Hello Living on Pacific + Washington: Clever or desperate?

whynot_31

Note: Even though the developers claim to be in Prospect Heights, this is posted on the Crown Heights thread because it is on "eastside of Washington Ave".

Now for the topic of the post: Desperate or Clever. There is a fine line between being clever and being desperate. Which side of that line do you think this event puts the buildings known as Hello Living on?.

...do you think it will result in them selling any units?


SEEKING NON PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS FOR A
ART/CHARITY WALK IN
Hello Living's New Building Developments
Located in Prospect Heights
June 27, 2009 2:00-6:00 p.m.
Produced by Artfully Unforgotten & Triumph Property

Showcase your organizations work! On June 27th from 2 - 6 p.m., Triumph Property will be holding open houses in 5 of Hello Living's new building developments (they are located on Pacific, Dean and St. Marks streets). At
each building we would like to showcase the work of Brooklyn's non profits. We are seeking non profits that can showcase what it is they do, while the Triumph agents take potential home buyers through the buildings. The benefits to your organization include having the opportunity to share your mission with people of and moving to Brooklyn. In addition, this could lead to potential volunteers and/or donors for your organization.

Hello Living consists of nine building developments in Prospect Heights. Hello Living helps create a neighborhood of friends, family and style. Please visit www.helloliving.com to learn more about this new urban community!

Artfully Unforgotten together with Triumph Property will be producing this
event. Artfully Unforgotten was founded in October 2007 with the mission of using art as a means to advocate and raise resources for vulnerable communities. Currently, we are working to assist the Gisimba Memorial Center Orphanage, located in Kigali, Rwanda. Artfully Unforgotten will be part of the Art/Charity walk and will be displaying art pieces and video inspired by Rwanda and the Gisimba Memorial Center Orphanage. In addition, Artfully Unforgotten will be producing an after party and silent auction, called Artists for Gisimba for the benefit of the orphanage.

Artists for Gisimba will feature the art work of New York City artists, as well
as live music from Ashley Jones and Mamarazzi. Hello Living has graciously offered the Dakota building for this event, and this space will be the venue for a night of cocktails, hors doeuvres, live music, a raffle, a
children's activity center and a silent auction of the artists work. The
event will target young professionals who are at the beginning stages of their philanthropic gestures, artists and home buyers. All are welcome to attend! Check artfullyunforgotten.com in May for ticket information.

How You Can Take Part
Write up a short proposal of what you would like to show during the
Art/Charity walk and how. Send it to Heather Metcalfe, Founder/Executive
Director of Artfully Unforgotten at [email protected]. All organizations must supply their own tables/equipment.

Artfully Unforgotten
545 Prospect Place, No. 1J
Brooklyn, New York 11238
www.artfullyunforgotten.com

cool the kid

Sounds smart to me. LOL they are based out of my old building.

jack krohn

I agree. I think it's a creative way to market the properties. Everytime I pass down that block, I'm impressed with how much nicer it looks with the appearance of these buildings.

xlizellx

i think it's clever -- my question is, will they be wasting more time because people who are not actually interested in a $800,000 condo with $1,000 in monthly fees may show up though?

whynot_31

If you are a real estate agent at the moment, I'm not sure you can be more idle.... so I'd argue against it being a waste of time

whynot_31

More than 2 years later, apartments are still on the market, and prices have just been dropped another 100k.

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2011/08/price-cuts-as-904-pacific-hits-the-market-again/#disqus_thread

pragmaticguy

Which really sucks if you're one of the ones who bought at full price. Bend over and kiss your equity good-bye.

whynot_31

yes, if you bought something for $700k with 20% down, you would have paid 140k out of pocket.

For two years you would have paid the maintenance fees and the mortgage payments.

Only to learn your apt is now worth $600k, and you still owe roughly 550k.

pragmaticguy

Yeah, but in 15 or 20 years you'll be back to where you started. Happened to me when I owned my house in New Jersey. Paid a paltry $202,000 back in 1987 and house dropped to about $160,000 within two years. Was back up to $380,000 by about 2003. Now it's back to about $300,000 but I don't care because I gave it to my ex when we got divorced. On the other hand I bought my first house in Brooklyn back in 1980 for $58,000 and sold it in 1987 when I moved to NJ for $215,000. So, it's not all bad.

cool the kid

Maintenance fees on condos in the city are insane

Even in the best of times you can't win w/a $1000/mo maintenance fee... on top of what I imagine are equally high property taxes

For that $$$$ you could move to Westchester and drive to work in Midtown

whynot_31

For that $$$$ you could move to Westchester and drive to work in Midtown

....or, better yet, take metro north.

whynot_31

After being on the market for a loooong time, these properties are finally moving.

Curbed wrote: After everyone involved with Prospect Heights' Hello Living Dakota sued each other, the building, at 904 Pacific Street, dusted itself off and tried a new marketing team and a new name, The Collection. That—and a round of $100,000 price cuts—seems to have done the trick. Reps tell us closings have begun and the building is "close to 70 percent sold." StreetEasy shows eight active listings, five of them actually priceupped in May.

Two sales have hit public record so far, both at slight discounts from the asking prices. Apartment #401, a 2BR, 2BA, sold for $585,000 after asking $615,000, a 4.9 percent discount. Apartment #201, a 1BR, 1.5BA, sold for $388,500 after asking $399,000, a 2.6 percent discount. Nice to see this building back in the land of the non-lawsuit-embroiled living.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2012/07/31/closings_finally_begin_at_prospect_heights_the_collection.php#more

cool the kid

Must be out of towners. Can't fix bad layouts.

I still think (and insist to my wife) that there is money in selling open layouts and letting people build as they wish. Crop a space, designate a bathroom + kitchen, sell by the square foot. Me personally, I don't give a shit about fixtures or any of that stuff... me and my wife are pretty handy and generally change stuff like lights etc anyway. The profits might be lower, but you can move units a lot more quickly I bet, and you know all the cool kids are into open lofts. They dun goofed

bkchickie

CTK, you might be right--especially if someone is determined to get new construction. We looked at a few new-construction buildings in PS & PH and found the shoddy construction quality to be a dealbreaker. There is, however, something to be said about a building where the floors are straight and everything works.

The hubs & I are not un-handy, but we appreciate the quality of workmanship that someone with skills, and the proper tools, can bring to a project. I would favor a build-to-suit or finish-to-suit project rather than one where the owner ends up doing the finish work.

cool the kid

Only thing that could be a problem is if construction is noisy, or if permits have to be obtained. The building would really have to be set up to handle the work- freight elevator, thick soundproof concrete slabs, good electric networking etc.

Builders make the mistake of trying to anticipate what people want... they should just give the buyers the space and let them decide. Just like a commercial space.

bkchickie

You'd have to do it where the entire building was going through one architect/expediter for code-review and filing purposes. Did you see the article in the NYTs recently about people who took on huge projects without the help of an architect (and paid dearly for the lack of professional input?) Would there be a potential zoning or CoO issue if you sell a unit that is, essentially, a loft at the outset and is turned into a two-bedroom apartment at the end?

whynot_31

Now that they have settled their disputes, they have resumed building:

http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/12/big-build-planned-for-washington-avenue/#disqus_thread