East Williamsburg

249 Varet Street

Four-Story, 54-Key Hostel Being Converted Into 140-Person Homeless Shelter at 249 Varet Street, East Williamsburg

By Reid Wilson

After opening just eight years ago, the four-story, 54-key New York Loft Hostel, located at 249 Varet Street in East Williamsburg, is currently in the process of being converted into a 140-person homeless shelter, Bushwick Daily reported. Until recently, the 22,237-square-foot property had 54 hotel rooms, but has since undergone a reconfiguration to 67 units, according to permits with the Buildings Department. The shelter’s occupants will be restricted to males ages 55 and older who aren’t sex offenders. They are expected to live in the shelter for roughly nine months and will have access to supportive services and meals, all located within the building. The project is being headed by the city’s non-profit organization Project Renewal and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). The shelter will likely become operational this fall after the hostel closes for business at the end of August. Bosch Architecture is designing the conversion. The Morgan Avenue stop on the L train is three blocks away.

Read More

Scaffolds Come Down at 83 Bushwick Place, Junction of East Williamsburg and Bushwick

By Vitali Ogorodnikov

What is Brooklyn? For many, the borough is associated with new buildings populated with young professionals fleeing Manhattan, where the cost of living rises as high as the skyscrapers. Some prefer to dismiss them as silver-spoon suburban transplants wishing to emulate some fantasy starving artist lifestyle, which they would assert is long-gone from the borough. Others would disagree, pointing at the “authentic Bohemians” living in rundown, graffiti-covered, and sometimes illegally-run lofts on the fringes of industrial districts, not yet touched by true gentrification. In contrast to another stereotype, which presumes that manufacturing has also left the borough, these pockets of industry still teem with activity, whether in dusty cement-mixing lots, in auto shops that clog the sidewalks in front of them with rides-in-progress, or in manufacturing plants where they are rightfully entitled to slap a “Made in Brooklyn” label onto their wares.

Read More
42 Sharon Street

Four-Story, Single-Family Townhouse Filed at 42 Sharon Street, East Williamsburg

By Reid Wilson

The owners of Brooklyn-based Colossal Media Group have filed applications for a four-story, single-family townhouse at 42 Sharon Street, in East Williamsburg, located four blocks from the Grand Street stop on the L train. The structure will measure 3,630 square feet and will include a two-car garage on the ground floor. Richard A. Goodstein’s Brooklyn-based nC2 Architecture is the architect of record. The 20-foot-wide lot is currently occupied by attached single-story brick house.

Read More
Fetching more...