Foundation of Modern Apartment Building Goes in at Putnam Triangle in Clinton Hill

Interior renderings from Durukan Design show sleek modern condos in pale colors and natural materials.

The construction site at the corner of Grand Avenue and Fulton Street in August. Photo by Susan De Vries

by Cate Corcoran

09/14/2022 4 minute 0

Workers were busy and the foundation was in when Brownstoner stopped by 450 Grand Avenue in August. A block of retailers here for decades, including a busy laundromat and restaurants occupying a 19th century row, has been demolished to make way for a seven-story, 39-unit apartment building.

The development faces the Putnam Triangle plaza. Around the corner on Cambridge Place is a quaint but unprotected block of mid-19th century brownstones and wood-frame houses, including a quartet of Italianates with bay fronts and Gothic details. Across Fulton, another big development, long stalled, on a former parking lot next to a church at 445 Grand Avenue is quickly rising.

Chana Balkany is one of the owners of 450 Grand Avenue Owners LLC, building permits show. The architect of record is Issac & Stern Architects. The rendering posted on the construction fence shows a boxy brick building with set back balconies.

Renderings from interior designer Durukan Design, whose website says the building will hold 42 condos, show sleek modern units in pale colors. Materials will include natural stone, fluted millwork and wide plank oak floors. A combo screening room and karaoke lounge will open to a shared garden, and on the sixth floor will be a lounge and terrace, according to the firm.

a wood frame house — A wood frame on Grand Avenue near the construction site

putnam triangle in 2019 — The site in 2019

Along with 445 Grand Avenue, the development is a major change for this stretch of Clinton Hill. Until recently, the site housed the busy Clean Rite Center laundromat with a big parking lot and a row of townhouses with storefronts home to many neighborhood staples, including French restaurant Hill Cafe. Putnam Triangle Plaza was created over nearly a decade. As property values rise throughout the borough, modern high- and mid-rise development is spreading down Fulton from Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene.