There are two ways to look at the Bloomberg story about One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the hyper-luxe and pricey condo on the Brooklyn waterfront with killer views. It's either (a). an admission that they're really getting "killed" by the current market or (b). a brilliant new marketing strategy that we can call Blood in Water. We're opting for Option B in this case, because while the Bloomberg story does not paint a pretty picture of the current economic environment, the story ends up showcasing the development, highlighting everything that's great about it and is probably generating some calls to the sales office as our fingers hit the keyboard. Seriously. Talk about a free publicity gold mine. Call if the Down on Our Luck Technique or, if you prefer to be crude, the We're Fucked Approach. But it's the ultimate in reverse psychology. It produces a story about how badly a single building has been impacted by the economy and a complete and total focus on that one structure, in this case, our friend One BBP, follows. Genius!
Let's first look at this little excerptski:
The 14-story condominium complex shattered the borough's price ceiling when real estate entrepreneur Elizabeth Stribling agreed in March to pay $6.05 million to live there. Now, two- thirds of the 449 units in the 1.2-million-square-foot building remain unsold, testament to the financial excesses brewed up across the East River in the Wall Street canyons framed by One Brooklyn's floor-to-ceiling windows.
``We were killed,'' said Robert Levine, chief executive officer of RAL Companies & Affiliates LLC, who masterminded the $550 million waterfront project with views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, along with amenities such as virtual golf, a movie theater and a planned 85-acre park. ``We have negotiated and done some contracts, but people are clearly much more aware of the current economy.''
So, that's the suckage part. Now come the superlatives:
The building itself is among the most eye-catching on the waterfront, occupying roughly the same space as the Chrysler Building, the art deco skyscraper on 42nd Street in Manhattan...Buyers at One Brooklyn can expect to pay anywhere from $525,000 for a 782-square-foot studio overlooking the highway to $7.75 million for a 4,600-square-foot penthouse with wraparound views, four bedrooms and terraces that approach 1,000-square-feet. They can pick from about 40 different floor plans in the 1928 building, most including 14-foot-high ceilings, oversized doorways and towering circular columns that flair out at the top like mushroom caps, part of the building's original support structure...
``The construction is very, very high quality and that's what drew us to it,'' said Theresa Ortolani, a fashion and portrait photographer who paid $575,000 in July for a 900-square-foot studio with her stuntman husband, Ian McLaughlin. ``We love being on the water and the proximity to Manhattan.''
In sum: Poor, poor, poor One Brooklyn Bridge Park. Who wants to bet they sell some units with the Blood in the Water strategy?
· One Brooklyn Bridge Condo Demand `Killed' as NYC Market Slides [Bloomberg]
· Tough Times at One Brooklyn Bridge Park [Brownstoner]For more stories from Curbed, go to curbed.com.
