YIMBY can barely keep up with all the new construction projects in the East Williamsburg-Bushwick industrial zone, and today we have renderings for a pretty unusual commercial development at 101 Bogart Street, right near the Morgan Avenue L train stop. The six-story building will hold a hotel and a house of worship.
Since the state re-opened applications the loft law in July, YIMBY has noticed a few filings from industrial landlords who want to legalize apartments in their illegally converted loft buildings. Yesterday we spotted one for 304 Boerum Street in East Williamsburg, where the owner is trying once again to get a new certificate of occupancy.
Marcos Hernandez, head of Thames Security Systems, has filed applications for a three-story, 4,665 square-foot mixed-use commercial building at 121 Thames Street, in East Williamsburg, four blocks from the L train’s stop at Morgan Avenue. The building will measure 4,665 square feet in total, and an arts and crafts club will take up 2,311 square feet on the ground floor. On the second and third floors, office space will take up 2,354 square feet. East New York-based Ross William is the architect of record, and the site’s four-story predecessor was demolished in 2007.
Bushwack Capital is converting the two-story, 22,675 square-foot warehouse at 99 Scott Avenue, in southern East Williamsburg, into a mixed-use commercial building, according to Commercial Observer. The building will house two office tenants, a restaurant, winery, beer garden and event hall. The conversion will complete this October, and tenants will construct their spaces for a mid-2016 opening. The $1 million project is being crowdfunded through CityFunders, and Kossar + Garry Architects is the architect of record.
As property values skyrocket in the low-slung eastern edges of Williamsburg, small developers are searching for ways to boost a site’s density without spending exorbitant amounts of money on construction. Increasingly, they file their developments as alterations, rather than new buildings, which allows them to avoid building expensive underground parking. And the J-51 abatement gives landlords a break on their property taxes, in exchange for preserving at least 50% of the old building and keeping the new units rent-stabilized for up to 20 years. One of these enterprising developers has filed alteration applications to expand a little three-story brick apartment building at 196 Montrose Avenue, on the corner of Humboldt Street.
