Hello Living’s ambitious 23-story tower is moving forward at 1580 Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush. Five months after the Brooklyn developer placed the site on the market for $28 million, the firm headed by Eli Karp has reversed course.
On Wednesday, Hello Living announced that they were looking for investors in “Hello Nostrand,” which will largely be financed through the firm’s “Owner’s Club” program. Buyers pay for units while the building is still under construction and become shareholders in the development’s LLC. Once the project is finished, Hello Living sells the unit on behalf of the investor, who gets the proceeds of the sale minus a broker’s fee. And of course, investors buy the units with cash, because it’s difficult to get a mortgage for a pre-construction condo.
“I never really wanted to sell,” Karp told YIMBY. “So I convinced them [my investors], hey, let’s do it owner’s club. I’m very excited that I’m able to do it. I worked so hard on this. It took me over a year to get it approved with the DOB, with MTA, with everything else.”
The 241-foot-tall building will hold 153 apartments, which will be evenly divided between condos and market-rate rentals. While Karp couldn’t tell us what he planned to charge after the building is complete, he did send along the Owner’s Club pricing. The majority of the units will be 770-square-foot two-bedrooms with 170 square feet of outdoor space, and asking prices for investors range from $460,000 to $700,000. One-bedrooms will measure 549 square feet and come with a similarly sized terrace, with prices between $330,000 and $403,000.
Regardless of whether it’s a condo or rental, each unit will have a terrace and private keyed elevator access. Loadingdock5 is the design architect, and like many of their projects, 1580 Nostrand will be built with energy efficiency in mind. Extra insulation and triple-glazed windows will help prevent heat loss in the winter and keep cold air in during the summer months. Vincent Martineau is the architect of record.
A two-story base will hold 45,000 square feet of community facilities—slated to become an urgent care center—and a 160-car garage.
The project will not only be Hello Living’s largest, but it will set a precedent for this part of Brooklyn, where few developers are willing to build condos. Another prolific Brooklyn condo developer, Boaz Gilad, is planning a 66-unit building a few blocks north on Linden Boulevard. But we don’t know whether it’ll be rentals or condos.
Karp picked up the through-block property last year for $13,129,000, or $76 a buildable square foot. The old Verizon warehouses on the site have been demolished, and construction is expected to start in the next few weeks.
1580 Nostrand Avenue, rendering by Loadingdock5
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This ‘owners club’ sounds shady to me. Has anyone walked around this neighborhood? Rough territory.
The fellow’s built several buildings this way, and seems to have a knack for putting them up in neighborhoods just on the cusp of gentrification.
Crown Heights and PLG have been shooting up in value, and Midwood is already nice, so it seems reasonable that this part of Flatbush will become a lot more desirable shortly.
My only critique with this is that it looks like one of those tower in the parks from the 70s.
It really does, very out of place. And like a tower the residents will be safely locked inside surrounded by wig shops and dollar stores.
2300 felonies last year:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-067pct.pdf
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/excel/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-067pct.xlsx
No doubt that the construction of this building is intended solely for profitable purposes and has no consideration whatsoever for the long time residents of the community.
It’s only a matter of time before the neighborhood begins transforming, property values go up and native residents become displaced.
R.I.P. Flatbush
I don’t know about that. The housing stock is pretty mundane and there are still tons of aging unattractive walk-ups. Dangerous area relative to other neighborhoods. What if all these developers pushing into Flatbush and East Flatbush run out of people willing to pay market rents in marginal neighborhoods?
Let’s see, 153 units with 160 spots for parking. We’re not talking affordable or bikers here, are we? Pay attention, Mr. Mayor.
Anybody crazy enough to rent a market-rate apartment on Nostrand Avenue is going to want a nice safe garage for their car. Only a fool would park their shiny new Camry on the street in that area. Worth it not having to deal with Alternate Side Parking. 166 cars were stolen in that precinct last year, that’s about 3 per week.
nice but Iwant 2 beds in this builling