The big development news this morning is that long-held plans for two Downtown Brooklyn residential skyscrapers, 388 Bridge Street and Willoughby West, are being dusted off, and construction is supposed to start on both next year. An article in the Journal notes that the two buildings are slated to be the tallest in the borough. Stahl Real Estate says it intends to start building 388 Bridge Street, rendered at right, early next year. The developer recently received financing for the 590-foot building, which is now being planned as a condo-rental hybrid (234 rental units, 144 condos) rather than a straight-up condo. (As we reported a couple years ago, a brownfield investigation at the 388 Bridge construction site probably played a role in delaying the building’s construction.) Meanwhile, Avalon Bay says it expects to start building its 596-foot Willoughby West rental, which will have 861 apartments and rise at Willoughby and Bridge streets, late in 2012. Avalon recently purchased another parcel on Willoughby Street for the development, but there hasn’t been any demolition action on the block yet.
Developers Launch Battle Of Brooklyn [Wall Street Journal]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Actually maybe the ideal is a very dense urban core with residential, commercial and retail all operating in an area where it is easily served by mass transit, and utilize economies of scale so as to reduce our societies environmental footprint and have things be more efficient and cost effective?

  2. BHO – I know you know the answer to your silly questions. The equity comes from the investors (owner/developer) and the protection is the mortgage which gives the lender a lien against the property in the event of a default.

    During the Japanese bubble (and our own) Banks (and other financial institutions) were loaning money in EXCESS of the equity value of the property based on models, assumptions and fraud. This is no longer happening and in fact lenders have gone the other way, making loans to the most conservative values possible and requiring that developers invest significant equity (often up to 50%) in order to close the loan. Obviously this reduces owners/developers leverage and makes development more expensive and risky for developers (and less risky for the lenders)

    In short, the development of these buildings is NOTHING like the Japanese in the late 80’s (or the US in the mid-late 00’s) – doesnt mean that they wont lose value or be money losers – it just means that it is nothing like the bubble you cited.

    You have been predicting the imminent collapse of the NYC RE market for at least 5 years that I am aware – you really ought to stop; not because eventually you wont be right, but because you have been wrong for so long as to make your predictions meaningless.

  3. BHO – I know you know the answer to your silly questions. The equity comes from the investors (owner/developer) and the protection is the mortgage which gives the lender a lien against the property in the event of a default.

    During the Japanese bubble (and our own) Banks (and other financial institutions) were loaning money in EXCESS of the equity value of the property based on models, assumptions and fraud. This is no longer happening and in fact lenders have gone the other way, making loans to the most conservative values possible and requiring that developers invest significant equity (often up to 50%) in order to close the loan. Obviously this reduces owners/developers leverage and makes development more expensive and risky for developers (and less risky for the lenders)

    In short, the development of these buildings is NOTHING like the Japanese in the late 80’s (or the US in the mid-late 00’s) – doesnt mean that they wont lose value or be money losers – it just means that it is nothing like the bubble you cited.

    You have been predicting the imminent collapse of the NYC RE market for at least 5 years that I am aware – you really ought to stop; not because eventually you wont be right, but because you have been wrong for so long as to make your predictions meaningless.

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