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Breaking Walls To Start UpRenovation in Oid FactoryBY IRENE VAN SLYKEMore than 50 civic leaders and elected officials crowded into one of the finished apartments of the converted Ex-Lax factory building in Boerum Hill on Tuesday, Dec. 18 for a champagne breakfast. They hailed Austin Laber and Jerome Kretchmer%u2019s %u2018%u2018Recycling for Housing Partnership%u201d company for their accomplishment in recycling empty factory space and converting it into co-operative housing units.The event also maked the imminent closing of the purchase by the new tenants of the Ex-Lax factory at 423 Atlantic Ave. and ended with a %u2018%u2018wall breaking%u201d at the former Doehler Die factory at 505 Court Street in Carroll Gardens to signal the start-up of renovation there.Borough President Howard Golden praised Laber and Kretchmer for their efforts in helping %u2018%u2018to revitalize%u201d the Borough and for providing %u2018%u2018sound housing%u201d for its residents. Kretchmer in turncredited Salvatore %u2018Buddy%u2019 Scotto and Father Voiland of St. Mary Star of the Sea Church next door to Doehler Die for getting him interested in renovations in downtown Brooklyn.The Ex-Lax factory was acquired in 1978 by Laber and Kretchmer%u2019s %u2018%u2018Recycling for Housing Partnership%u201d (RHP) for $450,000. The conversion of the building into 57 lofts was financed with a construction loan by Citibank Community Development Corp. and permanent financing by the Independence and Williamsburg Savings Banks. Kretchmer reports that 42 units have been sold with prices ranging from a low of $32,000 to a high of $80,000, varying with the amount of space in each apartment. The prospectus listed the total purchase price of the property to the tenants as $4,326,000; tenants will take possession of the structure after the closing next week. The City has approved a 20 year J-51 tax exemption/tax abatement for thecooperative, Kretchmer says and adds that %u2018%u2018the benefit will go to the; co-operators.%u201dKretchmer is actively negotiating with several people to lease ground floor space for retail stores and he says that his company will renovate the space %u2018%u2018to ensure that the look we want will actually materialize.%u201dThe vacant eight story Doehler Die building was acquired last November after a lengthy effort to secure a low interest loan from the City. Father Voiland explained that the $1.6 million Participation Loan will enable people %u2018%u2018from Carroll Gardens to remain in the area.%u201d The factory will be converted into 124 one, two and three bedroom units with an average price of $40,000. Permanent financing is being provided by the Independence, Williamsburg and Brooklyn Savings Banks and Kretchmer said that the expected that the conversion would be finished %u2018%u2018in about 18 months.%u201dFruits Of The Bridge Sold To House Fruits Of The VineBY LINUS GELBERDeputy Commissioner William J. Hirschman from the city%u2019s Division of Real Property added a feather to his cap on Dec. 18 that is usually reserved solely for tough, streetwise hacks and shady entrepreneurs. Inside a packed room of bidders, spectators, press and the miscellaneously curious on the 20th floor of 2 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, Hirschman calmly raised his auctioneer%u2019s gavel over his head for a third and final call, cracked it sharply against his podium, and sold the Brooklyn Bridge.%u201cThis is an illustrious moment, ladies and gentlemen,%u201d he told the audience. %u2018%u2018We%u2019re actually offering an interest in the Brooklyn Bridge. This is the most unique piece of real estate in new York%u2014this is the fabled Brooklyn Bridge.%u201dThe approaches to the Bridge, both on the Manhattan and Brooklyn sides of the East River, are built on top of a series of arch-like vaults which, although they are structurally sturdy, have stayed in the past empty or only partially utilized. This auction rented the first three in a total series of eighteen vaultsBY CONNIE PASSALACQUAAND LINUS GELBERFinancially struggling of dollartight cultural institutions like museums, zoos and botanic gardens should perhaps be able to fare easier than they do now, suggests a report released by Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin. The report notes that, out of 22 city wide organizations polled%u2014including the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Children%u2019s Museum%u2014 there seems to be an overall paucity of staff involved directly in 'netting federal monies to flesh out a budget, which adversely affectstheir size and success.%u2018%u2018Federal funding levels could be increased beyond present levels for manv orpanizations in this study through improved grant seeking techniques and expanded effort,%u201d the report concludes, going on to urge some sorts of program to help out groups that can%u2019t afford the manpower involved in landing grants._______________________at $2600 a month for some 20,000 square feet, to Bridge Sellers, Inc. %u2018%u2018We want to open the finest wine shop in lower Manhattan,%u201d exulted Peter Tsaris, one of the organizers of the company, to a smattering of applause. Later, down in the chambers himself, he explained that he hoped to open within a year with a wine cellar, a restaurant serving wine, rooms to teach and sample wine tasting techniques and a wine museum. %u201c It should be a real wine center,%u201d he beamed. WINE SELLERS%u2019 CELLARSTsaris, a neurologist, and his partners, Michael Parlamis ar.d Howard Zipser, chose the bridge vaults as ideal places for wine storage and merchandising, noting that their only competitor in bidding for the lots who drove the rent up from its starting price of $1500, is also in the wine business. Because there is so much masonry and structure surrounding the closed, brick rooms, they said, the temperature inside stays at a mean of 55 degrees all year round, a range at which wine keeps well.%u2018%u20181 never believed this would really happen!%u201d Tsaris said after the auction, with an excitedtremble in his voice. %u201c All my friends alwaysthought I was acrazy neurologist%u2014but after all these years, I think this is going to pay off. Compared with what real estate is going for in this city, this is a very good investment.%u201dThe current tenant, a hide tanner, will vacate the spaces shortly after the New Year, and Parlamis estimates that the wine operations should be able to start off after about six months and $125,000 worth of cleaning and repairs, including a major hunk of resealing and tightening to halt the water flow which he says inundates the top floors of the arches from the Bridge roadbed. Even so, %u201c we won't be using the upper level,%u201d he asserted. %u201c If wine labels get wet and peel off, you can%u2019t use Crazy Glue to stick them back on%u2014that%u2019s a no-no.%u201d VAULTY REASONING Of course, an establishment alone never built a garden from rocks, and so the city will lend a monetary hand to dragging the undersides of the bridge up to classy-spot standards. The parking lot surrounding the vaults, now a mash of dirt, rubble and garbage, will be landscaped as a capital budget project, and Tsaris says that he is negotiating with the Department of Transportation for repaving the lot.The Division of Real Property, a subdivision of the Department of General Services, also plans to make the area attractive by auctioning off the remaining Manhattan and Brooklyn catacombs for other interested establishments, with the first auctions taking shape sometime next spring. %u201c Can%u2019t you see it? A whole mini-mall under the Bridge!%u201d visualized James Capalino, General Services Commissioner, standing with the new tenants in the raggedy, cobwebbed chambers, drinking the first toast to the new christening, a bottle of Saran Nature Californian Blanc de Blanc sparkling white wine (supplied, of course, by Tsaris). %u201c We could have an entire commercial center right here%u20141 think we can build this into one of the more%u201c I hope we have a lot of fun with this,%u201d grinned Tsaris, triumphantly, raising his glass in mock salute to the rusty steel rafters above. %u201c Here's hoping that our assets will be very liquid!%u201dGoldin Report SuggestsHow To Clinch Federal $The common man%u2019s perception of grant forms usually sets them with reams of sheets and batteries of esoterica, but the study does not attribute groups%u2019 running small numbers of applications necessary to this complexity. Admitting that much of the information requested is %u201c relatively complex, requiring mathematical calculations or detailed written descriptions,%u201d the text nonetheless goes on to point out that such facts are %u201c usually considered necessary for sound management of organizations and projects. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that much of the information requested should be readily available to museums, zoos, or gardens applying for grants and would not be an impediment to inf Arpcf inn OfAOc nT ''g i a n t a p p l i c a t i o n s .The problem remains, however, in getting the applications out: and, while there is an increasing awareness of the importance of getting %u2018free money%u2019 in a dwindling Continued on page 9At a %u201c wallbreaking cerem ony%u201d in the Doehler Diebuilding Father Voiland (above) uses his sledgehammer w ithskill. The factory will soon provide Carroll Gardens with 124new apartments. Below, are Austin Laber and JeromeKretchmer, owners and developers of the vacant form erfactory. (Feldman Photo).Heights Sets Up GroupTo Study Hotel SiteBY IRENE VAN SLYKEThe Brooklyn Heights Community is so pleased with the results of an Ad-Hoc Committee on Block 208 that they are repeating the process by putting together a committee to study the future of the city owned parking lot site at Pierrepont and Court Streets. A city authorized study has recommended the Pierrepont site as %u201c most suitable%u201d for hotel development.The Ad-Hoc Committee on Block 208, a group of Heights residents, recommended standards and criteria, later adopted by the City, for developing a partially vacant site in the North Heights. The new committee, dubbed the Ad-Hoc Committee on Block 239, has hadW c f J r c t o n / 4tives from seven organizations attended: the YMCA, St. Ann%u2019s School, the Brooklyn Heights Association, the Brooklyn Heights Board of Trade, the Long Island Historical Society, the Cadman Towers Association, and the LandUse Committee of Community Board Two.Jim Masters, Co-chairman of the Ad-Hoc Committee, says that the group will %u201cpropose standards and criteria to develop the block,%u201d and added that members of the group do not feel tied to seeing a hotel built there. %u201cOther possible uses, as far as the site is concerned, are also being looked at,%u201d Masters said, pointing out that the group might favor \private kind,%u201d which would not need subsidies or tax abatements as the building of a hotel would.Masters and Co-chair Jane McConnell are contacting other organizations to join the group, and have started to meet with electeda ----------------^V /4 I1 V IU 1 0 U I1 U v u j u g v u v i t o . 1people who have already been contacted for discussion and assistance are Harvey Schultz, executive assistant to Borough President Howard Golden, and Richard Rosan of the city%u2019s Office of Development.December 27.1979, The PHOENIX, Page 5