Flatbushed.com strikes again! From the excellent upstart blog comes news that a saloon will be coming to the previous
Compere & Compere tax and accounting shop, that was also a temporary DOT center during the examination of Flatbush traffic patterns. That is, 653 Flatbush. I note the Compere & Compere connection primarily because Wilfrid Compere was involved for many years with FECMA, the merchant's association that predates the
Parkside Empire, group that's really come on like gangbusters after years of lackluster merchant organizing. And Flatbushed has the below astounding picture of Flatbush at Hawthorne to give the really, really longview:
And put July 26 on your calendar! The Parkside Empire association is planning its first street fair, a modest chunk in the middle of the Flabenue that will include tons of local vendors and a stage for local musicians. Yeeeeehawww! Will there be horse and carriage rides to celebrate ye olde Flatbush experience per above? How Brooklyn would THAT be?
The effect of 626 Flatbush will most definitely speed the process of commercial turnover. And clearly, the early birds expect to get the worms. Though I'd never describe new movers to the neighborhood as worms!
16 comments:
This is great. I could go for a few more bars towards parkside. I can only drink so much mangoseed rum.
Sidenote: the owners at 77 clarkson were approached by a "group of men". The group made an offer to purchase their home. The owners took it and, according to my conversation with them, seem quite happy. Started moving out this past weekend. The buyers told them theyd be taking down the house and trying to buy the property next door along with the small white church. I believe offers have been made to the owners of both additional properties. It seems that clarkson is quite the hot block for new dev.
Gotta love that R7-1 zoning and 3.44 FAR! The current structure, BTW, only uses .63 of that FAR.
77 Clarkson hasn't officially changed hands yet, but the mortgage was suddenly paid in full in March, after having been in lis pendens for months. That's how these "groups" operate - they pay off the mortgage, although it's made to look like the owner did, and then the actual closing is for a ridiculously small amount of money, minimizing the real property transfer taxes. The seller thinks they've done well, but could have done much better by actually marketing their house to the buying public.
@Anon that shark and stormy though
babs - is it because these groups offer cash? why else would a homeowner under water accept a less than fair market value?
Am I correct in assuming that these type of buy/teardown/build scenarios are only happening with frame houses and not brick attached row houses? Is that because it's easier to tear down a frame house? or is it only a matter of time before they come for the brick ones also?
It's because the sellers are very unsophisticated and don't know they're getting a raw deal.
Alex is right - they're unsophisticated and these "groups" specialize in fearmongering - you're going to be thrown out of your home, or if you sell on the open market you'll pay loads on money in taxes. They always pay cash and it looks like an easy way out of their troubles.
And Iris, these people aren't underwater - this house has a very old, small mortgage on it, but they'd just fallen behind on it for whatever reason. They could have sold the house for much, much more than the mortgage amount.
The frame houses sure are easier tear-downs, and also tend to be on streets that are more favorably-zoned to bigger new construction. They also tend to be in worse condition. Attached row houses do not make good demolition candidates, in part because of the party wall complication (walls abutting the house next door).
Those bury me.
To assume that owners always could do 'much better' in these scenarios is a bad assumption. Im hearing 1.5 to 2 was offered... Towards higher end for an expedited leave by may 1.
If that is true than anyone hoping to buy or rent anything remotely affordable here is doomed. I wonder what the closing statement will say they paid, and when the State and City are going to start cracking down on this widespread tax fraud.
Tax fraud is a part of the system. Always has been. Find ways to keep the most amount of money in your pocket. Closing statements are manipulated all the time. Dont be naive.
It's not a question of naivete - I am in closings several times per month and they are not manipulated (no reputable real estate licensee would be involved in such a scheme). It should be clearly obvious to the City that one townhouse selling for $300K when the one next to it sells for $1.2 million is a problem.
The kind of buyer who proposes this kind of a sale inevitably exaggerates the amount of taxes the seller will pay, specifically to purchase at an "under the table" price, when the seller would actually take home more money after a legitimate sale (and I do not believe that $1 million - $2 million figure for that one house, or anonymous comments in general).
Looks like it went for $975k. Could they have done better on the market?
https://streeteasy.com/house/77-clarkson-avenue-brooklyn#tab_building_detail=2
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