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.
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.
Property owner Alan Pilevsky is seeking to convert the former four-story, 16,000-square-foot office building at 249 East Park Avenue, in Long Beach, Long Island, into 23 residential units. The LI Herald reports the building was vacated by Long Beach Medical Center after Hurricane Sandy and has since sat empty. The apartments will be a mix of studio and one-bedrooms. The size of the building and the property’s 24 motor vehicle parking spots will remain unchanged, although the structure will receive major renovations including a new façade and an entrance ramp (to meet federal laws). Later this week, the Zoning Board of Appeals is expected to vote on multiple variances for the project, the major one being the allowance of residential use in a commercial zone. The Nassau County Planning Commission is also required to approve the project and is expected to vote on it in March. Long Island-based Ferraro Robert Phillip Architect is designing.
Mordechai Schwimmer, doing business as a Brooklyn-based LLC, has filed applications for two four-story, eight-unit residential buildings at 664-668 Rutland Road, in northern East Flatbush, located a few blocks from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Each building will encompass 5,453 square feet, and residential units in both buildings will average 652 square feet apiece, indicative of rentals. Laundries will be located in the cellar. Mt. Vernon, N.Y.-based Jeffrey Sandor Orling is the architect of record. The 48-foot-wide plot of land is currently vacant, although vegetation will first have to be removed.
Long Island-based property owner Hadas Hakmon has filed applications for a four-story, seven-unit residential building at 17 Diamond Street, in southern Greenpoint, located five blocks from the Nassau Avenue stop on the G train. The new building will measure just 4,973 square feet, which means units will average 710 square feet apiece, indicative of rental apartments. There will be two units per floor with exception of the ground floor, where there will be only one unit. It will share the ground floor with the lobby, although the residential unit will also have private space in the cellar. Astoria-based Anthony Cucich is the architect of record. An existing two-story townhouse must first be removed, although demolition permits are not on file yet.
