It’s hard to build taller than three stories in most of Gravesend, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Brooklyn populated by a diverse mix of Syrian Jewish, Puerto Rican, Chinese, Mexican, Russian, and Ukrainian immigrants. But along the neighborhood’s northern edge, on the border with Midwood and Bensonhurst, the city allows new mid-rise apartment buildings.
There were five landmarks designated in Brooklyn in 2015 and now the borough has its first of 2016. The East New York Savings Bank, Parkway Branch building at 1117 Eastern Parkway (a.k.a. 1123A Eastern Parkway) was designated an individual landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday.
A 150-year-old landmarked warehouse at 80 White Street in Chinatown is about to become offices, retail, and one apartment.
Alteration plans were filed with the Department of Buildings yesterday to convert the six-story loft building between Broadway and Lafayette Street. Construction tool manufacturing company General Tools has occupied the building for decades, and the firm’s former chairman, Gerald Weinstein, has owned the property for at least 40 years. Tax photos from the ’70s show the firm’s name emblazoned above the cast iron columns on the ground floor.
The Republic of Turkey is moving forward with a new consulate-general building, dubbed the Turkevi Center, at 821 United Nations Plaza, located on the corner of East 46th Street in Midtown East. Curbed NY has renderings of the Perkins Eastman-designed 32-story, 200,000-square-foot mixed-use complex, which will contain office space and residential units. The residential units are being built to accommodate staff and visitors, and the facility will have passport and visa offices. Amenities will include conference rooms, a prayer room, a gym, an auditorium, and an underground parking garage. The new building would replace Turkey’s existing 12-story facility as well as the vacant lot at 344 East 46th Street. Neither new building applications nor demolition permits have yet been filed.
In December of 2014, YIMBY reported on filings for a six-story, eight-unit mixed-use building at 42-43 27th Street, in the Queens Plaza section of Long Island City. Then in the spring of 2015, the single-story occupant was demolished. Now, The Court Square Blog reports that excavation work is underway and a schematic drawing of the new building is posted on-site. Chang Hwa Tang’s Flushing-based Tan Architect is responsible for the design of the 9,372-square-foot project. There will be 1,450 square feet of ground-floor retail space and the residential units should average a rental-sized 694 square feet apiece. Xi Zhao, doing business as a Rego Park-based LLC, is the developer. Completion is expected in the summer of 2017.
