Aiming for an edge, landlord Brodsky (with two Atlantic Yards towers) now touting "Neighborly Events" programming

I have to admit, when I saw this article yesterday in Curbed, The Brooklyn High-Rise Giving Tenants an Allowance, with an image (photo? rendering) of 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing), I wondered if there was a story I missed.

Well, only slightly. 

I somehow wasn't sent the press release from the Brodsky Organization touting its Neighborly Events programming, which, as it turns out, is not limited to that particular address.

As Curbed puts it:

Across a number of the developer’s roughly 50 rental properties, tenants can get Visa gift cards to partially reimburse a game night or costume party attended by their neighbors — as long as they’re willing to post about their event on the Building Link messaging system; take a minimum of “five quality photos” of, say, Lisa from the 16th floor munching on Doritos; and, of course, provide itemized receipts. So far, per a Brodsky spokesperson, the company’s priciest compensation has been somewhere around $500.

The point is that landlords can spend and share a few bucks to try to make the building more of a home.

Aiming for an edge

It's not a bad idea, especially since while Curbed suggests it might offer an edge of "any of the other nearly identically amenitized towers rising across Brooklyn," they're not all the same.

While they may share similar amenities, Brooklyn Crossing offers no outdoor open space and no real neighborhood setting compared with, say, the 595 Dean towers (B12/B13) one and a half blocks away. (It's a better looking design, though.)

FWIW, the Brodsky Neighbors calendar is relatively thin, promising, well, yoga, this month at the two Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park buildings it operates, Brooklyn Crossing and Plank Road. (The former was co-developed with Greenland USA.) 

For neighborhood info, it offers links to a few publications and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

Competition

By the way, among the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park towers near that intersection with rental units listed on StreetEasy, the rents are:

• 461 Dean St. (B2): studios, $3,495, $3,595; 1-BRs, $4,195, $4,495, $5,195
• 662 Pacific St. (B15, aka Plank Road): 1-BR, $3,795
• 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing): 1-BRs, $4,025, $4,300, $4,550, $5,050

So Brooklyn Crossing is a little more expensive, which means they might have to try harder.