Warehouse 11, 214 North 11th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 214 North 11th Street by Carter Horsley

This large blue terracotta, six-story apartment building at 214 North 11^th Street at Roebling Street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is known as Warehouse 11.

It was designed by Karl Fischer Architects for a group that included Isack Rosenberg Isack and Abraham Rosenberg, the developers also of the large planned development known as Rose Plaza on the River that won final city approval in 2010, and Yitzchok Schwartz. 

It was completed in 2008.

Andrés Escobar did the interiors.

It has 120 apartments.

Bottom Line

A distinctive, block-long building very close to McCarren Park in Williamsburg with an impressive double-height lobby and a terracotta façade.

Description

The building, which is also known as 10-18 Roebling Street and 201 North 10th Street, is distinguished by its distinctive blue terracotta façade panels that were at one point planned as orange, its balconies, multi-paned windows, and numerous slanted top-floor windows. 

The rather bulky and robust, block-long building looks like a glossy container ship with many low smokestack-looking superstructures.  All its missing is a mournful foghorn, a New Orleans marching band, and a film noir script.  

It has some large corner windows. 

The building has a double-height lobby with quartz flooring adjacent to a residents’ lounge.

The building’s website said that it was “all created with a whimsically artistic, outside-the-line approach” crisscrossing “chic industrial and Sumptuous Modern in Williamsburg’s oh-so-sweet Bedford Avenue/McCarren Park location.

Amenities

Residents have access to impressive amenities that include a private residents’ lounge, a fitness center, a yoga garden, a billiard room, a rooftop deck and a parking garage. 

Apartments

Kitchens feature brown wood accents, stainless steel appliances and white lacquer cabinets; master bathrooms have overhead rain showerheads, custom vanities and topnotch fixtures.

The kitchen, its website proclaimed, is "designed for the luxury-minded whether a water-boiling novice or skilled flambeing pro. Composed of icy walls, geometric lines with punches of deep brown wood and silvery sumptuous fixtures and appliances. White blizzard granite countertops. White lacquer cabinets with backpainted glass and metallic painted white oak accents and a textured white Ghiaccio tile backsplash."

Apartment 1U is a duplex unit with a 19-foot-long living/ding room with a pass-through kitchen and on bedroom on the ground floor and a 860-square-foot cellar with a large courtyard.

Apartment 5F is a two-bedroom unit with a small balcony and a 17-foot-long living/dining room with a 9-foot-long kitchenette with an island.

Apartment 6N has a foyer that leads past a pass-through kitchen to a double-height 19-foot-long living room with a 5-foot-balcony and a 15-foot-long bedroom on the lower level and a 25-foot-long room on the upper level with a 14-foot-long terrace on the upper level.

Apartment 6Q is a 1,496-square-foot apartment with three-baths and a 587-square-foot roof terrace.

History

In an August 20, 2010 article in The New York Times by Vivian S. Toy, David Maundrell, president of aptsandlofts.com, the brokerage that handled sales in the building, said that the "2008 sales activity provided 'an opportunity to look at what didn't work the first time and make changes.' The plan had called for a children's playroom and 60 private roof cabanas. 'But there was no interest at all in a playroom because the family market in Williamsburg is still developing,' Mr. Maundrell said. No one was buying cabanas, either. So the playroom was replaced with a billiard/television room, and the cabanas were removed to create a common roof deck. Prices were dropped, by 25 to 35 percent.

Some of the units had prices of about $450 a square foot, or about $750 less than their average contract prices three years before, according to the article, adding that "in the first two weeks back on the market in June, 2010, the building signed 35 new contracts," the article said.

Both Isack Rosenberg and Abraham Rosenberg filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2009 after lenders including Capital One and RCG Longview filed suits to foreclose on the property and had previously sought to sell $50.7 million in senior notes on the property, but the developers argued that they had the legal right to match any offer.

As part of Rosenberg's Chapter 11 reorganization plan, proceeds from closings at Warehouse 11 would be used to settle the loan balances.

A February 10, 2010 by Sarah Ryley at therealdeal.com said that "the other Warehouse 11 developer, Yitzchok Schwartz, had an involuntary bankruptcy case filed against him that helped prevent the project from being foreclosed on. But he has only been peripherally involved in the proceedings related to Warehouse 11...although the drafted settlement agreement envisioned the developers finding a third party investor to buy the $50.8 million note at an undisclosed discount, they attempted to raise cash another way: through a well-publicized fire sale that kicked off last month and has probably since made the building the city's top seller."

The "discount amount" is blacked out, but the math indicates it was $31 million. Although, it's unclear whether that figure included some discounted settlement with the mezzanine lender RCG Entities, which is actively involved in the bankruptcy battle and is owed $15 million just on the Warehouse 11 project.

"RCG states that its collateral in the Warehouse 11 loan includes a 100 percent ownership in the project, as well as the lumberyard and adjacent warehouse on Kent Avenue. Capital One also happens to be a lender on the lumberyard, and began foreclosure proceedings on the property last spring, which was staved off by the bankruptcy filing. The same month, RCG attempted to foreclose on $7 million in debt it's owed for a development Rosenberg finished in 2008 called Olive Park, where he still has an interest in the unsold apartments that are being rented."

An article by Aaron Short in the March 25, 2010 edition of The Brooklyn Paper reported that a "deal has brought Warehouse 11...back from bankruptcy," adding that the building was then 70 percent occupied.

"Developer Isack Rosenberg and his partners in McCarren Park Mews, who defaulted on their $50-million mortgage to Capital One Bank last summer, agreed in bankruptcy court late on Wednesday to a deal that would leave them only owing $35 million to the bank. The developers hope to recoup that money by selling the remaining 36 units in the luxury building at the corner of on the N. 11th and Roebling streets. Sales had stopped for a few months during the bankruptcy proceedings - but the building’s broker believes that the remaining apartments will sell briskly now that it's clear who owns the building."

Warehouse 11 is built on a site that was formerly contaminated by oil.

An article by Elizabeth A. Harris in the January 29, 2010 edition of The New York Times said that the building had “a trouble history,” noting that “it first came to market in 2007, and then a year later, when about 30 percent of the 120 units had sold and the building was almost finished, the bank pulled the plug” and “the developer gave back all the deposits.”

The developer worked out a deal with Capital One, its bank, to keep ownership and put the apartments back on the market “at a steep discount,” the article continued, and “in its first two weeks back on the market this month, Warehouse 11 had 35 signed contracts.”

A March 5, 2008 article at ny.curbed.com noted that “paperwork was filed on Thursday to building  Roebling Oil Building II at 475 Driggs, next to the current warehouse 11” that was building on part of the decontaminated Roebling property on the block.  The article said that “plans have been filed by developer Isaac Schwartz for another building from Karl Fischer…and Roebling II will be five stories all…and have 54 apartments,” adding that “there is no word on where there will be a third Roebling Oil building on the N,. 10 Street side, which would create a full Williamsburg block of Hot Karl.”

Location

Located between McCarren Park and Bedford Avenue, Warehouse 11 is close to restaurants, art galleries, yoga studios, boutiques and music venues. It is also near the L Train’s Bedford Avenue subway station, which is only one stop from Manhattan.