Friday, June 13, 2008

Did Those Older Suburbanites Ever Settle On Smith Street?

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Dear readers, do you remember the brouhaha about that elderly couple that sold its Westchester mansion complete with swimming pool and acreage for $ 1.7 million in order to buy a building on Smith Street? That was in May, 2007. In an interview in the Brooklyn Paper, the Jeff and Mimi Miles talked about fleeing from the suburbs and selling their seven vintage cars in order to "simplify their lives."
Rather than choosing a lovely brownstone on one of the 'Place' blocks here in Carroll Gardens, the Miles chose 285 Smith Street, a building with a commercial space on the ground floor. The storefront had been the home of the No. 1 Dry Cleaner for many years. Shortly after the couple bought the place, the dry cleaner moved out. The store has been unoccupied since.
Well, so far the Suburbanites haven't yet settled in on Smith Street. A look through the top floor windows reveal that no one is living there. A NYC Buildings Department application for a permit to do some interior demolition was approved back in March 2008. No other applications have been filed. However, I did not notice any construction. The Miles aren't in a big of a hurry to move to "hip restaurant row."
Maybe they realized that Smith Street's night life is a bit too much?



Related Reading:
From This...To This! Older Suburbanites settling On Smith!


Related reading:

No. 1 Dry Cleaner In Pieces On Smith


Links To This Post:

New York Times: Old Media Organization Yells at Cloud




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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They never planned on living there. They rasied the dry cleaners rent twice. It reached over 4500 and they said no. Or was in 8500? I can't remember, But, it was high.

Anonymous said...

Katia:

Just for the record, we never raised the rent of the Dry Cleaner, as we inherited a lease that ran through January, '08. He was paying $2,000 a month, and had a "right of first refusal" in his lease, which he waived. We had an unsolicited offer of over $8,000 for the spaces (front and rear), and Jeon offered $3,000. Our decision to sell the building, which should be completed soon, is based solely on our ability to create the duplex we wanted, with handicap access. We are moving to President, between Smith and Hoyt, and want very much to be a part of the neighborhood.