As the local community board and far-left anti-gentrification group Movement to Protect the People (led by Airbnb host-turned-race-baiting-anti-development activist Alicia Boyd) grapple over the future of Empire Boulevard, Brooklyn’s gentrifying fringe has actually moved far to the south, deep in the heart of Flatbush.
Over just the past few hours, we’ve seen filings with the Department of Buildings for no fewer than three new residential projects well south of the tony Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Flatbush.
The largest of the planned projects is 323 East 19th Street, just south of increasingly trendy Cortelyou Road. Two freestanding homes that dodged the new law tenement builders of the ’20s and ’30s and the seven-story red brick developers of the ’50s and early ’60s would be razed, and replaced by an eight-story, 38-unit rental building. The structure would have 26,000 square feet of residential space, and be developed by Borough Park-based Barry Farkas (operating under Ditmas Park Lofts LLC) and designed by Charles Mallea’s M Architecture.
1127 Flatbush Avenue, image from Google Maps
Next up is 1127 Flatbush Avenue. A seven-story, 29-unit building (likely rentals, with an average unit size below 700 square feet) is planned near the northeastern corner of Flatbush and Clarendon, to be developed by Daniel Vislocky (affiliated with Atkins & Breskin Co.) and designed by Michael Muroff Architect. Its It’s nearly 20,000 square feet of apartments would be joined by a 2,300 square feet of retail.
2527 Church Avenue, image from Google Maps
Finally, a 21-unit building is planned for 2527 Church Avenue, between Rogers and Bedford avenues. Also developed and designed by Barry Farkas and M Architecture, it is planned to rise seven stories and would contain a bit over 14,000 square feet of residential space.
The rapid movement of development out of Prospect Lefferts Gardens and into Flatbush proper illustrates the folly of trying to stop gentrification through restricting housing development. Even if MTOPP is successful in having all new construction in PLG halted, builders are more than willing to venture south into the rest of Flatbush and even into East Flatbush, if given no other options. This would in fact mimic the dynamic in areas like Park Slope, where limited development opportunities have driven luxury development across the park, to the traditionally less desirable neighborhoods to the east and south.
Talk about this project on the YIMBY Forums
For any questions, comments or feedback, email [email protected]
Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail
Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews
