The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Monday, February 3, 2014

More Development - Hawthorne This Time

Hawthorne street between Rogers and Nostrand to get a little "lift" in the air. The listing certainly leaves no ambiguity:

Brand new DEVELOPMENT LOT in Lefferts Gardens! Be a part of the building boom going on in this most sought after neighborhood. The lot is 40x106 zoned R6 with a Far 2.43 or 10,000 square feet , there is also the possibility of increasing the FAR to seven stories with off street parking or high lot coverage typically allows for more apartments than might be achievable under height factors regulations. Sanborn map 310019, tax map 31601. Call now for this unique opportunity!

Building Boom. Sought-after neighborhood.

It seems clear to the Q that you can expect all the Victorian and detached homes in the area outside the Historic District to start getting offers. There are a few strings of unprotected rowhouses as well. Clarkson has a set of neglected brick rowhouses that come to mind. Do you have any that seem ripe for the picking?

3 comments:

FlatLen said...

It seems to me that this sort of development has been happening for some time, at least dating back to the mid 2000s, as owners started getting fantastic offers from developers attracted to unattached frame houses. Just walking around and seeing what is happening, it is clear these are easier to tear down for the redevelopment of the lots into multifamily housing, as you have been describing, on Clarkson (50-54 in particular), Hawthorne Street, as you are describing here, and just outside of PLG: BeCa condos and Prospect Lefferts South next door (Nova Dental building), and Lenox Road from Flatbush all the way out to Nostrand (271 Lenox Road as an example). I don't get the sense the attached row houses might get the same type of attention and for the same type of purpose. It seems to me the attached homes are more likely to be purchased for rehab purposes rather than for tearing down.

Bob Marvin said...

Row houses are not really safe from this sort of thing. The 12-house Ocean on the Park Historic District was created a few years ago in the face of considerable pressure that destroyed the 13th house (although that one was free-standing). It IS more difficult to demolish a row house, but one of the remedies should an adjacent house to a demolition be "accidentally" damaged and made structurally unsound is for the developer to purchase it.

FlatLen said...

@Bob Marvin, thanks for clarifying this. Your point is an important one to recognize, that developers can purchase one within a group of row houses and then put pressure on the adjacent ones to sell.