Photos I’m not sure I want to take credit for, but oh wells. All photos: Brian Hedden
A new building on 65th Street near the corner of 18th Avenue is putting up condos for sale. I have not yet taken advantage of the Sunday open house, but I’m somewhat underwhelmed by the exterior aesthetic. It isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen, but it’s still kinda fug.
The text in the red burst is Mandarin Chinese for “kinda fug.”
As someone who has watched the Bay Ridge real estate market finally start sliding back to being only marginally astronomically over-priced, I nearly choked when I saw the Gingerbread House at 8220 Narrows Avenue go on sale for $12 million. I can just hear my broker saying “See, I told you the recession is over and home prices are on the rise.” Yeah right. But for just for fun, I pulled out my trusty mortgage calculator and found out I could own this place if I could just afford the $51,535 per month mortgage payment.
8220 Narrows Avenue. Otherwise known as the "Gingerbread House"
While I agree that Bay Ridge is a nice place to live, if I had $12 million to spend I think I *might* live somewhere else. An article in the New York Post reports that a $12 million sale would set a Brooklyn record for a single-family home. It also would bring an astronomical return for owner Jerry Fishman. According to city records, Fishman bought the house in 1985 with a $440,000 mortgage. Assuming a typical 20% down payment, the sale price was $550,000. A $12 million sale would yield a profit of $11,450,000. The Post also reports that Fishman is an alumnus of Fort Hamilton High School (which is right across the street from the house) and that he used to gaze at the Gingerbread House as a student and dream of owning it.
I, for one, find the place rather creepy. It doesn’t exactly look welcoming to Trick-or-Treaters unless you want to end up baked into a pie! It doesn’t help that Fishman keeps several large, menacing dogs on the property, that come bounding out to the low walls surrounding the property to bark and bare teeth at anyone who deigns to walk on that side of the street. Not exactly neighborly…
In an ideal world, the absence of “What the fuhhhh????” in a brand new building wouldn’t be a newsworthy item in and of itself. But, in this era that has brought us the William Beaver House, the L Haus, and an assortment of Fedders Crap everywhere, it’s actually a pleasant surprise to find a new construction that doesn’t burn my eyes when I look at.
This was a hole in the ground when I first started walking past about a year-and-a-half ago. Now it’s close enough to being finished to be (as suggested by the For Sale signs in the windows) considered saleable by Schmidt Realty, a sales agent so awesome that his web site is a blog. On Blogger.
I’d make fun of his blog’s layout more, but let’s face it. My web site is teal.
This building is close to a school, a bowling alley, and it isn’t fug. What more could you ask for?
Who else plays this game – window shopping on Craigslist for apartments you might want to move to.
Keep in mind — I like it where I am now. I’d like to stay in the same apartment for a few more years (though the ‘no pets’ rule may factor into that equation sooner or later). It’s a nice, quiet spot with a good elementary school nearby, sushi and shabu shabu until midnight on the next corner, three pizzerias at strategic locations, and plus it’s a quick skip and a jump to the beach. But also keep in mind, when I moved back to Brooklyn from Bridgeport a couple of years ago, Plan A was always to end up in Bay Ridge. I fell back to Plan B (Bensonhurst) out of cost considerations. So I still wistfully look at Bay Ridge as a place I might like to end up eventually. So what if I did just re-up my lease?
I almost called up this place to take a look:
$1850 / 2br – 2 BR Brownstone in Bay Ridge Historic District
National Register of Historic Places!
Bright, sunny, 2 BR floor-thru on top floor of Brownstone on one of Bay Ridge’s “best blocks”
The Senator Street historic district includes architecturally distinctive 20th century neo-Renaissance style brownstone in Bay Ridge, designed by Fred Eisenla.
Completely renovated kitchen includes in unit washer and dryer and dishwasher
Formal dining room and spacious living room
High ceilings, hardwood floors and crown molding
1.5 blocks to subway station, ½ block to Midtown Manhattan express bus
Parks, stores, grocery, post office, pharmacies, restaurants 1 or 2 blocks away.
15 minutes to Wall Street [BH: hahaha. I don't think so. Maybe by car when there's no traffic, but rush hour is a different story], 5 minutes to the Harbor & ferry and highway, just blocks from scenic Owls Head park.
This place looks and sounds awesome. And the chance to have an actual awesome apartment? That would be… well, awesome!
Like I said. I almost called them. But.
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