A Residential Tower Is Quickly Taking Shape Over Atlantic Avenue in Clinton Hill

A Morris Adjmi-designed skyscraper towering over the edge of Clinton Hill is quickly taking shape.

Located at 550 Clinton Avenue, at the corner of Atlantic Avenue, the building has reached 17 of its eventual 29 stories. Only about a quarter of the four-story base, which stretches along Atlantic between Clinton and Vanderbilt Avenues, has been constructed.

The new development will share a tax lot with the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew, located down the block at 520 Clinton Avenue. The Romanesque-style church opened in 1891 and was designed by prolific church architect John Welsh.

The developer, Jeffrey Gershon of Hope Street Capital, transferred 60,000 square feet of air rights from the church to the new development. He’s behind a number of Brooklyn projects, including an LPC-approved apartment building at 906 Prospect Place in Crown Heights and a six-story condo replaced a former Walgreens at 509 Pacific Street in Boerum Hill.

Just recently, Gershon and Adjimi were told by the LPC to come back at a later date with a new design for large-scale residential development on the site of the church-owned Hebron Seventh Day Adventist School in the Crown Heights.

In Clinton Hill, there will be a total of 264 apartments in the building, with a breakdown of 52 mandatory inclusionary housing units, 28 affordable units and 184 market-rate units, according to permits. Retail is set for the ground floor, with office space on the second floor. On the fifth floor will be a screening room, a game room, a dining lounge, a fitness and yoga room, coworking and meeting rooms, and an outdoor recreation area. Another outdoor recreation area will be on the roof.

In March 2018, the architects redesigned the building after commissioners at the LPC were concerned it obstructed views of the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew (the building is not located in a historic district; the proposal went in front of the LPC because of its connection to the church).

Next door to the future development is the site of a former freestanding 1850s house at 532 Clinton Avenue, which was demolished at the end of 2018. The owner also owns the brick building in Downtown Brooklyn with a connection to the abolitionist movement that is currently the subject of protests over the owner’s plan to demolish it. It is now being considered as an individual landmark by the LPC.

Related Stories

• Clinton Hill Bar Hot Bird Has Been Demolished to Make Way for Planned 29-Story Tower
• Clinton Hill’s Hot Bird May Soon Be Replaced by 29-Story Residential Building
• Hot Bird-Replacing Skyscraper Tweaked to Play Nice With Landmarked Clinton Hill Church

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