Xenolith Partners has announced plans to jumpstart construction at the site of a derelict and abandoned police precinct in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Located at 1546 East New York Avenue, the building is over 100 years old and once functioned as the 65th, then later the 73rd Police Precinct with jurisdiction over the northern corner of Brownsville.
The property was originally purchased in 2004 by Family Services Network of New York, a non-profit agency that offers educational training and support services to HIV-positive youths, victims of addiction, and mentally ill populations in the New York City area. In 2012, Family Services CEO Benjamin Igwe went on the record to state that the project’s $3.8 million redevelopment costs were too much for the entity to shoulder on its own, but offered no indication of when construction might break ground.
Existing conditions at 1546 East New York Avenue – courtesy of Todd Maisel; New York Daily News
More recently, Xenolith Partners was retained as co-developer to help realize completion of the project. Scope of work includes a redevelopment of the building to make way for 95 supportive and affordable housing units and 5,000 square feet of community facility space. Those facilities will be operated by Family Services.
Of the total units, 60 percent will be offered with a full swath of supportive services rendered by the non-profit. The remaining units will be reserved for households and individuals earning 40 to 80 percent of the area’s median income. Amenity spaces include a fitness center, communal lounge area, an outdoor terrace, laundry facilities, and bicycle storage.
Artistic renderings from architect Gran Kriegel reveal a new 12-story structure with an irregular pattern of vertically oriented windows. The building will feature a red brick curtain wall reminiscent of the old precinct, while an attached neighboring structure clad in dark gray masonry will top out at six stories.
Total development costs are estimated at $51.5 million.
Financing for the project was made possible through a combination of public agency funding programs including Homes and Community Renewal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and Supportive Housing Opportunity programs, the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, supportive loans from New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and Resolution A Capital Funding, in addition to private loans.
Construction is expected to kick off by November 2020. Neither Xenolith nor Family Services has revealed an anticipated date of completion.
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I hope this happens.
Looks like a lovely neighborhood!
We losing funeral homes and the resixential you are building the average mixdle class cant afford wow thanks to the investers who in this area need your dame hotels this is residental homes really.
Looking forward to these nice buildings in the neighborhood, would love to apply!!!
Say it ain’t so. Too many memories there when I was a cop and assigned to the 73rd Pct in that grand old building until we moved to the newly built station house in 1985. Loved that place!!