Novo, 343 Fourth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 343 Fourth Avenue by Carter Horsley

This massive, 12-story residential condominium building at 343 Fourth Avenue in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn is known as Novo and was developed by Boymelgreen Developers, and the Katan Group. It has 113 apartments and was erected in 2007.

The building has a concierge, a fitness center, a children's playroom, on-site parking, a garden, a residents' lounge and catering kitchen.

It was designed by Bricolage Designs and Andres Escobar & Associates did the interior design.

The building has many balconies and there are corner windows in the setback tower of the building, which is also known as 234-240 4th Street and 273 5th Street. The center of the building's frontage of Fourth Avenue is also setback considerably above the fourth floor to visually divide the building into two wings and somewhat reduce its sense of bulkiness.

A February 6, 2008 article by Ben Fried at streetsblog.com noted that "when the City Planning Commission upzoned Brooklyn's Fourth Avenue in 2003, it was hailed by some as a breakthrough" and "Borough President Marty Markowitz trumpeted Fourth Avenue as 'a grand boulevard of the 21st Century.'"

"Residential development would reshape this urban speedway, the thinking went, from a pit stop for cabs to a stately corridor of mid-rise residences - Brooklyn's answer to Park Avenue," the article continued.

The early returns, it noted, however, are "discouraging for anyone who hoped to see a walkable, mixed-use district take shape here."

"One new apartment building, the Novo, looms fortress-like over the playground next door," the article continued, "while another, the Crest, greets passersby with man-sized industrial vents. A new hotel, Le Bleu ('a haven of style, elegance and fine living'), meets the sidewalk with a parking lot fit for a suburban dentist's office. Welcome to the new Fourth Avenue - the future of Brooklyn. While all of the new developments boast of their proximity to 'neighborhood gathering places,' and the 'cozy' restaurants, shops, parks and public amenities of 'vibrant Park Slope,' developers have made no apparent effort to create a cozy, vibrant street life around their own projects. Instead of transforming Fourth Avenue into Brooklyn's next great neighborhood, these developments turn their back on the public realm, burdening the street wall with industrial vents, garage doors and curb cuts."

"The easy way out is to say Fourth Avenue was already a lost cause. Look at the six lanes of traffic rushing to and from Flatbush Avenue (plus two parking lanes and left turn bays). What sort of ped-friendly boulevard could flourish here without taming traffic first?...'At the time, they were making rational decisions,' says Ken Freeman, a broker at Massey Knakal who has sold several properties along the corridor. 'Whether residential was going to work was still a question mark, so why take the risk on retail?...'With the amount of new residents coming the Fourth Avenue corridor, it is only natural that commercial would follow,' says Joyce Kafati-Batarse, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman who specializes in new building development....As a result, bigger players are now committing to mixed-use projects. Developer Isaac Katan will put a commercial tenants on the first floor of 500 Fourth Avenue, a 12-story building between 12th and 13th street designed by the ubiquitous Robert Scarano."

Ms. Kafati-Batarse said that the 156-unit 500 Fourth Avenue is "white-glove services with high-end finishes at incredibly attainable prices" and said that its average price per square foot was adjusted by $100 to $150 and the developer also offered a 10 percent discount for buyers at one point if they bought within a month.

The building has a state-of-the-art fitness area, a solarium for yoga, dance, meditation and stretching, and a children s playroom.

It has a double-height lobby with "an inlaid trail of river rocks, limestone flooring, backlit white onyx and suede-wrapped wall panels" around a fireplace.

The 24/7 attended lobby with concierge service and cold and dry storage space for deliveries and access to the building's garage.

The building also has a 3,000-square-foot duplex townhouse and many balconies.

Kitchens have Viking appliances and Manhattan Calacatta marble countertops and snow and ice honey onyx and frosted glass backsplashes.

Master baths have Gaudi marble floors and walls of Lagos gold-honed limestone with accents of mosaic toffee and shimmering millennium glass. Larger units offer double sink vanities with separate Zuma soaking tubs and frameless glass shower stalls.

A Club 500 lounge allows residents to have the ideal space to host a social event, business meeting or private screening and has a large LCD television, kitchenette, plush seating and a gaming area with a pool table, all of which can be sectioned off to suit all of residents' entertaining needs.

Adjacent to Club 500 is a 2,500-square-foot landscaped terrace with seating.

The building is convenient to the F, M and R subway lines and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Nearby Atlantic Terminal also provides connections to the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N and Q trains, as well as to the Long Island Railroad.

In a November 3, 2008 article at the realdeal.com, Gabby Warshawer observed that "one of the avenue's most prolific developers, Dominic Tonacchio said that the economic downtown would slow the transformation of Fourth Avenue but maintained he still thought "it's going to be the next Park Avenue."

"However," the article continued, "even he is changing his strategy to cope with the new financial situation. While Tonacchio was originally intending a 49-unit condo development at Warren Street and Fourth Avenue, he's decided to go rental with the project, which is nearing completion. He said the units, which will start renting at around $1,800 for a one-bedroom, would 'just take too long to sell.' Tonacchio - a partner in the 113-unit Novo on 4th Street and Fourth Avenue and in the boutique Le Bleu hotel across the street - is also partnering with another prolific Fourth Avenue builder, Isaac Katan, on a 108-unit rental that is in the early stages of development on 6th Street....Prices at the Novo, which is the largest condo to hit the market on Fourth Avenue since the 2003 rezoning, have hovered in the $650- to $700-square-foot range. Whether it will be possible to maintain those rates seems doubtful, observers say. The building, which some residents moved into a few months ago, has been on the market since March 2007, and there were about 20 units still available as of last month. Meanwhile, a building under construction at 500 Fourth Avenue on 12th Street will soon steal the Novo's thunder as the biggest condo on the strip. Isaac Katan, who partnered with Tonacchio on the Novo, developed 500 Fourth Avenue and said...he and his partners will consider taking the building rental as a fallback. Nevertheless, he's sanguine about its prospects as a condo. 'We'll have Manhattan-style service because it's a large-scale development,' he said, noting that the building will have ...ground-floor retail....Katan said Fourth Avenue is alluring to developers and buyers alike because of the dearth of new construction in the rest of Park Slope. 'Fourth Avenue is the only section of Park Slope where you can build on a large scale, and there is a shortage of housing in Park Slope,' he said. 'You can give more amenities at a cheaper cost.'"