Open Thread Wednesday

By on May 3, 2022 10:54 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Remsen St Strollin

    Hadn’t heard anything about what was happening with the bossert in a long time so searched the web to see if anything new. Here’s our answer… foreclosure proceedings starting. Surprised this hasn’t gotten more press:

    https://www.pincusco.com/112m-pre-foreclosure-filed-on-chetrits-hotel-bossert/

    https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=7AYkOEkbiR4cxx0D3D1pfQ==

  • Remsen Remmy

    Always wondered about this. Can someone who knows tell us the likelihood this turns into one of the “homeless hotels” the mayor is pushing now? Or it’s likely fate beyond foreclosure?

  • kizz

    I spoke to the construction workers at the Clark Street subway station early this morning (Wednesday, May 4th), and they said the station should be open tomorrow, May 5th and absolutely open by this weekend. Words don’t mean much at this point, so I’ll believe it when I see it.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    I suspect this has been the game plan for quite some time. The construction languishing for years, multiple opening dates never realized. The owners can’t possibly be that incompetent, looks like a loss being set up for a huge write-off….

  • W.R.

    The lenders are senior secured and will likely attempt to foreclose on the property. The debtor will have to respond by filing the entity for bankruptcy at which point it can go one of a few routes. Most likely is a chapter 11 with a debtor in possession (DIP) loan bridge to a 363 asset sale.
    The senior secured pre-petition lenders will either credit bid their debt or get repaid after the DIP and certain liens from construction firms that can actually prime senior debt in certain circumstances. So the short answer is the place will be auctioned and sold to the highest bidder. I’d guess it goes the condo route but who knows. That’s it for the BHB bankruptcy primer and now back to work ;)

  • Jorale-man

    There goes the hopes of having a restaurant/bar on the rooftop anytime soon. Not that I was holding my breath with this.

  • MaggieO

    first i’ve seen of an opening date for the new library!!!! June 8th! https://brooklynbridgeparents.com/new-brooklyn-heights-library-opening-june-8/

  • karateca2000

    The new bakery called L’apparment 4F on Montague st just opened. I tried the croissants and they are delicious.

    I wish them all the luck. We needed a good bakery in the neighborhood.

  • KDHicks

    Dropped in for a baguette today and it was amazing — piping hot, perfect crunch on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Highly recommend!

  • TeddyNYC

    No big surprise given all of the delays and the questionable economics of this hotel project from the start. Some developer will probably swoop in and turn it into a residential building.

  • Alex

    Walked by the new Montague Apothecary this morning and they’ve installed some glass shelves so it looks like it’s going to be an optical store or something like that. Disappointing.

  • bkheights

    Any word about the Spumoni opening in Dumbo? They’ve had the signs up for awhile but still looks under construction.

  • CassieVonMontague

    I had a plumber who did work in the Bossert for the hotel conversion. He used very strong language about the shoddy work being done. He complained that they would renovate an entire floor and then they would have a huge flood from trying to renovate the floor above and have to start over.

    The top-floor restaurant looks like it has nice light fixtures installed—from what i can see from my hovel of an apartment.

    Can’t someone just turn it into rentals/condos, please?

  • Cranberry Beret

    Nice bankruptcy overview! :)
    From the real estate perspective, the thing that might change the outlook for the Bossert-as-hotel is the recent zoning law (Dec 2021) which bans most new hotel construction in the city. So even if this site had questionable economics in the past, and notwithstanding that COVID has put the tourism industry on shaky ground in the present, the long-term future value for a grandfathered turn-key hotel here could be quite rosy.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    That building would be difficult to convert to condos as the layout is optimized for a hotel. It would require a total gut renovation and in an already renovated building, it may not be cost effective.

  • A neighbor

    Initially, the owners said they couldn’t convert it to condos because of structural issues.

  • RickP

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Chetrit

    The brother of the Bossert owner, apparently. Some background info I thought was interesting.

  • Mike Suko

    This is good news, but remember – the old BH branch (even leaving aside its “business” side) felt like 1955 to some extent when it was demolished. BHB readers skew 50+, and it’s likely that the new “configuration” will “take some getting used to. And the BPL is perfectly dreadful when it comes to transparency or even listening to its user-base. They’re stopping the services now offered on Pierrepont a month before the new branch is scheduled to open.

    One has to assume that Citibank will – at most – need a weekend to cut over from one location to one nearby. And theirs is a far more complex move by far.

    In a more positive vein, if you’re in DUMBO roughly 9-5 M-Sat., check out the new BPL branch there. It’s lovely in every regard, and the collection is chock full of books “in demand,” because the BPL style is “new branch, new books.” Call me biased, but I’m nearly certain that Brooklyn Heights residents on average are more inclined to read books than those in neighboring DUMBO.

  • W.R.

    Great SRO :O

  • kizz

    Service is restored at the Clark Street subway station, effective as of this message. There are signs up on the doors to the arcade stating so, and the barricades preventing one from entering are taken down.

  • MaggieO

    I’m just excited to have a neighborhood library back again! I have missed it dearly, and so has my dangerously meandering 5yo :)

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Like it was in the 70’s before the Jo-ho’s bought it.

  • Jorale-man

    I could see it becoming a homeless shelter. The city would make a statement about sharing the hardship – it’s not just the poorer neighborhoods that must carry the load. Not saying I totally agree or disagree with that line of thinking but it seems possible.

  • kizz

    We get it. You’re a cynical New Yorker? Spare us.

  • Jorale-man

    Presented without comment: The 7-day positivity rate for Covid in Brooklyn Heights/Dumbo/Downtown: 9.81%
    https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page#maps
    Obviously that doesn’t include the results of home antigen tests.

  • Resident

    A. nobody cares
    B. nobody cares
    C. nobody cars

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Not to mention, the homeless will have a nice new place to watch internet porn and get into knife fights!

  • Mike Suko

    Wrong…. But what does that almost 10% figure mean…. When people “walk in” to mobile or stationary “labs,” 1 in 10 test positive??

    And how does it compare with the City as a whole? And how does it compare to what it was when things were last [by most vantage points] “scary,” just before Xmas, say? (Hoping you know, of course. Thanks for the report!)

  • Effective Presenter

    A “hovel of an apartment”?

    That is a pity!

    We suggest y’all redecorate fix the place up make your home as beautiful as possible.

    Kevin

  • Effective Presenter

    Brace yourself

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