Development

Small Commercial Building Rising on Gas Station Site at Metropolitan and Bushwick Avenues

A three-story building with a corrugated facade rising on the western corner of Metropolitan and Bushwick avenues in Williamsburg is set to bring two floors of retail and one of office space to the busy thoroughfare.

bushwick avenue and metropolitan avenue new development

The new development rising on the corner of Metropolitan and Bushwick avenues. Photo by Anna Bradley-Smith

by Anna Bradley-Smith

10/23/2023 0

The 12,655-square-foot building at 2 Bushwick Avenue has topped out and workers were on site inside the interestingly shaped structure when Brownstoner stopped by on Wednesday. The third floor of the building juts out towards the intersection of Metropolitan and Bushwick avenues, sitting on top of two rounded floors below that seem to follow the curve of the intersection.

A rendering on the construction fence shows each of the three floors of the building will have continuous windows that wrap around the corner site. They will be separated between the levels by a dark corrugated facade that almost gives the effect of waves.

cars and trucks driving by a building under construction — The view from Bushwick Avenue

Manhattan-based firm Feingold and Gregory Architects is designing the project and was behind the nearby conversion of a condensed milk factory into condos, and of a landmarked Clinton Hill church to condos.

The new building application, approved by the Department of Buildings in 2021, says the development will have five ground-floor parking spaces.

Notably, the developer behind the project, Emc2 Bushwick LLC, has opted to keep the development commercial as per its zoning requirement rather than attempt a rezoning for residential. The intersection immediately around Memorial Square is zoned commercial, but is surrounded by residential areas.

While the intended use of the building is unknown, it appears suitable for medical offices on the top floor and a grocery on the ground.

Both Bushwick and Metropolitan avenues have been hotspots for residential development over the past 15 years. The intersection is approximately the site of Boswyck, a Dutch settlement in the 1600s that became Bushwick and later Williamsburg.

The site in 2015. Photo by Christopher McBride for PropertyShark

The corner site had been occupied by a gas station since at least the 1940s, tax photos show. In 2014, Emc2 Bushwick LLC bought the site for $2.2 million, with Jun Sup Chung as the signatory.

Two years later, in 2016, the site across the street at 9 Bushwick Avenue, another former gas station, was also sold to a separate developer for $2.4 million and plans were recently approved for a nine-story, 136-unit apartment building. When Brownstoner visited last week, extensive ground work was under way by dozens of construction workers.

The properties are two of many local gas stations that have closed and been sold as development sites as property prices have risen steeply across the borough in recent years.