20 Henry Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 20 Henry Street by Carter Horsley

On October 11, 2010, the Canyon-Johnson Funds announced it had purchased the 20 Henry Street development in Brooklyn Heights and would complete the conversion of the former Peaks Mason Mints candy factory into 39 residential condominium apartments.

The funds are a joint venture between Canyon Capital Realty advisors and an affiliate of Magic Johnson Enterprises. It acquired the existing construction loan and bought out the project's former equity and is working closely with the original developer, Urban Realty Partners, to finish the project. Stan and Shelly Listokin are the principals of Urban Realty Partners.

The renovation of the existing building at the corner of Henry and Middagh was about 30 percent completed at the time of the announcement, which indicated that a sales and marketing campaign will start in the fall of 2011.

When completed, the development will consist of the original 7-story candy factory, which will have 25 apartments, and a new, adjacent, 4-story building at the corner of Henry and Poplar with 14 apartments.

The project is very close to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Pier 1 of the Brooklyn Bridge Park and is convenient to several subway lines.

Apartments will have Bosch kitchen appliances, white oak flooring, teak vanities and the building will have a fitness center, storage facilities and a doorman.

Most of the windows in the red-brick former factory building are slightly arched. The lobby will have rough-hewn exposed original 19th Century wood beams.

The development will have a courtyard entry with sculpture and lush plantings and greenery that will extend over the wall of the new building to its rooftop trellis.

The building has a doorman, a fitness center, a bicycle storage room, a refrigerated food storage room, and private storage.

Apartments will have Bosch refrigerators and cooktops and wall ovens and dishwashers, and Wenge kitchen cabinetry.

The original factory building was erected in 1864.

A November 7, 1999 article in The New York Times by Sharon McDonnell noted that the residents of 20 Henry Street "are panicked because their landlord had decided to buy its way out of the state's Mitchell-Lama housing program, which they say has kept rents there affordable since 1975."

"The 42 units in the building, which is known as the Middagh Street Studio Apartments," the article continued, "are among 400,000 units in the Mitchell-Lama program statewide, about half of them in New York City. In exchange for tax benefits and favorable mortgages, the owners agreed to keep rents low for 20 years after which they could leave the program. The 20-year mark for 20 Henry Street passed in 1995, and nothing happened."

Then in 2006 an article at brownstoner.com reported that "after the previous owner spent much tie and money evicted the rent-stabilized tenants at 20 Henry Street by pulling the building out of the Mitchell-Lama program, the Praedium Group has finally succeeded in getting approval (after seven failed attempts) from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a four-story condo building in the former candy factory's garden. The architects on the project are Pasanella + Klein Stolzman + Berg.

The building is also known as 73-79 Middagh Street and 82-86 Poplar Street.