CORE’s Doug Bowen was a movie set builder — he even worked on the blockbuster hit “Titanic” — before he turned to real estate. He tells Voyeur about a part of Brooklyn you might not know about:
What’s the next hottest nabe in NYC? Bedford- Stuyvesant has incredible opportunity. The townhouse stock is of very high quality and the commercial strips are beginning to pick up traction. The investment numbers remind me of when I was buying buildings north of Myrtle Ave. in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill at the turn of the millennium.
Personal motto or favorite saying? Do not fear the reaper, just pay him!
What part of business do you love most? The deal-making part! It’s more art than science. I like to think of it as “sculpting” each deal.
Neighborhood you could live without? I know that it is a borough, but can we just jettison Staten Island altogether? Is that mean?
Neighborhood you could NOT live without? Wallabout. Heard of it? It is the latest landmarked district in Brooklyn near the Navy Yard, north of Myrtle Ave. I live there and helped to shape this historic district. I am officially a Walloon, which just sounds cool.
In which era in NYC history would you want to be selling or living? I would have loved living in the West Village during the turn of the 20th century when the row houses (today’s townhouses) were transitioning from single-family homes to multifamily residences. The original bohemians of this time required more affordable living circumstances, and these shared living quarters necessarily caused a very vibrant, visceral and artistic culture.