New Development: The Oddly-Named Lefferts South
The developer of this new condo building really scored when he bought the 2,700-square-foot house that used to be sit at the corner of Caton and Bedford Avenues. He paid $575,000 in January 2005 and then proceeded to replace it with an 18,000-square-foot structure, putting his purchase price at about $32 per buildable square foot….
The developer of this new condo building really scored when he bought the 2,700-square-foot house that used to be sit at the corner of Caton and Bedford Avenues. He paid $575,000 in January 2005 and then proceeded to replace it with an 18,000-square-foot structure, putting his purchase price at about $32 per buildable square foot. Sweet! The Developers Group has the first six of the 15 units up for sale, all two bedrooms between 830 and 979 square feet with outdoor space for between $439,000 and $525,000. The building strikes us as a pretty good effort by the developer to deliver a solid product in an unglamorous area. Will it win any design awards? Probably not, but it’s a relatively clean, simple structure without any silly affectations or architectural blunders. These days, outside of a few of the fanciest nabes, that’s about all you can hope for in Brooklyn. The finishes look more like something that would show up in one of the many new Williamsburg buildings that The Developers Groups markets and look surprisingly fresh in an area where you’re more likely to find developers opting for whatever’s on sale at Home Depot.
Lefferts South [The Developers Group] GMAP P*Shark DOB
New Condo Development for (Not Really) PLG [Brownstoner]
this monstrosity was popular in the early 1960’s in eastern queens. the more things change the more they stay the same. even though the area isn’t “glamourous” what’s to prevent developers from using a little imagination and elegance? it doesn’t have to cost millions.
lol, Bob999. What an image! Sure, I can say I was referring to old Marty M.
Anon 2:19, are you referring to Marty Markowitz as a big, beautiful, decaying structure? I think “beautiful” is a stretch. 🙂
The Phat Albert building is a beautiful building. It really would be great if it could be saved, but something interesting put inside. Anything that improves Flatbush also bodes well for saving the Loews King Theater as Marty Markowitz is promising to do. Speaking of big beautiful structures allowed to decay.
i like francine
In usually pass this building driving south on Bedford. It looks terrible from the back (which is covered with an ugly synthetic stucco). Normally, I drive back to PLG by going north on Rogers, but the other day I took Bedford and saw this building from the front for the first time. To my surprise, it’s not too bad.
I get a kick out of the use of the “Lefferts” name, but it’s only slightly below the PLG border. When I was looking for my house, years ago, PLG listings were usually under “Flatbush” (which is correct, but vague) or “Park Slope vicinity (which is, sort of, true, but silly). I guess PLG is coming up in the world when developers in nearby neighborhoods use the name–sort of like “Park Slope” being used to describe Sunset Park buildings 🙂
i hate when these new developments refer to themselves as “pioneering” (see unit listings) – it is a total insult to the area’s established residents.
hopefully this new building will motivate phat albert to sell at the other corner of PP
Agree that it’s sad that this passes for passable, but I still found myself cheered by some sign of perking up in this area. (I’d call it “faded glorious” rather than “unglamorous” based on the marvelous old prewar apartment houses that line Linden Blvd. a block away.) The last big thing in this direct vicinity was a hideous tin hanger at Flatbush and Caton to get vendors off the street. Now if only the prices weren’t half-a-mill, so that they’d be within reach of some of the area’s hard-working renters seeking to move up without winning the lottery first…
These neighborhoods used to be lined solid with wood-frame Victorian homes… Vanderveer Park it was called… It was the first, and largest, developement of it’s type in Brooklyn, predating PPS, DP, etc… It was developed in 4 phases,extending all the way down to what is now Midwood. All that remains are a few isolated houses here and there. This was one of the last. I was sad to see it go.