Development

Final Phase of Massive, Long-Promised Prospect Plaza Affordable Housing Is Rising in Ocean Hill

Families living in the public housing project it will replace were kicked out of their homes 17 years ago.

brooklyn development 1835 sterling place ocean hill

View from Eastern Parkway looking towards Sterling Place on the left and Saratoga Avenue on the right

by Seán Devlin

08/28/2017 4 minute 0

The final phase of the massive affordable housing complex known as Prospect Plaza is going up at 1845 Sterling Place in Ocean Hill.

The mostly low-rise development replaces troubled NYCHA apartment blocks. The old Prospect Plaza complex was emptied in 2000 — 17 years ago — with the promise that families could move back in after renovations, but the renovations never happened, the complex was eventually demolished, and families never got a chance to return to their homes.

Now the first two phases of the complex are complete, with certificates of occupancy issued for 1751, 1760 and 1765 Prospect Place, public records show. An affordable housing lottery launched for 1760 Prospect Place in 2016.

Now the final phase, at 1845 Sterling Place, also dubbed the Saratoga Site, has nearly topped out, and windows are going in on some of the lower floors.

When complete, the building will stand five stories and house 123 apartments. It will have a parking garage, a ground-floor grocery store, and a two-story community center topped with a greenhouse on the roof. Work has yet to begin on the community center.

The architects used color blocking and massing to break up the large red, orange, beige and white brick building so it appears to be several smaller ones, the rendering shows. The street level is attractive and pedestrian friendly, with large glass windows and retail shops with high ceilings.

When complete, Prospect Plaza will have 364 units in the whole complex, spread across more than five buildings on 4.5 acres of land. Eighty of the 364 units are set aside for NYCHA public housing, and the others are income restricted affordable housing.

The project is being developed by NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA) and Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), alongside Pennrose Properties, Blue Sea Development, Duvernay + Brooks, and Rosenberg Housing Group. The architect is Dattner Architects, which has designed many 100 percent and 80/20 affordable housing complexes in Brooklyn, including Fort Greene’s Caesura and East Flatbush’s Camba Gardens Phase II.

An unrelated townhouse-style affordable housing development bisects Prospect Plaza; its address is 1785 Park Place.

The project is the latest to bring affordable units to Ocean Hill. Last year, an affordable housing lottery took place at the long-in-the-works Henry Apartments on Broadway.