Brad McDonald, a DUMBO resident and chef who’s spiced up Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO with Colonie and Gran Electra, adds a third eatery with Governor.
SAND BY ME: Locals Tate Overton, wife Melissa, son Julian and daughter Ella lounge on the beach at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s recently opened 60-person pop-up pool. (Imogen Brown)
BROOK SMART: Mary Park and Chris Phoenix, with their daughter Amalia, bought a 1,145-square-foot two-bedroom with outdoor space at One Brooklyn Bridge Park. (Zandy Mangold)
TOLL YOU SO: Toll Bros., together with Starwood, is building a 160-unit condo and 200-room hotel near Pier 1; the eco-friendly development will include a rooftop beer garden, restaurants, retail and parking for 300 cars. (
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If you’re worried that your kid is going to get smacked around at McCarren Park Pool, we have a suggestion: Take her to the pop-up pool in Brooklyn Bridge Park, instead.
Not only is the brand-new, 60-person-capacity pool less crowded (and less violence-prone) than the Williamsburg one, the surrounding neighborhoods (Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO) are more peaceful, family-friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
Who knows — maybe Mom and Dad will stay permanently.
“It’s the cutest thing in the world,” says Penelope Stipanovich, the sales director at nearby One Brooklyn Bridge Park, a 437-unit condo building that’s now 80 percent sold, when asked about the pool, located next to Pier 2. “They created a beach with sand, they have a DJ playing music, they have a cafe open to 11 p.m. — it does not feel like you’re in New York.”
“We’ve been tracking what’s been happening here; how it’s being built,” says Tate Overton, a Brooklyn Heights resident, lounging on the small “beach” alongside the pool with his family. “So far, it’s been great.”
A playground with another water feature and volleyball courts at Pier 6 was added to the still unfinished park two years ago. And a sports facility with three soccer fields will open this fall at Pier 5.
“Next year, we’re opening up Pier 2,” says Regina Myer, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park. “That will include basketball, handball, exercise space, shuffleboard, bocce ball, a new lawn and in-line skating. By the end of next year, we’ll be 60 percent finished with the park.”
And the surrounding real estate has gone along for the ride.
Of course, housing stock in the Heights and DUMBO was always impressive. But nearby amenities were lackluster.
“It’s a wasteland for good food,” says Brad McDonald, who has rented in DUMBO for the past 2 1/2 years and has done his part to spice up both Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO. He is the executive chef of Colonie in Brooklyn Heights, and of Gran Electra and Governor, both in DUMBO.
And the changes already seem to be taking hold.
“There’s good shopping with [DUMBO grocer] Foragers,” McDonald says. “There’s [Gramercy Park Flower Shop] that opened within the last year . . . one of the best bakeries in the neighborhood is Almondine. There’s Brooklyn Roasting Company — that was big. West Elm is based here. There’s Powerhouse Books.”
There are three elements to making DUMBO work, says Jed Walentas of Two Trees, developers that have owned real estate in DUMBO since the 1980s. “Residential gets the most press, and that continues to strengthen, obviously, but the success of the office market, and the impact of tech offices is overwhelmingly profound.”
Indeed, for the past decade, DUMBO has been an incubator for Internet and design firms.
Now “there’s all the activity in the public realm,” says Walentas. “More employers in Downtown Brooklyn are going to figure out how to make [Brooklyn Bridge Park] an amenity to office employees.”
In the meantime, Two Trees has been busily preparing 30 Washington St., a 120-unit rental, for next spring and the Dock Street Project, a 17-story mixed-use building, slated for 2014 and consisting of more than 300 rentals, a school, parking and retail space.
Toll Brothers also made an extremely lucrative foray into DUMBO with the 205 Water St. condo.
“We opened in October 2011,” says David Von Spreckelsen, NY division president for Toll Brothers City Living. “It was 65 units. We have 61 sold to date.”
The cheapest unit at 205 Water (a $405,000 studio) and the priciest (a $2.2 million penthouse) are both sold. The building is averaging $875 per square foot, having gone through seven price increases.
Toll Brothers has already begun preparations for a 500,000-square-foot hotel/condo complex it’s developing with Starwood. The 200-room hotel and 160-unit condo called Pierhouse is slated for 2015.
Something similar seems to be happening in development-shy Brooklyn Heights.
“We normally see a slowdown this time of year,” says Halstead broker Laura Amin, who is selling the last two condos at 24-unit 166 Montague St., a conversion begun a few years ago. “But that certainly isn’t the case right now — we’re spring-like busy still.”
Across the street, at 75 Clinton St., a 74-unit rental that came on the market this year, prices have reached levels you don’t expect to see in Brooklyn.
The last three-bedroom, renting for $11,000 a month, “is 1,550 square feet with a beautiful [957-square-foot] terrace,” says Jackie Urgo, president of the Marketing Directors, which is leasing 75 Clinton.
And the once-stalled, two-building 20 Henry St.,should start closings in September, with 27 of its 39 condos already spoken for and prices hovering around $1,050 per square foot.
Moreover, there’s a spurt of new development. The old police station at 72 Poplar St. was bought by the Daten Group last year, with plans for a residential conversion. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle site, at 30 Henry St., has plans for a six-unit condo. In June, 172-174 Montague St. (right around the corner from 75 Clinton St.), changed hands for $12 million.
“I think what’s happening is that the last couple of years you didn’t see anything,” says Steve Rutter, executive vice president and managing director of Stribling Marketing, which is selling 20 Henry St. “And now there’s a thirst to develop.”
“I felt a little ‘Green Acres,’ ” says Chris Phoenix, CEO of the Phoenix Media Group, who lived in Brooklyn Heights for years before he and his wife, Mary Park, bought at One Brooklyn Bridge Park. “My wife lived in [Chelsea’s] London Terrace, and here I was dragging her out to the farmlands of Brooklyn Heights.”
Park was not itching to leave. Complaints were expected.
“I didn’t hear a peep,” Phoenix says. “I viewed it as a victory for Brooklyn — not necessarily over Manhattan, but as a worthy substitute.”
Park chuckles. “Who’s he kidding? I love it here.”