DUMBO

From forks to fancy condos at 51 Jay St. in DUMBO

Eye On Real Estate

November 5, 2014 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
You're My Blue Sky (Thank you, Allman Brothers): There's a condo conversion going on at 51 Jay St. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
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Knives, forks, spoons, condos.

This word sequence makes sense if you’re talking about 51 Jay St.

The DUMBO warehouse, which is undergoing a residential conversion, belonged for almost a half-century to Ben Forman & Sons or its executives. The company manufactured the aforementioned silverware, plus butter spreaders, chopsticks and other utensils.

The building, which is located on a landmarked block, is a beehive of construction activity. The interior has been hollowed out, with nothing left standing but steel girders. Rubble is piled on the ground floor.

The roof has been removed as a preliminary to constructing a vertical addition, which makes 51 Jay an arresting visual on sunny days, with vibrant blue sky showing through empty window frames.

The building’s second address is 201 Water St. It has frontage on Plymouth Street as well.

Its ownership team plans to create 74 high-end condos. Six of the units will be penthouses. One will be a townhouse.

The team members are Adam America — a busy builder in Brooklyn headed by former principals of a development firm that was big in Romania  — and Slate Property Group.

Amenities will include 24-hour concierge service, a kids’ playroom, a fireplace on the rooftop, a sundeck and more, according to an announcement they made last spring.

Halstead Property Development Marketing is handling the condo sales.

ODA Architecture is the architect of record. In earlier plans for the building, Karl Fischer was the architect of record, city Buildings Department filings indicate.

An LLC connected to the Forman family sold 51 Jay for $25 million in 2012. Simon Dushinsky of the Rabsky Group was a managing member of the purchasing LLC, city Finance Department records show.

That buyer re-sold the warehouse for $45.5 million in 2013 to the current owner-developer team, with Slate Property Group principal Martin Nussbaum signing various mortgages, property records indicate.

Those records also reveal an interesting detail: The current owners of 51 Jay bought 28 parking spaces from neighboring 205 Water St. for a combined $1,339,325 in 2013.

 

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