What happens when a neighborhood beloved for its small town charm runs smack into a development boom?
Greenpoint is about to find out.
Tucked into Brooklyn’s northwest corner — just above Williamsburg and south of Long Island City — the area has of late shed its sleepy image and emerged as a borough hot spot.
Condo prices in the neighborhood now regularly surpass $1,000 per square foot, with multifamily townhomes selling for as much as $2.5 million.
The dining scene is going great guns, as well, with the opening of the critic-favorite Middle Eastern Glasserie, Nordic stand-out Luksus and coffee shop Búðin, home to what’s been cited as the city’s most expensive latte, at $10.
And let us not forget the 2012 arrival of Lena Dunham and her HBO show “Girls,” which adopted Greenpoint for its setting, giving a boost to the hood’s pop cultural cache.
And yet, the real action is still on the horizon. Over the next decade, Greenpoint is slated to add some 8,000 new apartments as a years-in-the-making wave of residential development sweeps the neighborhood.
Much of it will be concentrated along the area’s waterfront, which, along with the Williamsburg waterfront, was rezoned in 2005 for increased residential projects. A slew of new buildings have risen in Williamsburg since that rezoning; Greenpoint, however, has lagged behind.
The neighborhood’s development plans were initially stalled by the 2008 financial crisis, says David Maundrell, president of real estate firm Aptsandlofts.com. “You had the [2005] zoning changes, but then you had the financial crisis and no one was lending at all,” he says.
Even after the economy recovered and commercial lenders came back to the table, though, would-be Greenpoint developers were still struggling to make the numbers work, he says.
But with the area’s rising rents and sales prices, large waterfront developments are now more feasible, Maundrell notes.
Construction on the largest development planned for the neighborhood — the 10-building, 5,500-unit Greenpoint Landing rental project — began last year. Work is currently under way on two buildings housing a portion of the complex’s roughly 1,400 affordable units, says Greenpoint Landing Associates’ Johanna Greenbaum.
In addition to its residential component, the site will include retail, some 4 acres of public open space and a 640-seat pre-K-to-8 public school.
“So planning and working on that, in addition to the [residential] buildings, has taken time and coordination,” Greenbaum says, noting that the developer has been at work on the project since just before the 2005 rezoning. She estimates Greenpoint Landing will take around eight to 10 years to complete.
A spate of other rental developments are planned for the neighborhood as well, including 145 West St., a 600-plus-unit tower from Palin Enterprises and Mack Real Estate Group; 77 Commercial Street, a three-building, 720-unit project from developer the Chetrit Group; 93 Dupont St., a planned 400-unit building from Dupont Street Developers; and 29 Clay, a 12-story, 60-unit project from developer Andru Coren.
And bigger things could be coming still.
Last August, London-based private equity firm Quadrum Global paid $45.5 million for a 179,000-square-foot site at 161 West St., where it’s planning a residential development that could ultimately encompass some 430,000 buildable square feet.
“The big players have realized that there’s a lot of value in Greenpoint now and have started building these crazy projects,” says David Kazemi, an agent with Bond New York.
And while many of those developments are still several years from completion, current demand for Greenpoint housing is skyrocketing. For instance, in April of last year, 58,832 people applied for a shot at one of the 105 affordable units (studios from $494, one-bedrooms from $532, two-bedrooms from $647) in Domain Companies’ 210-unit rental (market-rate one-bedrooms from $2,727, two-bedrooms from $3,827) at 1133 Manhattan Ave.
Things are equally frenzied on the condo side, Kazemi notes.
“There is definitely a shortage,” he says, adding that bidding wars and all-cash deals are becoming routine. “The last four deals I’ve done, I would say there were 30 people at each open house, and each was one open house and done.”
Demand is also strong for the neighborhood’s single and multifamily townhomes, says Miron Properties’ Bram Lefevere, who notes that over the last three years, prices for these properties have risen from between $400 and $600 per square foot to the $750-to-$1,000 range.
Doug Perlson, CEO of real estate firm RealDirect, says the area’s inventory crunch is due in part to owners holding onto properties rather than selling — in the hope of capitalizing on a price bump once the anticipated waterfront developments bring new amenities and buyers to the neighborhood.
Perlson believes that much of this expected increase has already been priced into the market, though.
“Everyone realizes that [new development] is going to have an effect on the community and will probably continue the gentrification of the neighborhood,” he says.
“But we are already seeing costs per foot on par with Williamsburg, where you already have a very mature neighborhood as far as services. So I don’t think there’s a ton of upside in Greenpoint from an investment standpoint.”
Recent arrival Domenico Pellegrini, who with his wife, Jessica, closed in February on a two-bedroom condo in a nine-unit building near the neighborhood’s waterfront, is hoping for a solid return on his investment, of course. More than that, though, it was Greenpoint’s low-key vibe that attracted them to the area.
Formerly renting in Long Island City, the couple, both 28, began trekking to the neighborhood to visit friends who lived there. “And we just sort of fell in love with the charm of it,” says Pellegrini, who works in commodities. “You have the Manhattan skyline right there, but it feels cozier and more intimate than a lot of other parts of the city.”
That could change, however, as thousands of new apartments are added in coming years.
The development will “obviously help bring more businesses and commerce to the area and potentially help out with property values,” Pellegrini notes. “But I just hope it doesn’t destroy the character of the neighborhood. Because it is so charming, like a little village escape.”
He says he’s optimistic that the close-knit feel that drew him to the area can remain intact.
“Maybe I’m naive as to how fast change can take place,” he says. “But it seems to me like the Greenpoint fabric is pretty strong.”
TOP PHOTO: Jessica and Domenico Pellegrini bought a two-bedroom waterfront condo in Greenpoint after falling in love with the neighborhood. Photo by: Helayne Seidman