Development Watch: 151 Carroll Street
The old guy walking past us on Carroll Street disparagingly said the word ‘condos’ in response to our question about the future of this site at numbers 149-151. When pressed, he said something about a five-story building, which seems to jibe with the DOB filing. These are going to be some big condos: Six units…
The old guy walking past us on Carroll Street disparagingly said the word ‘condos’ in response to our question about the future of this site at numbers 149-151. When pressed, he said something about a five-story building, which seems to jibe with the DOB filing. These are going to be some big condos: Six units over 11,315 gross square feet. The building will be 58 feet high with 60 feet of street frontage. Neighbors haven’t been too pleased with the construction process. One complaint accuses the contractor of demolishing his retaining wall; others point to early start times and unpermitted weekend work. Any readers live on this block? GMAP BIS
As a developer or GC, if you actually file properly and comply with your DoB permit, then all the calls to 311 or letters from a lawyer dont matter. DoB can inspect, find no violations, and the work continues.
It was quite nice of the developer discussed above to cater a meal for the new neighbors on Wyckoff Street. But if they were violating the permit or undermining a wall, that should get them a pass?
People have invested their life savings on brownstones and condos/coops in these neighborhoods. They are rightfully wary of new buildings and developers that may build something that can decrease the value of their homes, or create unbearable conditions during construction.
luckily all the lots around my house are full, but that said, people will build on empty lots and neighbors will make there life hell. a person i know is building a townhouse on wyckoff they kicked off the project by having a catered sit down for all the neighbors, talked about the project, made concessions, everyone was happy. Week one, 14 calls to the DOB and a letter from a lawyer saying they had undermined a neighbors wall. No good deed goes unpunished.
Can anyone say professionally certified objections? just as much fun as the real thing with only half the risk. Someone at the DOB looks but no ones knows if they were answered correctly.
I am sure the job will look like a typical half hearted attempt at moderism. Look at this firms previous work and you will see it will look like one of those nondescript newer brooklym developments like on Kings Highway in Midwood.
Fear not, when it starts like this it only goes downhill from there.
Surprising it wasn’t a SCARANO job.
and what about the old lady they basically scared out of her house. Locals are not happy and it is a civil war.
you have NO IDEA. no idea the stone you just over turned here. Its a novel, a movie. a microcosm of Brooklyn.
but it looks like the brick oven pizza place on henry is about to open, after about two years of construction. and in other news, two local henry Street shops have closed due to triple rent hikes from the same landlord.
greedy bastards abound.
Construction is only part of the problem with that developer. Ask the people who live in the building they built on Rapele Street down the block about how the developer managed the building for the first year. It was a Joke.
Does anyone know what’s the deal with the new development on union street just west of smith?
This project is going on under my bedroom window, so I’ll offer the insight I’ve had from there.
While there will always be some grousing when any developer goes into an historic district, this guy has gone out of his way to make things worse at almost every possible opportunity.
Developer, who owns a title company on Court Street, has been contentious from before day one…needlessly cagy with neighbors, secretive about plans, etc.
Site was a garage. Then slowly taken down by hand, then an empty hole for many months. I’ve heard at least one architect was fired from the project. Owner was cited several times for not having safety fences around the hole.
Things went downhill when construction started. There have been issues about recklessly undercutting foundations on both sides of the project, and crew members were trespassing on neighboring properties at all hours – to the point where one guy strung razor wire to keep them out of his yard. Cops were out several times over this.
It also appeared that they had hopped the fence of one building and without permission from the absentee owner were pulling electrical power from an outside plug.
And so on and so on.
In fact this morning they were out running diesel equimpent at 6:30, an hour and a half earlier than they are supposed to have agreed to (not sure if this is in the permit or not, but there was an arrangement).
Workers on site as well as the project higher-ups who’ve appeared on scene have been exceedingly rude and hostile, which doesn’t help matters any.
After all of this, nobody knows what the building is going to look like — a relatively nice and historically appropriate facade like 2 Second Place, or a Williamsburg-style mess like some of the projects going in on the other side of the expressway?
All of which is to say, this goes well beyond your routine neighborhood NIMBY stuff.
Yes. In this new millenium, slacktivism is trendier than actually doing something. It really amplify that holier-than-thou feel-good effect. Try it!
This is one way to “parade.” Welcome to the 21st century.