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With its stately townhouses and beautiful bakery, Brooklyn Heights is about to become the next West Village.
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By Steven Kuruz
On a recent afternoon, the line stretched to the block of L’Appartement 4F, a French bakery that started as an Instagram account during the pandemic and opened in a store in Brooklyn Heights in June. He has since been assaulted.
On Montague Street, a trendy crowd had lunch at Felice, a new Italian restaurant run by the Sant Ambroeus organization, the hangout of the fashion world. Felice recently created the celebrity-obsessed Deux Moi site when they spotted actress Tommy Dorfman there.
And a few blocks away, actor Paul Rudd hanging out on his porch with his family, having recently bought and renovated a brownstone house in the neighborhood.
In the past year or so, the heavy, wealthy enclave of Brooklyn Heights, the former Volvo of New York City neighborhoods, has undergone a sophisticated but significant change.
The update is still in its infancy: Tuesday’s offer for seniors in Gristedes is still ongoing, and the closest thing to a furniture store is Mattress Firm. and department stores for the first time in a long time. Its grand historic townhouses have appreciated the new super-rich driving out the well-to-do lawyers and bankers who have long constituted the local nobility.
And celebrities are now everywhere. Amy Schumer made headlines in July when she paid more than $12 million for the “Moonstruck” house, the 5,600-square-foot, five-bedroom townhouse built in 1829 where the 1987 Oscar-winning movie was filmed.
Matt Damon paid $16. 7 million in 2018 for a 6,000-square-foot penthouse in Standish Brooklyn, the Beaux-Arts-style hotel turned celebrity-filled condo in Columbia Heights. Her neighbors come with John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. Three blocks away, Michelle Williams paid $10. 8 million in 2020 for a 3,000-square-foot townhouse.
Celebrity sightings are not unusual: Jennifer Connelly accompanies her children to school; Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys on a weekend outing; Adam Driver searches for bets at the dog park: no wonder the paparazzi didn’t line up on the ride.
In another sign of the neighborhood’s developing cultural prestige, Jenny Jackson, vice president and editor of Knopf, has written a manners novel set in Brooklyn Heights that follows a wealthy family. It has been selected for progression as a television series.
“It’s about the extraordinary, low-key wealth you can put in this neighborhood’s wallet,” said Jackson, who moved to Brooklyn Heights from the West Village 11 years ago. “It’s a fun neighborhood. It’s eye-catching. However, there is a wallet of deep wealth that you see.
She has also had her percentage of clashes with celebrities. “The West Village is the place to go if you’re looking to see celebrities in their natural habitat,” Jackson said. He now meets Keri Russell in SoulCycle and Adam Driver on the ice. cream cart. ” I saw Matt Damon in front of the pharmacy. It is so visual because you lower your hat to check that it is not noticeable.
The West Village analogy is not far off. Ever since Carrie Bradshaw saw it emerge from a brownstone house on Perry Street, the community has been regarded as one of New York’s most sought-after by a certain breed of downtown celebrities who coveted a West Village townhouse as the best real estate price. Architectural Digest once asked if West 11th Street houses the maximum “starry” block of the city.
But maybe West Village has something too clever. Every of the most productive townhomes has been gobbled up by billionaires like Steve Cohen, the hedge fund manager and owner of the Mets. Tourists flocked to the bakery on Magnolia Street and the department store on Bleecker Street. .
In a city where the ultra-wealthy need not one, but two home offices and plenty of outdoor space, necessities that have multiplied during the pandemic, Brooklyn Heights has become an old-fashioned option for those who can live anywhere.
“There are countless shoppers buying groceries in the Village and Brooklyn Heights,” said Ravi Kantha, spouse of Leslie Garfield, a genuine real estate firm that specializes in townhomes. “I tell people, ‘It’s like the West Village, non-stop,’ he added, referring to the well-preserved terraced house blocks on the tree-lined streets.
In some ways, it’s even nicer. Homes in Brooklyn Heights used to be larger than in the West Village, most built in the nineteenth century by wealthy merchants in what would become Manhattan’s first suburb.
The captivating cityscapes are also more homogeneous, providing a cloistered tranquility that brownstone neighborhoods lack.
“In the West Village, you’re stuck between avenues and all those other people coming from out of town to comedy clubs or jazz clubs,” said Elizabeth Roberts, the architect known for blowing her back. the installation of a glass wall. ” Brooklyn Heights is block after block quiet. Why are celebrities and others heading there? This is the most beautiful brownstone house in the urban housing community in Brooklyn.
And it has stunning perspectives of the Manhattan skyline, giving it a visual connection to downtown, which is reassuring for anyone venturing on the river for the first time. This may be why the private rooftop terrace has become the Brooklyn Heights trophy.
Just ask Robert Taffera and his brother, Eric, of Taffera Inc. , the Brooklyn Heights “It” marketers: yes, there is such a thing. New brownstone home owners have unlimited technique for intestinal renovations, with budgets exceeding $4 million, based on $1,000 consistent with square footage quotes for renovations.
“In some projects, we dug almost under the entire ground and put the grass back on top,” to make offices, gyms and warehouses, Taffera said.
Housing costs have also peaked. In 2020, a penthouse in Quay Tower, an oceanfront condo, sold for $20 million, breaking the district sales record held by M. Damon. That record was short-lived: In 2021, a sprawling Montague Terrace home owned by Vincent Viola sold for $25. 5 million to an undisclosed buyer.
Many of the newcomers have made their fortunes in the new economy and are drawn to the architecture, proximity to Manhattan, and elite personal schools like Packer Collegiate Institute and St. Petersburg. Ann’s School.
Among them is Joseph Lallouz, a cryptocurrency official who paid $18. 3 million last month ($3 million more than the previous list price) for a five-story brownstone house with shed, personal garden and oceanfront rooftop. Other notable citizens come with Dan Houser, founder of Rockstar Games; Michael Lynton, president of Snap Inc; and Julie Greenwald, COO of Atlantic Records.
“People walking around the neighborhood, the first comment is, ‘Wow, this is so beautiful. It’s so quiet, so peaceful,” said M. Kantha, the genuine real estate agent. Escaping the pressure, the noise, everything that can be overwhelming in the city, this is a pretty amazing thing to discover. “
But Brooklyn Heights still lacks many amenities. Until recently, there were no bars or restaurants worth posting on Instagram. There is no gourmet who buys grass-fed beef or cheese from Hudson Valley vendors. meetings
The closest thing to a social club is the Heights Casino, a time-worn tennis and squash club imported from the 1950s in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Montague Street, the neighborhood’s main grocery shopping thoroughfare, is famous, boring, a side street of chain retailers like Starbucks and Key Food interspersed with family-owned hardware stores, wineries, and restaurants, as well as many empty stores. (Luxury shopping can be found groceries and restaurants on Atlantic Avenue to the south and Dumbo to the north, either within walking distance. )
Ashley Coiffard, who opened L’Appartement 4F with her husband, Gautier Coiffard, first visited Montague Street 3 years ago and recalled thinking there was nowhere to eat on the subway.
“After we signed our lease, a lot of other people said, ‘Brooklyn Heights, not much is happening. Are you sure it was a smart decision?”She said.
But it turns out the bakery has spurred a retail renaissance. Across the street at 122 Montague, novelist Emma Straub is opening a new branch of her bookstore, Books Are Magic, a boutique so cute it has more than 200,000 fans on Instagram. the library’s original location is in Cobble Hill. )
Both businesses were brought to the community through the Brooklyn Heights Association, a century-old civic organization that works with homeowners, citizens and business owners to encourage local commerce. The street is the next thing we want to look for,” said Erika Belsey Worth, the organization’s president until recently.
She would possibly have made his wish come true. In June, Sean Rembold, former leader of Williamsburg Marlow Pillars
Ingas is filled with crowds that seem to have come from Brooklyn’s coolest neighborhoods. Recently, Amy Schumer was hanging out at the bar.
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