Dumbo NYC

Notes from the DUMBO, Brooklyn NY neighborhood


201 Front Street Building Activity

July 15th, 2009

Bridge and Front

New scaffolding was put up yesterday at the 201 Front Street building (aka 195-203 Front Street, 208 Water Street). The building is on the South side of Water Street (bound by Water, Bridge and Front Streets). While not much is revealed on the NYC DOB website, there’s a record on file from 6/22/2009 that states: “Propose to convert existing manufacturing building to residential use with accessory parking and retail store on the 1st floor.” The building was built in 1905 and is a Landmark Designation with a basement and 4 floors. According to these records, each floor can have up to 41 apartment units.

The Dumbo Historic Report Designation Report notes the architect as Henry S. Kissam and the original owner as Hanan & Son, a shoe manufacturer. “The Hanan company was among the first to stamp the firm’s name on every shoe, a daring idea at a time when most people still sought shoes handmade by the dealer…Shoe manufacturing was a major industry in Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century, with 65 factories doing a combined business of $2,300,000 in 1894; one-third of that business was done at the Hanan factory.”

“The simple brick facade, articulated primarily by its rectangular openings, concrete lintels and projecting sills, and corbelled cornice, marks 208 Water Street as an example of the vernacular factory building erected during DUMBO’s growth as an industrial neighborhood. This, together with its reinforced concrete construction, makes it representative of American factory architecture of this period and contributes to the architectural and historical character of the DUMBO Historic District.”

No word on when consrtuction will begin (or end), but if anyone has any info, let us know.

201 Front Street

{NYC DOB record, 6/26/2009}
{NYC DOB record, 7/22/2009}

Filed in Front Street, Real Estate, Water Street at 3:52 pm
Comments
  • Great post. Very thorough. Keep up the good work, Hide!
  • stop biting my handle
    ...and what of the people that were already living in this building since the 80's?
  • Judging from the amateurish sidewalk shed assembly i would say this is going to be one of those very looong renovations like the other 2 buildings nearby. That scaffold was bought, not rented from a scaffold company. Much cheaper to buy, assemble yourself and resell at the end if you need it for an extended time.
  • Heaven for the Weather
    damn, more buildings. just what we need. by time they're done with all of downtown brooklyn and its surrounding neighborhoods, it will lose its pizazz. i have nothing against the people who live in the high rises but its just that when these buildings go up, so the property value on that land and anything surrounding it. GENTRIFICATION WILL BE THE DEATH OF NYC.
  • dorje
    damn, more taxpayers. just what we didn't need. by time they're done with all of downtown brooklyn and its surrounding neighborhoods, we'll have a genuine f*ing tax base and not have to depend on handouts so much. i have nothing against you people who live in the high rises but damn, you're all white and non-ethnic. you keep paying for shit with your taxes, who're we going to borrow money from? we keep electing the same crooked politicians year after year so that we get their drips and drabs and castoffs. gentrification'll put an end to that and we'll actually have to participate instead of just shitting and shanking around and stuff.
  • Jimmy
    ....continually amazed at how much NY'ers celebrate SHITTINESS. Nooo, don't improve the neighborhood, let's live in shittiness, yeah!
  • The joke is that all that new tax will go to propping up the poor parts of the City. I mean look at Farragut/Ingersoll projects, They have lawns everywhere, parks galore, a swimming pool, playgrounds, handball and basketball courts, baseball diamonds, (tennis courts? I think so.) an underdeveloped commercial strip with a supermarket, at least 2 schools in walking distance, Boys/Girls Club, more bus service, Did I mention more parking?
    Let's see, Dumbo has... Let me see, one pokey little playground nestled in a over used lawn with not even a restroom, (you think that keeps the poor out of the park, joke is they use the bushes along the fence) and a painted green asphalt triangle with trains thundering overhead. Oh, the free WiFi in the park don't forget the free WiFi. The green and blue overflowing garbage cans, The bike racks yes the bike racks, I feel so environmentally kosher knowing there are 5 bike racks outside of the hermetically sealed J KKKondo while it blasts Front Street with hot exhaust from it's AC factory. The bike lanes too, I forgot the bike lanes. Wow Dumbo really is more livable now than it ever was.
    And the future? I'm holding my breath for this glorified Connecticut Muffin going into the vacant store opposite the F train.
    Does building more middle level condos improve the neighborhood when there are no services here to begin with? Give me the parking that's available in the meantime.
    The bigger joke is people who move into these "new" neighborhoods who are willing to pay taxes and get nothing in return.
  • heavy flo
    Loose,

    You got it right. Hey, don't forget that we're a recreation and entertainment destination!
  • Thanks flo, but what recreation and entertainment do we have?
    I think that for all the lip service paid to having an urban experience Dumbo has been mostly suburbanized. Somebody correct me but as far as I know the only permitted recreational use of this vast new park on the waterfront is of a transient nature, i.e. bike/running paths. Basketball/handball courts imply not only older kids hanging out, but poor kids hanging out. Their parents can't afford to slot them into a Packard summer basketball camp, a so called "learning experience". My kids grew up here playing in the parking lot where J Condo sits. It was great with all the wrecked trucks that were abandoned there. They played basketball with the Farragut kids, learned how to negotiate and make friends with people unlike themselves. This blog doesn't even give lip service to what goes on around Farragut. New deli opened up last week or so just in case P & P has piss you off enough, They're open 24 hours.

    Entertainment? I guess we have St. Ann's (soon to be gone), Galapagos, and a smattering of art galleries with a lot of derivative art, arguably a destination.
  • Just to clarify...I don't see race as an issue in Dumbo. It is typical class warfare. Well to do whites are desperate for black friends, just not the kind you find in Farragut anymore than the white trash they ignored, that lived across the tracks in the small towns they came from in the Midwest. Poor people are scary and dishonest. They drink right out of the bottle and have their kids birthday parties in the playgrounds. They steal your after market GPSs when they see the suction cup. The audacity!
  • dumbostreets
    Why is the alleged "suburbanization" of the city always contrasted with blight ... sentimentality about abandoned lots and illegal dumping? Hurrah. Let's bring that back for our kids to play in because having no bathroom in the park is racist / classist.
  • Never said the lot was abandoned, It functioned as a parking lot during the week. the wrecked trucks were towed away to be replaced by "new" wrecked trucks. Sentimental? not really, Just more fun for 14 years olds than that precious toddler playground by the water.
    Blight is a relative term. I suspect there are many developers today who would level this place including the new towers and max out the air rights. Don't presume that we were suffering in poverty before the likes of J KKKondo were built.
    I ask you dumbostreets, why isn't there a public restroom in that park? Don't go to the race argument, but it does keep the transient poor family from setting up camp for the day.
  • Jimmy
    So you think it's cool that your kids played in a shitty parking lot with abandoned wrecks. This is exactly what I mean about celebrating shittiness. I lived here when that was a parking lot and it was a dump.
  • You're saying that like it's a bad thing, considering the fact that kids that age are not welcome anywhere in Dumbo these days. Imaginative kids don't care if their "playground" is a dump.
  • dumbostreets
    I'd mitigate your hostility toward the toddler playground in proportion to the impulse to slum.

    Keeping the homeless out of the toilet is not the same as class warfare... and assuming the homeless WANT to live in the toilet (that is, they are being discriminated against by NOT be provided with a toilet-home prospect ) is probably more perverse.

    That is to say bathroom-as-homeless shelter may have been a consideration in the park design... but, on the other hand, it is only an issue because the city generally does not want to pay to monitor and maintain... ANYTHING. Part of proper maintenance would be escorting campers out of the toilet, of course.

    Look, I am not a fan of out-of-scale development either... but you are conflating several issues.
  • You are exaggerating my point to make yours. I never said the homeless will take up residence, I said the poor will not camp (picnic) in the park for the day like they tend to do in the parks on the other side of Farragut. Those are the transients I speak of.
    I dare say, do you have problems going into an unattended restroom? Who do you think is in there, George Michael?
  • No doubt Mr. Jimmy will be happy to "attend" the patrons of any public restroom with a moist towelette so they may remove their shittiness.
  • Jimmy
    Not hardly, but you go on ahead and enjoy the shittiness you seem to love and encourage your spawn to love. Loser.
  • "Not hardly", Jimmy? I suspect you get pretty hard whenever you pass a bus station WC. Another thing, try wiping up and down instead of sideways. Takes the shittiness out of Life!
  • Jimmy
    Grasping I see. That's all you got? Pathetic. I'll let you get back to celebrating shittiness, letting your kids play in a dump, and disparaging everyone (oh so bravely on this anonymous board) here.
  • OK Jimmy, after school today, in the dump er.. playground, no the dump!, I will kick you so hard you'll have to take your shirt off to defecate your shittiness!?! Celebrate that!
  • JBrooks
    Doesn't Busta Ryhmes (you know, the rapper) live in J Condo??
    and didn't he punch someone in the face in Chelsea for saying hello. Don't know, but that's pretty gangsta for a non-white guy that lives in J Condo.
  • dumbostreets
    loose-
    Well, I don't know that I am exaggerating given your points are confusing... For example you "don’t see race as an issue in Dumbo" but you call j-condo "J KKKondo" ?

    ... and this business about "transient... camps" in the playground made me think "Grapes of Wrath". Afterall, what makes a family living a couple blocks further away "transient" ??? Toddlers have to crap too. I'd argue that the REAL oversight is to not have a bathroom (complete with diaper-changing stations) in proximity to the playground. Anyways, I am sure this particular issue will be resolved when the larger park plan comes online.

    I find a lot of complaints about Dumbo contradictory. On the one hand, people complain about initiatives being lame... like the sculpture plaza... as if they expect the Champs-Élysées to pop fully formed out of thin air. The other complaint is that elements, like the playground, which has received positive reviews from the Times and etc. somehow undermines the rugged urban character of the old Dumbo. This "original" character itself is oozing with contradictions as well... etc. etc.
  • Jimmy
    People are assholes and for some reason like things to be shitty around here. Gentrification is bad remember? God forbid we live in a neighborhood with amenities, nice buildings, and cleanliness...oh hell no, let's leave the buildings derelict, encourage graffitti, etc. Idiots.
  • loose stool
    I was being facetious about transients "camping out", thus the confusion.
    Nothing really against toddlers, and their playgrounds, unless they're sitting next to me in a restaurant, but current urban planning seems to eliminate any public facility for ages 5 to adulthood when bike/running paths are installed along the water's edge, thus my reminiscing abound my older kids jumping on leftover wrecks in the parking lot. Something like that was a kid magnet that drew like minded kids from Farragut which gave my kids entry to the basketball courts, playgrounds and the Boys/Girls Club around the projects. That is a true urban experience that will serve both groups. Although there is lip service paid to "reaching out" or affordable housing for those less fortunate, by default the careful upbringing of privileged children and compartmentalization of the middle class in Dumbo speaks louder. That to me is "suburbanization", and that's why I moved to NYC (to escape that).
    Regarding the original character of Dumbo. It was cheap. The preciousness that people apply to these buildings is so contrary to the original intent of the builders. LPC is to Dumbo what the taxidermist is to a live bear.
  • loose stool
    Regarding J KKKondo, It's the "Jimmy" in me. I just do it to piss them off. It's more like a Death Star. I'm sure individually the people who live there are charming, as a whole I find buildings like J Condo a blight on this neighborhood. They have the right to build it but it does affect the rest of the neighborhood adversely.
  • loose stool
    Jimmy, the reason why these buildings are derelict is because LPC will not let any work be done on them until owners agree to restore them to their original "glory". Not cost effective until the LLs can market them as high end condos. Furthermore all these empty buildings were full of people up until the likes of you and your TGIF/Olive Garden mentality motored in.
  • Jimmy
    Yep, people lived in the shitty buildings and loved it. Again, let's defend and celebrate shittiness! As for the likes of me motoring in, you're barking up the wrong tree bitch. I lived here LONG before the hood changed. Still think you're an idiot. Go play with your wrecked trucks now O Moronic Champion of Low Standards. May the Death Star squash you ASAP.
  • dumbostreets
    The back story to the cheap rent was not happy for MOST of Brooklyn... but it allowed creatives to set up shop.

    I'm just saying be a little more honest. I'm not prepared to say a new public playground is a conspiracy against the poor and a vacant lot is NOT. You might actually have that backwards.

    I'm all for bolder urban planning that brings (more) people together. Let Acconci have free reign. He is a long time Dumbo resident, you know.
  • JBrooks
    everything in moderation...
    what they should do, is clean up that make shift dump/toilet bowl under the scaffold, you know that one, 4 stairs leading down to it. just saw a used propane tank in there, well i think it was used...
  • loose stool
    At the risk of beating this dead horse further, I would say that the lack of a vacant lot or amenities specific for kids older than toddlers is a conspiracy against those who cannot afford to plug their youngsters into an expensive after school program. I suspect the thought of young Bif shooting baskets with gnarly gangstas or younger Tiffany playing Double Dutch with a bunch of nappy heads is a little too much to bare.
    But Dumbostreets, your point is well taken. Lets see how it plays out. At the very least we can revel in our shittiness.
  • dumbostreets
    On a slightly different note... why isn't Acconci Studio doing anything with the Brooklyn Bridge Park or any space in DUMBO? We have a world famous public space developer as long time local resident. He should have something substantial here... and he has some great waterfront work -- and as far as going against the grain of controlling/exclusionary "public" venues; he's da' man. I'm sure he'd come up with something that would piss off all the right people.

    I see him walking around all the time. This place should be an Acconci theme park.
  • slumbo
    This is a unique building full of history, manufacturing and residential, and one of the original loft conversions of the late 1970's. Artists from those times lived here up until a year or so ago. It might be run down but it does have lot's of charm.
  • VHH
    I remember when I had friends in this building. I agree, this building has charm and those windows are huge. I'd live there in a heartbeat, but I'm sure once the developers redo it, I won't be able to afford anything.
  • Marcus
    Talked to a construction worker on the street about it. He said it'll have around 140 units. I asked when the planned move-in date was, and he said 18 months, but he described that schedule as "psychotic," thinking it would take much longer.
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