Dumbo NYC

I’ve received a few emails from readers recently who have been asking for an update on The Vista on Vinegar Hill. It’s been 2 and a half months since the last update, so here’s an new update. Judging from the photos I snapped on Sunday, the building looks close to being finished. The construction fence in the front has been taken down, exposing the lobby door (what’s with the blue door?). According to Corcoran, the real estate firm selling the units, there are only 2 left (of 31 units):

• Unit 1C, 1173 sqft, 2 bedroooms, 2 baths, $756 maint/cc, $44/mo tax, $724,914
• Unit PHB, 1120 sqft, 2 bedroooms, 2 baths, $1068 maint/cc, $82/mo tax, $1,024,800

The Vista looks like a relative of 84 Front Street (aka The Nexus) with the similar tan brick color and matchinig matte steel window frames. Does anyone know if they’re designed by the same architect?

In any case, the closing date looks to be at the end of March or beginning of April. Any owners of The Vista have an update on this? Below are a couple of photos of 84 Front Street for comparison.

The Vista on Vinegar Hill, 206 Front Street, Vinegar Hill Brooklyn

 Rear view of The Nexus, 84 Front Street, Brooklyn

 Front view of The Nexus, 84 Front Street, Brooklyn

Previous Vista posts:
{Vista on Vinegar Hill Progress Report (11/13/06), DumboNYC}
{Vista on Vinegar Hill Progress Report (9/19/06), DumboNYC}

I posted the Vinegar Hill townhouse item yesterday, and since I was there, I also stopped by The Vista. It’s been over two months since we checked in on The Vista at 206 Front Street in Vinegar Hill. According to Streeteasy, 21 of 31 units (67%) have been sold. Corcoran has the remaining 10 units on the market. The townhomes across from the Vista are nice, and although on Front Street, the Vista condos are in a quiet neighborhood.

  Across the street from The Vista
{The Vista on Vinegar Hill, Corcoran website}
Read the rest of this entry »

  * My photo stitching abilities are subpar, so you can look at the properties separately below.

These two adjacent properties in Vinegar Hill are being sold as a package for $2.5million. They are at 100 and 102 Gold Street, right across from 99 Gold Street Condominiums. The listing from Fillmore.com states:

“Houses to be knocked down for development. Sold as package- 100 and 102 Gold Street. (2) 25′x100′ lots. R6A Zoning. Starting price is $3.2 mil. Owner will entertain all reasonable offers.”

The exterior doesn’t seem to be in great shape, and it’s close to the Farragut Housing Complex. It’s zoned for R6A Zoning, which means they typically produce six-story apartment buildings designed to be compatible with existing buildings found in older neighborhoods. Anyone have more info on this listing? Do you think the potential value is worth $2.5million?

  100 Gold Street, Vinegar Hill

  102 Gold Street, Vinegar Hill

{fillmore.com, webID: 606064}

  Vinegar Hill Sign by New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation
  (Click for larger version)

We’ve seen a lot of buzz on the development at 99 Gold Street in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. Designed by Scarano Architects in Dumbo and marketed by The Developers Group, this building was converted into 88 studio, one, and two bedroom lofts, and has a small non-regulation basketball court in the basement.

Okay, this isn’t really an update, but I was over there yesterday to check out the progress, and it looks like from the outside, most of the work has been completed. I went to the opening “launch party” this summer (has it already been 4 months ago?) and saw the apartments, the rooftop, and the basketball court. The finishes were nice, and the building seemed solid, but until more stores/services come to the area, residents will have to go to Brooklyn Heights for their pharmacy.

 99 Gold Street before conversion. Photo from The Developers Group

Aside from some reported price cuts by Robert Guskind at Curbed, we haven’t heard too much in the past month about 99 Gold. With the updated prices, the condos range between $522/sq.ft. for a studio with 2 bathrooms (1571 sq.ft.) to $969/sq.ft. for a penthouse two bedroom, 2 bathroom (not including the 1077 sq.ft. of outdoor space). Below are some photos taken this weekend.

From Scarano Architects:

“99 Gold is a renewal pioneer within the area’s industrial landscape. An upscale loft conversion is the latest trend in stylish city living, which redefines the 19th-century concrete and block building, originally designed to house and supply New York’s souvenir market. Following that industry’s decline and decades of misuse and neglect, vast quality-of-life improvements are assured by this adaptive reuse.”

 Click photo for close-up. 99 Gold in Vinegar Hill, October 8, 2006

 Click photo for close-up. 99 Gold in Vinegar Hill, October 8, 2006

Some sample pricing:

• 1 bed 1 bath, 757sq.ft. $575,000 ($759/sq.ft.), $328 maintenance, $48 tax
• 0 bed 1 bath, 988sq.ft. $645,000 ($653/sq.ft.), $412 maintenance, $61 tax
• 2 bed 1 bath, 1035sq.ft. $699,000 ($675/sq.ft.), $432 maintenance, $64 tax
• 2 bed 2 bath, 1215sq.ft. (1106sq.ft. outdoor space) $1,150,000 ($946/sq.ft.), $636 maintenance, $94 tax

Does anyone have info on move in date or how sales are going so far?

{99goldstreet.com}
{scaranoarchitects.com}

In just two weeks, we’ve seen progress on the Vista in Vinegar Hill. The modern stainless steel window frames have been installed and the rear balconies are in place (not shown in pics). It would’ve been nice to see townhouses in place of this development just like the ones across the street from Vista, or the 14 Townhouses on State Street in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn which preserved the townhouse block, but the developers had a vision of “living that sets past, present and future into a seamless atmosphere offering the best of all worlds”. From Corcoran:

“A charming five block area characterized by brownstones and Belgian block streets, this exclusive enclave offers a way of living that sets past, present and future into a seamless atmosphere offering the best of all worlds. This is where you can take a walk in the park, watch a show, sample some the world’s best chocolate, or stroll through art galleries that are setting the trends of tomorrow.”

Pricing start at $550,474 for 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 898 sq.ft. ($613/sq.ft.) to $1,075,680 for 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1245 sq.ft. ($864/sq.ft.)

 Click photo for close-up. Vista on Vinegar Hill, September 3, 2006

 Click photo for close-up. Vista on Vinegar Hill, September 17, 2006

 taken on September 17, 2006

206 Front Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

{The Vista on Vinegar Hill, Corcoran website}

It’s a sad thing to see something that’s been around for 75 years taken down floor by floor, especially when the structures are as cool as the four aligned smokestacks in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. Two smokestacks at the ConEd plant are coming down slowly. As mentioned in a NY Times story on August 6, 2006, ConEd is dismantling three of the five stacks. “Only two are needed now because the plant is using fewer boilers to generate steam. The job will take about four months but will begin to alter the view immediately.”

 Click photo for close-up. ConEd Plant Smokestacks, Vinegar Hill, August 22, 2006

 Click photo for close-up. ConEd Plant Smokestacks, Vinegar Hill, September 17, 2006

  Photo taken on 8/22/06

  Photo taken on 9/17/06

The story shows Nicholas Evans-Cato’s painting of the Brooklyn waterfront, a panorama that includes the Williamsburg Bridge, several new condominium buildings and a quintet of towering brick smokestacks from the ConEd Hudson Avenue Generating Station on the edge of Vinegar Hill.

 Click photo for close-up. Nicholas Evans-Cato, Amphitheatre, oil on linen, 42 x 70″, 2006

For those who are interested in viewing his painting, there is a showing at the George Billis Gallery (info below). Soon enough, we will only have his painting and our memories of the smokestacks. In the meantime if you want to see the smokestacks before they’re gone, hurry!

Nicholas Evans-Cato at George Billis Gallery NY
October 10 - November 11, 2006
Reception: Thursday, October 12, 6 - 8 PM
Georgebillis.com
511 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Related: Artist Paints Dumbo Landscape, DumboNYC.com

Image courtesy NY Times

Sweat darkened the brim of Nicholas Evans-Cato’s straw hat last week as he brushed oil paint onto a six-foot-wide canvas, all the while perched on the tar-paper roof of an old factory building in Dumbo, Brooklyn. It was scorching hot up there, but Mr. Evans-Cato had no time to waste.

In front of him was a half-finished painting of the Brooklyn waterfront, a panorama that includes the Williamsburg Bridge, several new condominium buildings and a quintet of towering brick smokestacks from the Consolidated Edison Hudson Avenue Generating Station on the edge of Vinegar Hill. The problem for Mr. Evans-Cato, who has been working on the painting for more than two months, is that the view is about to change.

In the next week or so, said the plant’s manager, Gus Sanoulis, workers will begin dismantling three of the five stacks. Only two are needed now because the plant is using fewer boilers to generate steam. The job will take about four months but will begin to alter the view immediately.

“I guess all I can say is I’m trying to paint better, faster,” said Mr. Evans-Cato, 33. “It’s a matter of not second-guessing myself as often as I usually would.

“They’re like musical notes on a staff,” he said of the 350-foot-tall stacks, erected three-quarters of a century ago. “If I lose them it disrupts the whole composition.”

Pointing to the canvas, he explained: “I’m using these stacks to tell me about these windows. The dark of these lines against the sky helps me calibrate the other darks. When they’re gone, there will be that much less to define the arc of the sky.”

The smokestacks Mr. Evans-Cato values have long been regarded as difficult neighbors by many who lived near them.

Don Condrill, 84, who grew up on the corner of Sands and Navy Streets, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, remembered how neighborhood women used to scramble to take their laundry off the lines when the stacks were venting black dust.

“They’d yell out, ‘Soot’s coming down! Soot’s coming down!’ ” Mr. Condrill, who now lives in Centreville, Va., and is a friend of Mr. Evans-Cato’s, said by phone. “They wouldn’t have any sentimentality about losing those stacks.”

Mr. Evans-Cato, who said change had always been a part of New York, isn’t out to save the smokestacks. But he has a show in October and had expected to work on his Dumbo painting until then.

“I’d never want to stop the clock,” he said. “It’d just be nice if I could slow it down just a little bit.”

{Now You Paint ’Em, Now You Don’t, NY Times}