On the House | And now, it's time to play 'Name That Area'
By Al Heavens
Inquirer Columnist
I've found the perfect job for someone who can turn geography into catchy acronyms: Naming up-and-coming neighborhoods. The best place to do this these days is New York City, which seems to be overflowing with acronym neighborhoods. There are the familiar ones, like SoHo, which stands for South of Houston Street, with Houston pronounced Howston rather than Uston, as in Texas. And the less-familiar ones, such as Dumbo. No, not Disney's flying elephant, but Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It's an acronym that, according to developer David C. Walentas, was invented by artists who were moving from high-priced lofts in Manhattan to large spaces along the Brooklyn waterfront between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. The time was the late 1970s. Walentas, a Rochester, N.Y., native, was looking for development opportunities. He knew that artists usually lead the way in neighborhood revitalization, so he decided to follow them to what they were calling Dumbo. If you are thinking about becoming a developer, here is what I've picked up about timing over the last 15 years. To be successful, you need to start buying property right after the artists arrive and make sure you have everything you need just before the first Starbucks opens. The neighborhood had always been known as Fulton's Landing, because it was the place where Robert Fulton's steamships dropped off passengers from Manhattan. Fulton's Landing was a warren of 19th- and early-20th-century factories and warehouses that, until the late 1970s, everyone had pretty much forgotten about, even though you can see it from both bridges. Walentas, who had been doing condo conversions in Manhattan, was betting that the artists were going to be right about Fulton's Landing. So he started buying buildings from the redevelopment authority, beginning with the Clock Tower Building in 1981 and eventually accumulating 2.5 million square feet, all for about $6 a square foot, in 11 buildings of various sizes. "It was a risk," he said in an interview at the Sweeney Building during the Urban Land Institute's fall meeting last month. "There were times in the first few years when things looked like they were falling apart. But I stuck to it." If you are looking for a Philadelphia parallel, consider Bart Blatstein's efforts in Northern Liberties. The difference is that, unlike Northern Liberties, Dumbo had never been a residential neighborhood, and few people ventured into it unless they had to. It took more than 15 years for Dumbo to get into full swing. Rather than wait for things to happen, Walentas gave artists' groups thousands of square feet of free space and let artists already living there stay. "We even let them paint on the sides of some of the buildings," he said. To make Dumbo more accessible, Walentas paid to re-route a bus through the neighborhood. The state Labor Department leased the 16-story Clock Tower and moved 1,000 workers there. When the lease expired, Walentas began converting the building into 122 luxury condo apartments, ranging in price from $160,000 to $2 million. It sold out in 1998. The 12-story Sweeney Building has 87 units ranging in price from $535,000 to $2.29 million; it sold out in 2003. Construction could begin in 2006 on St. Ann's Warehouse, a 16-story apartment building. Sales will start in the spring for a 12-story building converted into 259 condos. ************************************************************************************************** Walentas is no longer the only developer in the neighborhood. Others include Corcoran Brooklyn, the Developers Group, and the Jehovah's Witnesses. In Dumbo, the average price per square foot now ranges from $600 to $900; that's a far cry from $6 a square foot. But it means that, despite Dumbo's reputation as an arts center, all but the most prosperous of the 200 artists who lived there are being priced out. ************************************************************************************************ Early on, Walentas realized that no one would even consider living in Dumbo if there were no amenities, so he encouraged restaurants and shops to locate there by offering two years' free rent. One of the most recent additions is an upscale bakery and pastry shop, which, unfortunately, had a inoperative espresso machine the morning I was in the neighborhood, forcing me to head to another newcomer for coffee. Yes, Starbucks. | 
