As the city prepares to rezone a big swath of East New York, officials haven’t paid much attention to Brownsville, the smaller and poorer neighborhood next door. Despite Brownsville’s rough reputation, developers have started buying up property in the area.
Yesterday, one adventurous developer filed plans for market-rate rentals with a community facility at 802 Howard Avenue, between Dumont and Livonia Avenues. The six-story building would rise around the corner from the Saratoga Avenue stop on the 3 train and just east of Rockaway Parkway, which marks the border with East Flatbush. It would also fill a townhouse-sized hole on a quiet residential block that’s lined with small pre-war apartment buildings and single-family homes built in the 1980s.
The 10-unit building would have 8,100 square feet of residential space, creating average units of 810 square feet. The cellar and ground floor would hold 1,500 square feet of community facilities, which will probably be medical offices, and each of the upper floors will have two apartments. Renters will also be able to to enjoy a shared roof deck.
The building won’t have any parking, because it’s small enough to avoid the city’s requirements.
Jamaica-based Meir Shaul is the developer, and he’s hired Olabanji B. Awosika – also headquartered in Jamaica – to handle the design. Shaul picked up the 25-foot-wide lot last month for $220,000, or just $22 for each square foot of his planned development.
The project isn’t the first market-rate one we’ve seen in Brownsville recently. Over the summer, plans surfaced for a 23-unit building at 110 Thatford Avenue and a 10-unit building on Eastern Parkway. And there’s a 22-unit apartment development in the works at 2288 Atlantic Avenue, near the border with Ocean Hill and East New York.
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