Schaefer Landing North, 440 Kent Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 440 Kent Avenue by Carter Horsley

Schaefer Landing is an attractive, three-building residential complex on the former waterfront site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, of the F & M. Schaefer Brewery.

It consists of the 25-story, Schaefer Landing North, at 440 Kent Avenue between South 8^th Street and South 11^th Street, and Schaefer Landing South, a 15-story building at 446 Kent Avenue, which contain a total of 210 residential condominium apartments, and a second 15-story building with 140 “affordable” rental apartments. 

The project was a residential development of Kent Waterfront Associates, a joint venture of BFC Partners, L&M Equity Participants and Allstate Realty Associates.

Gene Kaufman was the architect.

The development was completed in July 2006.

Bottom Line

This tower in this handsome, riverfront, mixed-use development has 135 condominium apartments, most with great views of the Manhattan skyline and the East River.

Description

The buildings in the complex are distinguished by their pale-blue glass façades that surround center sections of beige mullions and spandrels.

Amenities

Resident amenities at Schaefer Landing include lounges, a library, a fitness center, a business center, a children's playroom, a common roof deck, a private landscaped courtyard, and on-site underground parking.

Residents enjoy a public riverfront esplanade landscaped to complement the project’s private courtyard, which overlooks the esplanade and offers unparalleled views of Manhattan.

Apartments

Apartment 14A is a three-bedroom unit with a 23-foot-long living/dining room with an open, 10-foot-long kitchen with an island, and an 87-square-foot terrace.

Apartment 8A is a three-bedroom unit with a 23-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island.

Apartment 7F is a two-bedroom unit with a 21-foot-long living/dining room with an open, 10-foot-long kitchen with an island.

History

All the rental units were leased within three months of offering and 90 percent of the condominiums were sold within two years.

"Thought to be the largest project in the country that combines low-income rentals with high-end condos, Schaefer Landing offers 140 ’affordable’ rental units in one building and 210 luxury units for sale in two adjacent towers, one 15 stories, the other 25 stories," Julia Vitullo-Martin wrote in a December 15, 2005 article in The New York Sun shortly before the project was scheduled to open.

"Outside praise for the project is almost unanimous. In October Mayor Bloomberg called it ’the key to a greater New York,’" she wrote, adding that Amanda Burden, the chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, described the project as "thrilling" and Assemblyman Vito Lopez said it was an "outstanding example" of private-public collaboration.

"Indeed, the public contribution to the private-public collaboration has been significant," she continued.

"The site landed in city government hands after being abandoned in 1976. Years of failed proposals followed, including an attempt by Mayor Koch’s administration to build an enormous incinerator to burn garbage, which was opposed by both residents and environmentalists. A development lawyer, Ken Fisher, who represented several Brooklyn neighborhoods in the City Council during the 1990s, said once the idea of the incinerator was eliminated, neighborhood leaders started looking at the site for housing. ’The Giuliani administration was receptive and committed upwards of $8 million to environmental remediation,’ he recalls. ’The site had been a brownfield, a derelict industrial area that had to be cleaned up. In effect, the city agreed to front the money to make the site buildable.’"

She noted that Shaun Donovan, then the city’s commissioner of housing, preservation and development, had observed that "We had every kind of subsidy helping that property. Without the government clean-up, Schaefer Landing couldn’t have gone forward. And without the deep subsidies, we couldn’t have provided 40% affordable housing."

"The Giuliani administration," she continued, "signed the papers with developer Kent Waterfront Associates on its last day in office, December 31, 2001. Kent paid $9 million, or about 60% of the site’s market value, in exchange for the promise to reserve a large number of apartments for low-income rentals - long one of the most contentious subjects in Brooklyn."

Don Capoccia was the managing principal for the project and he bought the front penthouse in the larger, north building and he told Ms. Vitullo-Martin, "gesturing toward the recently rezoned area that starts at the northern border of the site," that "You’re going to see residential and some good retail all up the waterfront," adding that "In 10 years, it won’t look anything like what it looks like now."

Indeed, the rezoning spurred significant new development and neighbors for Schaefer Landing such as such large projects like the Edge and Northside Piers.

A significant challenge in developing the site was the lack of convenient access to public transit. The closest subway station is a 15-minute walk away and bus service is infrequent.

Kent Waterfront Associates negotiated an agreement with New York Water Taxi that called for the developer to subsidize the first year of the taxi’s operations from Schaefer Landing, making Schaefer Landing the first primarily residential building in New York to offer water taxi service. Using this mode, residents can reach the foot of Wall Street in seven minutes.

Schaefer Landing, which is just to the north of the site of another major planned project, Rose Plaza, which is planned to have 754 apartments in three towers of 18, 24 and 28 stories.