Hudson Lights at Fort Lee
New Jersey
Fort Lee redevelopment plan unveiled
Illinois-based Tucker Development has unveiled plans for the western half of a $1 billion redevelopment project near the George Washington Bridge, the Record reported. The developer is seeking approvals for Hudson Lights at Fort Lee, which would include some 165,000 square feet of retail, 477 residential units, a 175-room hotel and parking for about 1,175 cars. The Fort Lee planning board in March approved plans for the eastern half of the project, which includes two 47-story residential towers — the tallest structures in Bergen County — in addition to a restaurant, museum, movie theater and park. The eastern half is being developed by Fort Lee Redevelopment Associates. Together, the projects — Fort Lee’s largest redevelopment effort to date — would add 1,379 residential units and more than 187,000 square feet of commercial space to the borough. If the Hudson Lights portion is approved, construction could begin as early as this summer, the developer said.
Connecticut
Home prices drop in CT, but sales volume up
The number of Connecticut single-family home sales rose in the first quarter, while median prices dropped to their lowest level since 2003, according to data released last month by Boston-based real estate analysts the Warren Group. Sales of single-family homes rose more than 5 percent to 4,157 in the first quarter of 2012, up from 3,950 in the previous quarter. Sales in March, meanwhile, rose 4.5 percent to 1,610, up from 1,540 in the same month of 2011. But the median sales price for single-family homes in the first quarter was $215,000, down 6.5 percent from $230,000 in the same period of 2011. That is the lowest median sales price recorded statewide since 2003. A total of 1,134 Connecticut condos sold in the first quarter, a 1.4 percent increase from 1,118 in the same period of last year. In March, condo sales plummeted 10 percent to 430 transactions, down from 480 in March of 2011. Median sales prices for condos also decreased, dropping more than 4 percent to $158,250 from $165,000 quarter-over-quarter. “In studying patterns of previous housing slumps and recoveries, I’m not surprised median prices are continuing to drop,” said Timothy Warren, CEO of the Warren Group. “Home sales volume will continue to rise, but it will take several more months for median prices to follow.”
Brickman EstateLong Island
King’s Point “Great Gatsby” mansion sold
The estate said to have inspired the West Egg mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic “The Great Gatsby” has sold, Newsday reported. The 20-acre property, known as the Brickman Estate, had been on the market since September 2010 and was listed for $39.5 million. At press time, the sale price and buyer’s identity had not yet been released to the public. The deal was brokered by Diane Polland, a sales associate in the Great Neck office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. Set at the tip of a private peninsula, the estate was last owned by the late John Handler, who passed away in 2008. The stucco mansion, built in the early 1850s, is believed to be the last remaining 19th-century mansion on the North Shore of Long Island. The estate has 10 residential buildings and 1,600 feet of waterfront, with views of New York City, the Long Island Sound and Manhasset Bay. Fitzgerald lived in Great Neck in the 1920s, when he began writing “The Great Gatsby.”