Bushwick Mural House 140 Central Avenue

Bushwick’s mural-covered house at 104 Central Avenue, which seems to have launched a trend of colorful facades in Bushwick, has been sold as a development site and will be razed. The sale closed last week for $1,285,000 but has not yet hit public records.

Seller and local business owner Jeremy Sapienza was fed up with Bushwick and saw opportunity in soaring property values. He and partner Luis Velazquez plan to close the last of their two Florida-style Bushwick cafes Sunday, they announced via Facebook Wednesday.

“We’re closing because I haven’t made a dime in two years, Bushwick is a nightmare on earth full of obnoxious yuppie brats, and I’m tired. Maybe that’s not a nice angle, haha,” Sapienza told Brownstoner.

bushwick-mural-cafeteria-la-mejor

Cafeteria La Mejor at 146 Wilson Avenue will close Sunday. Photo via Cafeteria La Mejor

Sapienza also founded BushwickBK, a hyperlocal blog that chronicled local politics, the art scene, restaurants and real estate until it closed in 2010.

New owner and developer Domes Properties, based in Williamsburg, Wednesday filed a new-building application calling for a four-story building with eight apartments over 5,458 square feet, as NY YIMBY was the first to report. The architect is Diego Aguilera of Rego Park. No applications for a demo permit have been filed.

The property was worth more as a development site than a home because the lot is 25 feet wide. It is part of a trend of frame houses on oversize lots being razed to make way for bigger apartment buildings in Brooklyn, particularly in Bed Stuy, Bushwick, East Williamsburg and Flatbush. (It was a Brownstoner House of the Day in December.)

Sapienza and Velazquez are temporarily renting in South Williamsburg while they contemplate their next move. “There’s good food around and we’re convenient to everything so it’s hard to complain,” said Sapienza.

BushwickBK Coverage [Brownstoner]
Wood-Frame Houses Coverage [Brownstoner]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. No, I said WORKING artists are moving into Bushwick. I speak for many of newer Bushwick residents employed in creative fields who need coffee in the morning hours. I agree that the artists barely hanging on are moving out. The ones who nurse a $2 coffee all day for free wifi are probably being priced out of the neighborhood.

    Wilsons has a line most mornings by 7:30 of people on foot headed to M train. Those customers don’t strike me as obnoxious yuppie brats at all. They appear to be responsible working professionals.

  2. Three Diamond Door is empty?
    Heavy Woods is empty?
    Archie’s is empty?
    AP Creative Cafe is empty?
    Mominette is empty?
    Montana’s Trail House is Empty?

    More sour grapes Jeremy. Stop tossing off quotes and stop being a tosser.

  3. Nah, exactly backwards. We weren’t in an area with foot traffic — as you well know — so we were always a mid-day destination for people with jobs from home and artists and service industry people. If you think artists are moving IN to Bushwick, instead of barely hanging on, you’ve been reading blogs instead of actually experiencing your neighborhood.

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