Lots of bulls-eye comments on the city's lack of affordable housing vis-a-vis the newspaper's high-end coverage. #truth
But folks, c'mon. It's published with the subheading "The High End". Comment sidebar is like watching Robin Leach's "The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with viewers remarking that it didn't feature more Camrys or shopping trips to Banana Republic
4
This project has literally taken over our community and made our commutes to and from the F train even more chaotic and unsafe then they already were. It is criminal that the developers have gotten away with little or no contribution to our neighborhood/F Train/Infrastructure/Schools given the loopholes that always favor developers in these massive real estate deals. We need more accountability from developers and not just "amenities" for the people who are buying in to this neighborhood now that it is overrun. Our F train station at York is dangerous and packed and needs attention if all of these people and the others buying in the 4 new projects currently going up in Dumbo plan to ride the train. Private gardens and pools won't cut it for the rest of the community living here.
7
One thing no one is writing about is the air pollution caused by all this construction in such a small area. I can't open my windows for concrete and demolition dust. Local people are getting sick by breathing in the constant winds of building dust and debris. And no-one is holding these huge projects accountable. Front & York is built on a brownfield site - toxic land where previous occupants included a lead manufacturer. And now we're breathing all that dust.
4
The same could probably be said about nearly every building in the neighborhood. 20 years ago, DUMBO was all warehouses occupied by squatters and filth. Once you take up residence in the neighborhood, you don’t automatically get to claim that new construction is impacting your health. All of the buildings in the area were pretty bad, and I welcome the change even if I can’t afford to live in one of those apartments.
2
@Dumbo local I agree, I live nearby and the pollution is awful. We just keep the air conditioning on rather than have lots of unknowns float through out windows. Anyway, we're not renewing our lease, time to move! Also, I can't imagine the even worse and unsafe conditions of the F train bottleneck with this many more residents in a few years. It's already unsafe during rush hour and there's just one shared exit/entrance.
2
@Reader
You are completely incorrect. I lived in Dumbo 26 years ago and the neighborhood was not occupied by squatters and filth. It was occupied by a wonderful community of artists, artisans and small businesses who founded this neighborhood on the principles of creativity, friendship, and community. I am not against development, I am against irresponsible development. 85 Jay is irresponsible development. They are causing traffic, parking problems and environmental concerns and they are not planning to give anything back to the community. I hope they will reconsider and do the right thing.
1
I wish the NYTimes would report on the lack of sufficient infrastructure improvements to support all the new construction projects in DUMBO rather than PR fluff pieces for these new buildings. The York street station is already a death trap during rush hours with its single entry/exit. What will happen once all these new residents and employees need to commute? And why have developers not been held responsible for community improvements? That's news.
21
@Andy
When the Jay Condo across the street went through ULURP (the site required a zoning change), the requested zoning was supported by a majority of the community board's land use committee, by the community board itself and so on up the chain. This precedent enabled the Jehovas Witnesses to plan a massive development with towers to 400 feet high (the equivalent of 40 stories), which was shelved when the religious organization decided to develop its large land holding near Warwick and leave Brooklyn. The superblock was sold for some $300 million, if I remember correctly.
6
Any ideas as to how much this empty 3 acre parking lot site was sold for?
After the economy crashes and the earth starts reclaiming these buildings, the neighborhood will again resemble the DUMBO I loved so much in the 1990s.
2
With so much Building maybe prices will come down?!
1
I also hope they have sound proofing ... loudest area in NYC
2
And so we go from a blighted parking lot owned by a tax-exempt religious organization contributing nothing to the community to a massive luxury development contributing nothing to the local community. The only thing that stays the same is the subway. #progress
17
Nearly a million dollars for a mere 630 square feet? Anybody think this is a bad deal?
6
I am not even asking for low income apts no one wants to invest in that .. what about apts for people who make under 250k.. that sounds like a lot but these people make millions .
13
@Karen
Washington Heights. Sunset Park. Yonkers. Weehawken.
3
Weehawken lol
Sure. Just what NYC needs, more luxury apartments. Too funny. Following on the heels of the article that reported on the high proportion of unsold NYC condo units since 2013.
Sad as I guess this is the only way developers figure they will make money; building apartments for ordinary households just won't work I suppose. Keep it up NYC; when all of your teachers, cops, firefighters, nurses and baristas have to commute in from outside the city I wonder how long it will take them to decide they're better off living and working elsewhere and avoiding spending several hours commuting each way. Then you'll have nothing but a bunch of really rich people, absentee foreign owners laundering/investing their money and public housing residents.
28
Keep building. Looking forward to auction. If China does not buy apartments like pre Trump these apartments will be rentals. New buildings are a dime a dozen.
5
- There is only one entrance to the York Street subway station (F Train - York and Jay Streets). With the throng of tourists, people who commute to work in Dumbo and us longtime locals, we would love to know, if the city came to an agreement that the developer of the site build an additional entrance to the F Train York Street Station?
One more thing - nearly $1million for a 643 sq. ft condo? When I first moved to Dumbo - I was paying $225 a month for 1600 sq ft. Yep, and I didn't buy the building for $28,000. What an idiot.
-
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@Brooklyn Bobby
but it was a different Dumbo, back then. You were there, but now Brooklyn Decker and Andy Roddick are there.
10
Read the story. They’re not involved anymore.
Personally, I hope the Kushner Co loses its shirt on this one.
11
Don't get your hopes up.
Take another look at the article. Kushner is no longer a partner.
5
I guess hope springs eternal, because today the NYT also reports: "One in Four of New York’s New Luxury Apartments Is Unsold "
9
Ever been to DUMBO? You can barely get there.
Only the F Tain to take you there. Nice park but you can't live in a park - well you can try if you're homeless but you can be sure the cops will kick you out if the gentry who gentrify complain.
So now, this latest excrescence of wretched excess.
It is not being built for the working woman and man. It is being built for Saudis, Chinese multi-millionaires, Russian and Uranian oligarchs, Latin American and African despots thinking about after the next coup.
In other words, it is being built for the very best of the worst people.
You've come a long way Brooklyn and look what it's got you.
21
@Carl Zeitz Theres also the high st. station 2 blocks away. Its the A line
5
@Carl Zeitz
Tons of people bike or walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I'm Manhattan runner who loves the run the bridges, but I won't do it, because there's so much foot/bike traffic (tourists and residents). The Brooklyn Bridge is an easy connection between Wall St and Dumbo.
I'm a Boston Jew with a trust fund who moved to NYC to teach literature. I can afford to buy one of those apartments. I might have been a despot in the classroom, but I'm not actually a despot.
8
@Anti-Marx
Trust fund babies always go into literature. Hardly ever do anything with any real meaning. Go have a bagel and read some more about what equity is. You should be happy they have a casino in Boston now. Your trust fund may be worried.
5
Curious if the workmanship will be as shoddy as that of many other 'luxury' apartments in NYC. It's really something to behold how mediocre and badly put together construction in New York has become over the years - from public works like subway stations to 'luxury' apartments to marquee developments like Hudson Yards. Everyone is cutting corner and cutting costs, and it shows.
16
1 bedroom for over $925k?! For whom are these luxury apartments for? I am so glad I hightailed out of NYC, I had enough of stagnant wages and high cost of purchasing a home
8
@Mohammad
They're paper prices that help with the tax cuts. With a quarter of the condo inventory unsold, you can be sure these won't be selling for list price. They're really monuments to the Republican Tea Party and Trump.
2
I work in Dumbo and pass this site every day. The overhead roar of the W'burg Bridge is deafening and in general this by far the loudest neighborhood I've ever experienced in NY. Good luck to anyone looking for a zen moment in the private courtyard of your million dollar investment.
18
If you are walking on Front street and Jay Street you must have Superman hearing if The Williamsburg Bridge is deafening to you because it is about 3 miles away. Are you sure you don’t mean the Manhattan Bridge?
2
@maxie
The Williamsburg Bridge is in Williamsburg.
Down
Under the
MANHATTAN
Bridge
Overpass
1
@maxie
The Williamsburg Bridge is in Williamsburg, the Manhattan Bridge is over DUMBO.
Down
Under the
Manhattan
Bridge
Overpass
“Remember my affliction and my homeless state.” Lamentations 3:19. Too bad the religious group couldn't have sold the property to someone or an organization that would remember the folks that can't afford luxury condos.
7
@Regina
If they had sold it to an organization that considered the less well-off, they would have got less money for their organization. That is what it all boils down to. Help only your own. Those who are not Witnesses are doomed anyway.
2
As per trends more and more parking lots are set to slowly start becoming obsolete. Millenials already tend to buy cars much lesser and at a later stage that the earlier generations, and driverless cars are set to become the norm in 8-12 years.
So the question becomes, what do we want to replace the parking lots with? More high-end complexes or direly needed infrastructure or green pockets in the city - parks and playgrounds for us and the future generations, spaces for pop-up farmers markets interspersed with open air cafes, a space for communities to get together, a place to breathe.. the list can be endless. But the point is that it will be a chance for the city and its people to step in and decide how they can use it to change the landscape they envision... ie if everyone chooses to take it seriously and think of the greater good in the long term rather than personal gain.
The garden in the center of this project is my favorite bit.
3
@JJ
This is NYC. Nobody cares about community. Maybe a few hipsters in Brooklyn care about it, but most New Yorkers care about amenities: Great restaurants, great bars, great shopping, great hotels. I recently drove from NYC to Toronto. There is a whole lot of greenery between Albany and Buffalo. People who want green space have most of NY State. NYC is a place for rich people to live around other rich people.
10
Maybe I’m missing something, but with all the comments complaining about the high end market, doesn’t the fact that there is a glut mean that prices ( sales and rental) will come back to earth? Wouldn’t that be a good thing?
8
How much are Brooklyn taxpayers giving to the developers so they can make money selling to overseas buyers who will seldom set foot on the property?
24
This is exactly what Brooklyn needs - more luxury apartments. Please more luxury apartments. There are not enough. We need as many as we can fit in our small neighborhoods. We need them soaring above our brownstones.
And... of course no more schools or city infrastructure. We are good there.
40
Where are the affordable units in this complex? Could not some be built for today's middle class in NYC. Obviously not, but good luck to the developers with a current glut of luxury housing in NYC right now.
19
The nearby F subway station only has one exit, that gets extremely crowded and dangerous during rush hour. I don't want to think what it will be like when thousands of new residents move into this huge new development. The MTA and city officials should have made the developers pay for the costs of constructing a second exit at the York Street station. A local architect already created a plan for a second exit but apparently this proposal has fallen on deaf ears at the MTA.
33
@MishI Faruqee
That's why de Blasio gave these people their own subsidized ferry service, so they wouldn't have to mingle with the riffraff on the crumbling subways. If he could have, he would have given them their own streetcar line too but that hasn't panned out the way it was supposed to; you know, "a tale of two cities"...
5
Exactly. Should be an investigation
@MishI Faruqee
Not to worry! If the developer has not already entered into a deal with the TA (a second York Street station entrance/exit has been demanded for some time), the residents of this luxury development will soon raise hell, and it will be done.
No more "luxury" apartments with matching affordable, rent-protected apartments - of the same quality. Start treating the luxury development market as a privilege, not a right!
5
The population of the city is shrinking, the market for luxury rentals and condos is glutted, and the prime demographic for new home rentals and purchases is notoriously debt burdened and likely to live with their parents or rely on their remittances.
Yet, developers keep building.
Someday soon the music will stop, the bubble will pop, and the bill will come due.
38
@Ken, there's no evidence the city's population is shrinking, and population counts aren't correlated with the demand for luxury units. Luxury residential is based on consumer confidence among high-earning households, which remains fairly high.
And area developers are building too little housing, not too much. NYC metros builds very little housing relative to other global metros, thanks to NIMBYs and over regulation. We need a pro-development, pro-housing mayor.
4
@Osito They are building too much luxury housing as that's the only way to make any money without government subsidies. One in four luxury apartments are unsold now, with more inventory coming on in the coming months. 2020 looks like bust time for the NYC luxury market.
9
I know from more than one source that NYCHA has enough vacant apartments to house our entire homeless population.
The trouble is that the apartments are uninhabitable.
The trouble is also that NYCHA is too dysfunctional to hire contractors to rehabilitate these units.
17
why?
17
Just curious ... what floor are the systems housed on? Given flooding scenarios in Dumbo in recent years, I'm wondering how the design addresses this problem. Beautiful renderings and I hope it succeeds. Have long loved visiting family in this energized neighborhood.
3
@Carla
The site is up the hill towards York Street, and is two blocks above the high water mark of Sandy
1
Not to throw a wet blanket, but interesting juxtaposition of this article with the one today on how 25% of high-end apartments remain unsold years after they are finished. Wish everyone luck.
48
@Steve
These aren't high-end for NYC. They're about $1500 per sq ft. That would be high-end in most other cities, but apartments in TriBeCa, Battery Park City, and SoHo are reaching $2,300/sq f and more. In lower Manhattan, "luxury" can run as high as $3000 per ft. Also, a pool like that is unheard of Manhattan. Parking is unheard of for less than 2000/sq ft in TriBeCa. These developers are trying to create a cheaper version of lower Manhattan.
My guess is that a lot of the unsold condos in Manhattan are over $2000/sq ft (even $2750/sqft). My building is about 1650/sq ft and sells fairly well. That extra 300 to 600 per sq ft seems to make the difference. My hunch is that most condos that are 1500/sq ft stand a chance of selling.
16
@Anti-Marx, your assessment is thoughtful and seems dead-on given what I know as a resident of nearby Brooklyn heights.
2