Development Watch: 792 Sterling Place

are applications available

Alfred Thompson is also the founder and co-director of Food First, a non-profit agency that developed the former Studebaker showroom on the corner of Sterling Place and Bedford. He also developed the former Knox Hat factory on St. Marks Ave at Grand. Both projects were done as low income rental housing using Federal tax credits. So Alfred is by means a new comer to the area. This may his first foray into market rate condo development however.

Below is an article about the Studebaker building from the NY Times.

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February 13, 2000
POSTINGS: Former Showroom in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Is Turned Into 27 Rental Apartments; Old Studebaker Building Has New Tenants
Alfred Thompson never owned a Studebaker. But Mr. Thompson, a Brooklyn-based developer, has long been a fan of the distinctive, futuristically designed car, which ceased being made in the 1960’s — and of the five-story Studebaker building at Bedford Avenue and Sterling Place that once housed offices and a big-windowed showroom.

”The Studebaker showroom in Detroit was turned into a jail, and I was determined to do everything I could not to have something like that happen here,” said Mr. Thompson, executive director of Food First, a nonprofit developer of housing and supportive services for homeless, disabled and low-income families.

Two years ago his company bought the 1910 building, which in recent years was home to artists’ studios on the upper floors and a church in the walled-over showroom. Since then, with the help of financing from the city, the company’s subsidiary, New Start Group, has converted the structure into 27 low-income rental apartments. The studio, two- and three-bedroom units, from 485 to 925 square feet, are being rented to tenants earning $22,400 to $32,000 a year, depending on family size. All have been leased at monthly rents of $487 to $725.

”This project resulted in not just the creation of more affordable housing, but the preservation of a neighborhood’s character,” said Russell A. Harding, president of New York City’s Housing Development Corporation, which provided the bulk of the public financing for the $3.3 million project.

Because the building got government financing and is eligible for listing on the State and National Registries of Historic Places, the developer agreed to put in replicas of the original wood-frame windows, restore the terra-cotta facade and keep the interior columns exposed.

Mr. Thompson said that the showroom was turned into two floors, to create enough units to make the project economically viable and to provide 1,500 square feet of ground-floor space for a supportive services center. Tenants have begun moving in. Mr. Thompson said that while many are too young to remember the Studebaker, ”they will come to know it” through photos posted on bulletin boards. Another reminder is the circular sign on the facade with Studebaker written on it.

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we know what the cross streets are–there are several projects in the boundaries that we described above, not just this one.

Classon and New York are not close together or able to be cross streets for that block. The cross streets are Rogers and Nostrand.