Open Thread Wednesday

By on February 22, 2023 6:57 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • Andrew Porter

    My photo of the backs of the houses on Columbia Heights from the Promenade during a snowstorm (remember when we had those?) in February, 2010:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca2ff984a670099ffbf41ec55d48a9f2d7f95bc923a820eb98651327c4b07923.jpg

  • Banet

    I see some minor work being done inside the old citibank on Montague Street. Does anyone know what the plans are for the building?

  • Jorale-man

    A follow-up from my 311 complaint about the abandoned, trash-lined building at 144 Clinton St.:

    “The Department of Sanitation investigated this complaint and issued a Notice of Violation.”

    Nice to see, though no evidence yet that the absentee owner is going to clean things up.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales
  • Cranberry Beret

    Good luck. The owner is mad at life for not being allowed to knock down the building, so is throwing a tantrum and letting it go to pot.
    https://ny.curbed.com/2014/7/9/10077722/landmarks-wants-little-bk-heights-building-to-stay-little

  • Jorale-man

    Yes, I’m not holding my breath, at least not until rats and other species commandeer the whole block. One wonders the obvious: Why doesn’t the owner try and rent out such a valuable piece of NY real estate? That could be such a nice spot for a coffee shop, bakery or other small retailer.

  • Andrew Porter

    Oh. That building. The little plot of land in front has lots of Milkweed plants growing in it, which, if they ever allowed them to grow to maturity, would likely bring in Monarch butterflies.

    Instead, they keep cutting them down. A pity.

    Here’s what it looked like in a 1940 tax photo from the Municipal Archives:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/26bbef8355bbf5686675697acb38d97d87aad638bffcddcb17e74649a93c9f92.png

  • Cranberry Beret

    The inner workings of the minds of irrational landlords blinded by elusive and impossibly high rents will remain a mystery.
    Exhibit A: the old Starbucks space on Montague
    Exhibit B: the large retail space in the St George at the Pineapple corner.
    These owners are all holding out for a magical unicorn tenant with the prestige and pocketbook of the Apple store, and content to wait it out 20+ years…

  • Clarksy

    Much less creepy when it has windows in the front. Thank you for sharing that old picture.

  • RW

    Wow it looks so much nicer with a storefront. And I’m surprised the house next door had a storefront once too! It’s like a completely different corner.

  • karateca2000

    I think this spot has been closed since hurricane sandy. I remember the wind took away the sign.

  • Banet

    Thanks but that was 8 years ago. Anyone with recent intel?

  • Banet

    Much earlier than Sandy. I’ve been in the neighborhood since 1997 and that building has been empty for all of those 26 years I’m pretty sure.

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

    The owner should be mad. That building is an eyesore even without the trash and weeds. It should be torn down and replaced with something nicer.

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

    There was a medical practice there till sometime around 2012 or so.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Ah but here’s the rub. The owner didn’t just want to tear it down and replace it with something nicer, they wanted to replace it with something that ON PAPER maxed out the size that could be built hoping to get the most $ possible. But here in the real world, sometimes you have to give up a little something to make your dreams come true. The owner would rather sit on an empty building for 10 years and stew over the 75-foot tall building they wanted and couldn’t get, dreaming fondly of unrealized dollars, instead of building the 60-foot tall building that would’ve been approved and built today, making actual money, even if not quite as much as hoped.

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

    Of course they want to maximize their return on their investment. Construction is very expensive, especially the foundation, roof and mechanicals. Additional floors are relatively cheap to add. Given the footprint of that building is rather small, returns on a 60ft building might just break even while at 75ft, could generate a profit.

    I don’t think the LPC and the city are acting in the best interests of anyone, in this case…

  • Banet

    I stand corrected, thanks Arch.

    Indeed, looking at the past images in Google Maps there seems to be some small signs in the window in April 2009 but a big “For Rent” sign in the window by July 2011.

    It looks like it was a Dr. Richard W. Westreich, a facial plastic surgeon who had offices there.

    What’s odd about the lot sitting empty is that if you look at the historical photos that go all the way back, the lot used to have a house that matched the two ornate (dutch-style?) homes to the north. A developer could build a perfect replica of those, with lots of additional light coming from side windows, and sell the house for north of $10M. Idiocy that it’s empty, especially considering he’s paying almost $21,000 a year in property taxes — they’ve doubled in the last decade — so he’s paid $150k+ for the lot to sit empty.

  • Jorale-man

    You’re right – if look at the Google Maps history, you can see a definite turning point around 2011. There was nicely tended shrubbery (and an apparent tenant) in the 2009 photo but it started becoming overgrown and trash strewn in 2011. Obviously, it’s been downhill ever since.

    According to Clay Lancaster’s book on Old Brooklyn Heights, there used to be five row houses in the gingerbread style to the building’s north. It would be nice to see the corner restored but this guy probably falls in the category of the Starbucks building owner on Montague St. The neighborhood has to suffer the consequences.

  • Andrew Porter

    Here they are, in a 1927 photo. The building at the extreme right replaced two of the row. Click to enlarge:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/544551ad2c54bee90daa146f93658d6425247de87e8f4e5f3fb1fafb9ce51b50.jpg

  • Andrew Porter
  • Cranberry Beret

    Other buildings, of the same footprint, have been put up in this same time period around the neighborhood and which were subject to the even lower 50 foot height limit (which this building is not). They all penciled out. That’s why I think this particular owner isn’t being rational.

  • Jorale-man

    Wow – great finds. I wonder what happened? A fire maybe? The Insurance Building makes more sense from a commercial standpoint – downtown was spilling over into this part of the Heights in the 1920s and ’30s and there was a burgeoning insurance industry for a time…

  • Joe Kemp

    Wow, if I were the property owner I would put in a methadone clinic or halfway house for single men. Good for them for sticking up for their rights to build.

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

    No doubt, but correlation doesn’t necessarily mean the same result is guaranteed. Every project is different with its own set of issues. Margins are tight and risks are great in construction, that’s why many projects go bankrupt before completion. How willing would you risk your money?
    In reality, neither of us knows the real story but viable speculation can go either way.

  • Andrew Porter

    Or whore house? Several of those in the area already…

  • FatFreddy’sCatheter

    I had an excellent suggestion that I lost before hitting the post button–something about after a storefront has gone unrented for two years the City rolls the dice.

    Snake eyes? The City finds a tenant for that storefront, collecting rent & taxes for ten years, all for City coffers. Let the Parks Dept. handle the administrative burden–and the local purchase of decorative planters!

    There, that should do it.

  • Ebenezer

    A Citi employee said it might be a trader joe’s

  • Ebenezer

    Great picture

  • Ebenezer

    Another great picture. A number of years ago, St Charles fought to prevent a high rise there.

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