Another day, another new building permit filing in East Williamsburg.
Today’s permit application comes for 246 Johnson Avenue, at the corner of Bushwick Place, near the Montrose L stop. There, developer Moshe Silberstein (operating under the name John Sam LLC) is seeking to build a five-story, 32-unit apartment building.
The units would be divided over nearly 22,000 square feet of residential space, yielding an average apartment size of less than 700 square feet – rentals if we’ve ever seen them (six to eight units per floor, except the penthouse level, which will have just three).
The lot is the easternmost piece of land zoned for residential development before the vast industrially-zoned lands around Newtown Creek. But despite the non-residential zoning, the area around the Morgan L station, one stop past Montrose, has become a hot area for housing. Tenants flock to what few grandfathered-in apartment buildings are there, attracted by the industrial patina that’s become northern Brooklyn’s trademark.
The site is currently home to a one-story structure, with a sign reading “Capital One Construction Group” with Chinese lettering. While the intersection is entirely non-residential, the Montrose L stop is just around the corner. The land has a commercial overlay, allowing for ground-level retail, but the permit indicates none – not surprising given the paucity of housing in the immediate vicinity. No demolition permits have been filed yet.
BMG Design/Build, based in Riverdale and led by Boaz Golani, is listed as the architect on the permit. The project will include a 16-car garage, with every space required by zoning, despite the small unit sizes and location just a few blocks from the train.
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