When developer Shaya Boymelgreen was planning his Novo Park Slope vision for Fourth Avenue (top left), did he have even an inkling that the building would turn out to be Brooklyn's main attraction? The emails about the development/hypebeast keep coming in, and this weekend was the first big open house for the newly-finished model units. Commence reader report:
Went to the open house today, where cutely, you got to ride up in an outside construction elevator wearing a hard hat onto the one half-completed floor, and a pair of 2 BRs were for sale. Nice size and layouts, the interiors were ok, not insanely nice. Anyway, ALL of the 1 BRs in the first offering (all 5 of them) and the one studio had contract out by 2:45, as did half of the 2BRs and 3BRs. This place is gonna go quickly; they must've had >200 people show up today.That ain't no lie. Post Home editor Andy Wang also stopped by the open house (which we just mentioned in It Happened), and he blogs, "By 2:30, four of the six one-bedroom units released for sales were no longer available. Three two-bedroom units were also spoken for. The reason for these quick transactions -- and for the dozens of people still waiting outside at 3 p.m. when the open house was supposed to be ending -- is quite simple: This building is priced right." When we last checked in with 88 Leonard, we told you how you could snag one of 18 rent-stabilized apartments in the 352-unit building. How'd that work out for ya? Anyway, the fun doesn't end there:
I visited the newly opened rental office at 88 Leonard St. this past Wednesday and looked at several studios. I was very disappointed in what I saw. I was shown several studio’s on the 4th Fl. One was renting for $2,295 facing south looking into the building accross the street, and the others I saw were asking $2,325 per month, facing north into the couryard, and looking right into the wall of another building. The rent increases $30 per floor, after the 4th Fl.
The apartments were very small with little closet space. Even the studio’s that had a walk in closet, only had one bar to hang clothes. Due to the low floor, there wasn’t much of a view, and little sunlight coming in. The one model apartment I was shown, didn’t even have a couch or small desk with a computer, it basically could only fit the bed! How sad, and they are asking $2,325 a month for this!
When I told the associate that I cannot justify paying $2,325 a month for something this small, with little to no sunlight, no view, and not enough closet space, her reply? "Well, this is Tribeca." What’s sad, is that Rose Associates will probably rent this building out in no time. That’s the Manhattan rental market for you.
They've said it before, and they'll say it again: You are not special.
· 'New Park Slope' Gets New Price Tags [Curbed]
· Development Du Jour: 88 Leonard [Curbed]