Two State Street Townhouses Under 1M

HOW LONG has it been since houses in brownstone Brooklyn went for under a million?

There are two on the market now on State Street in Boerum Hill. Granted they are in miserable shape. (Here I go again, excited by the words “handyman’s special,” “needs TLC.”) But the possibilities are definitely there.

422 State Street, above, first went on the market last fall with an asking price of $1.2million. That was clearly over-reaching. Then the price dropped to 999K; now they’re asking 850K. See more pics below.

It’s on State between Bond and Nevins, a convenient and reasonably attractive block.

I happen to think that’s a deal with great potential. It’s a one family, so no rental income, but could be very charming. And small (17×35), but the smaller the house, the cheaper the fix-up!

A block east, on State between Nevins and Third (a good family block; my son has friends from grade school and Brooklyn Tech H.S. whose families live there) is another fixer-upper. 466 State, right, is a legal two-family and larger (19×45).

Go here for more details. They’re asking 999K, and it needs total everything. The price probably has a long way to fall. Someone could drive a hard bargain.

That end of the block (closer to Nevins) used to be very run down; this house was hard by a pentecostal storefront church, which is now gone, and the block has improved.

Yes, they’d each require a large cash infusion, but that’s variable, depending on so many factors, and could be done in stages.

If I were in the market right now for a Brooklyn project, I would consider these. Way better, IMO, than a condo or co-op at half the price, with monthly maintenance fees and less soul.

Name That Look

Somebody come up with a name, please.  There’s an aesthetic out there that’s reached critical proportions on Atlantic Avenue between Hoyt and Bond, but nobody knows what to call it.

City Foundry is a mad, fascinating jumble of early industrial-era relics and mid-20th century lamps and furnishings

The sign outside City Foundry‘s annex  reads “vintage industrial.”

Brian Cousins of Darr says, “We’re a prop shop.”

The owner of the new cafe/ restaurant, Building on Bond (large photo, bottom), around the corner at Pacific and Bond, whose interior is an ingenuious re-purposing of found wood and industrial parts, calls it “3-D collage,” with a nod to the Arts and Crafts movement.

City Foundry

90-year-old wood molds from an upstate factory at Rico's annex store

The look involves machine cogs from the early industrial era, antique medical supplies, Edison light bulbs in metal cages, drafting stools from bygone architectural offices, bones and antlers, bronze busts and worn wood library shelves — even (at Darr, top photo) taxidermied bison heads and a ten-foot-tall stuffed grizzly.

Cabinet of curiosities?  Mad scientist?  Industrial chic?

Any other suggestions?  Or thoughts on when it’s gonna stop?!

Busted at Darr