Over the weekend, we asked all our Facebook buddies to upload their old photos of Sheepshead Bay and tag them “Sheepshead Bites”. We were happy to see some readers listened, and a dozen or so photos poured in. This one came from Lisanne, a 1961 photo of East 13th Street looking towards Homecrest Avenue and Neck Road. I can’t even begin to imagine fields in Sheepshead Bay.
It’s not too late to add yours. Go friend us on Facebook, and then start uploading new and old photos of the area and tag them “Sheepshead Bites”. They’ll still be totally under your control – it just allows our friends to see them.
(Chabad Center Sheepshead Bay – Photo by Ray Johnson)
Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights is being celebrated for eight days and began with the lighting of the first menorah candle this past Sunday, December 21. It was not our intention to neglect or exclude local public lighting ceremonies from our announcements, but we had not been aware of any before the fact.
Internet searches for community Chanukah lighting events yielded information about only one such event which was put together by the Brooklyn Heights Chabad Lubavitch center and took place in North Brooklyn’s Franklin Park.
Happening upon the Chabad Lubavitch’s site reminded me how last month’s terrorist acts in Mumbai, India placed the Jewish organization in direct fire and made our world a little smaller.
Find out more about Chanukah and our small world after the jump.
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In the largest Sheepshead Bay real estate deal of the last twenty years, Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza on Emmons Ave. has reportedly been sold for approximately $24 million.
The three-story, 280,000 square foot retail center closed on Friday, with its former owner, the Bayrock Group, selling to a still unknown buyer. A source with knowledge of the deal provided the sale price of $24 million, but that number is still unconfirmed. He also said the buyer is a local Russian businessman.
Observers of Sheepshead Bay real estate transactions are surprised by the deal, as the property was not known to be on the market. However, Bayrock Group may have been happy to unload the property when approached by the mystery buyer, given that the group probably has its hands full with the beleagured Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium, which it is developing alongside the Trump Organization and the Sapir Organization. The site has recently been plagued by a number or controversies, including a lethal construction accident, accusations of misleading the public towards its final use, and mob ties. Of course, the mobster accusation is a given, considering one of Bayrock’s own principals was revealed to have quite a shady past.
The Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza deal marks the second largest sale in Sheepshead Bay history, coming just $1 million shy of breaking the record set in 1988, when the Atlantic Towers Apartment Corp. on Ave. Z and East 13th street was sold for $25 million. It’s also notable for being the second record-breaking deal in less than a year; the first being last November’s sale of the site at 1600 Sheepshead Bay Road and 1501 Voorhies Avenue for an all-cash transaction valued at more than $20 million. This means that two of the three largest deals in Sheepshead Bay history were ushered in within the last 8 months.
Tenants of the Loehmann’s building are still unsure of the identity of the new owner, but expect to receive that information within the next two to three days.
