Sale of Bushwick Lot for $3.8 Million Ousts Nonprofit That Helps Homeless
A nonprofit that helps homeless people who collect cans for a 5-cent deposit is being pushed out of its home in Bushwick because the landlord is about to sell the property for $3,800,000. The organization, Sure We Can, signed a five-year lease last year to pay more than $4,000 a month to rent the lot…
A nonprofit that helps homeless people who collect cans for a 5-cent deposit is being pushed out of its home in Bushwick because the landlord is about to sell the property for $3,800,000. The organization, Sure We Can, signed a five-year lease last year to pay more than $4,000 a month to rent the lot at 219 McKibbin Street, DNAinfo reported.
Property owner Otto Perez’s family offered the group $50,000 to end the lease early, after a buyer offered him $3,800,000 for the 13,000-square-foot lot. The plot includes a shed and storage lockers where the can collectors can store their wares until they’re ready to trade them in. They’re hoping to raise money from nonprofits and foundations to buy the land in the buyer’s stead.
Sure We Can’s dilemma shows how valuable Bushwick property is becoming, particularly in the industrial business zone the city calls East Williamsburg near the Morgan Avenue L train. Only a block over on Siegel and Moore Streets, Massey Knakal is marketing a large commercial property for $35,000,000. But under current zoning, any building constructed at 219 McKibbin can’t be larger than 13,000 square feet.
Nonprofit That Gives Homeless a Hand With Recycling Faces Ouster [DNAinfo]
Photo via Google Maps
Very sad, just a continuation of the aggrandizement of the real estate people as neighborhoods change.. Even if the homeless center can find a decent place to relocate, the message this sale sends is not a good one. Every building in neighborhoods like this is fair game.