood when Corcoran Group broker Terry Robison showed them their dream house, at for New York the dream price level of under $1 million.
“This is the last neighborhood where you can buy a home below a million dollars half a block from Prospect Park,” says Robison. “That doesn’t exist on any other sides of the park at this point.”
Proximity to the expanse of green that abuts the western edge of the neighborhood was another big draw. “We really liked it because we are runners and it is so close to the park,” says Papa.
Papa and Greaney, who will move from their one-bedroom co-op in Carroll Gardens to a four-bedroom brick stucco Tudor house in less than a month, would not disclose the price of their new purchase, but said it is in the ballpark of other four-bedroom houses in the neighborhood. Brokers say houses of that size can still be had for around $650,000.
There is a great variety. Homes closer to the park and those within an eight block “ordinance district” are higher, because of the longstanding zoning rules, which have prevented anything other than single-family occupancy there for decades. “You can see a three-bedroom for $600,000 on one block and go two blocks away outside the ordinance and a house might sell for $450,000,” says David Hanniford, a broker for Century 21 Achievers who sells in the community.
Prospect Lefferts’ northern boundary is Empire Boulevard. Nostrand and Linden Avenues are the eastern and southern borders, with the park to the west. But it was the properties themselves that were the big draw for Gotham and Hamptons Magazine editor Jason Nixon and his partner, John Loeke, an interior designer.
They found a 1920s-era, Tudor-style row house with three floors and an English basement on a cul-de-sac for $650,000. “It has wonderful, original details including paneling and wood floors,” says Nixon. “Our house appears to have been lifted from an English village and transported to a quiet dead-end street just off bustling Flatbush Avenue. I love the home’s layout and amount of space. Plus, there’s a backyard. And it’s only minutes from the Q train, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and, still, Prospect Park.”
It isn’t a brownstone neighborhood. Sixty percent of the homes are limestone, according to Robison. Rentals are rare, since Lefferts has been a strong home-owning community. According to Hanniford, you can find an unfurnished one-bedroom apartment that will generally run $950 a month.
What is hard to find in the neighborhood is a good cup of espresso. The retail scene is still dominated by old Brooklyn nail salons, barber shops, old stores. “I wish the neighborhood had a terrific coffee outpost and gourmet food store a place to hang out on the weekends with the paper,” says Nixon. “Also, I haven’t found a good liquor store yet. And I have become addicted to Golden Krust [Bakery], to the detriment of my diet.”
But some potential buyers believe the upscale retail will follow their residency. “That’s what I am hoping for,” says Peter Burger, a marketing writer for Ernst & Young who now rents in Astoria but is looking hard for a place in Lefferts Gardens. “I am a runner and I want to get in before those properties close to the park hit the million figure.”
That may happen soon and the espresso machines may also be on their way. Says Daren Hornig, CEO of Dwelling Quest, “All it will take there is one Starbucks to get things going.”