Greenpoint-Williamsburg, Downtown led Brooklyn in new housing built in 2023

Prospect Heights, East New York also were busy

April 26, 2024 Raanan Geberer

The Brooklyn Tower. Rendering courtesy of The Brooklyn Tower

Share this:

Four Brooklyn community districts are in the 10 citywide that saw as much new housing built in 2023 as the city’s other 49 districts combined, according to a new report from the Department of City Planning.

The four districts, which are contiguous with the city’s community boards, are Brooklyn Community District 1 (Greenpoint, Williamsburg), Brooklyn Community District 2 (Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Downtown Brooklyn), Community District 8 (Crown Heights, Prospect Heights) and Community District 5 (East New York, Cypress Hills, New Lots, Starrett City).

And, strikingly, almost no housing at all was constructed last year in a wide area of southern Brooklyn — Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, Bensonhurst and Coney Island. These areas are characterized by older, low-rise apartment buildings constructed in the 1920s and ‘30s as well as many single-family and two-family houses.

Let’s look at the numbers. According to DCP figures, more than 2,200 housing units were built in Brooklyn Community District 1, making Greenpoint-Williamsburg the second-highest area for new housing in the city, behind a Bronx neighborhood. CD 1 also had a substantial number of alterations.

Brooklyn Community District 2 boasted about 1,600 new housing units. Some 794 units were built in Brooklyn Community District 5. And in Brooklyn Community District 8, 1,133 new units were constructed.

Some of these developments were covered in the Brooklyn Eagle. For example, 35 Commercial St., just one of several buildings in a development called Greenpoint Landing, opened in September 2023. All 374 residences are targeted as affordable, with 57 set aside for formerly homeless individuals. The apartments are all-electric, and offer a children’s play aera, a fitness center, Wi-fi for all residents, a communal lounge, bicycle parking and more.

In Downtown Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Tower, Brooklyn’s first “supertall” residential skyscraper and the tallest building in the borough, was also finished last year. The building has 500 residences plus retail stores on the ground floor. It also features blackened stainless steel panels, and has several “wind floors” that allow heavy gusts of wind to pass through without damaging the building. It boasts several pools, a screening room, an athletic club, a library lounge and more. At its base, the early Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn is preserved.

In Prospect Heights, the overall complex known as 595 Dean St., actually consisting of two buildings, contains almost 800 apartments, about 240 or which are reserved for affordable housing. Among its amenities are a rooftop pool, a game room, lawn chairs, a Chelsea Piers Fitness and Field House, sprinklers and a dog park. According to an Eagle article published last May, 595 Dean is part of the overall Pacific Park development.

Lest one be too optimistic, however, the 15,359 new homes that received permits last year was the lowest figure since 2016. The Department of City Planning attributes this to the expiration of the 421-a tax incentive program for builders.

According to the Department, the mayor’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal would “alleviate the geographic disparity in housing production by enabling a little more housing in every neighborhood across the city, facilitating new growth in many of the areas that saw little or no new housing in 2023 due to overly restrictive zoning regulations.”