Greg Geffner bought a condo at South Williamburg’s Schaefer Landing development about four months ago. He’s had his eye on the neighborhood, though, for close to 20 years.
A photographer, Geffner has been visiting the South Williamsburg waterfront for about two decades to shoot what he calls “the best urban views in the world.”
“I’ve been coming to this spot since long before they built here,” Geffner says of his Kent Avenue home.
But while the vistas remain as impressive as ever (especially when seen from Geffner’s 18th-floor two-bedroom), much else about the neighborhood has changed. With limited transportation options (J/M/Z train, anyone?) and large housing projects, it took a long time for the area to become a destination. Now, though, it feels a lot like established, hipster-laden North Williamsburg.
Twenty years ago, for instance, a big-name chef like Zak Pelaccio probably wouldn’t have picked Brooklyn’s South Sixth Street as the location for his new restaurant. Today, his latest venture, the Southeast Asian-influenced barbecue joint Fatty ’Cue, draws diners to just that spot.
And Pelaccio isn’t lacking for company. Soul food stalwart Pies ’N’ Thighs reopened this March at a new South Fourth Street location. Two blocks south on Broadway, American nouveau restaurant Dressler recently garnered a Michelin star for the third year in a row. Add to this mix local favorites like Diner, DuMont Burger, Marlow & Sons (along with neighboring butcher shop Marlow & Daughters), plus area fixture Peter Luger, and you’ve got quite the thriving food scene.
It’s a far cry even from Pelaccio’s first stint in the nabe, in 2003, when he lived on Grand Street and ran the since-closed Chickenbone Café on South Fourth Street. He recalls drunks from down the block occasionally coming into the restaurant and wrestling on the floor. As he puts it, “That certainly doesn’t seem like the vibe here so much anymore.”
A stroll through the neighborhood reveals a fair amount of new development under way. Streets are dotted with small residential buildings under construction, like the 23-unit condo building at 46 S. Second St., slated to go on sale early this summer.
And two massive developments are on the horizon. The three-tower, 776-unit Rose Plaza complex, from developer Isack Rosenberg, received City Council approval in mid-April. Yet to be approved is a 2,200-unit complex, from developer Community Preservation Corporation Resources, situated on the site of the old Domino Sugar refinery.
If and when they’re built (the Domino Sugar development would take an estimated 10 years), they would bring a bit of the high-rise building boom that moved through North Williamsburg during the last decade.
For now, though, the nabe has managed to retain some of its old gritty flavor.
“The south side has a cool vibe,” says David Maundrell, president of Brooklyn real estate firm aptsandlofts.com. “The north side has become a little more commercialized. You have someone like Toll Brothers come in [and build Northside Piers]; of course they’re going to put a Duane Reade in their building.”
“[South Williamsburg] is a little off the beaten path still,” Pelaccio says. “It kind of represents possibility. It’s got that DIY feel.”
One of the area’s more notorious DIYers is Robert “Toshi” Chan, a party promoter who also runs what he calls “Hotel Toshi” — a network of furnished long-term (and, occasionally and controversially, short-term) rentals — out of his five-story South Eighth Street penthouse. Chan moved to the neighborhood in 1998 and bought a four-unit building two years later. In 2005, he purchased the five-unit building next door.
He’d like to expand his rental operation by buying another building nearby. But despite the 2008 downturn, area prices haven’t dropped that significantly.
“It’s not like the ’70s, when you could come in and scoop things up for a dollar,” Chan says. “Prices haven’t come down that much.”
Prices are down somewhat, though, notes Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Sarah Burke. She says that South Williamsburg apartments are around $600 per square foot today, compared to $700 to $750 at the peak of the market three years ago.
And, as buyer Alfonso Duro discovered, some sellers are ready to deal. Duro and his girlfriend closed last month on a 600-square-foot studio at the 30-unit Pad condo building at 196-200 S. Second St. (with studios from $345,000 and one-bedrooms from $450,000).
Before he went to contract last December, Duro was able to negotiate the price down. Then, this year, when he ran into trouble lining up a mortgage, the developer agreed to lower the price again in exchange for a larger down payment. The developer also made concessions on closing costs, Duro says.
As for Geffner, he got a bargain by buying his Schaefer Landing apartment in a short sale.
“It’s a buyer’s market,” says Kristen Larkin, a representative for the 24-unit building at 29 S. Third St., which has sold two condos since going to market in February (one- and two-bedrooms are priced from $500,000 to $893,000). “Everyone wants to negotiate.”
Burke has seen things stabilize over the first quarter of 2010, however. Contract numbers are up compared to the previous quarter, and prices are holding steady.
According to Larkin, “In the last six months, things have picked up a lot.” But many would-be buyers remain hesitant: “Nobody knows where the bottom is.”
Having already pulled the trigger, Geffner is less concerned with calling the bottom than with enjoying the area. At the very least, the burgeoning dining scene will ensure that some of his friends visit.
“A lot of my friends are lawyers and doctors,” he says, “and that’s kind of their sport — finding amazing restaurants.”
Duro, on the other hand, is looking forward to a more prosaic (and unexpected) perk: The MTA’s plan to merge the M and V lines, while inconvenient for other areas, essentially adds a train line to South Williamsburg.
Duro, who works for Microsoft in Manhattan, had been anticipating a long trudge to the Bedford L stop every morning. Now, though, he’ll be able to just hop on the V and go.
“I can take it right to work,” he says.