Development

Chetrit's Massive Hotel Complex at Busy Williamsburg Intersection Nearly Finished

Looming above greasy food mecca Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg, a hotel-apartment-retail complex is inching toward completion.

Photo by Susan De Vries

by Craig Hubert

07/16/2018 4 minute 0

Looming above greasy food mecca Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg, a hotel-apartment-retail complex is inching toward completion.

Located at 500 Metropolitan Avenue, the 14-story complex will house 187 hotel rooms and 47 rental apartments. It was once called M500, but that name does not appear on any of the recent commercial leasing documents or the architect’s website.

We’ve been keeping our eye on the long-in-the-works project. In March, we noticed that the facade was complete, including a three-story triangular bay window that looks over the Keap Street side of the building.

The unusual rusted Corten steel fence that screens the yard from the sidewalk along Metropolitan Avenue, which had previously been concealed by a green construction fence, is now fully visible. Interior work was happening in the street level spaces.

500 metropoltan avenue — View through fence on Metropoltian Avenue

The building received its certificate of occupancy in June 2018, so could open any day now.

The complex will include a retail/event space, catering hall, bar, restaurant and pool, as well as rental apartments and hotel rooms, according to a commercial leasing brochure from Winick Realty Group.

The building is technically a condo, containing four commercial units and one residential unit, according to the building offering plan.

Kutnicki Bernstein is the architect of record, and 500 Metropolitan Avenue isn’t the only hospitality project the firm has worked on in the borough: They’re also behind the design of the recently opened Gowanus Inn and Yard.

Hanging over a busy intersection of Williamsburg right next to the to BQE, the hotel will further transform a corner of the neighborhood that has seen rapid development along Union Street in recent years.

The developer of the complex is Chetrit Group. Headed by real estate mogul Joseph Chetrit, they’re behind Downtown Brooklyn’s supertall at 9 Dekalb Avenue, which will eventually be the tallest tower in the borough. Recently, a fire at a warehouse they own in Red Hook was deemed suspicious by the FDNY.

In 2008, renderings and promotional materials pegged 500 Metropolitan Avenue as a big-box store complex, but then things went quiet during the downturn. In 2012, applications for building permits were filed. Ground was broken in 2013, but then not much happened until work started on the foundation in 2015.

500 metropoltian avenue — View from Union Avenue

During this time, the design went through a number of iterations and different architects: Gene Kaufman and Meltzer/Mandl Architects were previously tapped.

The complex is part of a larger hotel boom in Williamsburg, which has seen Heritage Equity Partners’ Williamsburg Hotel, the Pod Hotel, the William Vale and the Wythe Hotel rise in recent years.