It’s no secret that we love Manhattan—it’s in our name. But as you may have guessed, we really like Brooklyn too! While neighborhoods like Dumbo, Williamsburg and Greenpoint have gained a lot of popularity over the past years as hip hotspots, the criminally underrated Downtown Brooklyn has a lot of offer.

As we’ve written many times before, Brooklyn is more than exciting enough to rival Manhattan’s popularity; but whereas Manhattan is increasingly defined by its skyscrapers, Brooklyn’s new construction rentals take on contextually aware low-rises.  Here are three of our favorite new rental projects in Brooklyn in the works right now.

Hampton Court's Garden Check out this rental in the Hamptons: called the Pearlroth House, and sometimes the Double Diamond House for obvious reasons, this landmark was designed by Andrew Geller back in 1958.  Mr. Geller’s innovative designs were known for incorporating non-traditional elements with context awareness, the latter of which is doubly important for the beach houses for which he’s most known.

Last year, Luxury Rentals Manhattan shared some of our favorite building amenities — and it took a while to put together, since there are so many great spaces out there — and that may be for a good reason.  “Amenity creep” is what the New York Times used to describe the trend (especially as it applies to Brooklyn and Queens as new construction rentals pop up on the waterfront) of developers using better amenities and services to attract renters.  To be sure, attracting tenants in such a demanding market segment has become progressively more difficult, and the developers’ collective response was to compete with the best fixtures in-unit, and best amenities in-building.

Image via ODA Architecture

Image courtesy of Glenwood Management

 

As we expected to happen sooner rather than later, Manhattan rents have stabilized, bringing an end to the sixth month slide that began in August of 2013, according to a report by Jonathan Miller. Instead of the median rental price for the borough continuing to decline, March saw the median price rise by 0.2 percent from the same time last year, now sitting at $3,200 per month, nearly the same as last year’s median of $3,195. The median rental price for Manhattan last Februrary was $3,100.

Big news in Brooklyn: Two Trees Management Company began building on the Dock Street site in DUMBO. This building had received plentiful opposition because it will be blocking views of the Brooklyn Bridge. Celebrities even chimed into the decided opposition with protesters including, Helen Hunt, Gabriel Byrne, Gary Sinise, Ana Gasteyer, and more. Surviving this opposition, the Dock Street mixed-use building is currently ascending into the rendering that was released late last year.