Is 1702 Avenue Z cursed? It could be, because what once was among Sheepshead Bay’s glitziest properties now has signs of a downhill turn.
First of all, it’s almost a year behind the completion date of the building and work is still being done on the interior of East 17th Street and Avenue Z. Things started to look up in August, as the commercial broker, Massey Knakel Realty Services, told us they were closing a deal with a group of local doctors to use the entire office/retail space as a medical center. Then, in November, the posh residential units hit the market under the elite Corcoran name, with asking prices of more than $800,000.
Now, just a measly three months later, all the big boys have pulled out. The deal with the doctors fell through, and Massey Knakel is no longer representing the building. Similarly, The Corcoran Group has pulled the listing from its website.
Click to see broker's sign
The entire development – commercial and residential – is now represented by the mysterious Dreamlife Realty, for which we can find little information. Their website is dated 2008 and is notably blank and sets off anti-virus alerts. Similarly, a Google search for the agent – Olga Orak – reveals little more than she represents a few McMansions out in New Jersey.
So what’s the deal? What has made two of New York City’s biggest brokers turn tail and run for the hills? And will Little Miss Dreamlife Realty have the pull to market such a high-priced, mixed-use development?
I guess what I’m asking is: are these ever going to sell, or does something smell fishy in Sheepshead Bay?
Photo by Doughnut
In the fight to make a better waterfront, most argue that if residential homes are torn down, they ought to be replaced with something to compliment the marina. Be it bait and tackle shops or lively nightlife, that’s what’s called for, and that’s why the Sheepshead Bay Special Zoning District exists.
Unfortunately, there is no provision to ensure that people don’t tear down an Emmons Avenue bungalow and build an ugly piece of shit. Case in point? 3101 Emmons Avenue, which sold on January 14 for an astounding $1.75 million.
The newly constructed commercial unit replaces a bungalow house with 5,050 square feet of fugly, featuring a mezzanine with no view. Judging from the design, and some insider whispering, it will most likely go to some sort of bar/restaurant/lounge use. Which is cool. Except that it’s ugly.
We’re a little surprised by the high selling price of this thing (a whopping $350 per square foot), but, hey, even in a depression it’s always a seller’s market for cold, ambiguous steel doors on phallic, beige utility shafts.
Grand Bazaar, a new gourmet supermarket opening at 2424 Coney Island Avenue (off of Avenue U), has construction nearly all wrapped up and hopes to be stocked and ready to go by late-February. Owner Adam Dasdemir said the market will be open 24 hours, and a grand opening is being planned shortly after next month’s “soft opening” to allow for employee training.
Like other local gourmet markets, Grand Bazaar will offer a mixed selection of fruits, vegetables, packaged foods, prepared foods and baked goods. There will be a small seating area and parking for about 15 cars.
Before working on Grand Bazaar, which replaces a local diner that bit the dust at least three years ago, Dasdemir ran an upscale Turkish restaurant and club in uptown Manhattan. He also owns Adam’s hair salon on Kings Highway for more than 20 years.
Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
Kings Plaza 6, the movie theaters at Brooklyn’s most fabulo… I can’t say it. I just can’t. Kings Plaza is a hell hole, and the theaters there were terrible. I just got word that the theaters closed two weeks ago, via the blog Brooklynometry. Good riddance, I say.
According to the blogger, Kings Plaza’s wise and venerable security guards say the space is being filled by Best Buy. So for the first time since all of its book stores shuttered years ago, I finally have a reason to go to Kings Plaza. Or I can go to Caesar’s Bay. Or Gateway Center. Or walk three blocks in any direction in Manhattan.
A resident of the area tells us there have been rumors that a movie theater is being placed above the Lowe’s Hardware being built next door. As far as we know, though, that building hasn’t gotten past a single wall in almost six months. Take the rumor for what it’s worth.
UPDATE: As one of our readers pointed out, there will not be a theater above the Lowe’s. Original plans by the developer included a deal for a 14-screen multiplex that would take up part of the first and all of the second floor. However, the plans fell through almost a decade ago, culminating in a bitter NY Supreme Court battle that was ruled on just yesterday. Tipster=1. Know-nothing Mill Basin resident=0.
The new construction at 30 Dooley Street, between Emmons Avenue and Shore Parkway, is coming along pretty swiftly. We wrote about the building back in October as the supporting steel for the first floors began to go up. Now the towering building, hulking over Emmons Avenue from the Sunrise Assisted Living parking lot, has some real shape to it. As you can see from the sign, they’re seeking tenants for office, medical, and restaurant businesses. Your thoughts?
Just a reminder, here’s the photo from October:
The ad below appeared on Craigslist Thanksgiving afternoon. It got us wondering which restaurant this could be.
RESTAURANT FOR SALE
Restaurant for Sale in the heart of Sheepshead Bay.
Seats 70. Full Kitchen.
Backyard with a lot of possibilities.
Low Rent and Long Lease.
We’re thinking it may be the New Clements Diner storefront, which closed back in August. At the time it was suggested the neighbors at Forces of Nature might expand, but nothing seems to have happened.
The ad has a number that we’ll call for details next week. But until then, I thought we’d play a game. Let’s guess the restaurant and the asking rent price!
News broke yesterday that the city has successfully negotiated the purchase of almost seven acres in the heart of the Coney Island amusement district from developer Joe Sitt. The deal opens the doors for Mayor Bloomberg’s plans to revive the ‘hood into a year-round destination with high-rise hotels, restaurants, retail stores, movie theaters and the city’s first new roller coaster since the Cyclone was built in 1927.
The city inked the deal after years of wrangling with the Darth Vader of Coney Island real estate, Joe Sitt, who planned a $1.5 billion Las Vegas-style resort with a huge glass-enclosed water park, retail stores and condominiums or time-share hotels in tall towers near the beach. The city purchased 6.9 acres from Sitt for $95.6 million of public funds, leaving the developer with 5.6 acres.
Officials will begin seeking a temporary amusement operator in the coming days, and are sending representatives to International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions in Las Vegas next week. They’ll start soliciting proposals for a permanent, year-round amusement plan after that.
With a Coney Island renaissance on the horizon, bordering neighborhoods like Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay could stand to benefit. The three communities, along with Manhattan Beach, once thrived as the center of high-life in New York City. Together they flourished with resorts and restaurants, and together they crumbled as their heyday faded. Could a revived Coney Island usher in a new era for Sheepshead Bay?
Construction is ongoing on a new restaurant on Sheepshead Bay Road near Emmons Avenue. Across the street from El Greco and wedged between Assemblyman Cymbrowitz’s office and Garden Bay Cafe, the location was previously used by the Armenian cafe as an expansion of its restaurant and an outdoor seating area. So we got to thinking they were renovating. But a flustered employee confirmed that the construction is a new and different establishment, not to be associated with Garden Bay. It’s always great to see new places to eat open up in the area and it appears as if the building going up has at least two levels. Maybe the psychic can clue us in!
Peeking through the shrubs on the Emmons Avenue side of the Sunrise Assisted Living center’s parking lot, the growing mass of concrete, steel, and plywood is taking shape. Engineers at 30 Dooley Street (which actually stretches between 28-34 Dooley), told us it’ll be an office building. We kinda thought the stench-filled corridor of eastbound Shore Parkway, with its battalion of restaurant dumpsters and condo receptacles, was an odd place to have an office. We’re also not sure where the three (or more) stories of office workers and visitors are going to park, unless they work out a deal with Sunrise. But, all in all, we’re happy the project is moving along at a quick pace – not something we can say for all of Sheepshead Bay’s new buildings. Though construction stumbled early on last year, earning them a few minor violations from the Department of Buildings, workers have been on-site every time we stopped by over the last few months. As you can see from the photo below, it was just two months ago that this thing barely had a first floor on it:
- 30 Dooley Street in August
No tenants are booked yet, and the engineer on site said that no real estate agents were signed up to represent the building. Maybe Sheepshead Bites found its new office location? Nah, we’ll choose a location where the air won’t have us wondering if we’ll one day morph into the Toxic Avenger.
Construction workers removed the scaffolding around the glass-and-steel construct on Avenue Z and East 17th Street this morning, signaling an end to almost two years of work.
Workers on the scene are now tearing up the sidewalks and preparing to pour new concrete. They say the sidewalk will be done within the next couple of days. With a few exceptions on the street level and on the roof, all exterior work appears to be complete, and the crew said the inside of the building was ready as well.
Still, there appears no sign from the building’s residential realtor – Corcoran Group – that they’ve started marketing the building. On the commercial side, the building’s representative, Massey Knakal Realty Services, said last month that they’re close to a deal with a group of local doctors for medical offices. The docs will take all the commercial units, which include a total of 15,700 square feet spread among the basement and first two floors.
