Clinton Hill Rezoning to Swap Migrant Shelter for Homes, Retail, Maker Spaces

A major redevelopment project, set to transform a 10-building commercial site near the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a mixed-use area, has entered the city’s land use review process.

A 2.6-acre block in Clinton Hill that sits across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and is currently being mostly used as a migrant shelter will undergo a major transformation in coming years to become a mixed residential, commercial, and retail community if a rezoning plan goes ahead.

New York-based developer RXR‘s project was certified by City Planning as part of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) on Tuesday. The plan to redevelop part of the site at 47 Hall Street calls for demolishing two of 10 existing buildings, replacing them with a new 21-story building, and refurbishing seven others for residential, retail, small commercial, and self-storage use.

The block, which is currently zoned for commercial and industrial use, is bounded by Flushing Avenue, Ryerson Street, Park Avenue, and Hall Street. RXR is asking to change it from M1-2 zoning to M1-5 and M1-6A/R8.

The project would create 611 residential units across two buildings. The new tower would have 464 new units, including 116 to 139 permanently affordable units. The nine-story building at 14-42 Ryerson Street, which runs down Ryerson Street, would have 147 apartments, including 37 to 44 permanently affordable units, according to documents included in the rezoning.

The development team said they are yet to decide whether they would use Mandatory Inclusionary Housing option one or two, and said the apartments will be rentals and include studio apartments as well as bigger units. The remaining seven buildings will be renovated with a mix of maker spaces, commercial office, retail, and self-storage, and leased to new tenants, according to documents in the rezoning.

RXR Senior Project Manager of Public-Private Development and Investments Neelima Panoli told Brownstoner the rezoning offers a “tremendous opportunity to transform what has largely been an underutilized parcel into a kind of active mixed use campus that will bring in hundreds of new residential units, including affordable housing,” bridging the area with the nearby Navy Yard. RXR previously restored the 10 commercial buildings in a major renovation project that finished in 2019, but struggled to find tenants in a market greatly impacted by Covid-19.

In 2023, the city signed signed a contract to use 47 Hall Street, the address for the entire block, as a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center shelter for migrants, along with a second building on Ryerson Street not owned by RXR. The two shelters have been controversial in the neighborhood due to their size and crimes that happened nearby. The city announced earlier this month it would vacate the current building in June.

Panoli said with the new plan, there would be 90,000 square feet of commercial space largely tailored towards smaller, creative tenants, retail along the street fronts designed for smaller community-serving businesses, and landscaped open space. The latter, combined with the retail component, will create a 24-hour vibrant community, he said.

While none of the buildings on the site are protected by New York City landmarking, nine of the 10 are listed on the National Register of Historic Places for the Wallabout Industrial Historic District and one of those would be demolished as part of the plan. To build the new 21-story building that will front Flushing Avenue and run from Hall to Ryerson street, the developers will demolish the five-story Romanesque Revival brick building at 248-252 Flushing Avenue, on the corner of Flushing Avenue and Ryerson Street. It was designed by Theobald Engelhardt for the B.A. Jurgens grocery warehouse and built in the 1890s. They also plan to demolish a noncontributing single-story brick building at the southeast corner of Flushing Avenue and Hall Street.

However, the rezoning documents say that regardless of whether the rezoning goes ahead or not, the two buildings will be demolished. In the as-of-right situation, a new self-storage building would be built. The building at 14-42 Ryerson Street, slated for residential conversion, would also be converted to self storage if the rezoning isn’t approved, the documents say. The reinforced-concrete factory building was built in 1927 and designed by Herman Foughner for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, according to the National Register of Historic Places.

The buildings on the corner of Ryerson Street and Park Avenue, the nine-story reinforced concrete factory building at 307-313 Park Avenue (which was designed by Albert Kahn and built in 1907 for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company) and the the early 20th century extension to that building at 299-305 Park Avenue (designed by Albert Kahn, Herman Foughner, and P. R. Moses and built for the Trussed Concrete Building Company) will be used for self storage whether the rezoning goes ahead or not.

The remaining five buildings that run along Hall Street would be mixed retail and commercial, and include the smaller maker spaces, if the rezoning goes ahead. These include four buildings built for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company: an early 20th century one-story concrete structure at 297 Park Avenue, the 1917 eight-story reinforced concrete factory building at 39-43 Hall Street designed by Herman Foughner, a three-story building at 33-37 Hall Street built between 1900 and 1910 as a factory, garage, and stable), and a five-story brick building at 31 Hall Street dating from 1895. A fifth building, 23-29 Hall Street, is a five-story brick factory building created using mill construction in the early 20th century. If the rezoning is rejected, the buildings would have a similar future, documents say.

Panoli said the two buildings slated for demolition are underutilized and aren’t suitable for adaptive reuse. The new 21-story building, she said, would have prominent retail along Flushing Avenue and would be accessed by tenants from a Flushing Avenue entrance or via the open, landscaped area that runs along Hall Street.

The basement of the residential building that will run along Ryerson Street will have space for 60 cars, she said, adding City of Yes had helped them to achieve that reduced number, which they would have applied for in the rezoning regardless.

The project won’t have significant adverse effects on the city’s water or sewer systems, according to the rezoning documents. But it will address the city’s “crippling housing crisis,” the application states.

HLW is the architect currently working on the plans. While there is no rendering available that shows the full scale of the new building, you can see from the plans that it has a setback at the 12th floor, and the stories below align with the neighboring building at 14-42 Ryerson Street. The rezoning documents say the building would be 215 feet, and up to 245 including the bulkhead.

The new building will cast shadows on Steuben Playground, but the rezoning documents say they will not stop plants from growing or the public using the open space and therefore are not significant.

RXR EVP of Investment Management Group Jeffrey Nelson said so far in conversations with the community, people have been positive and supportive of the plans. “I think what we’ve seen consistently is that people have a desire to see this block activated and energized, which was the original intent when it was intended as a commercial campus before Covid.”

He said adding the residential component through the rezoning will reflect “the new realities in this neighborhood, and is what will make this project successful.”

“I think we’ve been very thoughtful about thinking about this redevelopment contextually,” he said, adding where the team saw success in their initial $105 million redevelopment that started in 2016 was in the small tenant maker spaces.

Community advocate and former local elected Renee Collymore, who has been active in organizing for the closure of the shelter, told Brownstoner she is in full support of the rezoning and “anything at this point beside a jail would be better than the migrant shelter.”

“I’m looking forward to the rezoning because that means businesses, it means foot traffic, it means excitement, it means creative ideas, it means block parties, it means more neighbors,” she said.

She called the area an emerging gem, and said locals “are in love with that area because it’s kind of hidden away and it’s been slowly building to enhance what we have. It’s been a long journey.”

Alia McKee, who lives near the site, said she also welcomes the rezoning, but said she wants the developers to work with the community to figure out ways the project can augment what the community needs.

“I believe New York City has a housing shortage, and I want to welcome strategic development that takes into consideration the community’s needs,” she said. However, adding more than 600 apartments would exponentially increase the number of residents in the two-block area, she said, in turn affecting the area’s traffic patterns.

“My priority would be for them to rethink traffic patterns with an aim of easing congestion on our quiet residential street. We have a park, the corner of Holland Park, where children play and this often spills out onto the sidewalk and sometimes into the street, which is officially an open street, and we would just want to make sure that traffic patterns were taken into consideration.”

McKee said while some community members had voiced concerns about height and parking, her main concern is the traffic management. She added development has to happen across New York, and she thinks this project could be a win-win for the developers and the community.

She also said that as a typical Brooklynite, she loves maker spaces, but thinks they need to be priced so makers can get into them. “I had some friends who tried to rent out from RXR previously, and they said that the rent cost was prohibitive.”

Brownstoner reached out to Community Board 2 and Council Member Crystal Hudson’s Office, both of which said it is too early in the process for them to have an opinion. ULURP is expected to take around seven months, and there will be numerous avenues for public involvement including at the community board, borough president, Department of City Planning, and City Council levels.

According to the development team, the project will be built in phases, with completion targeted for 2030.

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

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