A landmark house in Crown Heights – a landmark that predates the historic district in which it now sits – will see new life, but with a split personality. On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the restoration and conversion of 1375 Dean Street, also known as the George B. and Susan Elkins House, from a single-family home to two two-unit townhouses within the same structure.
Plenty of hotels are cropping up in the South Bronx, but new hotels rarely arrive in northern Bronx neighborhoods like Belmont or University Heights. That appears to be changing with a filing for an eight-story hotel at 4729 Third Avenue in Belmont, just south of the Fordham University campus.
In early November, the City Planning Commission approved Hudson Companies’ planned 36-story, 139-unit mixed-use building at 280 Cadman Plaza West, in Brooklyn Heights, and now the City Council has approved the project. According to DNAinfo, Wednesday’s vote was practically the last step before the project gets green-lit. Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to sign the deal, which will conclude ULURP, the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The project overtakes the site of the Brooklyn Heights public library and 26,620 square feet on the ground floor will be dedicated to it. In addition, the Marvel Architects-designed tower will include 9,000 square feet of city-run academic labs and retail space. The property will be sold for $52 million.
One of the last remnants of decades of disinvestment and abandonment in Bed-Stuy is about to be redeveloped. A 16-unit residential building is coming to the empty lot at 401 Gates Avenue, between Bedford and Nostrand Avenues.
Earlier this year, YIMBY reported on filings for a six-story, 10-unit mixed-use building at 349 Kent Avenue, in western Williamsburg, located a block in from the East River. Brooklyn-based Workshop Design + Architecture has released renderings of the project, which will measure 15,300 square feet in total, although 8,723 square feet will count towards zoning. Two retail units will split 923 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, and the residential units above will average 780 square feet apiece. Eugene Buchinger, operating as an anonymous LLC, is the developer. The site’s former two-story building was demolished earlier this year, and now that permits are approved, excavation is likely imminent.
