Early this year the news surfaced that the MTA needed to do major repairs on the catastrophic damage the 2012 superstorm Sandy wrought on the Canarsie Tubes that run beneath the East River. On Monday, they announced that they would be shutting down the tube…
Category: Industry Insights


East Williamsburg: Between Hotspots, a Haven
Neighborhood Report: East Williamsburg
With neighbors that include the supernova that is North Williamsburg, reigning favorite Greenpoint and burgeoning Bushwick in Brooklyn and understated overachiever Ridgewood in Queens, it’s easy to make the assumption that, like south Brooklyn’s Gowanus, East Williamsburg is the luckier winner-by-proximity than flyover zone. Though, due…

421a – The Never-ending Wait & a Discussion with David Schwartz
Interview with David Schwartz of Slate Property Group about the state of new development and affordable housing opportunities in Brooklyn neighborhoods since the 421-a tax abatement program expired, given the program’s uncertain future. Despite talk of poor doors and impossible-to-win lotteries for too few spots,…

Slaying the Land Cost Dragon
DEVELOPMENT ON A GROUND LEASE By Dennis M. Sughrue Developers in New York now confront a stark, new reality. In established Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods, for the first time in memory, land prices exceed construction costs. This calculus shapes the development landscape in profound ways….

A New Way to Broaden the Investor Base
How to Use General Solicitation and Advertising in Regulation D Equity Offerings The founder of Andrew Abramowitz, PLLC, Andrew Abramowitz specializing in securities offerings, startup matters, mergers and acquisitions, securities law compliance and other general corporate law matters….

Brooklyn’s Micro-Cconomy
How the borough will look in five years If Brooklyn was not a borough of NYC, it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. As the borough of Kings slips out of Manhattan’s shadow, we see that the pillars that most define…

Looking Ahead to 2013
Coming out of 2012, the strong rental market continues to drive up the value of development sites. How is this actually playing out? An investor signs a contract on a deal and he can flip it for a few percent more a few months later. We’re…

Think Like a Developer
In this issue of thinking like a developer, we focus on the product, the people, and the place you’re building. Are you creating the right inventory for the right area to satisfy demand and maximize your return? Let’s put on our urban planning hat for…

Landlord Corner
As the Brooklyn market undergoes dramatic changes, it’s increasingly important for us to regularly ask: are we doing enough to maximize the return on our real estate investments? Any number of obstacles can get in the way; fortunately, we think about these things a lot…

No End in Sight for Brooklyn
SEASONED investors have been developing in Brooklyn for years, but with development sites in top neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Brooklyn Heights reaching (and exceeding) $200 per buildable square foot, double the average for the rest of Brooklyn, market watchers wonder, how high can it get?…