It’s been a year since Puccio Marble and Onyx sold their last Williamsburg building at 661 Driggs Avenue for $5.6 million. Now, the new owners have filed plans to replace the old two-story structure with a four-story development, and YIMBY found a rendering of the project on the developer’s website.
New building applications call for six apartments, stacked on top of 3,700 square feet of retail. Since the site sits in a prime location between Fillmore Place and Metropolitan Avenue, the retail has attracted interest from several high-profile tenants, including Shake Shack, according to The Real Deal. Asking rents last fall were around $135 a square foot.
Those six apartments would be spread across 8,084 square feet of residential space, for average units of 1,350 square feet. The expensive neighborhood and spacious apartments strongly signal that these will be condos. The lot is triangular, and as can be seen on the floor plans, the triangular apartments will have some unusual layouts.
The facade is clearly meant to reference the cast-iron factories scattered throughout South Williamsburg, like the one around the corner on Grand Street. The Fillmore Place Historic District is right next door, and while the lot isn’t inside the district, the design evidently pays tribute to the landmarked buildings nearby.
T.F. Cusanelli & Filletti Architects is designing the building. The developer is Soho-based Brooklyn Boss Properties, which has built a few small projects in the neighborhood.
The Puccio family owned the two-story building and ran their business out of it for nearly 50 years. It also features this fascinating second-floor apartment that was asking $3,500 a month in February. The photos show a mirrored drop ceiling, a huge marble reception desk covered in more mirrors, huge portal-style windows carved out of walls around the staircase, and of course, a marble bathroom. Demolition plans have not yet been filed to knock it down.
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I think marble can show good attractive every position, in a way that this material is soft and tender surface.
A LOVELY building. Elegant, classical proportions and detailing. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get as many commissions as you can because someone in your firm actually bothered to LOOK at the neighborhood. Hope you win awards. Designers have shown respect for NYC’s architectural history while construction modern building. Can’t ask for more!