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Posts Tagged ‘beachfront condominium’

Update: Coney Island’s 1st Private Beachfront Condos on Boardwalk

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged beachfront condominium, Boardwalk, Brooklyn, Bruce Handy, condo, Coney Island, residential on December 20, 2011| 9 Comments »

Over the weekend ATZ got to wondering whatever happened to the condos under construction on the Boardwalk at West 32nd Street? There continues to be a lot of interest in this property. “New Construction: Coney Island’s 1st Private Beachfront Condos on Boardwalk” (ATZ, February 17, 2011) is among Amusing the Zillion’s Top 10 Coney Island News Stories of 2011, our year-end post, which we’re working on now.

Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy, whose Sunday walk took him in that direction, sent us the above photo. “There were no for sale or rent signs on the condo fence, only construction signs,” he said. It turns out the four-story building, which has 11 units including 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, is still under construction. Though it appears to be almost finished, construction is stalled for now. According to the DOB website, there’s a partial stop work order on the property due to two open ECB “Work Without A Permit” Violations. One is for doing electrical work on a Saturday without a variance permit. The second is for installing scaffolding without a permit. An administrative hearing is pending.

Beachfront Condos Under Construction on Boardwalk at 32nd St, Coney Island. February 17, 2011. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via Android

The long-vacant, 6,779-square-foot beachfront lot was purchased by New Vision Capital for $1.5 million in 2009. “NVC’s primary focus is the identification of intermediate and longer term opportunities, where positive cash flow and/or impressive capital appreciation are anticipated,” the company’s website says. On Monday, a rep at NVC told ATZ that they hope to complete construction by year’s end and that the penthouse and a few of the three bedrooms are sold. Current prices are $510,000 for a one-bedroom, $685,000 for a two-bedroom and $840,00 to $910,000 for a three-bedroom unit. In February, the asking price for the penthouse was $1.55 million. As we wrote then:

Located in the West End of Coney Island, across the street from the NYC Housing Authority’s Coney Island Houses, this new construction is a harbinger of more beachfront residential to come. The rezoning plan approved by the City Council in 2009 put 26 high rise residential towers and 5,000 new units of housing in Coney Island, including beachfront condos on Taconic Investment Partners 5.5 blocks of vacant land just west of MCU Park (West 20th Street).

Coney Island Aerial: Detail of Conceptual Rendering. CIDC Press Kit

Coney Island Aerial: Detail of Conceptual Rendering Shows Residential Towers West and North of MCU Park. CIDC Press Kit

New Construction: Coney Island’s 1st Private Beachfront Condos on Boardwalk

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged beachfront condominium, Charles Denson, Coney Island, Coney Island History Project, Lincoln Baths, Taconic Investment Partners on February 17, 2011| 11 Comments »

Beachfront Condos Under Construction on Boardwalk at 32nd St, Coney Island. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via Android

The first private beachfront condominiums to be built on the Coney Island Boardwalk are under construction at West 32nd Street and are expected to be completed this summer. The four-story building will have 11 units including 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, each with its own parking stall. Marina Krasnova of New Vision told ATZ that sales prices range from $685,000 for a one-bedroom to $1.55 million for the penthouse.

Located in the West End of Coney Island, across the street from the NYC Housing Authority’s Coney Island Houses, this new construction is a harbinger of more beachfront residential to come. The rezoning plan approved by the City Council in 2009 put 26 high rise residential towers and 5,000 new units of housing in Coney Island, including beachfront condos on Taconic Investment Partners 5.5 blocks of vacant land just west of MCU Park (West 20th Street).

We think it is the future beachfront residential, which Taconic has valued at $300-$900 per square foot, that is driving the City’s plan to gentrify the Boardwalk and make it into a year-round destination with upscale restaurants and bars.

Beachfront Condos Under Construction on Boardwalk at 32nd St, Coney Island. Photo © Bruce Handy/Coney Island Photo Diary via flickr

Coney Island History Project director Charles Denson, who grew up in Coney Island Houses, tells ATZ that the lot on West 32nd Street has been vacant since 1982. “It was the site of Sam’s Knishes and the Lincoln Baths,” said Denson, whose book Coney Island: Lost and Found combines a history of land use in his neighborhood and boyhood memoir. “Sam’s had the best cherry cheese knishes in the world and the Lincoln Baths go back over 110 years.” On the History Project’s blog “Ask Mr Coney Island,” Denson notes that the Lincoln Baths, along with the Washington Baths (W 21st St), Roosevelt Baths (W 30th St) and Jefferson Baths (W 33rd St) were Coney Island’s “presidential bathhouses.”

“The bathhouses were where people rented lockers and changed from street clothes to swim suits. You could also rent swimsuits and beach chairs and umbrellas,” writes Denson. “They were very social places and generations of families and friends from the same neighborhoods patronized the same bathhouses for years until the last one (Brighton Beach Baths) was demolished in the early 1990s.”

Coney Island Boardwalk east of West 33rd Street showing the Lincoln Baths in the foreground, 1924. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection, New York Public Library

How did it happen that land once occupied by bathhouses patronized by working class New Yorkers is destined to become luxury beachfront apartments? The Washington Baths site, which Thor Equities bought from Horace Bullard for $13 million, was flipped to Taconic for an exorbitant $90 million because both parties were sure the City would rezone it for residential.

Taconic Investment Partners plans to build a glittering city of 2,500 apartments and 200,000 square feet of retail west and north of MCU Park. According to Taconic’s website: “The North Venture consists of three city blocks on the North side of Surf Avenue totaling nearly 109,000 square feet. One block from the beach, these parcels include vacant or under-improved land. Coney Island South Venture encompasses 5.5 acres on the south side of Surf Avenue, interspersed over four blocks along the beachfront, and is also comprised of vacant or under-improved land totaling nearly 240,000 square feet.”

As Taconic CEO William Bendit told Eliot Brown of the New York Observer in an interview in 2009: “What attracted us to Coney Island was the fact that it’s vacant land—we didn’t have to dispossess anybody, relocate anybody. And it’s the beachfront. How much beachfront land is there in New York City? Not only that, but beachfront land that’s accessible to the subway. So, if you think about it, how many young people, or anybody, for that matter, would like to commute into New York or Brooklyn, and go home at night and live on the beach?”

What would it take to make you move to the new Coney Island?

Coney Island Aerial: Detail of Conceptual Rendering Shows Residential Towers West and North of MCU Park. CIDC Press Kit