BIRD IS THE WORD: Hot Bird bar has indoor and outdoor space. (
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TAKE TWO: Since it returned to the market, the full-service Isabella has sold all of its three-bedroom condos, a testament to the number of families moving to the area. The only units still available are one- and two-bedrooms. (
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Karen Goodwin and her boyfriend, Jean Claude Cancedda, are Clinton Hill converts. Before they moved in together, she lived in Park Slope and he was in Fort Greene.
When they opted to cohabitate about seven years ago, they chose Fort Greene. Goodwin says they liked the neighborhood “for the commute — I hated the F train — and there were too many strollers in Park Slope. I liked the vibe better in Fort Greene, I liked the diversity.”
While they wanted to stay as close to Fort Greene proper as possible, they were wooed by more space for less money farther east on Vanderbilt Avenue — the border between Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.
“At first I had serious reservations, I thought it was way too far,” Goodwin says. “But we ended up taking [the rental] anyway because it was a great deal and a great apartment.”
The two have now lived at four different addresses in the vicinity, each a little farther east than the last. At one point, the couple bought on Clinton Avenue. “I wanted to live some place that wasn’t already out of my price range,” Goodwin says. “Something that was up-and-coming so that I could make some money.”
A move into an up-and-coming area can mean compromises. Clinton Hill, with its gorgeous, mostly landmarked residential stock stretching down tree-lined and slate-sidewalked streets, is inexpensive compared to Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and even Fort Greene. (Apartments, even new ones, can be found for less than $500 a square foot there.)
But it has contended with high instances of crime. Plus, the southern part of the neighborhood, more removed from Fort Greene’s retail and restaurant-friendly Dekalb Avenue, has suffered through a dearth of conveniences.
For years, Fulton Street, the main retail corridor in south Clinton Hill, consisted of a handful of established businesses — Sister’s Community Hardware, a Met grocery store, the Senegalese restaurant Joloff — sprinkled among cell-phone dealers, dollar stores, empty lots and vacant retail spaces in mostly crumbling buildings. New spots opened sporadically — Olivino Wines, the Green Planet market — but mostly, residents were left to huff it north 15 minutes to Dekalb for a night out.
But now, and seemingly all at once, everything has started to change. In the last year, the area has seen the openings of Fulton Grand, Hanson Dry and Hot Bird, all bars; Mago, a creperie; and Cochinita, an authentic taco place. There’s Brooklyn Victory Garden, a specialty grocer selling organic meats and cheeses, and Bija, a yoga center for kids. To come is the anticipated Greene Hill Food Co-op, modeled on the one in Park Slope; also from Park Slope is Eladia’s Kids, childcare and preschool.
Plus, the Fulton Area Business Alliance just got approval to turn the area’s Putnam Triangle (bound by Putnam and Grand avenues and Fulton and long known for drug dealing) into a 15,000-square-foot pedestrian plaza. “Clinton Hill is exploding,” says David Maundrell, president of Aptsandlofts.com.
“So many people purchased in the neighborhood. Now they want to stay here and live here and to renovate,” says Merele Williams-Adkins, a Corcoran Group vice president who lives in the area. “The housing market is really tight; when something special comes along it goes very quickly.”
Demand in the area’s historic stock coupled with the dearth of product spawned new condos on and around Fulton — made possible because it’s not landmarked.
Maundrell just began selling the Fulton Street Lofts at 940 Fulton. Ground has been broken on 474 Grand Ave., a glassy eight-unit condo building, slated for April. At 478 Grand, a three-family townhouse is under renovation. An affordable housing development will fill a vacant lot on Fulton and Downing streets. Construction on the Carlton, a 30-unit condo building at 82 Irving Place, is underway.
“The divider on the high-end [condo construction] used to be Flatbush Avenue, then it was Fort Greene and now it’s trickling into Clinton Hill,” Maundrell says.
There are 12 studio and one-bedroom units at 940 Fulton, which has a brownstone façade that fits well with the streetscape. Apartments range from 420 to 560 square feet and start from $269,000 up to $355,000.
When it first went on sale in 2008, the Isabella, a 63-unit condo building on Washington Avenue just south of Fulton, suffered slow sales. But a year ago — with a new lender, a new sales agent and a new price point, about 25 percent off the old one — the building has become a success, with 75 percent of the units sold. Only two-bedrooms, from 1,000 square feet and $595,000, and a couple one-bedrooms, from 750 square feet and $420,000, remain.
Earlier this year, Goodwin and Cancedda moved into a three-bedroom at the Isabella, where they are raising their 2-year-old, Sophie.
“There seems to be a neighborhood allegiance,” says Aaron Lemma, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, which is selling the Isabella. “The people who live in the vicinity enjoy their neighborhood and they want to stay in the neighborhood.”
Former Brooklyn industrial area is reborn
A large percentage of Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill is designated historic. Read: It’s protected from new development. But on the neighborhood’s east side, just north of the action on Fulton Street, there was once a small industrial district. Today, the industry is mostly gone — and the lots are ripe for renewal.
“There is huge potential there,” says Christine Blackburn, a Corcoran Group senior vice president, of the area south and west of Greene and Classon avenues.
A cluster of restaurants has already opened at that intersection. Pioneers Pilar Cuban Eatery, NeroDoro (a cafe/wine bar) and Tigerlily (Vietnamese sandwiches) have been joined by Salva Vida, a taco joint opened by the owner of popular Fort Greene restaurant General Greene. On the way is Speedy Romeo, featuring wood-fired pizza and handmade mozzarella from a Jean-Georges alum. (Speedy Romeo is already serving at Williamsburg’s Smorgasburg and Fort Greene’s Brooklyn Flea.)
Among the vacant lots and empty buildings are new condos that are just now gaining traction. After being held off the market for nearly a year, 270 Greene, a six-unit new development, came back on two months ago. Heddings Property Group was tasked with selling the remaining three units; two are already under contract. The only unit left is a 1,264-square-foot two-bedroom duplex priced at $615,000.
Nearby at 27 Quincy St., the 16 condos have been through a few different brokerages. But in the four months since Blackburn began selling them, she’s been able to unload 10, leaving just two on the market. (Four were already in contract; a 775-square-foot one-bedroom is available for $349,000.) It’s a pace that bodes well for the rest of the neighborhood.
“Quincy is selling, there are other small projects that are selling, so now there are comps,” Blackburn says. “[Banks] see those projects selling and they’re more comfortable.”.