Sunday, April 25, 2010
The artful rental: Brooklyn's Castle Braid opens the door to creativity
It’s rare when a developer has the guts to have an office in one of his apartment complexes as he finishes a building. So many things can go wrong. So many tenants can complain.
But Brooklyn’s Mayer Schwartz is as rare a developer as you’ll find in the five boroughs. He bucks convention, barters free rent for artistic services and cares about enriching the lives of his tenants.
He also hires them. And yes, you read right, Schwartz trades free rent to tenants who do artistic work that betters the building.
In Castle Braid, his latest and most innovative project, at 114 Troutman St., Schwartz created a living, breathing community of artists on a nondescript block in the middle of a changing neighborhood. Even on a cool, half-cloudy day, his multicolored building with an open lobby and a courtyard bustles with young people of various ethnic groups going from the gym to the boccie court to the lending library to the wood shop to the recording studio.
Yes, you read right again. Not only does Castle Braid have all those amenities, it boasts a computer lab, tuned piano, game room, yoga room, two Apple computers, a screening room and free video and camera equipment available to tenants.
Flyers for guitar lessons and in-house yoga classes are pinned to the walls.
The complex also has a social-networking Web site where tenants give away microwaves, cast films, plan Sunday breakfasts and seek set designers for a musical rendition of the movie “Jaws.”
If that’s not insane creativity, then we don’t know what is. And it all happens in Bushwick, near a school, several bodegas, ironwork shops, cabinetmakers and a few empty lots. Halfway between the Morgan Ave. stop on the L and the Jefferson Ave. stop on the J, Castle Braid is a rental success story. Almost all 144 units rented in six months. There are seven left.
“This” may not even have a name. You could call it an artists’ residence, but not everyone is in the arts. In some ways, it resembles an upscale dormitory where everyone seems to like each other. In other ways, it’s a well-designed commune or informal summer camp for young adults.
http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2010/04/23/2010-04-23_the_artful_rental_brooklyns_castle_braid_opens_the_door_to_creativity.html
But Brooklyn’s Mayer Schwartz is as rare a developer as you’ll find in the five boroughs. He bucks convention, barters free rent for artistic services and cares about enriching the lives of his tenants.
He also hires them. And yes, you read right, Schwartz trades free rent to tenants who do artistic work that betters the building.
In Castle Braid, his latest and most innovative project, at 114 Troutman St., Schwartz created a living, breathing community of artists on a nondescript block in the middle of a changing neighborhood. Even on a cool, half-cloudy day, his multicolored building with an open lobby and a courtyard bustles with young people of various ethnic groups going from the gym to the boccie court to the lending library to the wood shop to the recording studio.
Yes, you read right again. Not only does Castle Braid have all those amenities, it boasts a computer lab, tuned piano, game room, yoga room, two Apple computers, a screening room and free video and camera equipment available to tenants.
Flyers for guitar lessons and in-house yoga classes are pinned to the walls.
The complex also has a social-networking Web site where tenants give away microwaves, cast films, plan Sunday breakfasts and seek set designers for a musical rendition of the movie “Jaws.”
If that’s not insane creativity, then we don’t know what is. And it all happens in Bushwick, near a school, several bodegas, ironwork shops, cabinetmakers and a few empty lots. Halfway between the Morgan Ave. stop on the L and the Jefferson Ave. stop on the J, Castle Braid is a rental success story. Almost all 144 units rented in six months. There are seven left.
“This” may not even have a name. You could call it an artists’ residence, but not everyone is in the arts. In some ways, it resembles an upscale dormitory where everyone seems to like each other. In other ways, it’s a well-designed commune or informal summer camp for young adults.
http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2010/04/23/2010-04-23_the_artful_rental_brooklyns_castle_braid_opens_the_door_to_creativity.html
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