We got an email from Kim Maier, who runs the Old Stone House in JJ Byrne Park and has turned it into an active community facility for the arts and other programming about an upcoming Friday Night Jazz event on March 7 at 8PM. Here’s more:

The Old Stone House of Brooklyn is the perfect intimate setting for a new jazz series curated by Charles Sibirsky, pianist and founder of Slope Music. Friday, March 7 will feature two sets – Alexa Fila, vocals, at 8 pm, and Kurt Stockdale, tenor sax and Joe Solomon, bass, at 9:15 pm. Tickets are $12 and include both sets. Drinks and snacks will be available. Jazz at OSH will continue on April 4, May 2 and June 6. Come early – more than 30 people came out for our first great set on February 8 because they didn’t want to miss jazz that’s “the real deal”.

The Old Stone House is in JJ Byrne Park between Third and Fourth Streets, just off Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. More info is always available by clicking here.

Well, this parking sign is still there and still readable if one tilts one’s head. It is a victim of the building going up at 111 Kent Avenue, at the corner of N. 7 Street.

It’s going to be quite sunny, but breezy and colder today. The Brooklyn high will be 30, but it will feel like 17. Look for clear skies tonight with a low of 21 that will feel like an invigorating 12 degrees.–Accuweather

Yesterday, we noted that one of the more interesting things that was said at the community meeting on Monday night about the big Public Place development along the Gowanus Canal was the fact that the owner of a neighboring property was said to be interested in joining with the winning development team. The privately-owned parcel has always been left out of the plans, but including it would greatly increase the size of the development. The land in question sits under a huge warehouse that will have to be demolished as part of the cleanup of the highly toxic substances sitting beneath the Public Place site. National Grid, which is a successor to KeySpan, which in turn inherited the horrid pollution problem from a variety of predecessors, will be responsible for cleaning the site. The extent of the cleanup to ostensibly make the site fit for human habitation has yet to be determined.

In any case, Sarah Ryley provides a lot more detail about the property and its owner in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Clothing magnate Henry Abadi owns the four-acre property adjacent to Public Place, where he warehouses the uniforms and sportswear he sells across the city. Together, the two properties span from Fourth Street to Huntington Street, and from Smith Street to the Gowanus Canal…Abadi said city officials encouraged him to team up with the winner, though the requirements for his privately owned land would likely be less stringent on affordability and open space than the city-owned Public Place. He pointed out that he is demolishing his warehouse, worth “between $13 and $15 million  just for the sake of cleaning up the area.” KeySpan Energy, now national Grid, is required to cleanup heavy contamination on Abadi’s property and Public Place, both the site of a former manufactured gas plant.

Including the property in the bigger development plan could push the total units of housing far above 1,000 units, increasing the size of the development site from 6 acres up to 10 acres.

Someone was kind enough late yesterday to send us high quality renderings of the Related Companies/Monadnock proposal for the Public Place parcel. Related is one of the two finalists along with the Hudson Companies to develop the long-vacant property which was once home to a manufactured gas plant. The city will likely choose a developer next month and hopes to wrap up the land use review process in 2009. Details of the two proposals were in our post yesterday. The renderings are of such high resolution that we were able to pull out individual parts as they’re definitely of interest to anyone curious about the future of this parcel. Related would build 725 units of housing, 22,000 square feet of retail, 9,013 square feet of community space, 86,529 square feet of public open space. It would include 375 underground parking spaces. Of the housing in the Related proposal, 245 would be rental units, 480 would be condos and 100 would be senior citizen apartments. There would be some four-story town houses on Fifth Street and some on Luquer Street as well. The project was designed by Handel Architects. Partners include Monadnock Construction Inc., Catholic Charities and Donna Walcavage Landscape Architect.

The big $16 million renovation of the Park Slope Armory had a ceremonial ribbon cutting yesterday. City Council Member Bill de Blasio, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Department of Homeless Services (DHS) Commissioner Robert V. Hess, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda Gibbs and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert C. Lieber took part. The massive project faced some delays and there were difficulties in finding an organization to manage the facility. On Monday, the YMCA was chosen as a finalist, pending approval, to operate the facility. After attending the opening, OTBKB concluded that it’s been “a long time coming” and described a beautiful facility. Over the last two years, it has been transformed into a sports and education facility that includes a track and field center, gymnastics, boxing, fencing, weightlifting and martial arts. The Armory will be available for use by a variety of groups including local public schools, youth groups, sports leagues and senior citizens. Individuals can also use the facilities on nights and weekends with a membership through the YMCA. The facility will be open from 7AM-11PM. The 110,000 square foot building also includes a 70-bed homeless women’s shelter, which occupies only a portion of the approximately 110,000 square foot building. Mr. de Blasio called the renovated facility “a stunning neighborhood recreational facility.” Students from PS 10 attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.

There is no definitive word on the fate of Park Slope’s Red Hot Szechuan, whose possible closure we first reported yesterday, but the signs are not good at all. No one in answering the phone and the steel grate is down. Our investigation took us to the Dept. of Health inspection database, but there’s no sign they’ve been shut down for health code violations. Last night, one could almost hear the frantic dialing for delivery and the phone just ringing and ringing and ringing. The Death Watch continues.

This is the rendering of the Hudson Companies proposal for Public Place between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal. The team led by Hudson is proposing 774 units of housing, 38,800 square feet of retail, 26,400 square feet of community space and 98,300 square feet of public open space. The development would include 365 underground parking spaces as well as on-street parking. Of the housing, 380 units would be rental, 394 would be condos and 120 would be for seniors. The design was originally reported to come from Dattner Architects, but yesterday someone noted on Curbed, where we posted a photo gallery of the renderings and the Public Place site that the design team actually included Rogers Marvel Architects, Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and West 8 Landscape Architects. Partners in the Hudson venture include the Fifth Avenue Committee, Jonathan Rose Companies, The Bluestone Organization and the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation. The group has also included space for a significant number of local retailers and businesses as part of its pitch.

The last time we look, the (somewhat cursed) space that housed Tempo Presto in Park Slope was still on the market. Now, there are reports that work is being done inside involving the floor and fixtures, possibly indicating signs of new life. There are no permits filed with the Department of Buildings, so no major work underway yet.–GL Inbox

Looks like Smith’s Street Pita Grill, a recent arrival, is going to the big falafel factory in the sky. It’s on the market for $250K. We found the listing while looking for the one about Monteleone’s on Court Street being on sale. Here’s the sales pitch:

Established Turn Key Pita/grill restaurant.Approximately 2000SF, with possible outdoor seating. Fantastic Low-Rent Renewable Lease with 8 Years Left. Fully equipped with walk-in refrigerators, upstairs refrigerators, Grills, Broilers, Fryers, Computers, etc. included in sale. Open 7 days per week with a daily gross of $1,200. Fabulous restaurant row location, train station on corner, across from Carroll Park,plenty of foot traffic, fabulous investment!

Was it the slow service and chain-like feel that killed it?

The Coney Island boardwalk may be going synthetic. Today’s Post reports that the city is going to test out replacing the wood in the most dangerous section of the badly deteriorated boardwalk with synthetic planks that look like wood. The Parks Department is going to solicit bids starting Friday for boardwalk replacement from West 12th to West 15th streets. The foundation will be replaced with concrete. No word on whether the planks will be made of recycled material as they are in some places or on the timetable.

“A new poll on the 2009 mayoral race produced a startling result yesterday: Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s enormous popularity in his home borough has propelled him to the top of the seasoned Democratic field. “It goes against conventional wisdom,” said Marist College pollster Lee Miringoff. The Beep grabbed 18 percent, ahead of Rep. Anthony Weiner, with 13 percent; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; at 11; city Comptroller Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, both at 9; and long-shot Queens City Councilman Tony Avella, at 4 percent.” Miringoff concludes the race is “as wide open as you can get.”–NYP

Purple53, the purple truck occupied by artist Angel Hess that had been in Williamsburg since October 2006, is now on a farm in North Carolina. We got an email and photos from Mr. Hess yesterday and he’s also posting about the road trip on his blog. We have to say that after seeing the truck parked in a lot at N. 11 Street and Bedford Avenue for a year, it made us smile to see it parked on farm with a llama cutout in the frame. Purple53 left New York on Friday. Mr. Hess writes:

Purple53 is in NC on a farm. They’ve got emu, goats, chickens, lama, and all sorts of animals; its a nice place. I found the owner on craigslist and asked if I could stay for a week; I’m traveling south.

Godspeed Purple53. We’ll be waiting on updates.

We have to say that Brooklyn 11211 did superb work pouring through very interesting data about how the Department of Buildings does, or doesn’t, do its job in Williamsburg (and citywide). 11211 concludes that the odds of a construction project being caught in the act of doing things like pounding steel beams at 8:30AM on a Sunday morning in Williamsburg and Greenpoint are not terribly high. It found that of 436 complaints (of all types) called into 311 in 2007, only 53 percent were inspected during the month in which the complaint was made “which means they might as well stay uninspected.” Nearly 40 percent of the complaint resulted in no action being taken, generally because the inspector found no illegal work in progress: “The vast majority of these complaints were not inspected for days. Which means, once again, they might as well have not been inspected at all.” It continues:

When you combine these uninspections with the noninspections, fully 77% of the complaints for after-hours work turn out not to have been inspected in a timely manner. Is it any wonder that only 6% of complaints citywide result in violations? At a maximum, 25% of all complaints are inspected in a timely manner (i.e., in a time frame in which its reasonable to expect that the violation might still be occurring). On that basis, DOB has a slightly more impressive rate of violations of 30% (sure, its 30% of 25%, but still, it looks better). Although at least in CB1, the majority of the violations issued actually have nothing to do with after hours work. Instead, inspectors wind up issuing violations for other infractions. All told, only 11 stop work orders were issued in all of 2007 for after-hours work. In CB1, chances are there are at least 11 sites operating illegally on any Sunday.

In some parts of Williamsburg, in fact, there are more sites that are working on Sunday than are silent. There’s a great deal more to the detailed analysis of the complaints and responses.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

• Bushwick Teen Tracks Down Cell Phone Thief [NYP]
• Miss Brooklyn Scaleback? [AYR]
• Oasis Below the J Train [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Reflections on Community Development from Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Council Member de Blasio Ticked Off About Park Slope Parking Meters [OTBKB]
• Slope Sex Toy Availability to Increase with Toys in Babeland [Brownstoner]
• 48 Box Street Rises [New York Shitty]
• Can’t Afford One Hanson? How About a Piggy Bank? [PMFA]
• Nothing New About Coney Photography [Kinetic Carnival]
• Over at the Wollman Rink… [A Year in the Park]
• Choreographer Talks About Bushwick [Brooklyn Based]
• Fort Greene’s My Little India Closing [General Greene]
• Liveblogging the Brooklyn Heights Assoc. Meeting [BHB]
• Molded Ornaments on Prospect Avenue [Brooklynometry]
• Bay Ridge Hotel Death Was Suicide [amNY]

Park Slope’s Brooklyn Family Theater is closing after seven years. We got an email last night passing along the news. Here’s what it said in part:

With a great sense of accomplishment and heavy hearts, Brooklyn Family Theatre’s Board of Directors is announcing that after producing over twenty plays and musicals in Park Slope, the theatre will be closing up shop for good after seven wonderful years, on Saturday, March 15, 2008.

As the group and its members have grown a few years older, some pretty wonderful things have happened, including marriages, moves to new homes outside the area, and further career successes. With these new developments, the group’s Board and pool of Staff Members have found that keeping the musicals and plays coming has proven too much to keep up with…

On Saturday, March 15, the BFT family will be together one last time, to celebrate the past seven seasons. The staff has planned a “BFT Farewell Event” (hosted by comic and Board Member Jenn Palumbo) that will include performances from alumni, personal remembrances, a great deal of fun, and even a fifteen-minute “clips” film celebrating the past seven years (with images and music from all the BFT shows).

The “Farewell Event” is on March 15 at 7PM. General admission is $10 and reservations are “strongly recommended.” Brooklyn Family Theatre is located at The Church of Gethsemane, 1012 8th Avenue in Park Slope. For more information click here.

Despite claims that the only options at the Brooklyn Navy Yard are preservation of Admiral’s Row without a supermarket or demolition of the historic buildings for the store and parking, the Fort Greene Association is trying to show that the community can have its veggies and eat them too, so to speak. It would be possible to build a smaller grocery with less parking and preserve and restore the landmark buildings.–Brownstoner

The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp. is sponsoring a home buyer’s expo tonight at PS 58 from 6:30PM-8:30PM. The location is at 330 Smith Street, with the entrance on Carroll Street. Topics include types of mortgages, legal issues, saving for a downpayment and finding a home within one’s budget. All are welcome.

Here’s a black leather sofa from Malcolm X Boulevard in Bed-Stuy. It comes from none other than Miss Heather, who knows her street couches.

“Booklyn is an artist-run non-profit organization. Established in 1999, it facilities are open to the public Tuesday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. The first Tuesday of each month is dedicated to ‘Open Salon Night’…Following Tuesdays are dedicated to workshops where you can get hands on experience with the various aspects of bookmaking…”–New York Shitty

[Photo courtesy of Eric Provost]

Among the many great photos we got from Eric Provost this week (you can see yesterday’s post here) is this wonderful sunset shot from Coney Island.

It’s going to be partly sunny today, but it will be windy at times and colder with some flurries here and there. Winds will be around 20 MPW with gusts up to 40. The high will be 42 but it will feel like 36. Tonight it will be breezy and cloudy with a low of 21 and a wind chill down to 11.–Accuweather

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development presented details last night about two proposals that are finalists for developing the Public Place site in Carroll Gardens/Gowanus. The proposals come from development groups led by The Related Companies (left) and by The Hudson Companies (right). (A number of proposals have been eliminated.) Both would have more than 700 units of housing, although the Hudson proposal would offer three times as much retail and community space. The size of the development could grow significantly as it does not currently include a privately-owned warehouse to the south of the site. Gabriella Amabile of the HPD, who made the presenation, said that the property owner “has expressed interest in joining one of the development teams.“

HPD officials would only identify the proposals as Plan A and Plan B without even naming the competing developers, even though the finalists have been previously identified publicly. GL learned that “Plan A” has been submitted by the Related Companies and “Plan B” is from the Hudson Companies. Buildings in both plans range from 6-12 stories in height. While both plans are similar in some respects, they also differ in some significant ways, particularly regarding density and size of the buildings. The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation is a partner with both teams. A significant portion of the housing in each proposal would be designated as affordable, with different levels of affordability outlined during the proposal.

The Related Companies. Related would build 725 units of housing, 18,050 square feet of retail, 9,013 square feet of community space, 86,529 square feet of public open space. It would include 375 underground parking spaces. Of the housing in the Related proposal, 245 would be rental units, 480 would be condos and 100 would be senior citizen apartments. The project was designed by Handel Architects. Partners include Monadnock Construction Inc., Catholic Charities and Donna Walcavage Landscape Architect.

The Hudson Companies. Hudson would build 774 units of housing, 38,800 square feet of retail, 26,400 square feet of community space and 98,300 square feet of public open space. It would include 365 underground parking spaces. Of the housing, 380 units would be rental, 394 would be condos and 120 would be for seniors. The design comes from Dattner Architects. Partners in the ventur include the Fifth Avenue Committee, Jonathan Rose Companies and The Bluestone Organization.

The city hopes to select one of the proposals next month and to begin the land use review process next spring, with cleanup efforts slated to start in the summer of 2009. The site, which is bounded by Smith Street, Fifth Street and the Gowanus Canal, is deeply polluted due to earlier use as a manufactured gas plant. It would be cleaned by KeySpan. The pollution is so severe that a complete cleanup will not be done. Instead the site will be partly remediated and remaining contaminants will be capped in place. Both proposals have extensive sustainability features including green roofs. Officials expressed the hope of having people living on the site by late 2011 or 2012.

We will have individual renderings and additional details coming up.

The Gowanus Village, which is across the Gowanus Canal from the Toll Brothers development site, is on the market. The property is being marketed by Massey Knakal. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported the asking price is $27 million. Developer Shaya Boymelgreen has apparently been out of the picture for some time. Here’s some detail:

Boymelgreen, however, has not been a player for some time, according to Paula Ingram of Ingram & Hebron Realty (I&H), having split with partners Africa Israel Investments and Isaac Katan of The Katan Group some months ago. I&H had handled the original sale of the properties to Boymelgreen in 2004 and remains a factor in the current marketing effort, which is being handled by Ken Freeman of Massey Knakal Realty Services Brooklyn in an exclusive arrangement but “in co-agreement with Ingram & Hebron.”

There is a photo gallery of the site over at Curbed.

We’re putting this in the rumor category because we haven’t personally passed by, but only seen an email: Park Slope’s Red Hot Szechuan, at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Tenth Street may be finsihed. An email says that it’s closed with no explanation. We add a grain of salt because the last time such a rumor floated around it turned out the restaurant was being redone a little and was only closed for a few days.–GL Inbox