Development Watch: 19 Lefferts Place
At the end of last month, the DOB approved plans for a new four-story, four-family house at 19 Lefferts Place in Clinton Hill. (It’s just the left half of the plywood frontage.) The developers managed to pick the site up for a song—$76,000—from an estate last year and have hired the architect Elena Kalman (of…
At the end of last month, the DOB approved plans for a new four-story, four-family house at 19 Lefferts Place in Clinton Hill. (It’s just the left half of the plywood frontage.) The developers managed to pick the site up for a song—$76,000—from an estate last year and have hired the architect Elena Kalman (of Newswalk fame) to do the design. It’s R6-B zoning, so at least the facade and roofline will have to line up with the neighboring brownstone. They’re skipping the stoop, we hear, and only putting in three floors in the allowable 40-foot height, and then setting back the 4th floor. We’re also hearing that the plan is to use brownstone on the facade and have above-averages-sized windows. Only time will tell whether all this will cohere into an attractive design. The odds are against them but maybe this will surprise on the upside for a change. Wouldn’t that be nice. GMAP P*Shark DOB
These are two adjacent vacant lots. This one (#19) was bought for $152,000 (there are two deeds on record for $76,000 for each co-owner of the lot). This lot had old unpaid tax liens and was owned by estates of the deceased co-owners. Still, a very cheap price for the area, which if looked at optimistically may allow for the development of a quality building.
The other lot (#21) is owned by another person and will not be developed. Residents of the block and street are happy with the idea of development, but just hope to have a high end, aesthetically complimentary design. R6B zone helps with height limits, reduced FAR, mandatory planted garden space in front, no curb cuts on a lot this wide (22.5 feet).
The developer has come to the local block association meeting and is saying the right things. We’ll see. I for one am hoping for something akin to the State Street rowhouses. They are going to use real brownstone for the facade apparently. Landmarking of this street may occur in the next 6 months to a year, so they are getting in before that deadline.
A stoop would be permissible in a four family (which in this case will be four condos) building only if handicap access compliance can be met. Here with a 22.5 wide lot, it would probably not be too easy to do with a stoop.
there are a couple of great looking buildings going up on Pacific and one on Dean that I really like. It looks like part of the facade is wood, and the exterior will be a really nice combination of wood surface, metal and glass. And I’m not fan of most new buildings but these do look great.
I’m glad they are developing it – its a damn vacant lot people!
there are some hideous new structures around, and there are plenty of interesting ones too. much of what is acclaimed on this blog was considered tacky and tasteless when it was built (like the cookie cutter brownstones lining the blocks.) I live in a brownstone, and love it – but I’ve also built new houses and love them too. its hard to deal with all the nostalgia around here, even when nothing is being lost!
one interesting new house, built on a vacant lot, exists in manhattan on 1st street between 1st/2nd aves. it was built green, and the owner/developer used all sorts of salvaged parts (wood from old water towers, etc) its modern and interesting and extremely eco-friendly.
Werner,
Your right about that, but prices for condos and town houses already started increasing drastically from 2003 to 2004, so even then $30,000 is cheap. Statistics show that the rise in the combined prices for condos, co-ops and town houses, from 2003 to 2004, in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill averaged 35 percent. For town houses alone, the increase was 59 percent.
What do you think the asking price for this new housing development is going to be once it’s built?
lots in this neighborhood were going for 30,000 range at auction in ’05. i don’t think 76,000 sounds that crazy, but i don’t think they’re easy to find any more.
Yea that doesn’t seem right. If so that’s a steal. They probably forgot to add an extra zero lol.
How did they buy the lot for $76000???
Does anyone know how much something like this will go for? My guess is that it will be extremely overpriced just because it’s in Clinton Hill.
Pretty s-l-ooooo-w and sleepy in here today, indeed.