133 Apartment Building to Replace Pkwy. Gas Station

An Eastern Parkway gas station, which was sold for $32,500,000 in the beginning of the year, will be demolished to make way for a 133 unit apartment building – complete with nearly 15,000 square foot of commercial space.

The massive expanse of land, which has over 500 feet of wrap-around frontage, located at 1525 Bedford Avenue on the corner of Eastern Parkway, was purchased by real estate developer Adam America Real Estate for $32.5 Million in January of this year.

This lot was the beneficiary of recent ‘up zoning’ in the neighboring community board district 8 which gives developers to ability to build ‘as-of-right’ a massive 110,203 square foot structure to be built, along with incentives which would allow an additional 34,200 square feet of development for a combined total of 144,400 square foot of commercial and residential units to be built.

According to building plans first revealed by pro-development blog New York YIMBY filed by Issac & Stern Architects, show plans for a new eight story residential tower along with wraparound commercial space on the first floor/cellar level.

“According to the building permit application, the project will have 133 apartments – clearly rentals – spread over a bit more than 91,000 square feet of residential space, for an average unit size of just under 690 square feet – about as small as the zoning code will allow for new buildings. The second and third floors will have 28 apartments each, with larger units up top (floors four through six have 17 units each, with 13 on the top two floors),” writes NYYIMBY.

Of the 133 apartments, 20 percent – roughly 27 units – will be designated as affordable and set aside to be rented at below-market rates, according to The Real Deal.

The housing units will sit atop 15,000 square feet of retail space in what is technically the basement and cellar areas (which explains why the building is technically only eight stories, but appears in the rendering as nine or 10).

Recently construction fencing has been erected, though no demolition of the existing gas station, car wash and oil change facility has begun yet.

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27 Comments

  • Not good news for the average Crown Heights Resident

    One less gas station. (more closings to come at these prices). Less stations, less competition, higher gas prices.

    Overall higher housing costs for the area, will lead to higher costs in our area too.

    It is very difficult to compete with the Yuppies for whom these prices are a bargain compared to Park Slope/Manhattan/etc. but are very expensive for our young couples and families.

    We need to resist these zoning changes, or we’ll be priced out….

  • Who is going to be responsible for the infrastructure?

    There is no infrastructure of roads or mass transit to handle the influx of so many new residents. Can our water and sewer and electricity and natural gas handle this continuous influx?

  • Real estate

    I’m puzzled why all the outsiders are buying out our property’s , there is much opportunity here and yet no lubavitchers are taking advantage of their own neighborhood

  • Los Angeles resident

    Come to LA &, our prices on housing is way more the Brklyn…..

  • Resident

    STOP THE ZONING!!! ELI COHEN – WAKE UP- OUR COMMUNITY IS IN FLAMES. Zoning means more yoelis comeing in and buying out the community to renty to yuppies. WE MUST GET TOGETHER AND HELP OURSELVES!!1 in williamsburg , if you build for the yuppoies they put you in cherem. THEY COME HERE AND DESTRPY OUR FUTURE, OUR NEIGHBERHOOD and OUR CHILDREN. WE MUST STOP IT NOW. OUR OWN LANDLORDS ARE SADLY SOME TIMES NOT BETTER. Kol hakavod TO DOVID FISHER FOR NOT RENTING TO THEM AND ANY OTHER THAT WE DONT KNOW ABOUT

  • Reality check

    The unfortunate reality is that many of our (wealthy) building owners refuse to rent to our families!!!!

    For whatever reason or excuse they use, we will never be able to improve the situation of our average families, who work and earn a living, but can’t afford to buy a house. The housing shortage increases and no one wants to give up any of “their” money to build up our community.

    A sad. sad. sad situation.

  • Bedford & Taylor St

    2 comment #7 that gas station is on Bedford & Eastern Pkwy which isn’t in the frum part of CH, so what is the difference 2 u ? This is America not Moscow it’s a free country u have the $$$ u could buy whatever land u want wherever it is. Stop calling them Yolies, u r insulting Reb Yoel who was a Godol BaTorah. Where is ur respect 4 Gedolim

  • C H Resident

    It’s sooooooooo sad that New York city has to be this way….hopefully housing will go down, in price. & then Yugelites will be able to buy affordable house as sepose to renting…..(your paying the same rent money as a mortgage)……to buy a house!!!!

  • former resident

    i had the pleasure to live at 621 eny for 5 years……..my landlord was alex……….i paid $875 for 2 bedrooms…………..when i left i still was paying $875……………..it is not fair to say a yid landlord won’t rent to another yid or unfairly prices them out…………..a landlord picks and chooses based on what the prospect has a history of paying and their credit worthiness….you pretty much need to live near kingston between albany and brooklyn avenue…………even this area is no guarantee………………………anyway, 50 years ago yidden took back crown heights and made it well known and very certain only yidden were welcome…………..btw: who in their right mind wants to live in the neighborhood this building is going up in?

  • to comment # 6

    Ur right 2 buy a house in Los Angeles will cost u way more than in Bklyn. So y would any 1 want 2 move 2 Los Angeles if in Bklyn it’s “More Affordable”. In L.A. a house will cost nothing less than 1Million, in CH a house will Cost U @ around 700000 so y move 2 LA

  • Real estate

    To number 4. Your wrong , it’s my understanding the new building on eastern pkwy and franklin is owned by lubavitchers

  • young father

    The hope of buying something in our neighborhood is diminishing rapidly.

  • to no 9

    Youre concerned about calling them yoelies!! They’re bechutzpah gedola destroying our neighborhood ,which they wouldnt dare do in theirs!!

  • Resident

    to #9, I aplogize for the wrong words, howevere my content is still valid. OTHER CHASIDIM ARE RUNNING OUR NEIGHBERHOOD TO THE GROUND. and no, YOU FAIL TO SEE THE BIGGER
    PICTURE, THIS GENTRIFICATION WILL NOT STOP AT FRANKLIN BY THE CARWASH, IT IS SEEPING INTO OUR OWN STREETS OF ”JEWISH ” CROWN HEIGHTS. TAKE A LOOK ON A WARMER DAY, THERE ARE PLENTY OF YUPPIES ON THE REGULAR BLOCKS.

  • perplexed

    For all u complaining about the housing prices, a new building will help not hurt the situation

  • Why not buy it then?

    If we are so worried about others coming in, why didn’t one of us come up with $32.5 mm and buy the land instead? Maybe we could have still built something and then rented it out at affordable…

    Of course then you may consider you’d be otherwise losing money that you could have made renting for larger amounts.

    Money is big in galus.

  • to #17 & #7

    How do u know that the man that the man that bought the gas station on Bedford & Eastern Pkwy is Satmar do u know that 4 a fact maybe he is belz, skver, ger, there r a lot of other wealthy Chasidim, besides Satmar or could have been a very wealthy non jew from Manhattan, how do u know 4 a fact that the person who bought the land is Satmar could u prove it ?

  • A crown heights "landlord"

    I own and reside in a 4 story house/building. I have had both frum jewish tenants and non-jewish tenants. Sadly to say I have more problems with Jewish frum tenants paying their rent on time then with the non-Jewish tenants.

    My rental income does not cover the proportional amount of the mortgage, even at “market rent”. When a tenant doesn’t pay, I can’t meet my mortgage. And the deadbeat Jewish tenant who moved in willingly knowing they couldn’t pay the rent lived there rent free for TEN MONTHS. It nearly bankrupted our family. On top of it they caused several thousand dollars worth of damages to the apartment. Another Jewish tenant had “guests” in and out of their apartment constantly, who treated the building like it was a yeshiva dormitory – leaving the door to the building open, running through the hall and stairways, “farbrenging” until all hours of the early morning, complaining it was never warm enough and then opening the windows. Baruch Hashem we have a great frum tenant in one of the apartments. They pay on time, are mentchlicht, always let us know when something needs to be fixed, etc. Baruch Hashem!

    On the flip side we have not had any real problems with our non-Jewish tenants. They pay on time, let us know when there is a problem, and are respectful of the frum lifestyle.

    So are you going to tell me I should be bankrupt so other yidden have a place to live? The fact is we paid a fortune for our house, every penny we had, and it is a BUSINESS. Real Estate is a business no matter which way you slice it.

    You want to complain? Complain about the lubavitchers who bought their houses in the 1960s, who paid pennies for the houses from the people fleeing for boro park and monsey, and over the last 45 years have used their houses as an ATM. They cash out refinance over and over again, using the money for tuition, chassunahs, bungalows, etc. Now they are ready to retire they sell for a cool million. Even to their own children.

    Buy now, because if Yidden don’t buy, there are plenty of foreign investors ready to plunk down their money to buy instead.

  • gedalya

    People are lashing out and starting to sound like ghetto.
    Firstly, the gentrification of Crown Heights has nothing to do with “yoelies”, in fact if I”m not mistaken the folks involved in this development are Lubavitchers.As well as a bunch of other deals up and down Eastern Pkwy.

    But whatever the case GENTRIFICATION IS GOOD FOR US!!!
    Unless you want to be stuck with ghetto and a crime ridden neighborhood like we had in the early ninties.

    Crown Heights has not been in better shape since the 50’s

  • To the complainers

    It’s not impossible to buy a home in Crown Heights. You can still buy a home if you think outside the box and buy a house south of Winthrop St.

    Yes, it’s a little inconvenient, but in five years from now you will regret not buying there.

  • ??

    AT LEAST THE BUILDINGS ARE MAKING UGLY CROWN HEIGHTS MORE APPEALING TO LIVE IN!!!!