03/04/16 4:26pm
Wellth Launch Party at Powerhouse Arena

Jason Wachob interviewed by Charlie Knoles at Powerhouse Arena. Photo by Anders Krusberg.

A who’s who of the health-conscious came to Powerhouse Arena on Tuesday to attend the launch party of Wellth: How I Learned to Build a Life, Not a Resume, the new book from Dumbo resident and mindbodygreen founder Jason Wachob.

Wachob describes Wellth as “a prescriptive memoir where I share my journey from Wall Street to wellness entrepreneur, and also share simple tips from the best wellness experts in the world.”

A sold-out crowd of 200 listened to see Wachob being interviewed by Charlie Knoles, a Vedic meditation teacher, director of The Veda Center, and cofounder of the meditation event series The Path. (more…)

02/29/16 11:08am

Gotham Brokerage insurance pizza

Sponsored By Gotham Brokerage Co., Inc.

Let Gotham show you how getting NYC apartment insurance is fast, friendly, affordable, and easy.

Created By BlankSlate

New York City isn’t like the rest of the country. Don’t believe us? Look at what national chains call pizza. Stuffed crusts? HOT DOG CRUSTS? Yeesh.

This may pass for pizza in parts of the country that don’t know any better, but here in New York, good sauce and a perfect crust are more important than weird gimmicks. Real New Yorkers eat local pizza, whether it’s from the fancy brick-oven pizzeria in the next neighborhood or the cheap slice place on the corner.

When it comes to finding the right insurance for your Brooklyn apartment, there are a lot of national insurers with 800 numbers who think they know what you need. Thanks to the stuffed crusts, you know better. You need to talk to someone local. Someone who knows that New York property values and labor costs are higher, while crime rates are lower. Someone who knows how to deal with the peculiarities of Brooklyn co-op boards and condo associations, and can evaluate the risks inherent in buildings with older plumbing and electricity.

Gotham Brokerage Co., Inc. is a local, family-owned company that has been helping New Yorkers find the right apartment insurance for more than 50 years. They know the ins and outs of New Yorkers’ insurance needs. They work with quality brands such as Progressive and Travelers, hand-picking policies that work best for locals. (more…)

02/01/16 2:18pm

The Manhattan Bridge from Washington Street, 1908 and 2015.

We’ve been going through the Dumbo NYC archives, and one of our favorite features by far is Then And Now, a look at Dumbo, Brooklyn through the years. Looking at historical photos of the neighborhood, courtesy of the New York Public Library and the New York City Municipal Archives, you can see how much the neighborhood has changed over the years. (For that matter, you can see how much it’s changed since DumboNYC started in 2006!)

Here are some of the best pics from our past posts in the Then And Now series… more to come in the near future! (more…)

01/28/16 11:00am

Navy Green townhouse

Sponsored By Navy Green.

Navy Green is a brand new development of 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom condo units starting at $720,000 and 3-4 bedroom townhomes starting at $1.995 million, directly across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Created By BlankSlate

The wait is almost over: Phase 1 of the townhouses at Navy Green are within weeks of occupancy. By the time the snow from this blizzard melts, you could be settling into one of these airy three- or four-bedroom homes, each featuring over 3,000 square feet of space.

We recently went on a tour of one of the homes, and when we weren’t too busy daydreaming of living here ourselves, we took plenty of pictures of the interiors for you to check out. Come on inside! (more…)

Empire Stores, Dumbo: From Warehouse to Shopping Center

Left: The Empire Stores in 1935, by Berenice Abbott, via New York Public Library. Right: Rendering of Empire Stores courtyard.

Empire Stores is the latest in a series of projects that have been turning the Dumbo waterfront into an attraction for both locals and tourists. Opening out onto the ever-evolving Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Empire Stores complex will be a 500,000-square-foot shopping and office complex with a projected opening date of the summer of 2016.

It’s not going to be a typical shopping center, though. It’s location in Brooklyn Bridge Park, so close to the Brooklyn Bridge and the Fulton Ferry Landing will make it a must-see stop for tourists visiting Brooklyn. Empire Stores will feature some of the best views in the city, especially from its rooftop beer garden, and a dedicated museum space, curated by Brooklyn Historical Society, will showcase the story of this historic building, as well Dumbo’s journey from a waterfront hub of industry to Brooklyn’s center for design and technology.

The complex, constructed inside a 19th-century warehouse that stood vacant since 1945, will include such destinations as the prestigious Vinegar Hill House restaurant, home furnishing store West Elm, watch and apparel company Shinola. There will also be space for local artists to display their works.

(more…)

01/18/16 2:26pm

 

Dumbo Artists Workspaces

Clockwise from upper left: Details of works by grant winners Chitra Ganesh, Jeanine Oleson, Marc Dennis, Gabriele Evertz, Peter Drake, and Blane De St. Croix.

Dumbo has come a long way from its 1970s days, when its industrial lofts attracted artists looking for more space and cheaper rents. Now the neighborhood is a hub for tech and design firms, and its luxe apartments with their views of the New York skyline command rents that make much of Manhattan look inexpensive by comparison.

Rising rents have a tendency to send artists scurrying, and Two Trees Management, the real estate firm that helped make the neighborhood what it is today, knows that better than anyone. Two Trees was there at the beginning, and with their Cultural Space Subsidy Program, they are determined to make sure art still has a home in Dumbo.

According to an article in the Observer, Two Trees has selected nine artists to receive subsidy grants for below-market workspaces in Dumbo, as well as the pioneering New York nonprofit arts organization Art in General.   (more…)