A rarity in Williamsburg — a modernistic attached townhouse for rent — has hit the market.
Instagram touts a “cutting-edge space-age Brooklyn townhouse” that “breaks the mold” with its curvaceous windows.
Currently, two of the three attached townhouses are for sale asking $5.5 million apiece (with taxes of around $18,000 a year) — and the third is for rent, for a cool $18,000 a month.
“We’ve had a lot of inquires about rentals,” said the listing agent, Deborah Rieders of Corcoran. With so few townhouses — or apartments with more than three bedrooms — for rent in the neighborhood, the developer decided to rent one of the three, she added.
The site, 74-76 South Second St., is just two blocks from the East River waterfront. The lot once held a decrepit three-story wood-frame hovel and a graffiti-covered one-car garage.
“The developers are trying to bring an elevated style of architecture to a neighborhood filled with eclectic architecture — everything from old loft buildings to brick townhouses to frame houses to towers along the waterfront,” Rieders said.
The style is “contemporary functional,” said the architect, Murat Mutlu, founder and principal of IN-OA Architecture. The neighborhood, which has developed rapidly within the past 20 years, includes so many architectural styles that “it has become a museum of architecture in a way,” he said.
In this case, “we created three identical townhouses, but each needed its own identity,” Mutlu said. The facade’s V-shaped grooves create separation between each townhouse. Rather than a stoop, there’s just one step up to the main living space.
The enormous windows, with their curved corners, make for a “cohesive exterior with a homogenous aesthetic,” Mutlu said. “The four edges are blended to each other, so you have only one circular object. You have fewer lines and elements to distract your eye.”
The top floor, with an outdoor kitchen, is set back due to zoning requirements.
Each “mini-mansion” has around 3,800 square feet over six levels of living, including a windowed basement leading to a garden. There’s a mezzanine floor above the main floor, creating soaring ceilings — 22 feet high.
“Unlike in an apartment building, you have the entire thing to yourself,” Mutlu said. “It is a different lifestyle. It is definitely attractive for a high-net-worth individual.”
COVID taught people that “living in a townhouse had tremendous benefits,” Rieders said, “because everyone can have their own place to work, to sleep and to get away from their family members.”
The three townhouses were developed by InvestMates, which focuses on Williamsburg and neighboring Greenpoint, and which bought the site five years ago for $3.9 million. “We saw there was a need for large apartments,” said InvestMates’ owner, Idan Shitrit. “We wanted to create something inviting for families.”
The rooftop kitchen allows for entertaining with a view, with no need to go up and down stairs. Nor is there much stair-climbing for a bathroom — there are bathrooms on every level except the roof and mezzanine.
Shitrit was inspired by the look of Soho’s classic cast-iron buildings, but wanted a contemporary iteration of those. Parts of the townhouses were fabricated in Europe and shipped from there, with panels made from a material called GFRC, which stands for “glass fiber reinforced concrete.”
Increasingly few developable sites remain in Williamsburg. “This site was particularly suitable to townhouses,” Rieders said. “It was not a behemoth site. It was an intimate site.”
