Development doesn’t happen often in Bensonhurst, an old-school Italian enclave close to the waterfront in southern Brooklyn. But as new immigrants – particularly Chinese families – flock to the area, developers have started to pay attention to the working class stronghold full of one- and two-family homes.
Property owner Salvador Ortiz, doing business as a Brooklyn-based LLC, has filed applications for a five-story, 10-unit residential building at 126 Manhattan Avenue, in central Williamsburg, located three blocks west of the Montrose Avenue stop on the L train. The project will measure 7,500 square feet, which means units will average 750 square feet apiece, indicative of rentals. The structure would be topped by a rooftop recreation space, and Astoria-based Anthony Cucich is the architect of record.
Construction is chugging along on the banks of Newtown Creek in north Brooklyn, where Greenpoint Landing will eventually span 10 acres with 5,000 apartments. YIMBY swung by the megaproject earlier this month and caught up on the progress at three affordable rental buildings: 33 Eagle Street, 21 Commercial Street, and 5 Blue Slip.
Red Hook was severely damaged by flooding during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and few residential developers have been willing to touch the transit-starved Brooklyn neighborhood. But commercial projects are alive and well among the 19th century warehouses, from Est4te Four’s big office complex to a factory-to-office conversion on Van Brunt Street. Now new building applications have surfaced for a five-story hotel at 411 Van Brunt Street, only a block from the waterfront.
The New York City landmarks law was signed 50 years ago this year. So, what better time to talk about some of its successes? Plenty of great structures, such as the Empire State Building, completed in 1931 as a multi-tenant office building, are easy to keep relevant and functioning. Others, however, become obsolete and can no longer perform their originally intended purpose. That’s where adaptive reuse comes in. If you haven’t heard the term, it’s when an old structure is adapted for a new use. It’s often how we are saving our great city.
