Bed-Stuy eyed as next Williamsburg | Mt Kisco Realtor

A brokerage firm born 11 years ago in a once coming Brooklyn neighborhood called Williamsburg is opening an outpost in another area where it sees loads of potential, Bedford Stuyvesant.

Aptsandlofts.com recently inked a lease for 2,000 square feet on the ground and second floors at 308 Malcolm X Blvd. between MacDonough and Decatur streets. It will be the broker’s third office in the borough, the second having opened just last year in Cobble Hill.

“I’m seeing in Bed-Stuy what I saw happen in Williamsburg in 2002,” said David Maundrell, founder and president of the firm. “We’ve been working out there for a very long time.”

As low inventory and high costs push more prospective buyers and renters into Bed Stuy, sales transactions have been heating up, according to Mr. Maundrell. For example, he has seen families move into the neighborhood and plunk down $1 million to convert a three-family home into one just for themselves, something that would have been unheard of just a few years ago.

The neighborhood is home to a diverse housing stock, including blocks of brownstones that Mr. Maundrell said are more reminiscent of Cobble Hill, which has also been attracting a steady increase of buyers.

Aptsandlofts.com is far from the only brokerage doing business in Bed Stuy. The city’s biggest residential firms, among them Douglas Elliman, Corcoran, Halstead Property, and Brown Harris Stevens all have numerous Bed Stuy listings. What they don’t have, however, is an office there. Instead, Aptsandlofts will compete head to head in Bed Stuy with a number of smaller home-grown brokerages. Mr. Maundrell said he hopes to offer something in between.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20131112/REAL_ESTATE/131119972