Historic East New York Bank Building Will Be Torn Down and Replaced by Medical Mid-Rise
We’re sorry to report that the former East New York Savings Bank at 91 Pennsyvlania Avenue will be demolished to make way for a seven-story medical building. A demolition permit for the four-story Renaissance Revival building was issued in December. One of New York City’s most important architects, Richard Upjohn, Jr., designed the bank, which was built in…
We’re sorry to report that the former East New York Savings Bank at 91 Pennsyvlania Avenue will be demolished to make way for a seven-story medical building. A demolition permit for the four-story Renaissance Revival building was issued in December.
One of New York City’s most important architects, Richard Upjohn, Jr., designed the bank, which was built in 1889 and occupies a full block on Atlantic between Pennsyvlania and New Jersey avenues, smack in the middle of the soon-to-be-rezoned East New York business district. The property was a Building of the Day last year.
An application for a new-building permit filed last week calls for a seven-story building with 121,000 square feet of space, as well as 153 parking spots. It will house “ambulatory diagnostic or treatment health care facilities,” according to schedule A filings. Udo Maron of Array Architects is the architect of record.
The 34,000-square-foot structure last changed hands for $5,500,000 in 2005, according to public records. Jonas Rudofsky of real estate firm Squarefeet.com appears to be the owner and developer, according to permits.
With so much empty and underutilized land available in East New York, we think it’s a shame the developer chose this particular location. This building looks ideal for adaptive reuse, such as a mixed-use condo development. We haven’t seen a rendering yet but we’re not hopeful it will be better than the building there now.
Building of the Day: 91 Pennsylvania Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP
Photo by Kate Leonova for PropertyShark
Could it be that guys at Squarefeet has a value system equivalent to that of a slug?
I worked in the ENY school district for about 13 years and knew this area even well before that time, so I am quite familiar with the building and the surrounding area. I think that East New York is right. though, about this building. I worked as a proposal writer there and the health needs in the ENY community are quite great. There is not a nearby hospital; Brookdale is about it. Maybe Jamaica Hospital? In any case, many of the people in ENY rely on public transportation and this corner is really quite convenient for that reason. There are several buses that stop there and the A/C line is only a short walk away. Also, there is Broadway Junction a short walk/bus ride from there.
I’ve always like the building a lot and even had a bank account there, I’ll miss it, I think it’s really lovely, but its loss will not be earthshaking, sad to say. And if this change really answers community needs, that is the more important point. Better to have a building that really works for its intended purpose than an adapted one which can only “sort of” fits the needs.
The old SIXTH WARD BANK BUILDING a few blocks to the west at Atlantic and Georgia was an even more interesting historic building. Alas, take a look at what can result when you don’t either restore or tear down and build anew. Neither fish nor fowl.
http://bstoner.wpengine.com/blog/2012/06/past-and-present-26th-ward-bank/
I work around that building quite a bit , compared to the surrounding architecture this building is pretty nice. They should have preserved the shell and made it affordable housing mixed with commercial tenants. Too bad , another old gem lost to progress.
Very sad, with so many underutilized lots and one story block-sized buildings they choose this location. There is a similar sized lot just two blocks south of here on Pitkin ave. and Pennsylvania ave. that has sat empty since the gas station was torn down in 2013, but now it looks like it’ll be yet another storage facility even though theres tons of them in the area already. Even the Mrs’ Maxwells Bakery lot a block away is bigger than this and would not have been an architectural loss.
Traffic is sometimes a nightmare at this intersection especially during summer, now we can add ambulances to it. I wonder how many of these “new jobs” will actually go to residents of the neighborhood.
Looks like someone heard you:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2015/02/east_new_yorkers_stand_on_street_corner_in_subzero_temperatures_to_protest.php
Look on Loopnet – the property was marketed for over a year as an office/retail building and no tenants seemed to want the building as it stood. If they did, they didn’t get anywhere with it. For those saying it should be condos – the building is C8, you can’t put residential in there. I’m as sad as anyone else that this beautiful historic building is coming down but I think that some of the demands in hindsight from the comments section here are completely impractical.
In the proposed rezoning it’ll be C4-4D, isn’t that commercial with residential above?