Market Slump? Not At The Mill Building
If the Brooklyn market is heading into a slump, one buyer at Williamsburg’s Mill Building didn’t get the memo. Earlier this month, someone stepped up to the plate to pay a cool $2 million for a 2,173-square-foot unit on the sixth floor of the building at 85 North 3rd Street. (The apartment does have a…
If the Brooklyn market is heading into a slump, one buyer at Williamsburg’s Mill Building didn’t get the memo. Earlier this month, someone stepped up to the plate to pay a cool $2 million for a 2,173-square-foot unit on the sixth floor of the building at 85 North 3rd Street. (The apartment does have a terrace too.) The sponsor had held this unit as well as a smaller one next to it (#606) until a couple of weeks ago. Both were snapped up at asking price in a matter of days. This happens to be one of our favorite condo buildings in Williamsburg, so we’re sure it’s a sweet pad, but $920 a foot? Yowza. How’s that common roof deck coming along, anyway?
85 North Third Street, Unit 605 [Corcoran] GMAP
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I’m in agreement, 12:55.
For the lack of trees alone, I don’t like spending more than a few hours at a time in Williamsburg. It’s depressing. I think even Manhattan has more street trees than in Williamsburg. The lack of greenery makes it a place where I like to get in and get out.
I do think it’s a neighborhood for those who are basically priced out of Manhattan but still want to be as connected to Manhattan as possible.
The other Brownstone areas of Brooklyn are for those that really and truly embrace Brooklyn for the most part.
That’s why it has such a sense of community as opposed to Williamsburg, which really is just a small bedroom community of Manhattan.
It feels very transient to me.
I don’t mind it, but would never live there.
Yeah sure, there are tons of people that have 2 mil to spend for a 2BR in Williamsburg! I lived in the Burg for 4 years up until 2 months ago. We got tired of the whole scene, which is pretty much what it was, a glorified neighborhood. The amenities are awful, no real grocery, no decent public schools, no real park with trees older than 5 years, complete overcrowding on the subway, everyone started to look and act the same. We wanted for a better use of words, a real neighborhood that we could grow into to start a family and have the conveniences and amenities that were there now! I’m not going to say where we bought but, we couldn’t be happier. I’m sure Williamsburg has an appeal to renters or people that see it as an exciting neighborhood now, but everyone I know is fed up with the area and plans on moving out of there to the exact neighborhoods listed above for the reasons listed above. It will certainly change in the next 10 year but it will have no character with all the crappy infill development and will be like living in Cleveland or Milwaukee. Which are nice to visit but certainly do not want to live there!
That’s a pretty nice space — even has a guest bathroom — especially the roof deck. The price is what it is.
I personally like W-burg…as a place to visit. Perhaps it’s because there’s always a feeling that things are changing every day and the neighborhood still hasn’t figured out what it wants to be. Maybe it will just segment like downtown Manhattan; you’ll have a Tribeca-like loft area, a soho shopping district, a nolita hipster pen, etc.
It’s the size of the unit that sold it. It’s too hard to find large condos and coops. Developers in Brooklyn are taking the square footage you’d normally want for a 2BR, crushing 3BR’s into it, then calling it a “family sized” condo. Ironically they could increase the square feet by 50%, charge twice as much for it, and they’d have quicker sales and make more profit, simply because of the huge demand for big condos by families. Don’t bother with the house vs. condo debate. Some people want nothing to do with the time-sucking endeavor of renovating a 100 year old house. We did it, it was the right choice for us, but I’m still in disbelief how much time and energy it has taken from our lives.
Live on Northside Williamsburg in a converted loft/warehouse on Wythe as well.
Would never ever ever live in PS, although I’ve been there many times and have tons of friends there. It’s just not my style.
The opposite I’m sure is true for people who live in PS. I’d rather have a 1500 sqft loft than a 1500 sqft walk through of a brownstone. And for 2.5 mil, I’d rather have a 3000 sqft loft with 20′ ceilings (like the Esquire) than a 3500 sqft brownstone in the Slope.
I think its just different strokes for different folks. Both neighborhoods are awesome, they’re just very different in terms of housing stock.
The buyer wants to be able to walk into the overpriced b.s. hipster diner across the street and drop some plays on where he lives. Could be a good pick-up line.
I agree with 11:18 – love williamsburg even though now I live in CG. Don’t know who keeps saying that williamsburg “only appeals to a small percentage of new yorkers”. I think you only think that because either you live in PS and SUCH different kinds of people like Williamsburg vs. PS (although lots of former Williamsburgers live in PS now, lots of PS residents would NEVER live in Wburg, just as many Wburgers would NEVER live in PS) OR you have never lived in Wburg yourself. I personally think there is a huge swath of new yorkers who would consider living in wburg but not consider any other neighborhood in bkln.
The commute to Manhattan is only shorter if you work in the Union Square vicinity.
Travel times to Wall Street/Downtown are much shorter from southwestern Brooklyn neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, etc.
Not to mention that it’s only a one train commute, whereas on the L, you have to transfer to get most anywhere else in the city that’s not on 14th.
I don’t completely agree, 11:18.
While you may enjoy Williamsburg, it appeals to a very small percentage of New Yorkers. I don’t think it will ever truly have the neighborhood feel that Park Slope and some of the other brownstone neighborhoods have.
Williamsburg could have really been a great place, but I think they’ve really started ruining the character of the neighborhood.
Most of the younger people I know are looking to get out of Williamsburg. As places like Galapagos leave, it will become less and less attractive to the artists that made it what it is. I see it happening now. Most of the people I know who moved there 5 years ago are now moving to Prospect Heights, Bed Stuy, Gowanus, etc. Some even to Park Slope and Carrol Gardens because they missed the small scale feel of those neighborhoods.