Over the 24 years in their courting, Joseph Vitale and Robert Talmas have let their jobs dictate their actual property selections. Paintings moved them from New Jersey to New York to Boston and again to New York. Mr. Talmas, now the pinnacle of repayment and advantages for WW (previously Weight Watchers), spent a short lived stint in Singapore. However as their relatives grew, the ones priorities modified.
“We’ve at all times purchased or rented for paintings,” stated Mr. Vitale, a reinsurance dealer. “Once I labored on the International Business Middle, we lived in Bowery Park Town. Once I labored at Madison and twenty third, we moved to Gramercy. However this time, we rented for relatives.”
In December 2021, Mr. Vitale, 53, and Mr. Talmas, 51, moved from a rented two-bedroom in Gramercy Park to a three-bedroom in a new-construction high-rise in Downtown Brooklyn. Their 8-year-old son, Cooper Talmas-Vitale, had begun attending Mary McDowell Pals Faculty in Cobble Hill; Mr. Talmas’ 93-year-old father, David, had additionally moved in with them all the way through the pandemic.
With each fathers operating from house, their once-comfortable condominium had turn into overcrowded: Jokes abounded after they needed to take convention calls in a closet. Cooper’s day by day travel to university — with one among his fathers or his nanny — ate away at possible relatives time. They wanted extra space, and for the primary time in 24 years thought to be a transfer to every other borough.
Mr. Vitale and Mr. Talmas had lengthy been staunch Manhattanites. “We idea we have been too excellent for Brooklyn,” Mr. Vitale stated with fun. “When our buddies moved to Brooklyn, we made a laugh of them.” Years in the past they’d in brief sublet the Park Slope brownstone condominium of a lately divorced good friend, however neglected the ease of a doorman and the benefit in their Long island commutes all the way through the six-month stretch.
For Cooper, on the other hand, commuting to university in Brooklyn intended he frequently couldn’t see his buddies at the weekends, or settle for off-the-cuff invitations to play dates at after-school pickup. “Cooper selected his college right here in Brooklyn, and he labored laborious to get in,” Mr. Talmas stated of his son’s efforts to get excellent grades and whole an software interview. “So we needed to be appreciative of that.”
Early ultimate fall, the relatives’s landlord in Gramercy informed them she sought after to promote. That they had proper of first refusal, and would have thought to be purchasing it in the event that they hadn’t wanted a 3rd bed room to house Mr. Talmas’ father. Quickly they started their condominium seek, which they centered in Brooklyn. Mr. Talmas sought after to believe some brownstone residences, however walk-ups have been difficult for his dad, and Mr. Vitale used to be insistent on a full-service construction, which might additionally imply elevator get entry to for his sweetheart’s father.
The condominium they in the end selected, at One Boerum Position, used to be the primary they discovered, and the primary they checked out. “I walked in and stated, let’s take it,” Mr. Vitale stated. Alternatively, Mr. Talmas reminded him that they’d six different constructions to look that day. They in the end conferred with Cooper, who most well-liked a trendier high-rise whose duplexes boasted spiral staircases — now not in particular kid-friendly. Mr. Talmas had his eye on a prewar, renovated construction in the community. However the emphasis on family-friendliness at One Boerum Position swayed their choice.
The construction used to be at the start built as condos, however control made up our minds to hire out the gadgets as a substitute as a result of the pandemic-damaged actual property marketplace. The residences due to this fact have condo-caliber fixtures: Mr. Vitale, an avid prepare dinner, loves his complete fuel vary. “Everyone who sees the picket paneling says, ‘Oh, did you customise your kitchen?’ And I’m like, possibly!” Mr. Talmas stated jokingly.
Different facilities abound: Cooper loves the pool. This summer time, there can be two other inexperienced areas at the roof; an automatic storage, nonetheless below structure, will permit them to make use of an app on their telephones to summon their automotive.
$9,300 | Downtown Brooklyn
Robert Talmas, 51; Joseph Vitale, 53; Cooper Talmas-Vitale, 8
Occupations: Mr. Talmas is the pinnacle of repayment and advantages for WW (previously Weight Watchers); Mr. Vitale is a reinsurance dealer for Aon
D.I.Y. Decor: Mr. Vitale remodeled an outdated tv set right into a bar: “That’s my child. I went to an vintage store and I informed the fellow what I used to be doing with it, and he used to be devastated. When he dropped it off at my sister’s on Lengthy Island, he stated, ‘Please inform him to not trade it to a bar.’ As a result of he’s a real antiques man.”
The community’s most well liked shuttle display: “I like Stanley Tucci’s ‘Looking for Italy,’ and he simply made guanciale, which is beef jowl. Once I walked into the native meat retailer, Dellapietras, I stated, ‘Can I’ve two kilos of guanciale?’ And he stated, ‘What are the probabilities you simply watched Stanley Tucci? I’ve by no means had such a lot of other folks question me for guanciale!’”
Mr. Talmas’ father gave up the ghost a couple of weeks after the transfer, however whilst he used to be there with them, discovering caregivers used to be made even more straightforward because of the construction’s central location. Mr. Talmas and Mr. Vitale have been thankful for the time he spent with them, and with their son: “Cooper were given to develop up along with his grandfather,” Mr. Talmas stated, “and it used to be nice.”
Now, Cooper’s stroll to university is a breezy seven mins. Mr. Vitale guesses that 80 p.c of his classmates are living inside of a 10-minute stroll in their condominium. He has joined a football league in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the place the relatives spends numerous time. When requested what he idea concerning the condominium, Cooper presented an instantaneous two thumbs up and a large grin.
Even his dads have a very simple travel from the brand new condominium: Mr. Talmas is going into his administrative center in Chelsea in the future per week, which takes him about 20 mins; Mr. Vitale visits his administrative center two times per week, which is simply 10 mins away. He’s even thought to be strolling house from the Monetary District over the Brooklyn Bridge in the summertime. Each nonetheless do business from home as a rule, so they’ve transformed the 3rd bed room right into a shared administrative center. When one among them takes a choice, the opposite strikes to the kitchen island or Cooper’s bed room reasonably than the closet.
Whilst the couple has owned in New York sooner than, they’re taking part in the versatility that renting lets in. “Joe has at all times been a renter,” Mr. Talmas stated of his husband. “I’d reasonably plant roots, however in this day and age, particularly within the town, renting’s simply a part of lifestyles. And in a construction like this, renters don’t deal with it like they’re transients — everyone in this flooring is a relatives. They’re now not shifting out subsequent 12 months.”
Renting now additionally lets them plan for his or her subsequent giant transfer: Mr. Vitale, whose grandparents emigrated to New York from Sicily, is making use of for his Italian citizenship. After they retire and Cooper is going away to university, they hope to shop for, construct, or renovate in Sicily.
Till then, their relatives is a trio of Brooklynites. Mr. Vitale has already fallen in love with a couple of native butcher retail outlets; he’s even discovered the most efficient occasions to visit the within sight Dealer Joe’s, whose Long island places have been in most cases so busy that he in most cases stayed away. After such a lot of years of rejecting the borough, he stated, “the largest slap within the face is, we adore Brooklyn now.”
