Development Blog: Inside Third & Bond
Today we launch an experimental new feature on the site, a development blog written by a developer. Despite having taken a few lumps from us in the past over the J Condo, The Hudson Companies is going to blog its next Brooklyn project, the townhouse condos at 111 Third Street in Gowanus, on Brownstoner.com. Frankly,…
Today we launch an experimental new feature on the site, a development blog written by a developer. Despite having taken a few lumps from us in the past over the J Condo, The Hudson Companies is going to blog its next Brooklyn project, the townhouse condos at 111 Third Street in Gowanus, on Brownstoner.com. Frankly, we’ve got no idea what to expect, but suspect that on balance it’ll be a pretty interesting exercise. Every Thursday, David Kramer, one of the firm’s principals, and his associate Alison Novak, will pen a new post. There are only two things we’ve suggested they bring to the table: total transparency and a thick skin.
After reading the first posting about our latest development at 111 Third Street (GMAP) on Brownstoner two weeks ago, we pitched Mr. B on the idea of an ongoing weekly blog, reporting the process (warts and all) as we design, develop, finance, construct and market our new housing project. For the Brownstoner community, this will be a chance to peer inside the real estate development world to see how we make the sausage. For us at Hudson, a chance to take advantage of a built-in focus group of informed Brooklynites while getting some free publicity.
It all started last summer when the Vitanza brothers, plumbing contractors who had been at the site for 10 years, decided to relocate to Red Hook and take advantage of the skyrocketing land prices in brownstone Brooklyn. Like many of the listings that cross our desk, this one, for a site with 180 feet of frontage on Third Street and potential for almost 50,000 square feet of development, came from Massey Knakal. Four out of five listings that we get we immediately discard….too expensive, lousy location, too small, too big. If we had a dollar for every flier advertising a site in Downtown Brooklyn (i.e., Flatbush/Willoughby) to build a 30 story building and pay $200/sf for the land. What are they smoking? But we focused on this listing.
For starters, it was down the street from our then office location…
…We had noticed the increasing desirability of this area—Park Slope moving west, Carroll Gardens moving east, Gowanus becoming a hipster name, the F train 2 blocks away, and coming slowly into focus, a distant image in the future, the first Whole Foods of Brooklyn coming to Third & Third.
We also liked the price, $160/sf. We thought you could sell finished condos in a quality product for at least $700/sf, so there could be a profit if you didn’t screw up. Finally, we had a concept for the housing that fit well with the R6 zoning…a row of townhouses, 4 stories high, each one consisting of multiple condos so that the price could be affordable for each unit, and we wouldn’t have to worry about selling each house for $2-3 million. These condos would have a range of sizes and prices, from $400K to $1.4 million. We could build 20-foot wide townhouses, 9 of them in a row, that was our plan.
We placed our bid, got encouraging feedback from Ken Freeman of Massey Knakal that our bid was competitive…..and we didn’t get the deal. The Vitanzas signed a contract with Developer #1. Oh well, more frogs to kiss, more development sites to explore. Or so we thought…
See you next week,
David & Alison
Hello Alison,
I was looking for an update. (JMN)
I just had a buddy with the city check on the sale. No record of a flip. That gall from 5th Street is my neighbor. She’s totally wacked – all pissed of she made nothing off the deal.
The haters are gonna hate, no matter what; just as the builders will build, no matter what. That said, I think opening up a usually secretive process to any degree of unenforced public scrutiny, however legit it may or may not be, is a great idea. And as a developer myself, I am curious to see how the sharp and prickly minds of the Brooklyn real estate blogging community will react…
What about clean up? I guess being a blockand a half away from the Whole Foods site (which has been sitting unbuilt upon for almost four years) makes the ground at 3rd & Bond Street ALOT different! I’m SURE the levels of cyanide, mercury, benzene, pesticides, V.O.C’s & PCB’s are MUCH lower! Can the sewage pipes handle the approximate 300 new residents to the block (90 units, I’m just guestimating) probrably not. They can barely handle the few homes and businesses down here as it is.
Hello David and Alison,
What an interesting idea to have a blog engaging compliments and controversy. It will take a lot of work to keep honest dialog going. I hope the blog remains a refreshing exchange of ideas that benefit all the parties and especially the neighborhood. It might be interesting to post some meaningful blog metrics to see if it’s meeting its desired purpose. (JMN)
1:20 – what’s with the hating? there is nothing in the original post about a flip and clearly the op does not consider the $160 / sf price of the land to be bloated. even if there was a flip involved – so what?
I have a love-hate relationship with developers (I’m an architect) I think the choice to build townhouses is an obvious and appropriate one – considering the nabe and street life. Just make them contemporary, no more of this cheap Disneyland historicism. The building types in the area are as diverse and interesting as the residences. Part of the attraction of gowanus is that its not carroll gardens nor the slope.
Brooklyn and Gowanus can accommodate something new and exciting precisely because its not Manhattan. This project can capture the edgy spirit of the place. Push your architect to do something interesting and on/under budget. It possible. Don’t be lazy.
At least they plan to build something that sounds like it “belongs” in that part of Brooklyn, not some huge tower.
Ummm yeah! How about the transparency on how David Kramer, the developer, purchased the lot? They didn’t purchase it from the Vitanza brothers, but rather from another developer as a flip at a bloated price (The highest price paid per foot in the neighborhood) There were already architectural plans for this site. Nice start with the bs transparency!