CG's Generous FAR Loophole Yielding More Additions
Everyone remembers the Third Place Atrocity that we devoted so much ink to last year, right? Well, the gent who developed that bastardization is up to his old tricks just down the block. Austin Nagel has had plans to do a “horizontal and vertical enlargement” of his four-story brick townhouse at 120 Third Place (at…
Everyone remembers the Third Place Atrocity that we devoted so much ink to last year, right? Well, the gent who developed that bastardization is up to his old tricks just down the block. Austin Nagel has had plans to do a “horizontal and vertical enlargement” of his four-story brick townhouse at 120 Third Place (at left) since last summer so we can only guess he’s been waiting for the proceeds of Number 45 to get moving; it’s a safe guess that the expansion will look something like the one that’s underway two houses over at 116 Third Place )at right). What’s prompting all this action? As a commenter rightly pointed out in last Tuesday’s thread about 360 Smith, an archaic twist in the neighborhood’s zoning that lumps the unusually large front yards into the calculation of street width means that builders can get more juice out of these lots than in other brownstone nabes. GMAP P*Shark DOB
btw nichiolo machiavelli is obviously austin nagel
was the building on henry the one where the nephew threw out his aunts after having lived there for 50 years and needed a quick sale?.. austin is such a caring guy..lol..
autin powers nagel should be the poster boy for limiting development.. every project he has touched in carroll gardens has turned to shit.. the atocity on 45 3rd place that was built as if by dogs.. the downzoning is the best thing to keep money grubbing swine like him out of the neighborhood.. why cater to a philistine like him?.. he obviously has no tste and too much money..(look at his cheesy furniture store http://natrona.com/ the stuff he peddles is at best embarrassing)… god has decided to reduce the latter
btw what is the henry st loser that he bought on spec…it must be other peoples money.. this guy sounds like a real player.. also his bio sounds slightly fictitious… any comments?
“Change the zoning, I’m still adding the 1000 square feet (after all its worth $500,000 of value to me) but I’m adding it in my back yard on the first and second floor. My neighbors are going to be facing walls extended into my back yard and their sun will be cut off. That is not my desire but the downzoners will be forcing me into it.”
In case you haven’t noticed, this has already happened all too often in the neighborhood (CG), downsizing or not. I face a two-story brick wall on the right side of my backyard patio where there never was one, and there’s the distinct possibility that I’m going to be staring at another one on the left side. This has nothing to do with downsizing except for neighbors who don’t give two hoots about people living next door. I will soon be sitting in a brick oven. So my property value will diminish anyway, downsizing or not.
This neighborhood is doing fine under the old zoning. There hasn”t been a single “brownstone” bought up and converted, just a few additions, some in better taste than others. You are right, I hope to stay ahead of the game and have my thing done before any adverse consequences befall me.
However, the math is not phony. The present owners and the future renters in this neighborhood all stand to lose a lot with the downzoning and the architectural character of the neighborhood won’t fare much.
Stability, consitency and all those values are fine but not really in tune with the down zoning. If you want to keep the character of this neighborhood in tact all the manufacturing zones around it should be maintained, that is the true defining character of this neighborhood. People have been adding on and changing these buildings for 120 years. There really is no pure standard of neighborhoodness to go by. Actually to stop adding on and changing the buildings at this point would be out of character for the neighborhood.
Sneering at me or accusing me of profit motivation will not change the essentially reactionary character of the downzoning, it is in the end a “keep people out” “not in my back yard” “build almost nothing anywhere near anything else” approach to land use.
I’m not scared of the downzoning I’m just pointing out that it is a substantial economic sacrifice for both owners and renters. If you want to give up your rights, fine, don’t build, and don’t sell to anyone that will build, that is your right.
And what is scandalous about this argument unless you are afraid that some of the people you and the other downzoners have been scaring with the demon “over development” will figure out what they stand to lose (a lot).
Just where are these “overdeveloped” neighborhoods that no one wants to live in. This is like Yogi Berra “no one goes to Broadway anymore, it is too crowded.” The downzoners point to success stories like Bensonhurst where recent immigrants crowd ten people into a studio apartment. Thats some success story.
If you really have a landmark block, landmark it. And if my block was really a pristine survivor of 19th Century architecture I’d gladly put in the required windows. As is I plan to be as loyal to the existing architecture as I can be. But those 19th Century buildings aren’t being built anymore, neither the materials nor the skills are available.
And if you have other uses for your money fine, good for you. Adding on to my building is a good use for my money though.
Apparently I touched a nerve with the calculations though. Maybe you should think about what you will be giving up when you make the neighborhood over with your fantasy.
The property is for sale. I met the developer (Austin) and the Broker. Ask price is $2M including approved plans. Austin is also selling his development on Henry Street. So, unless something has changed in the last 3 months, this thing will not be built by him.
“And changing FAR is some ways is worse economic threat to owners than the ’eminent domain’ thing. As in eminent domain you are paid fair value…..” Yeah, Machiavelli, but you house is gone! duhhhhh…. Talk about doomsday scenarios scare tactics! This comparison/argument of yours here is scandalous and you know it! I also have a very good feeling that a guy as smart as you will get never, ever get caught in any downzoning/lose your money scenario…..You will have every single construction approvals/permits/paper signed well in advance of losing one dime due to any future changes. So why all the scarey math tactics? There is a great deal of wisdom in protecting some degree of the neighborhood architecture, integrity, and scale in Carroll Gardens, and you know this too, or else you would not sound so defensive by running these figures by the rest of us all the time(I have seen your math before) Thankfully, not everyone crunches numbers in the same way you do. I am a landlord/owner here for twenty-five years and I make a good living at it, but I would never think of adding on like you are talking about because I have other ideas for my money. I would LOVE! to see an immediate re-zoning modification in Carroll Gardens and I also support landmarking on certain blocks. The landmarking scare is overblown as any actual look at landmarking rules and process will reveal. Too much development in CG and elsewhere destroys the property values not raises them and drops the rental rates not raises them! Living next to the newest sun/light/air blocking ugly, out of context highrise building in CG does NOTHING!! to make one’s house or one’s rentals more desirable or more valuable. This is just plain common sense…ask a real estate broker where the house with the highest value is? Overdeveloped neighborhoods are a dime a dozen in NYC…the properties in them do not keep going up in value because very soon with the logic you present, the supply exceeds the demand, and CG starts to look just like every other overdeveloped place. And what does overdevelopment of CG cause amongst the residents in CG (who are in fact the actual “INVESTORS” in the neighborhood in fact? What happens when everyone thinks like you do? There is anger, loss of confidence in one’s investment, loss of security in knowing what one’s neighborhood will look like just a few short years from now, loss of faith in the neighborhood and a general feeling of instability and irritability that lowers propety values not makes them higher. It may be a little boring compared to your dog eat dog world but it is stabilty and consitency and predictabilty that create true worth in a place not a market free for all where over-development goes unchecked. Don’t worry, you will like the profits!
Well Anonymous 5:46 maybe you should look on 3rd Place off of Court, I know its not Brooklyn Heights but there are some new units coming on the market there shortly unless some of the posters here can stop them. But if you don”t find anything there you can afford the downzoners have an answer for you. Wait for them to upzone another neighborhood, in this case the Gowanus, you can rent over there if you can”t affor Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill or Carroll Gardens. That is someone elses neighborhood and not in the backyard of anybody, the downzoners want affordable housing over there, in Carroll Gardens the neighbors only want unaffordable housing.
I’m 11:46. I’m a renter in brooklyn heights — the rents are crippling here. I have friends who have broken up with their SO, but can’t afford to get separate apartments. etc. etc.
The city needs more housing, and, as you’ve probably noticed, nothing ever gets de-landmarked. My parents are trying to replace their front door, and it takes months to approve this crap.
The city is experiencing a population boom, and needs new housing units. How else do you assume that they are going to be created? Not everybody wants to live in a giant box.