Construction is underway on 275 Chestnut Street, the third and final phase of the 4.5-acre Atlantic Chestnut master plan in East New York, Brooklyn. Designed by Dattner Architects and developed by Phipps Houses, the 14-story structure will span 394,954 square feet and yield 327 affordable housing units, adding to the 840 affordable units in the first two completed phases. The project will also include a supermarket and other commercial and community facilities. The property is bounded by Atlantic Avenue to the south, Euclid Avenue to the east, and Chestnut Street to the west.
The developer recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction.
Groundbreaking ceremony. From left to right: Steven Lovci, Vice President of Capital Projects & Development of Phipps Houses; GregBauso of Monadnock Construction; Alice Lowman, Chairwoman of Brooklyn Community Board 5; Patrick Love, Deputy Commissioner of Development from Housng Preservation & Development; Michael Wadman, VicePresident of Development of Phipps Houses; Thu Tran of Citi Community Capital; Asahi Pompey, Chair of the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs; Dominique Alexandre, Director of Community Engagement from the Office of Council Member Sandy Nurse; AdamWeinstein, President & CEO of Phipps Houses; Andre White, Executive Director & CEO; Cathy Pennington, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Phipps Houses; and Lauren Connors, Senior Vice President of Development from Housing Preservation & Development. Image courtesy of Phipps Houses.
The above aerial rendering looks southwest at the entire Atlantic Chestnut complex, with phase three on the left edge of the block.
The following rendering focuses on the forthcoming structure, looking northwest from the corner of Atlantic and Euclid Avenues. The design will match that of the completed second phase, with the bulk of the building oriented east to west along Atlantic Avenue and clad in a mix of red and beige brick. An eight-story volume will sit perpendicular at the corner, continuing the fenestration from its sister structure. This includes red brick on the bottom three floors and an envelope of contrasting white paneling on its upper five stories. This volume is shown topped with a landscaped terrace, and the upper roof will feature a pair of bulkheads and photovoltaic panels.
Phase three of Atlantic Chestnut. Designed by Dattner Architects.
The property was formerly occupied by an abandoned manufacturing facility, as seen in the below Google Street View image from October 2011 oriented in the same direction as the above rendering. The East New York Neighborhood Plan and rezoning effort was approved in 2016 and demolition concluded on the property the following year. Phase one of Atlantic Chestnut was completed in 2022, followed by phase two shortly afterward.
The future site of the Atlantic Chestnut master plan, circa October 2011. Image via Google Maps.
Residential amenities will include multiple landscaped courtyards, an outdoor rooftop deck, a fitness center, a children’s playroom, and a community room.
The entire $850 million Atlantic Chestnut development will span roughly 1.3 million square feet. The nearest subways from the complex are the J and Z trains at the elevated Crescent Street station to the northeast over Fulton Street.
Phase three of Atlantic Chestnut is slated for completion in 2028.
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This kind of density is needed all over the outer boroughs.
Yes, we need a 1,000 more of these projects.
This is a fantastic project and the design looks great!
Great design AND a significant (1200 affordable housing unit) impact to help alleviate the housing crisis? This is just the kind of big, bold, forward-thinking intervention that this city desperately needs more of! Kudos to the team.
Scale and density, YES.
Aircraft carrier massing, NO.
All these giant refrigerator box developments would look so much better with a few towers sitting on a shared base that isn’t quite as imposingly large. Say a standard 6-floor apartment house height base with towers in the 20-25 floor range. It would feel more airy and less overwhelming at the sidewalk level. It’s strange too because the normal excuse given is separate towers drive up the cost with required separate elevators, but that’s what’s already happening here, it’s just that the base is tall and the “towers” stumpy.
why not some non “affordable ” units – aka market rate. and no the market here is not much higher but isn’t what we want mixed income – folks from all walks of life living together to bring everyone up? and not just create future welfare ghettos.
why is it that the so called nicer communities and developments forced to have “affordable ” aka subsidized by taxpayers and other tenants in their developments which drives up the cost for the non subsidized ?
what happened to creating for sale homes so that folks of all income brackets have a more vested investment in their communities and not dependent on landlords ?
Any housing is good housing and this is nearly 1,200 units in total.
Whatever. It’s a big improvement
Anything would be an improvement over what they just demolished, but that is no reason to rejoice. This looks like a hospital. NFA’s idea of a base with towers is one solution. But any solution would be an improvement upon forcing people who can only afford “affordable” apartments (and what a laugh that is) to live in something as cold and institutional as this. I would prefer “towers in a park” over this. Where are the architects with vision nowadays?
These buildings have destroyed the Quality of Life for the surrounding homeowners. Why would you build hundreds of apartments and not a single parking garage? This is New York City. Most people have a car or two. People are parking on sidewalks and even in homeowners private driveways. Developers didn’t consider horrific changes for residential homeowners before building 1,200 apartments without any parking garages. Shameful, just shameful.
There are way too many cars in NYC. An off street spot is only going to encourage even more. As the number of residents rises, the number of cars cannot, unless you want an even more dysfunctional road network.
New developments should encourage people to walk, bike, scooter, take public transit. Having commercial and community spaces at the base helps.
Obviously, you don’t live in this community. My family members do. This community is predominately family oriented with homeowners. No one should make a decision for those who want to own a car. Owning a car is part of the American Dream whether you live in the City or suburbs. A neighborhood should not be mandated to only utilize public transportation. When was the last time that you rode the train or bus in East New York? If you did, you would NEVER have made these comments. These developments have brought down the Quality of Life in East New York instead of raising it. Developers often include parking for other areas with demographics dominated by white people. (Example: Yellowstone Boulevard, Rego Park, Flushing, Williamsburg…) However, NONE of the affordable housing built in East New York include a parking lot or garage (NOT ONE affordable developer including parking in their plan!).
The design looks like an enclosed institution.
I’m just happy that NY governants are taking the housing crisis more seriously now than ever and are now constructing more apartments for seniors.
glad it’s not another tall tower. we have too many of those. particularly near park areas, that block the view for surrounding buildings