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 8, 2018

Another Bites the Dust...

Recognize this corner? Not for long.
From the article in NYREJ: It never gets easy to read the phrase "take full advantage of the emerging neighborhood." oy.
Zoned R7A, 100 Lenox Rd. allows for residential development, with the property boasting frontage spanning 44’ on Lenox Rd. and 125’ on Bedford Ave. The 100 Lenox Rd. site was delivered with building plans of a seven-story, thirty one-unit apartment building with condominium finishes and amenity space. 
“We implemented a competitive marketing strategy, creating extreme competition for this asset, which benefits from a lucrative tax incentive and the fact that it was one of the largest remaining development opportunities in close proximity to Prospect Park,” said Alexander McGee, Director at Ariel Property Advisors
The buildings are located on the Flatbush and Prospect Lefferts Garden border, a location that positions the new buyer to take full advantage of the emerging neighborhood. 
I think it's very interesting to note that this is a resale from a previous developer, and that the price of the site is nearly THREE times as much in a year. Say what?

Oh, and the saddest line of all is below, which suggests what downzoning could be doing to help us right now up here in CB9 north of Clarkson, had we entered talks with the City to determine where such down and upzoning should occur. The "A" at the end of the 2009 zoning means there are height limits. But since the community activists fighting for housing justice don't seem to care about building low and middle income housing, I've pretty much stopped caring too. My block, for instance, is already undergoing its big change, and there ain't nothing can be done to stop it, or force the hand of developers to build rent-stabilized housing. From my perspective, the war for the neighborhood is ostensibly over, the developers are laughing at our ineptitude, and it's been decided to focus on short term building-prevention at the expense of longterm income equity.

At this point, only an elected official with vision and leadership could prevent the wholesale dismantling of the non-Manor Lefferts area.Speaking of which, that kinda leads into my next post. And oh, the quote:

B.H. Tal Real Estate acquired the 5,500-square-foot property for $2,600,000 in October 2015, paying $118 for each square foot of 100 Lenox Road. This sizable lot would probably be even more valuable if it hadn’t been downzoned back in 2009. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a rendering: https://newyorkyimby.com/2017/10/renderings-revealed-for-100-lenox-road-flatbush-brooklyn.html

Anonymous said...

I have to say at least the drawings are architecturally pleasing on the eyes. That's a good thing. But it's sad to see all of these single family homes tear down. I just wished people would have restored them. It's a shame. There's one on Winthrop that I noticed is being renovated; including the facade. Hopefully others will follow that trend. i guessed it's probably much cheaper to sell than to renovate.

Josh said...

It is unfortunate that so many of the frame houses are being torn down, however if you've ever been inside of them it becomes understandable. A brownstone will always have the solid exterior to work with but the frame house can easily go to seed if not upkept over a few decades. Out of curiosity I have gone to open houses in the past and experienced respiratory problems for a few days after and just been horrified and sad imagining people living in some of these dwellings.

Most of the buildings going up are not half bad looking. An exception is the still unfinished eyesore on corner of Winthrop and Bedford. One I will be sad to see torn down is on the corner of Fenimore and Bedford which seemingly looked to be in good shape

Clarkson FlatBed said...

That rendering was from the LAST purchaser. I don't know that the new ones will go with the same design, so maybe we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves?

Jacob said...

The current purchaser bought the house next door, 94 Lenox, and is trying to buy development rights from adjacent apt buildings too, and no doubt plans to combine the lots, so the rendering is moot.
Makes no difference if the house is brick or frame when it comes to developers. 146 Linden was brick. So was 212 Linden.
Makes no difference if the house is restored or not. 88 Linden was restored. The only thing that matters is the size of the lot and the location.
This neighborhood saw a period of continuous growth from 1900-1930s and again around 1960 and it was all single family houses being torn down and replaced with apartment buildings. That's a distinguishing feature of the neighborhood!

Jacob said...

From 1938:

"Old residents want the area to remain a center of beautiful private mansions and have banded together to keep out of the section an invasion of such modern apartment dwellings as the one shown"

https://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/52649544/?terms=115%2Bbuckingham%2Broad