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Worth of Kings – NY POST
Welcome to the new Brooklyn, which looks a lot like Manhattan. It has a high-profile NBA team, flashy entertainment venues (Barclays Center and the expanding BAM complex), mobbed food purveyors (Trader Joe’s and Shake Shack) and condos priced at $1,000 per square foot.
Yes, $1,000 per square foot is the new normal for new developments in Kings County neighborhoods including Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.
“The Brooklyn market is undervalued,” says Andrew Barrocas, CEO of the MNS brokerage, who notes that Brooklyn’s condo prices haven’t yet caught up to its rental prices. “If you took an area in Manhattan that’s comparable [to Brooklyn in rental prices], you’ll see the condo pricing is anywhere from 35 to 50 percent more [than Brooklyn].”
According to data from MNS, rental prices overall in Brooklyn Heights ($55 per square foot per year) are close to those in Chelsea ($58 per square foot), where apartments sell for an average of more than $1,400 per square foot.
“So there’s still a tremendous amount of growth where the [Brooklyn] condo market is,” Barrocas says.
Have no fear, developers are closing that gap.
“We saw a 20 to 25 percent premium for condos [over co-ops],” says Steve Kliegerman, president of Halstead Property Development Marketing, about how Park Union — one of a handful of buildings that is coming, or has just come, on the market with price tags breaking $1,000 a foot — was priced. “If you see buyers who are looking in Manhattan, they’re looking at places that are $1 million higher.”
What’s more, buyers are biting.
“Through the names of people we had on our list, a teaser website we had up and from the signage on the property, we have 23 out of the 32 units sold, and we haven’t spent a nickel on advertising,” says Ken Horn, president of Alchemy Properties, of his Sackett Union development, which hit the market last month.
And, Horn adds: “We actually raised prices already.”
72 Poplar St., Brooklyn Heights
What once was a home for New York’s Finest will now be a home for Brooklyn’s richest. With a two-story addition, the former NYPD station house is being renovated into 13 condos with open floor plans and custom kitchens. The two-, three- and four-bedrooms will range in square feet from 1,500 to more than 4,000, with pricing starting at “just upwards of $1,000 a foot.” The adjacent garage will be renovated into a two-story townhouse, including a one-story addition, with a one-car garage, a private rear garden and a roof deck. Sales will start in fall of 2013, with occupancy slated for the spring of 2014. Contact: Greg Williamson and Rob Gross, Douglas Elliman, 718-780-8188
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/realestate/residential/worthyof_kings_ai0cinIst2oJKypp2t7S2N