Bay Ridge

Will 35 78th St. get a reprieve from demolition?

Eye On Real Estate: New construction versus renovation in Bay Ridge

February 17, 2016 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
This is 35 78th St., which was going to be torn down and replaced with a new house but now is for sale. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
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The handsome — but unkempt — house at 35 78th St. is getting a reprieve from demolition. Maybe.

The couple who had planned to tear down the single-family house on the corner of Narrows Avenue and build a new one are selling the property instead.

Last July, the city Buildings Department issued demolition permits for the house and garage. George Georgaklis and his wife Evangela had purchased the house for $1.255 million in 2014, city Finance Department records show.  

The house is still standing, and now it has a for-sale sign out front.

Michael Napolitano of Re/Max Metro, who has the listing, started with an asking price of $1.898 million this past December for the four-bedroom, four-bathroom house. After two price trims, it’s currently $1.699 million.

The reprieve from demolition might only be temporary. Construction plans for a new five-bedroom, five-bathroom home are available for sale along with the existing house, the listing on Re/Max’s website says.

 

Demolition pending a block away

The applicant of record for 35 78th St.’s demolition permits was Athanasios Amaxas of A.A.D. Construction Corp.

Kostantinos Amaxas and his wife Athena purchased a house one block away on the corner of 79th Street, whose address is 7815 Narrows Ave., for $1.68 million in 2015, Finance Department records indicate. According to online business records, he is an executive at A.A.D. Construction Corp.

Athanasios Amaxas was also the applicant of record for a demolition permit obtained for this house last July.

This house has not been torn down, either — yet. The Buildings Department has not approved plans for  the construction of a new 4,222-square-foot single-family home.

A huge empty lot on Ridge Boulevard

Like every other soul in real-estate-obsessed Brooklyn, we like to keep track of what’s getting torn down and what’s being renovated.

Bay Ridge has its share of handsome homes being sold, demolished and replaced with new and bigger residences. It’s a long-running theme in this neighborhood and adjacent Dyker Heights as well.

So for all of you who want to know what’s up with the enormous rubble-strewn lot behind the construction fence on the corner of Ridge Boulevard and 77th Street, here’s what Finance Department records tell us:

Not long ago, there was a house at 7624 Ridge Blvd. BDM Development Corp., whose president is Bernice Bai, purchased it for $1.88 million in 2011.

In 2014, BDM sold the property for $1.575 million. At that point, Finance Department records refer to the property as “residential vacant land.” The buyers were Shashin Gandhi and his wife Rinal Gandhi.

In January, the Buildings Department issued a permit for a partial job to build a new 3,923-square-foot single-family house on the site.

These buyers are embracing renovation

Some Bay Ridge house buyers do renovate their purchases instead of calling in the wrecking crews.

For instance, George Arsoff and his wife Chyrine Haggear are doing an interior renovation of the single-family house at 8120 Colonial Road and installing new windows.

They bought the residence on the corner of 82nd Street last year for $2.15 million, Finance Department records show.

A brief digression: Property-purchase prices usually are not included in older documents — except when there were foreclosure auctions or estate sales. This house was sold in an estate sale in 1977, so we know what its price was on that occasion: $101,230. 

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