A tower for East Flatbush, 1580 Nostrand

All true.

i've been praying my employers, growing out of their small offices in manhattan, will make the move to brooklyn, but no dice so far. 

Office space in Brooklyn is getting just as expensive in Manhattan and most areas still don't have the prestige of a Manhattan address, unless of course you're in Williamsburg or DUMBO.

Downtown Brooklyn and LIC are certainly creating lots of office space to get their share of the demand.

Plans halted? 

or just passing it along to someone else?

 http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-estate/brooklyn-developer-backtracks-plan-massive-tower-article-1.2308032

They bought the site a year ago for $13M, and are listing it now for $28M: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/07/29/hello-living-lists-site-of-planned-flatbush-tower-for-28m/

Seems like a good way to make $15M without having to supervise contractors.

Looks like they spruced up the rendering a bit: 

http://rew-online.com/2015/08/12/for-sale-giant-flatbush-development-site-hits-market-at-28m-466-unit-nj-apartment-portfolio-asks-60m/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+RealEstateWeekly+(Real+Estate+Weekly)

Now with terraces and green space above the community facility. 

This and other projects in the area were sounding overly ambitious to me, until I read that the 400 unit, 2 building project on Clarkson won't be finished until 2018. If you consider this one to be a project that is finished 3 or even 4 years from now, what will the neighborhood be like then? Is that still so far fetched? 

I believe the answer lies -in large part- in PLG.

If buildings in PLG can be flipped at a rapid rate, they will meet the demand of the young, single, recently graduated from college demographics. ...and said demographics won't be willing to live in a new building in east Flatbush.

However, if PLG buildings can't be rapidly flipped, buildings in locations like E Flatbush will be among the few choices to the aforementioned population.

Terraces are awesome. It's a great perk to have with the view.

anyone wanna bet on how long the site takes to sell? I say sometime in 2016

I also think this scale of development in our neighborhood being successful largely depends on jobs moving closer. As downtown Brooklyn is eventually becoming a major business hub, I would guess that would facilitate larger scale development in our area. With ocean hill and ridgewood being in the same category as development goes, I think flatbush/east flatbush has much better mass transit.

The IRT would be a much more pleasant commute to the Downtown Brooklyn and the Financial District as opposed to Midtown.

The rise of Midtown and relative decline of the Financial District is probably a big factor in Brooklyn's original decline, I would guess.

This development is still on track:

http://newyorkyimby.com/2015/11/hello-livings-1580-nostrand-avenue-gets-new-renderings-and-a-fresh-start.html

now 1/2 rentals, and half condos.

wow. so it's really happening. fall/winter 2018. i guess that seems pretty realistic

I was by there a few weeks ago but it just looked like a big dirt lot. Did they start pouring the foundation yet? I've learned to be skeptical of these start and end dates, especially with such a big project.

This site hasn't moved in many months, but it sure looks like the rendering has changed --

https://www.helloliving.com/1580-nostrand-ave

Oh wow. No more ziggurat. Also the site mentions 4 bedroom units. This would be one of the very few new construction buildings in Brooklyn with that feature and could have special appeal.

4-bedroom units? WOW>

I wonder if they are going with lots of bedrooms under the belief that they will do best if they rent to recent grad who are willing to split the rent.

...each rents a bedroom for about $1100.

Aw man, I had really warmed up to the ziggurat design. Is anyone else bothered by the fact they appear to be calling this area PLG? Much love to PLG and all but my Flatbush pride would prefer not to get folded into their territory.

Ew, I hope they go more for 4-bedrooms in the $2,500-3,000/month range. So, like, a family with kids could potentially get one.

I don't know who would pay to live with 3 other roommates in Flatbush for $1100 a month each when you could do that for so much less in the area.

uglyfloorlamp said:

I don't know who would pay to live with 3 other roommates in Flatbush for $1100 a month each when you could do that for so much less in the area.

Brookyln College students who don't feel the area is safe?

The local school district is unlikely to be attractive to families earning 100k a year.

($100k would leave around $30k a year, after taxes, available for rent)

...families with school age children seem unlikely.

Marco555 said:

Brookyln College students who don't feel the area is safe?

Maybe, but there are so many prewar apartments in the areas and even houses being split farther out for about $900 per room that I'm not sure what the appeal is besides a new building with some in-building amenities. I don't think these new apartment prices will have much appeal to transient transplants and recent grads until there are more neighborhood ameneties on par with western Crown Heights

The important thing to remember is that whoever takes these apartments is now only steps away from a coffee shop - https://rogerthatcafe.com/ - at Rogers and Erasmus.

Related - though the description on the Hello Living page of this building being in PLG is laughable... has anyone ever heard this area called Erasmus?

 http://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/city-neighborhoods.page#nycmap

snailzapper said:

The important thing to remember is that whoever takes these apartments is now only steps away from a coffee shop - https://rogerthatcafe.com/ - at Rogers and Erasmus.

Related - though the description on the Hello Living page of this building being in PLG is laughable... has anyone ever heard this area called Erasmus?

 http://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/city-neighborhoods.page#nycmap

well, there's the Erasmus Neighborhood Federation, which has been around since 1979: http://erasmusfederation.org/

It has also been called, at various times, Dutch Village, Old Flatbush, and Flatbush Village. 

BTW new construction 2bds are going for around $2500 now. Some of these are "convertible" i.e. you could have either no living room in a 3bd or a windowless 3rd bedroom with glass doors. 3 roommates would then be paying ~$850 each.