By Richard Morgan
Williamsburg is in the middle of the same transition seen in
SoHo in an earlier generation, going from bohemian wonderland to
high-end mall encased in gloss.
"Why do so many of us buy into the state of attitude that is
Williamsburg, even though the actively uncool UTNE Reader crowned
it one of America's hippest places--in 1997?" asked Details
magazine--in 2004. In the years since, according to a report
earlier this year by Williamsburg brokerage aptsandlofts.com, the
neighborhood went from 21 condo sales competed in 2003 to 480 in
2013 (peaking at 1,047 in 2011), with average townhouse sales more
than tripling, from $378,000 to $1.4 million.
Williamsburg is massive, brimming with pockets of unique
mini-neighborhoods. It matters if a home or business is north or
south of Metropolitan Avenue, west or east of the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway. But Williamsburg's heart, a half-mile radius, give or
take, around the Bedford Avenue stop on the L line, is a
bellwether.
Along Williamsburg's pluckiest heartstring, Bedford Avenue, a
visitor--and there are many--can find the kinds of venues one might
expect in a Minneapolis mall: a Dunkin' Donuts, a Subway sandwich
shop, a Verizon Wireless store and a Juice Generation is on the
way.
The area also hosts plenty of imports from Manhattan below 14th
Street: Cafe Mogador, Crif Dogs, Dos Toros taqueria, Fellow Barber,
high-end menswear line Gant Rugger, Two Boots pizzeria and Umami
Burger.
The Wythe Hotel and coming Level Hotel, which is scheduled to
open in early 2016 and will be within in spitting distance of the
Wythe, exude a coolness that once belonged to the Meatpacking
District's Gansevoort and Standard hotels. Nearby the Williamsburg
hotel sites is nightclub Output.
How kaput is hipster Williamsburg and the days of its scruffy
lofts? In April, freewilliamsburg.com, a local blog, chronicled all
of the neighborhoods touted over the years by reputable
publications to be "the next Williamsburg."
There were 19 contenders. The blog found the front-runner was
Long Island City, with three published nods, followed by Bushwick
and Greenpoint, with two each. The remaining list was a
five-borough hodgepodge: Astoria, Bay Ridge, Bedford-Stuyvesant,
Brooklyn Heights, Crown Heights, East New York, Hunts Point, Mott
Haven, Ridgewood, the Rockaways, St. George, Sunset Park, the Upper
East Side and West Harlem.
In the most Williamsburg-y of assertions, John Flansbaugh, of
the Brooklyn-based band They Might Be Giants, told the Gothamist
blog: "The Catskills is the New Williamsburg. There! I said it!
There is more artisanal pork being butchered there than anywhere."
No coolness survives so many challenges.
For residents, the neighborhood flux can be jarring.
"I went to a Vietnamese restaurant in my neighborhood and
realized in the bathroom, when I saw a sign for my old mechanic,
that the spot was where my mechanic had been. I died a little
inside," said Christopher Amundson, a 38-year-old events
producer.
Mr. Amundson moved into a $648-a-month, rent-stabilized
one-bedroom in Williamsburg in 2004, but is now leaving for New
Jersey after his latest lease asked for $1,100 a month. "The
Meatpacking District is on Wythe Avenue now," he said. "The whole
thing is over."
As it has been for many other neighborhoods, the imminent
arrival of a Whole Foods has triggered a frenzy of gentrification,
including a five-story specialty version of Urban Outfitters called
Space Ninety 8, on North Sixth Street. Vice Media, a multiplatform
fief, pushed out thrift-store Beacon's Closet when it planned
expansion earlier this year, and is now in talks about possible
partnerships with long-established Time Warner Inc.
More telling of the neighborhood's future is the coming J.
Crew--which swings more toward the first lady than Lady Gaga--on
Wythe.
Geoff Bailey was hired by SCG Retail last year specifically to
expand the real-estate brokerage's Brooklyn footprint. He has been
operating in the Williamsburg market for seven years, and has
participated in deals including space for SoulCycle in 2012, and
locations for Whole Foods and Sweetgreen that are coming to the
neighborhood.
He noted a firm analysis finding that Williamsburg residents are
now on average between 25 to 35 years old making per-capita income
of $108,000 a year.
"It fits the profile of the upper Upper West Side, Chelsea and
the East Village," he said.
To that end, building plans were unveiled last month for
construction at Kent Avenue and North Seventh Street: 3,000 square
feet of commercial space topped with a 9,771-square-foot,
single-family residence complete with a third-floor infinity
pool.
$1.75 million 265 N. Sixth St.
This three-family house is set up as two two-bedroom apartments
and a one-bedroom, each with one bathroom.
Property Plus: The house is 21 feet wide.
Property Minus: Last renovated more than 50 years ago
Listing Agent: Yuval Vidal of Douglas Elliman, 646-436-5625
$1.8 million 22 N. Sixth St., No. 8I
This is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in a doorman
building.
Property Plus: Use as pied--à--terre is allowed.
Property Minus: View faces inner courtyard and another
tower.
Listing Agent: Harkov-Lewis team of Halstead Property,
212-381-6590
$4.75 million 2 Northside Piers, PH30Y
A duplex four-bedroom penthouse and a one-bedroom apartment,
with other floorplans possible.
Property Plus: 28-year tax abatement
Property Minus: There is no storage unit.
Listing Agent: Ralph Modica of Douglas Elliman, 917-407-0084
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