Whisper, Whisper: Decatur Is For Lovers (Not Haters)
When we wrote about 100 Decatur Street last week, we said it would be something of an indicator for the Bedford Stuyvesant market as a whole. If there was any truth to that statement (and, hey, we could have just been full of it) then The Stuy is doing just fine thank you very much….
When we wrote about 100 Decatur Street last week, we said it would be something of an indicator for the Bedford Stuyvesant market as a whole. If there was any truth to that statement (and, hey, we could have just been full of it) then The Stuy is doing just fine thank you very much. According to a tip we got yesterday, the house has received multiple bids, two of them over the asking price of $899,000. Not too shabby (just like those sweet interiors). Word is, though, that the broker’s considering holding one more open house to see if she can do even better.
UPDATE: Looks like our earlier tip about the number of people at the open house fell short. It was, in fact, 167 detail-hungry gawkers. There were six offers. The broker has decided not to hold another open house and has asked for best offers by Friday at 5 p.m.
100 Decatur Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
HOTD: 100 Decatur Street [Brownstoner]
I was friends with a tenant there once. The place always made me swoon. Sure, you could hear Fulton Street, but it still made me swoon. And the neighbors were nice.
I went to check out the open house yesterday. It’s beautiful. I was really tempted to jump in and make an offer. But there are some drawbacks that made me pause. First, the layout of the double duplex did seem to be a problem. The main issue seems to be the bathroom, located in the rear extension. Probably this extension was originally a shed. It’s the only way to get to the back yard. I can imagine the comic foibles of trying to host a party with that set up. One could build a deck and add a door from the parlor floor but than lose light on the garden floor and mar the lovely interior of the parlor. Also, the kitchen (think kitch-en) is a wonder of bad taste: i’d rather have real stone than the fake granite (formica) counter-tops I’ve seen in some pricey reno’s. But with stone floors, counters, a table and island, they really went over the top here. Lastly, the proximity to fulton is an issue in terms of traffic noise. I was there on a nice quiet sunday and standing in the yard, the noise from fulton was pretty blaring. Even with these drawbacks it’s an amazing house, but given the negatives, I’ll be interested to see what happens with the price.
to those who speak of the entertaining problem, kitchen to parlor. In most of these houses there were dumbwaiters from ground floor to the 3rd floor (houses with 4 floors had servants living on the top floor). Most of the owners long ago turned the dumbwaiter into closets, however, it would not be so hard to turn it back. The home on Decatur may still have it, since it has the wooded ice box. Either way, the parlor is huge and many do have their kitchen on the parlor floor, not that hard to do since the ex-dumbwaiter can accommodate plumbing. Most kitchen cabinets aren’t that hard to remove and place elsewhere. We have had to do that since the kitchen was downstairs when we moved in and it is now on the parlor floor. But, we don’t have as much original wood detail, so there was no sacrifice there.
“Huh? If I can afford a $1mm dollar townhouse in Bed-Stuy that I ultimately plan to convert into a one family then I can surely afford a car and drive my ass five minutes to..”
Yeah you can AFFORD a car but believe me, most people in the slope etc don’t WANT to own a car (without a garage). It is a complete waste of time, money and thought. Services should be local. If everyone had cars and used them for every little thing, then we should just give up, and live in vegas or texas, and take potshots at al gore while the earth warms up. Part of the reason people like “bococa” and the slope and the upper west side and soho and so in is you can really truly do without a car.
Services needed in bs (contd)..
Organic market, good reliable hairdressers, cafes and bakerys, places with wifi, wine shops without plexiglass, butcher, italian deli, local restaurants, brunch places, florists, pet supply stores, home decor, antique furniture, green markets (I can go on).
Basically, to paraphrase the bent cop in femme nikta with a taste for classical music, “bring EV-RY-ONE”
Services needed in BS:
a green grocer, a place with fresh bread (hey Bread Stuy: how about some good baguettes on hand for the after-work crowd?)
a “don’t feel like cooking” place to get dinner — not too fancy, not too expensive fresh food
a nice place to get a glass of wine
I get my Dry cleaning picked up and delivered. The Dry Cleaning Company is called Bubbles and I do beleive it is in Clinton Hill. The service has been great
What I want in the Stuy?
(1) I am tired of taking my dry-cleaning to downtown brooklyn if I want it done right and at a reasonable cost.
(2)I want to get a drink at a decent lounge. Sorry Appleby’s doesn’t do it for me. I do appreciate the places that we have on Lewis. The Coffee Shop is cool, too.
(3) I would prefer non-lazy postal carriers besides those clowns that we have delivering the mail now (but I don’t think that you can do anything about that)
(4)I would love to see a butcher. There was one on Fulton and Throop. I am not sure if it has closed down, but I am sure that no one knew it was there.
The lasting negative that I hear about the stuy is that there are not enough services rendered and eateries. I’m throwing this out there what type of service and restaurants are people looking for? Can we try to be specific info would be very helpful. thanks