One of the last few handsome, early 20th century factories on Williamsburg’s Northside will become luxury rentals. Greenpoint-based developer Eser Realty plans to convert the four-story brick building at 28-46 Roebling Street to 58 apartments, adding a fifth floor in the process. Now YIMBY has a rendering for the project, which is about to begin construction.
The graffiti-covered building stretches across a full block of Roebling between North 9th and North 10th Streets, and architect Michael Muroff told us he hopes to restore the structure to its former glory.
“We’re going to restore what isn’t there, like one of those grand old industrial buildings like the Lackawanna in New Jersey,” he said. “We’re going to install a new cornice, and put those Flemish-style roof lines back, like it’s always been there.”
The revamped exterior will incorporate a corrugated glass canopy salvaged from another old factory, and pieces of the new rooftop will be clad in corrugated metal and copper, “like you’d find in dumbwaiters and bulkheads,” said Muroff. He added that they might even preserve some of the graffiti layered along the street level of the building. Interiors will highlight the factory’s well-preserved timber framing, brick walls and concrete floors.
The 58 units will be divided across 53,700 square feet of residential space, yielding an average apartment of 925 square feet. The cellar and first floor will be flood-proofed, because the property sits inside the 100-year flood plain and experienced flooding during Hurricane Sandy. Roughly 10,000 square feet of commercial space—likely offices or small shops—will take up most of the first floor.
A bit of digging reveals that the building was constructed in 1910 and once housed the Longman & Martinez paint factory. We’re not sure how long the factory was in business, but the current developer has owned it since 1980. The same owner, doing business as a different entity, teamed up with Muroff to design a ground-up, factory-style rental development a few blocks away at 150 North 12th Street.
Eastern Union Funding director Jonathan Singer arranged a $14 million loan for the project, which is expected to take 12 to 18 months and cost $26 million.
28 Roebling Street in April 2015, photo by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark
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Will this be a rental?