This week Douglaston Development president Steven Charno showed us around 1 North 4th Place, Douglaston’s new luxury rental on the Williamsburg waterfront. It’s the developer's first high-rise rental in Williamsburg and the neighborhood's tallest residential tower (though that won’t be the case forever).

Douglaston bought the site for 1N4th, which sits on a little finger of land jutting into the East River, in 2011 when condo sales were bruised by the recession. “We identified a need in Williamsburg for luxury rentals with efficient layouts and full-service amenities,” Steven tells us. And that need remains; 1N4th opens as the only high-rise rental west of Kent Avenue in Williamsburg.

When Douglaston opened The Edge in 2008, just adjacent to 1N4th, new waterfront residential development in the area was an untested concept. Since then, a waterfront park—accessible through 1N4th’s public courtyard—has opened, along with a ferry terminal that’ll get you to Wall Street, Midtown or other spots in Brooklyn. Douglaston is going big on amenities, with an outdoor movie theater, 24-hour concierge service and an easy-to-access bike room for 258 bikes. The lobby is also bigger than your typical luxe rental lobby (4k SF), and we snapped its library.

In just a few weeks of leasing, more than half the units are spoken for, Steven said. By the end of the month, the lower 13 floors of the 40-story tower will see their first tenants. The units on the upper floors will be ready in a few months. Studios are renting for $2,200 to just under $3k, and two-bedrooms are going for $4,450 to $5,275. Touring the units (above) it’s clear that what Douglaston is selling folks are the views. As we spotted a ferry headed for the terminal just up the waterfront from 1N4th, Steven pointed out “you can actually see the ferry from your unit and make it down there in time to catch it.” (See, being late for the school bus all those years ago was actually good practice.)