A builder known for smaller-scale projects has something larger in mind in Downtown Brooklyn.
Joel Schwartz is seeking to develop a 14-story, 117-unit mixed-use project at 236 Gold St., a longtime parking lot near Flatbush Avenue, according to a filing that appeared Tuesday at the Department of City Planning. Thirty of the units at the presumably rental project, near Concord Street and a Brooklyn-Queens Expressway overpass, would be income-restricted apartments offered at below-market rents, the filing says.
To move forward, Schwartz wants the city to rezone the weedy site, which currently is part of a district that allows only low-slung residential buildings, to allow for a taller structure that has apartments and retail space, the filing indicates.
The developer also wants planning officials to waive a parking requirement for the narrow 20-by-54-foot lot.
Schwartz, who did not return a phone message left at his Williamsburg-based company, Southside Units, is the latest developer to attempt a transformation of Gold Street, a thoroughfare near the Brooklyn Navy Yard that was once checkered with parking lots.
Opening in 2021 on the same side of the block was 260 Gold St., a gray-toned 13-story offering from developer Solomon Feder that has 286 studios to three-bedrooms. Similarly, about a decade ago, Lalezarian Properties put the finishing touches on Bklyn Gold, a massive two-building rental complex across the street. The complex’s 14-story No. 257 portion features 372 apartments, while the 12-story No. 277 side has 133 homes. (A self-storage facility separates the two sections.)
A Bklyn Gold studio was available on May 15 for around $3,400 per month.
In 2022, Schwartz picked up 236 Gold, which appears to have been vacant since the street was widened in the urban-renewal-centric 1960s, for $3.7 million, according to the city register.
Schwartz, an active developer for at least two decades, is no stranger to boutique-style, mid-block projects. In 2023, he unveiled 596 Metropolitan Ave., a 6-story, 12-unit rental in Williamsburg with a mix of market-rate and affordable units. And he’s currently at work on nearby 352 Meeker Ave., a 7-story, 27-unit mid-rise on a property that once contained a kitchen-supply store, building permits show.
The developer has been known to sell apartment buildings within a few years of completing them. Two years ago, Schwartz unloaded a portfolio of sites in Bushwick and Williamsburg, including, 99 N. Fourth St., a slender 7-story, 8-unit offering, to the firm Corner Street Capital.
C. J. Hughes , 2024-05-15 19:37:10
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