Most Popular Stories of 2019: New Life for Leverich Towers, Development in Downtown Brooklyn

The end of 2018 is nearly here, which means it is time to look back at the year’s most popular stories. Grabbing readers’ attention in 2019 were pieces on interior renovation projects, celebrity real estate sales, store closures, new developments and openings such as Wegmans coming to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Click through the list below to find our top 11 stories of the past year.

11. Wegmans Will Open in Brooklyn Navy Yard This Fall, Start Hiring 500 Next Month

The highly anticipated Wegmans will open in the Brooklyn Navy Yard this fall. The beloved upstate grocer has a manager for the store, has opened a hiring office there, and will make job offers and start training in February.

10. The Story of Brooklyn’s Grand Stage, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

It is almost impossible to watch a television show or movie set in Brooklyn without encountering a scene set on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Whether it features heartbroken characters leaning on the railing with Manhattan as their backdrop or chase scenes along its length, the promenade is the perfect setting. With iconic brownstones in the background and the harbor, Statue of Liberty and the towers of Manhattan in the distance, the promenade is a New York icon.

9. The Insider: Designer Conjures Style in Cobble Hill Rental With Ingenious, Inexpensive Ideas

In six years as an associate at Gensler, the behemoth global architecture firm where he developed concepts and strategies for major corporate clients, and five more years designing residences for private clients at some of Manhattan’s toniest addresses, interior designer Raphael Paul DiTommaso worked with budgets that knew no limit.

8. Emily Blunt and John Krasinski Buy Entire Floor at The Standish in Brooklyn Heights for $11 Million

Two more actors have joined Matt Damon in Brooklyn Heights. In fact, they are moving to the same building. Emily Blunt and John Krasinski paid just over $11 million for two units (the entire floor) at The Standish, located at 171 Columbia Heights.

7. The Insider: Prospect Heights Brownstone Restored, Updated with Italian Modern Kitchen

A gem of a brownstone, fairly dripping with detail, was “basically a time capsule” with the exception of an “ugly ’70s kitchen,” said Dumbo-based, Milan-trained Deborah Mariotti, who works as an architect in her native Italy and as an interior designer in the U.S.

6. Brownstone Boys Reno: Adding a New Bathroom Where No Plumbing Has Gone Before

We’re adding a new bathroom where there was not only previously not one, but there is also no plumbing in that area of the building. There are a few interesting challenges to solve to make this possible. Doing it in a more than 100 year old building only adds to to the challenge.

5. Multifamily Sales Volume Plunges in Brooklyn Following Rent Regulation Reform

Sales of apartment buildings have slowed in Brooklyn and beyond following the passage of new tenant protections in the state legislature. Most dramatically, unit volume fell 74 percent in Brooklyn in September compared to a year earlier.

4. A Developer Is Slowly Buying Up an Entire Prominent Block in Downtown Brooklyn

For months, green construction scaffolding has been wrapped around a triangular block of buildings in Downtown Brooklyn. Will there soon be another tower sprouting up in the neighborhood that is fast becoming a forest of high rises?

3. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard Put Park Slope Brownstone on Market for $4.599 Million

Actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are selling their Park Slope brownstone. The couple purchased the Italianate row house for $1.91 million in 2006. Located at 36 Sterling Place in the Park Slope Historic District Extension II, it is now on the market for $4.599 million.

2. See Inside Brooklyn Heights’ Historic Leverich Towers Hotel, Set to Open to Seniors in March

Private equity firm Kayne Anderson Real Estate is aiming for a March opening for the highly anticipated conversion of the Leverich Towers Hotel at 21 Clark Street into a high-end assisted living facility for seniors, the firm and its partners said Tuesday. The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, as it will be known, will be operated by Watermark/The Freshwater Group, which also has an ownership stake in the property. Tishman Speyer is codeveloping.

1. After Nearly Seven Decades in Downtown Brooklyn, Lane Bryant Will Close Its Doors

After 69 years, Lane Bryant is shutting up shop in Downtown Brooklyn. The store, located at 380 Fulton Street, announced it is closing December 17. A sign outside the store Friday confirmed their departure.

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• Most Popular Brownstoner Stories of 2018: Edwardian in Flatbush, Affordable Housing
• Brownstoner’s Top 10 Stories of 2017: Affordable Housing, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Matt Damon
• Gentrification, High Prices, Beautiful Spaces and Celebs: 2016’s Top Stories on Brownstoner

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