Sunset’s Eighth Avenue is booming
With several developments on the way, Sunset’s Park’s Eighth Avenue, also known as Brooklyn Chinatown, is experiencing a boom.
Among the proposals that have surfaced over the past several years is one in which a parking lot approximately 160,700 square feet in size, located at 6208 Eighth Avenue, would be transformed into a mega-development called the Eighth Avenue Center. The space was purchased by a group of Chinese investors in 2014 for $51.5 million. It is planned to include a retail space, a 17-story office building, a seven-to-10-story/150-room hotel, and two 15-story condominium towers. Although construction was expected to begin in spring of 2015, it currently remains a parking lot.
The site owners, Xiu Qin Shi and Aiyun Chen, purchased the space near the 62nd Street train station, from Andrew Kohen of MSK Properties LLC, who had planned a mixed-use development at the site which was certified by the Department of City Planning (DCP) in 2007. That development, which included an 11-story building with a Home Depot and residential units, never came to fruition after the financial crisis of 2007-2008.