Park Slope

Stroll Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue, starting with the development-dotted Park Slope span

Eye On Real Estate

June 6, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Welcome to Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, which is lined with old-fashioned architectural eye candy like this building on the corner of 2nd Street. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
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It starts with an arena and ends with a quasi-cathedral.

We’re talking about Fifth Avenue, the commercial and residential corridor that runs from Barclays Center at the edge of Park Slope to big, beautiful St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Ridge.

The five-mile street passes through Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park, too.

A stroll down the full length of Fifth Avenue will give you a feel for the old-fashioned architecture in these four neighborhoods.

It will take around two hours — not counting stops you’ll want to make at various shops, restaurants and parks. If you take photos, like we did, you’ll spend multiple days there.

Today, we’ll show you what’s cooking in Park Slope. Next week, we’ll tell you about our other Fifth Avenue adventures.

 

A low-rise office building is headed this way

Development — and redevelopment — sites are strung like beads on a necklace on Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue.

They’re interspersed among rows of fab old mixed-use rowhouses and multi-family buildings.

The very top of Fifth Avenue across from Barclays Center is occupied by a big plot of bulldozed land where single-story retail buildings stood until recently. Its developer refers to the site as 178 Flatbush Ave.

The fenced-in site runs the full length of the Fifth Avenue block from Flatbush Avenue to Dean Street.

The addresses of the now-departed buildings were 172 to 180 Flatbush Ave., 22 to 30 Fifth Ave. and 439 to 443 Dean St., city Buildings Department records indicate.

According to city Finance Department records, the site has belonged to Joseph Zelik since 1991. Last year, he deeded the property to Flatbush Corner Fifth LLC, of which he’s a member.

Buildings Department filings describe the commercial building he plans to construct as being 48 feet tall and either two or three stories high. It will cover 100 percent of the 8,941-square-foot

lot.

A 2016 story in New York YIMBY said it will be an office building with no retail space.

This old-fashioned Park Slope streetscape includes handsome 401 Fifth Ave. on the corner of 7th Street.

Which way to the Hutwelker Building?

On one of the last blocks in Park Slope, you find the Hutwelker Building, which was constructed in 1896. It’s at 655 Fifth Ave.

Two decades ago, Paul Joffe’s Park Slope Construction LLC turned the four-story commercial property into an apartment building with retail space. Its residential address is 249 19th St.

In 2013, developer Time Equities bought the South Slope building through two LLCs for $8.1 million, Finance Department records indicate.

Last year, attorney Daniel A. Schwartzman declared a condo offering plan for 249 19th St. effective on behalf of principal sponsor Francis Greenburger, website We3.com says. Greenburger is the chairman and chief executive officer of Time Equities.

According to the We3.com posting, the expected total sellout price for the 10-apartment Hutwelker Condominium is $9,822,350.

Finance Department records indicate that in March, one condo sold for $752,525 and another sold for $644,166.   

 

Revolutionary War heroism at the Old Stone House

Before we describe developments on the blocks between these two locations, we want to tell you about the highest-profile property on Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue.

It’s a Dutch farmhouse that was constructed in 1699 — the Old Stone House.

The house is the jewel of Washington Park, which is located on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th streets.

The Old Stone House, a key site during the Battle of Brooklyn, is the jewel of present-day Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

The house, whose modern-day address is 336 3rd St., was a key site in the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War.

General William Alexander — a Patriot from New Jersey despite his claim to the noble Scottish title Lord Stirling — and the Maryland 400 made a brave stand at the Old Stone House on Aug. 27, 1776. Their self-sacrifice allowed thousands of American soldiers to retreat safely.

On that fateful day, Lord Stirling and the Marylanders faced off against British General Charles Cornwallis and his 2,000 troops. The British put canons in the second-floor windows of the house and fired down on the courageous Maryland regiment.

In the resulting carnage, 256 Marylanders were killed, 100 were wounded or captured and just a few escaped, historians say.

The general from New Jersey, whose biographer described him as a glutton and a drunkard, displayed astonishing valor.

He “fought like a wolf,” Lord Cornwallis later said.

After the battle, Lord Stirling was taken prisoner and eventually freed in a prisoner exchange.

 

A condo development in a parking lot

But back to modern-day Park Slope. Here’s a sampling of other Fifth Avenue developments in the neighborhood:

* The long-time owner of 46 Fifth Ave. is adding a fourth story to the three-story mixed-use residential and retail property, Buildings Department filings indicate. It’s located near the corner of Bergen Street.

* Condo sales are underway at the just-built, seven-story Aaron Condominiums at 236 17th St.

When we looked online the other day, sales agent CitiHabitats had posted listings for a three-bedroom unit with a $1.575 million asking price and a one-bedroom apartment with a $765,000 asking price.  

Developers had bought the South Slope site on the corner of Fifth Avenue for $4.25 million in October 2013, Finance Department records indicate.

It had been the parking lot for a retailer on the opposite side of Fifth Avenue called Aaron’s Fine Ladies Apparel.

In November, attorney Jodi B. Zimmerman of Ficara & Associates PC declared principal sponsor Nicholas Malafis’ condo offering plan for 236 17th St. effective, a posting on website We3.com says.

According to the posting, the development has 17 residential units, 12 parking units and an expected total sellout price of $23,431,900.

The condo sponsor’s principals are Nicholas Malafis and Ioannis Glyptis, the state Attorney General’s real estate finance database says.

* Once upon a time, a Polish grocery store called Eagle Provisions at 628 Fifth Ave. sold more than 2,500 different types of beer.

Actually, that’s not a fairy tale. It was true until 2015, when South Slope shop owners Richard and John Zawisny sold their building on the corner of 18th Street for $7.5 million. The grocery store closed and the new property owners are now in the throes of constructing what’s essentially a new six-floor building with 20 apartments.

Finance Department records identify the new owner as two LLCs led by George Malafis and Ioannis Glyptis.

The second person’s name will sound familiar since he is involved with the Aaron Condominiums.

As for George Malafis, a couple years ago when we were trying to figure out who’s who among South Slope developers, we called his office and were told Nicholas Malafis is George Malafis’ son.

 

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