Two More Rambling Victorians in Flatbush Will Soon Be Replaced by Big Apartment Building
The Flatbush development wave hits again. As reported last month by NY YIMBY, Boaz Gilad of Brookland Capital is building a seven-story, 66-unit apartment building at 88-92 Linden Boulevard. No demolition permits or applications for new buildings have yet been filed for the site, though Gilad told NY YIMBY that he’d do it this month. Gilad paid $2,070,000…
The Flatbush development wave hits again. As reported last month by NY YIMBY, Boaz Gilad of Brookland Capital is building a seven-story, 66-unit apartment building at 88-92 Linden Boulevard.
No demolition permits or applications for new buildings have yet been filed for the site, though Gilad told NY YIMBY that he’d do it this month. Gilad paid $2,070,000 for No. 88, the turreted one on the right, in May. His purchase of No. 92, on the left, has yet to hit public records.
A tipster in the neighborhood sent Brownstoner pictures showing that a green construction fence recently went up around the two turn-of-the-last-century houses currently on the site, between Rogers and Bedford Avenue. The houses both feature some interesting architectural details that we’ll be sad to see go.
Interior shots of the homes and more information on Brookland Capital after the jump.
Brookland Capital, cofounded by ex-actor Gilad and partner Assaf Fitoussi, is one of the most active developers in Brooklyn, with more than 40 projects going at any one time, as readers will recall. It specializes in small to medium-size condo developments rather than rentals, and was able to get financing from private sources for these even during the downtown when others could not, Fitoussi once told us.
Its staff of dozens works out of an office on Malcolm X Boulevard in Bed Stuy that won a Brooklyn Building Award for its design, which makes use of salvage building materials.
Though siding has obscured some of the more fanciful details of these two Queen Anne houses; you can the one on the right has a very unusual asymmetrical square turret with its own dormer window and mansard roof, visible in the tax photo below.
The 1980s tax photo of 88 Linden Boulevard clearly shows its unusual turret
Above and below, interior photos of the Queen Anne-style house at 88 Linden Boulevard from 2012
The potential to build on these properties is huge. As it stands now, the house at No. 88 is slightly less than 3,000 square feet, but a building of 19,264 square feet could be erected in its place, according to PropertyShark.
No. 92 is slightly bigger at just under 3,800 square feet. A building of 22,016 square feet is possible. With a total of 41,280 buildable square feet over the two lots, that could work out to about 50 good-size apartments averaging about 800 square feet each.
Incidentally, interior photos of 88 Linden Boulevard from an old listing can still be seen online. They show a house in remarkably good condition that appears to have been extensively altered but still contained some wood work and other historic details.
Last week we told you about a notable chateau-style house that is coming down to make way for another big apartment building in Flatbush.
“Looks like the development on the Flatbush to East Flatbush border is going strong,” our tipster said.
Petite Faux Chateau in Flatbush Gives Way to Big Apartment Building [Brownstoner]
Flatbush Coverage [Brownstoner]
Demolition Coverage [Brownstoner]
Interior photos by Corcoran; tax photo via PropertyShark
Editor’s Note: This post was updated from its original version.
Renderings above and below by RoArt via NY YIMBY
Because of lot size, street width, and zoning, these buildings are more or less doomed. The neighborhood used to be hundreds of houses like this. PLG manor was developed with uniform, 20×100 lots, but down here streets like Church and Linden are remnants from an earlier time, and don’t fit into a modern grid. The lots are much deeper, as much as 200 feet deep on Lenox. Developers greedily eyed these lots 100 years ago and started building apartment buildings like the ones surrounding these houses. They continued tearing them down all the way until the 60s – some of the buildings on Lenox are from this era. Now they are picking up where they left off.
The only consolation is that these owners were well-compensated for their houses. If you bought 2 years ago for $900k would you turn down a developer for $2m?