Bensonhurst

Brooklyn-based property owner Richard Napolitano has filed applications for a three-story, six-unit residential building at 1737 81st Street, in southern Bensonhurst. It will measure 7,072 square feet and its residential units should average 884 square feet apiece. It’s unclear whether the units will be rental apartments or condominiums, but the project will include five off-street parking spaces. Douglas Pulaski’s Brooklyn-based Bricolage Designs is the architect of record. The 50-foot-wide, 4,617-square-foot property is currently occupied by a two-story house. Demolition permits were filed in March. The 79th Street stop on the D train is three blocks away.

Elizabeth McDonald, doing business as an anonymous LLC, has filed applications for a three-story, six-unit residential building at 1776 74th Street, in Bensonhurst, located five blocks from the 79th Street stop on the D train. The structure will measure 10,000 square feet and its residential units should average a spacious 1,080 square feet apiece, indicative of condominiums. The project will feature four parkings spaces, two of which will be located on the ground floor. Steven Schneider’s New Jersey-based Schneider Associates is the applicant of record. Demolition permits were filed in February for the 40-foot-wide site’s existing two-and-a-half-story house.

Development doesn’t happen often in Bensonhurst, an old-school Italian enclave close to the waterfront in southern Brooklyn. But as new immigrants – particularly Chinese families – flock to the area, developers have started to pay attention to the working class stronghold full of one- and two-family homes.