With demand for condos soaring and Brooklyn’s prime core expanding its reach by the day, we’ve grown increasingly accustomed to seeing high-end projects with large, condo-sized units in areas like Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights, which were once the exclusive domain of rental builders.
But there are still some rental projects under development in the area, such as 953 Atlantic Avenue, an eight-story residential building for which a new building permit was filed on Friday.
The project appears to be a bit of a throwback to earlier times, with relatively small units – there will be 98 apartments over just 67,000 square feet of space, for an average size of just under 700 square feet – and a design by Gerald Caliendo, a Briarwood-based architect whose name we usually find attached to filings for buildings in less desirable neighborhoods. And none of the units seem particularly extravagant – there will be around 15 per floor, except for the seventh and eighth which will have a dozen each. 953 Atlantic Avenue will have enough parking for either 77 (if you believe the Schedule A filing) or 98 (if you believe the main filing) cars, more than the 49 spaces required by zoning.
Borough Park-based Bere Weber is listed as the developer, and he appears to have owned the building for a number of years, at least, perhaps explaining why he’s able to build rentals in a market where other parcels are being bought up by condo builders.
The site – situated on the north side of Atlantic, mid-block between Grand and Classon avenues – is currently home to a White Castle, shuttered about a month ago with a demolition permit filed around the same time.
Until 2007, this stretch of Atlantic was zoned M1-1, theoretically for manufacturing uses but in practice a dumping ground for fast food restaurants, self-storage facilities, and auto body shops,. But after the Fort Greene-Clinton Hill rezoning, the land was re-designated for residential use with a commercial (i.e., ground floor retail) overlay. The south side of the street, however, is unfortunately still zoned M1-1, so the view of auto body shops, restaurant suppliers, and run-down non-conforming tenements isn’t likely to change any time soon.
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