Brooklyn Space November 29, 2023

November 29, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The outside of Arrow Linen Supply.
Screenshot from Google Maps.

A South Slope Linen Supply Company’s Controversial

Rezoning Pitch

Arrow Linen has riled neighbors with a proposed development that would tower over the block — and create housing.

Right before 7 p.m. on a recent Tuesday, a steady stream of residents from Windsor Terrace, South Park Slope and other nearby neighborhoods started filling the basement auditorium of the Holy Name of Jesus Church on Prospect Park West. Roughly 300 people had turned up after fliers with the motto “Housing Not High-Rises” had been left on doorsteps calling for residents to rally against a proposal that would convert a linen cleaning and supply factory into hundreds of apartments along Prospect Avenue.

The meeting, which took place on November 14, was led by a group of neighbors that have dubbed themselves Arrow Action. The group started organizing in August after Arrow Linen Supply Co. had filed an environmental assessment statement with the City Planning Office requesting to rezone its lots at 441 and 467 Prospect Avenue so it could sell the land to a developer who could then opt to construct a roughly 299,000 square-foot residential complex that would include two 13-story apartment towers.

“We think there’s a responsible way to develop that site, to create more affordable housing that fits into the neighborhood,” said Arrow Action member Jay Goldberg at the community meeting. “We support changes to the zoning policy through a comprehensive considerate process. Not this kind of one-off developer land grab to upzone property to increase the profits that the developer will end up making.”

To be sure, the construction of two 13-story towers would loom large in a neighborhood known for three-story rowhomes.

But Arrow’s proposal comes at a time when the growing shortage of housing and rising rents in New York City have taken center stage among politicians and housing advocates. New York City’s housing stock has grown by a meager 4 percent since 2010, lagging far behind other major U.S. cities, according to a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. And with a housing vacancy rate of just 3 percent, New York’s lack of affordable options has only grown more pronounced. The proposed development on Prospect Avenue would add 244 new apartments and an estimated 1,081 residents to the neighborhood, according to the company’s filing.

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240 Nassau Street. Screenshot from Google Maps.

Around Kings County

Alloy Acquires 240 Nassau Street in Downtown Brooklyn

Madison Square Boys & Girls Club and Alloy Development have announced a partnership to reestablish after-school services at the Navy Yard Clubhouse, located at 240 Nassau Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. This development follows Alloy’s acquisition of the property for $15 million and a $2 million donation to facilitate the temporary resumption of these important community services. The Brooklyn-based developer plans to engage with residents of the nearby Farragut, Whitman, and Ingersoll houses to gather input on the future development of the site. This process will include discussions about the long-term use of the property, including a permanent community facility space operated based on local feedback.

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Greenland Losing Grip on $5B Pacific Park Megaproject

Nick Mastroianni’s USIF moves to foreclose on second phase of 22-acre project. A decade after breaking ground, mired in delays and facing a 2025 deadline to complete its affordable housing, Brooklyn’s controversial Pacific Park is slipping away from its developer. Greenland is set to lose control of the delayed second phase of the 22-acre development formerly known as Atlantic Yards. The company has defaulted on nearly $350 million worth of loans tied to the six rental development sites of Pacific Park’s Phase 2, The Real Deal has learned. The lender has moved to foreclose on the sites.

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Can Brooklyn Change the Conversation on Comprehensive Planning in New York?

The Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn is the largest comprehensive planning effort by land area in the U.S. since L.A. updated its plan in the 2000s, and the latest attempt to advance comprehensive planning in a city that has grown cynical about it.

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Brooklyn Heights: A Historic Waterfront Community Minutes From Manhattan

The neighborhood, known as New York’s first suburb, is a place where ‘people want to stay forever.’ Deborah Hallen first visited Brooklyn Heights as a member of an amateur chamber music group. A year later, she moved there. A year after that, following a performance on Staten Island, she met Paul O. Zelinsky, an illustrator of children’s books, who, it turned out, also lived in Brooklyn Heights, in his art studio. “I fell in love at first sight,” said Ms. Hallen, 79, of the man she soon married. That was back in the 1970s. She and Mr. Zelinsky, 70, are now grandparents, but they still live and work in this historic waterfront community, home to many artists and writers. “Back in the day, rents were affordable,” she said. “Everybody was everybody’s friend.”

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Arris Grand Nears Completion At 445 Grand Avenue In Clinton Hill

Construction is approaching the finish line on Arris Grand, a nine-story residential building at 445 Grand Avenue in Clinton Hill. Designed by Fogarty Finger Architects and developed by Ranger Properties, the 110-foot-tall structure spans 120,809 square feet and will yield 113 market-rate and affordable rental units, 7,652 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, and a 4,362-square-foot community center for the Seventh Day Adventist Church. KD Sagamore Capital is listed as the owner, Corcoran New Development is the exclusive marketing and leasing agent, and Titanium Construction Services is the general contractor for the property, which is located at the corner of Grand Avenue and Fulton Street.

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Affordable Housing Lottery Launches For 5920 Bay Parkway In Mapleton

The affordable housing lottery has launched for 60th and Bay, an eight-story mixed-use building at 5920 Bay Parkway in Mapleton, Brooklyn. Designed by S. Wieder Architects, the structure yields 44 residences. Available on NYC Housing Connect are 14 units for residents at 70 to 130 percent of the area median income (AMI), ranging in eligible income from $54,858 to $198,250.

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Housing Solutions From

Across The Globe

Helsinki, Finland. Photo: Jaakko Kemppainen via Unsplash

No, Really. Building More Housing Can Combat Rising Rents

A study of new housing construction in Helsinki found that new homes rented by higher-income people set off a chain of moves that opened up housing to lower-income people.

To many people, new home construction is synonymous with gentrification. But a new analysis reinforces how more supply drives down housing costs. When it comes to housing, seeing is believing. To many, construction cranes are considered a grim harbinger of gentrification, not a sign that rents will soon go down. Urban and suburban residents alike, when asked in a 2022 survey about the expected effects of a sudden housing stock surge, overwhelmingly believed that rents and prices would go up or stay the same, not fall.

But a review of recent research into the link between new housing production and apartment affordability offers new evidence that the rules of supply and demand do apply to housing: Building more can slow rent growth in cities and free up more affordable vacant units in surrounding neighborhoods, without causing significant displacement.

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Perspectives From Brooklyn

And Beyond

► Dimon Praises Workers as JPMorgan Tops Out Headquarters Tower

PMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon praised the workers who have spent almost three years building the bank’s new headquarters. It will be the “best building in the United States and in fact probably the world,” Dimon said Monday at an event to commemorate the raising of the tower’s final steel beam. Read more.

► The Other Housing Crisis: Too Many Sick, Aging Homes

An aging US housing stock poses health risks to residents as much-needed repairs fall behind and the effects of climate change take a toll. The Summerdale apartments used to look a lot like many other housing complexes in low-income parts of US cities. It’s a compound of low-slung suburban-style buildings built in two phases starting in the early 1970s, located near Interstate 75 in Atlanta’s Glenrose Heights neighborhood. When developer Marjy Stagmeier’s firm, TriStar Realty, bought the 244-unit property in 2018, Summerdale needed millions of dollars in repairs. Tenants reported mold and insect infestations, broken appliances and leaking roofs; several units were vacant and partially burned out. The conditions took a particularly harsh toll on Summerdale’s youngest residents: Of the 68 children living there who attended nearby Cleveland Avenue Elementary School, most had asthma, Stagmeier says. As she recounts in her new book Blighted, Stagmeier is a strong believer in a concept that has only recently become a larger part of the housing policy conversation — the connection between living conditions and housing insecurity. That’s the link that drives TriStar’s investment strategy, as well as that of an increasing number of other organizations. Read more.

► City to Pay Homeowners to Add Accessory Dwelling Units

New York City will pay homeowners up to $395,000 to build an extra dwelling in their garage or basement to help ease the housing shortage. As cities and towns across the country struggle with a housing shortage, policymakers are looking to legalize and even fund the construction of accessory dwelling units, or “granny flats,” on existing residential property. New York City just unveiled its newest effort, which will hand 15 homeowners up to $395,000 to build an additional apartment. This could mean an extra unit in a garage, basement, or attic, or a tiny home in the backyard. The idea is to boost housing density in a city in desperate need of new housing. Read more.

► The Price Is Wrong for Housing

Even if mortgage rates come down, today’s high home prices don’t seem sustainable. Lower rates would make U.S. houses more affordable, just not affordable enough. The pandemic set off a flurry of demand for housing. Americans’ newfound desire for space, the padding of U.S. household finances from government relief checks, and sub-3% mortgage rates were a potent mix that sent home prices skyward. Now the buying frenzy has passed and, with mortgage rates at their highest levels in over 20 years, not many homes are getting sold at all. Yet high home prices have proved more than sticky. On Tuesday, S&P Dow Jones Indices reported that the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index hit a new record in September, putting it 3.9% above its year-earlier level. The big reason why home prices have stayed so high is well known: Current homeowners, carrying mortgages that are far below today’s rates, are unwilling to move, and that has placed severe constraints on the supply of homes. Read more.

► Planetizen’s Top Urban Planning Books of 2023

The world is changing, and planning with it. The challenge for contemporary planners is to replace expanses of concrete with green spaces and living infrastructure resilient to weather events while limiting sprawl and building denser, more compact urban communities, repairing systems that perpetuate discrimination and inequity, and adapting urban systems to incorporate nature. This year’s crop of books addresses land use, equity, road ecology, and climate change, and provides models for how planners can ensure their practice stays relevant to the urgency of today’s issues. Read more.