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.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

GEM Closing

How on earth did rents rise to the point my beloved GEM Discount Store would need to close? My kids will be crushed. And my wallet emptied. Wah.

Over at Flatbushed.com (c'mon man, send me a note, I wanna know who you are!) is this photo, which if the text of Mr. Flatbushed's post is to be correlated is, in fact, the very corner of today's Duane Reade/GEM:


Methinks, rather mesuspects, that something fishy's in Flatbush. Perhaps a new plan for that VERY large corner space just a block from the park?

6 comments:

Alex said...

Very desirable lot. R7-1 me thinks.

Anonymous said...

Nope, it's R7A which means there are height regulations so a tall skinny tower isn't likely
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/zone/zoning_handbook/r7a.pdf

Clarkson FlatBed said...

And the R7A is the result of...drum roll...the contextual zoning instituted after a rezoning of CB14. That corner is in a different Community District and precinct from the other side of Flatbush and Parkside. Crazy. But yeah, they did the thing that it's looking increasingly unlikely we will do - plan for the future.

Anonymous said...

Maybe one day everyone will stop shooting themselves in the foot and well get to discuss updating the zoning in the this area, just like all the other neighborhoods surrounding the park...

Rebecca said...

It might not be a rising rent issue. I heard that other GEM stores closed recently too. Are they going out of business? Anyone know?

It's a big space to have vacant and I can't figure what else would go into there, unless they divide it into two

Clarkson FlatBed said...

How about...SUPER DUANE!!! We've all seen drug stores that big in the 'burbs, right?

In this environment, however, I can't imagine a developer isn't making a play for the whole property to build apartments with ground floor retail. They're spending hundreds of millions in the neighborhood, so this is just one little deal.