Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Barretts: Carroll Gardens' New Power Couple?

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240 Carroll Street



321 Union Street





185 Huntington Street



276 and 277 President Street
276 President
277 President



The Barretts are Carroll Gardens' new real estate power house. This husband and wife team has been quietly buying up a few choice properties in the neighborhood. Together, they make up an all-in-one corporation. Husband Alex serves as developer and architect, while his wife is a lawyer as well as real estate broker for Corcoran. She acts as the sales agent for the Barrett condo units.
Sweet deal, no?
It offers this L.L.C. the maximum bang for its investment.
In their own words:
"
Founded in 2005, Barrett Design & Development, LLC is a multi-disciplinary firm engaged in development of real estate in New York City. The founders, Alex and Lindsay Barrett, bring together the professions of real estate development, architecture, law and property sales and marketing under one roof to form a uniquely capable and versatile company...
Barrett Design & Development identifies deteriorated or underutilized properties and analyzes their potential for development... The firm adds value to these properties through condominium conversions, expansion and/or rehabilitation, and markets and resells them as individual condominium units."


Though the first brownstone condo conversion at 240 Carroll Street was in keeping with the spirit of the neighborhood, the 321 Union Street project seems to have

"gotten lost on its way to Miami."
At 185 Huntington Street, still another Barrett acquisition, a gut renovation is currently underway. Supposedly, this 2-story brick building will get a 3- story addition and a 30 foot rear extension. This change would certainly affect the character of this block.
The Barretts have also recently acquired the twin buildings at 276 and 277 President Street. What they have planned for this duo is yet to be determined. We can only hope that their design sensibility will assist them in preserving the original historical integrity of these two lovely buildings. In their literature, they state: "Their in-house design capability and training in historic preservation and adaptive re-use makes them uniquely suited to the neighborhood where typical new developments lack design quality." It remains to be seen if Barrett Design And Development will improve the "design quality" in our neighborhood with their own projects.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope to have time to say more about this later. But I have been watching those wood slats on the Union St building and thought those builders must not have too much experience with the neighborhood. They should be full of pigion nest any day now. It's definetly for the birds.

Anonymous said...

Seems like the Barretts are wearing too many hats, double dipping, and are in it for the money. Listen up Corcoran, I wouldn't go to her for any real estate needs anymore and neither should others in our neighborhood.