New Northern Crown Heights Hotel in the Works
A large lot on Atlantic Avenue between Nostrand and New York avenues that used to be a place where you could (according to a sign that’s still hanging there) buy live poultry is now a hotel development site. Foundation work is underway on the property, which, per DOB filings is going to be a 5-story,…
A large lot on Atlantic Avenue between Nostrand and New York avenues that used to be a place where you could (according to a sign that’s still hanging there) buy live poultry is now a hotel development site. Foundation work is underway on the property, which, per DOB filings is going to be a 5-story, 54-room hotel. The view is of train tracks, and it’s a couple blocks from the Crown Heights armory, where the city wants to relocate a homeless intake center from Manhattan. Competition for the Nu and Le Bleu? GMAP DOB
Crown Heights rocks. Go home haters.
Maybe the LIRR is beginning a new Stop & Shower service that will soon be announced by our “still in the closet” borough president.
WOW! I remember attending a public safety meeting about crime and the absense of police protection around the Nostrand Ave station. I guess their solution was to approve a short-stay hotel that will give the late-night creepers something else to do besides commit crime.
HEY! What’s wrong with a hourly hotel? Must we all assume that it will be used for non-christian like behaviour. I for one, would enjoy having a place to stop and shower after taking the ride from 34th street to Nostrand Ave on the LIRR.
That sounds about right, Montrose.
Some time before 2000 a cabbie drove me from JFK along Atlantic and I asked him to turn into Pacific to get a glance of the old block. I was shocked by what I saw: abandoned buildings on my side of the street and my own building looking like something out of the South Bronx!
So a developer or public agency must have rehabbed the whole row. Looks like an “affordable” or subsidized housing job to me. Still, it’s good to see the buildings come back. And with the new condos, the whole block will be occupied, something it wasn’t even in my day. (I often wondered what was originally on that lot. There was a granite parapet in front of its wood fence. One of the great old mansions, perhaps — like 1290?)
Hope you and your neighbors are vigilant as to design. There are very nice brownstones and limestones next to that lot. The condos should round them out rather than overshadow them. Modern’s fine, maybe the best way to go. But is should be good Modern.
(And congratulations. You had the foresight to buy and hold in spite of all the naysayers on Brownstoner! In future, most of the bloggers here won’t be able to touch Pacific Street!)
NOP
NOP, what a great story. They gutted and rebuilt that entire row of apartment buildings around 2000, and I have a feeling the details were gone long before that, as I didn’t see anything resembling period detail going into dumpsters, and as a dedicated dumpster diver, believe me, I looked. I will look at the building with new eyes now, thanks for more tales.
Moreteaser, I don’t want to get into a contest of “my hood is better/worse than yours”, and I’m disappointed that anyone from any part of our much maligned Crown Heights would go there, given the venom that is released at the mere mention of the neighborhood. Crown Heights, as you well know, is huge, and the projects are not anywhere near this location, but our landmarked blocks are right around the corner, as is the Children’s Museum. The Armory is there too, and I’m proud that this amazing and individually landmarked masterpiece is nearby, no matter what its current use. You have beautiful blocks too, as well as some not so hot places yourself. Let’s all work to make the entire very large and diverse community of Crown Heights a better place.
Montrose Morris
Out on business all day, and miss the fun. Well!
While a Best Western is not on my short list of what I would put there, I’ll take it. I see no indication or inclination for it to become an hourly “hot pillow joint”. It makes absolutely no sense for a national chain to go to the expense of building a hotel with their name prominantly displayed, to see it quickly become a popular place for a quickie. If we are going to legislate morality here, there’s not a hotel in the entire world that hasn’t been used for this purpose, let’s just shut them all down. Problem solved.
A full service hotel here offers the community an opportunity for economic gain. If it has banquet/conference rooms, it can be a location for wedding receptions, local meetings and conferences, and other events. Jobs will be available. People in Park Slope aren’t the only ones to have family and friends come to Brooklyn to visit. Bed Stuy, Crown Heights, and other neighborhoods are filled with people with families, friends and visitors from out of town, and I would bet this hotel is filled, especially around holidays, or in the summer.
While this is a very noisy and busy location, it is a logical place for a large structure like a hotel,as it won’t be displacing housing stock, and is quite near the Nostrand A stop, and will be right under the LIRR stop, and is easy to find via car. No it’s not the most scenic location, but I would be willing to bet that it is the first step in the revitalization of the area, and better retail, dining, etc will follow, replacing the empty stores and many car repair shops. As several have said, better than an empty lot. The condos
Bxgl:
Yes, we had wood wainscoting, paneling, and faux fire places. Parquet floors, too. The lobby and stairs were marble and tile and there were two sets of heavy wrought-iron doors to the street, separated by a vestibule and several steps. (We kids would get our fingers caught trying to push the doors open while turning the key. Ouch!)
Don’t know much about housing codes, but I do think that every New York apartment needs “two means of egress,” making it likely that our building’s floors were reconfigured to have a second stair. (I don’t think fire escapes are permissable with new construction anymore, although they might be “grandfathered” with renovations.)
Odd to think, but fire escapes can be attractive. On our building they made a nice veil across the facade. The place looks poorer without them. Also, the big slate and stone stoop at the entrance has been shaved away and a flimsy iron fence put around the base. Not just the details, but the proportions of the building (and its twin next door) are very different now — and not for the better, even if “modernized.”
But I hope people are happy living there. We were. (I’m looking now at one of my favorite photographs. It’s of my mother swinging my little brother, three years old, in her arms in front of the brownstones across the street. They’re laughing with joy. That picture’s Crown Heights for me!)
NOP
I thought that was you NOP! You know Montrose is going to demand more details too 🙂