Francis Kimball's Clinton Hill Gem Will Be Saved and Converted to Condos

Wonderful news for Clinton Hill. An architecturally significant local gem, Francis Kimball’s 1899 distribution facility for a tony Downtown Brooklyn department store at 22 Quincy Street will be saved and converted into condos.

Permit applications and drawings submitted last year raised concerns the building, little known beyond its immediate neighborhood, would be razed or altered beyond recognition. Constructed for Frederick Loeser & Company, 22 Quincy Street was owned by and operated as a Salvation Army distribution center and retail store for decades.

A construction permit was issued this month and work has started. New renderings show how the main building on the site will be preserved and adapted to create 46 condos. Meanwhile, next door, a permit was issued in May, and a new, five-story building has already topped out. It will house 43 rental units.

The Loeser warehouse and delivery center is a beautiful and unusual building, with stripes, arches, and other decorative details in brown and orange brick. The building’s simple yet striking decorative effects anticipate the two-dimensional ornament and brickwork that became ubiquitous in the early 20th century. Kimball, one of New York City’s foremost 19th century architects, also designed the Emanuel Baptist Church in Clinton Hill, the Montauk Club in Park Slope, the Loeser store in Downtown Brooklyn, and early skyscrapers in Manhattan. The design of 22 Quincy combines the arched windows of the American Romanesque Revival factory style with the quatrefoil decorations, double windows and stripes of the Venetian Gothic, a style that appeared often in Kimball’s work.

Developers Loketch Group and Meral Property Group and Manhattan-based architect Jeffrey Kamen plan to carve out a green space in the center of the building, now known as 10 Quincy Street, to bring in light and air.

“It is going to be amazing and really honor the integrity of the original building. We are very excited!” said the project’s broker, Deborah Rieders of Corcoran.

The developers purchased the property “because they love the architecture of the original building,” she said. “I really encouraged them to keep the original building as well because I feel having an historic conversion is much more appealing, interesting and attractive to the buyer, especially in that neighborhood. And it’s been an icon in that neighborhood for a very long time.”

The facade will stay intact, with new windows and doors at the ground level openings and accents of black paint to tie the design together, renderings show. The apartments will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedrooms, all with ceiling heights of at least 11 feet.

Durukan Design, known for its work on 10 Montienth Street at Rheingold in Bushwick, will design the interiors, “which will reference the look and feel of the facade” with an industrial and “modern rustic feel,” said Rieders. There will also be shared and private spaces on the rooftop, which has views of the surrounding area. Sales could launch as early as this coming spring, she added.

The building next door, whose address will be 26 Quincy Street, will have a stucco facade and windows in projecting frames. Its modern style and all-black color connect and contrast with its historic neighbor. Both complexes will be market rate with no affordable housing.

An LLC named Quincy Street Investors purchased 22 Quincy Street, which has since been divided into two tax lots, from the Salvation Army in December for $28.5 million. The property, which is not landmarked, already exceeded its allowed size at 70,158 square feet. The new rental building takes the place of a small wing and addition to the original building.

[Photos by Susan De Vries | Renderings via Corcoran]

Related Stories

• Salvation Army Sells Francis Kimball’s Clinton Hill Gem to Developers for $28.5 Million
• Building of the Day: 22 Quincy Street
• Salvation Army’s Clinton Hill Building in Contract for About $30 Million

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