One of Brownstone Brooklyn’s most active townhouse developers is trying to make it in Manhattan.
Eckstrom, the eight-year-old development firm run by husband and wife duo Carlos Saavedra and Nicole Eckstrom, is expanding into the city with two West Village properties. The firm’s jump across the river is in partnership with celebrity agent Carl Gambino’s Gambino Group at Compass on a portfolio of five properties that will launch in the next two years.
For Eckstrom, the expansion comes after an ascendant two years developing homes in Brooklyn’s toniest neighborhoods. The company, which began by doing condo conversions in more affordable parts of Brooklyn, found a niche turning multifamily properties in Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill into high-end townhomes.
The developer has notched a spate of pricey sales, including a conversion at 170 Clinton Street that closed for $14 million this month, on the back of a hot luxury townhouse market.
A different ballgame
Eckstrom is betting it can ride the wave of wealthy buyers to pricier submarkets.
In the last three months, the firm has picked up properties at 59 Morton Street, a landmarked residence in Greenwich Village, and 248 West 12th Street, a two-family home in the West Village. In December, Eckstrom closed on the Morton Street property for roughly $12 million.
The closing price is around three times what Eckstrom has paid for most of its Brooklyn properties. But Saavedra says the higher price points in neighborhoods like the West Village will allow him to absorb rising building costs while maintaining the quality he says has defined the Eckstrom brand thus far.
Navigating the Manhattan market is also where Gambino comes in. The developer met the Compass agent, who’s known for brokering deals with celebrity and wealthy clientele in Los Angeles and New York, as neighbors in Brooklyn Heights. Through their skateboard-loving sons, they struck up a friendship that eventually turned to business.
“What I felt like our team could do specifically is expose Carlos to all the other markets we work in,” said Gambino. “Their company should be known as the go-to for people looking for townhomes in the West Village and prime areas of Brooklyn.”
Saavedra has at least three more developments planned in Brooklyn, including a home at 487 Henry Street slated to launch this spring. Eckstrom bought the property for $4.65 million in 2024, according to public records.
One of Eckstrom’s development quirks has been marketing its homes well before they’re done in the hopes of finding a buyer who will come in and collaborate on the finishes. So far, the strategy has appeared to work. In addition to its sale at 170 Clinton Street, Eckstrom has a signed contract for a home at 307 Hicks Street asking $15.5 million, and closed an $11.5 million sale at 51 Tompkins Place last year.
Saavedra said the marketing for the rest of the homes will vary depending on factors like timing and the project’s complexity. The Morton Street home is already structured as a single-family home, which Saavedra says makes it more palatable for early marketing. The other Manhattan project also requires less structural work compared to some of the multifamily conversions Eckstrom has done in the past.
“We’ve done so many things in Brooklyn that are so ambitious, and we’ve done well, that I feel like now we deserve a little respite in keeping things a little more simple,” said Saavedra.
Saavedra also has his eyes on other markets, like the Hamptons, although the plans are a little less fleshed out there. Saavedra closed on a property in Sag Harbor for $4.4 million for himself, with plans to renovate the home in a test of the market.
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