Content area
Full Text
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN is awash in fast-food shops, shoe stores, subway stops and cutting-edge culture. Now it's about to find itself inundated with something unimaginable just a few years ago: luxury rental apartments.
Next month, The Clarett Group will open the leasing office for the tallest building ever built in Brooklyn, the 54-story, 490-unit apartment tower dubbed The Brooklyner. At the same time, Forest City Ratner Cos. will begin marketing its 365-unit rental at 80 DeKalb Ave. Both are following the lead of nearby Avalon Fort Greene, which began aggressively pushing its own 650-unit entry at 343 Gold St. in September.
"This is the most rental units I have ever seen in the neighborhood," says Joy Cox, who grew up in the area and is now a broker at Urban Sanctuary. "There are too many, too close together, and I think a lot of units will sit there for a while."
Collision course
THE THREE NEW luxury towers - the first high-rise rentals ever to hit the local market - are debuting at a bad time. Landlords at several nearby stalled condominium projects are busy converting their unsold units to rentals, and several failed projects that have been turned over to their banks...