Two South Williamsburg-based investors hope to rezone three industrial properties in northern Bedford-Stuyvesant to make way for a large residential project with nearly 300 apartments spread across two buildings. Today we have the first look at the development, which will rise near the Brooklyn Navy Yard at 376-378 Flushing Avenue and 43 Franklin Avenue.
Diagram of the southern side of 376-378 Flushing Avenue. Image via DCP.
Riverside Developers USA, led by Zelig Weiss, recently filed zoning documents with the Department of City Planning. The plans include these diagrams and details for the partially-affordable, 296-unit project. An eight-story, 168-unit mixed-use building will rise at 376-378 Flushing Avenue, at the corner of Franklin Avenue. 50 apartments will rent for below-market rates. And a six-story, 128-unit development will sprout around the corner at 43 Franklin Avenue, between Flushing and Park avenues. That building will include 38 affordable apartments. The pair of projects will span 176,671 square feet and 126,839 square feet respectively.
Since these sites are being rezoned from heavy manufacturing to mixed-use residential, they will be subject to the city’s new Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy. Thirty percent of the units, or 88 apartments total, will rent to families making up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income, or $78,336 for a three-person household.
Diagram of the western side of 43 Franklin Avenue. Image via DCP.
The Flushing Avenue site is currently home to the four-story Rose Castle banquet hall, which is used by the growing Hasidic community in northern Bedford-Stuyvesant and South Williamsburg. The Franklin Avenue property is a parking lot.
Zelig Weiss teamed up with investor Fedor Itskovitch and Yoel Goldman’s All Year Management to purchase the property, under the guise of Lotus Residences LLC, for an undisclosed amount in 2014. However, Goldman alleged in a lawsuit filed earlier this year that his two partners in the LLC tried to cut him out of the deal, The Real Deal reported in April.
Isaac Rosenberg, a Satmar community leader and owner of Certified Lumber around the corner on Kent Avenue, had owned the properties for nearly 30 years before unloading them to Weiss and his crew of investors. He died in May, leaving behind a synagogue he helped construct on Hooper Street and several valuable real estate holdings in Williamsburg and Borough Park.
Diagram of the eastern side of 43 Franklin Avenue. Image via DCP.
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Look closely not all the same spot on two buildings, I can find something different at left.
Very tough, big and uninspired building. We should be able to do better.
Your comment reflects arrogance and ignorance. You naively assume that the writers and readers of TRD are attentive to the minute in-house quarrels of your oppressive shame culture. Your comment also illustrates the gravity of your self-absorbed protectionism and racism. Indeed, Rabbi or Mr. Rosenberg acted unethical, Illegal and immoral, but so do many of your so called Rabbis. Indeed, a Rabbi is supposed to be a well-respected man, but the title Rabbi within your shame culture has long been varnished with egoism and greediness. The Hassidic Rabbis are oppressors, tyrants, autocrats and megalomaniacs who conspire with people like Mr. or Rabbi Rosenberg to preserve their monarchies with taxpayer funds in order to dominate and entrap constituents by arranged marriages and by prohibiting birth control. Additionally, they deliberately withhold adequate education causing reliance on social services and enforce mandatory smartphone controls to block information and to shut down potential critics. Mr. or Rabbi Rosenberg was an accomplice to many atrocious wrongdoings that are inflicted by Rabbis towards their own constituents.
You seem to be an intelligent person but with a lot mental issues. I would suggest that you go for therapy, soon.