Karma Is a Bitch: 185 Ocean Developer Sucking Wind
One of the galling chapters in the now-waning development boom of this decade was when a developer paid 33% over asking price for the turn-of-the-century brick house (above left) at 185 Ocean Avenue and proceeded to waste little time in tearing it down in order to put up an eight-story apartment building. (Dollar signs in…
One of the galling chapters in the now-waning development boom of this decade was when a developer paid 33% over asking price for the turn-of-the-century brick house (above left) at 185 Ocean Avenue and proceeded to waste little time in tearing it down in order to put up an eight-story apartment building. (Dollar signs in their eyes, the greedy neighbors tried to cash in but were too late to the party.) After paying $1,200,000 for a 30-by-150-foot property with a beautiful house on it, the developer now is trying to get $2,500,000 for the same piece of land with a big hole in the ground (above right). Where do we sign up! While the developer may lose some money on this deal, the real losers are the community and appreciators of Brooklyn’s architectural history.
185 Ocean Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP
PLG House Razed, 8-Story Building Planned [Brownstoner]
Ocean’s 13: Landmarking Against a Ticking Time Bomb [Brownstoner]
PLG Shocker! 185 Ocean Closes 33% Above Ask [Brownstoner]
“If you and others believed that this house should have been preserved, then it was your responsibility, as a leading voice in the preservation community, to take the case to the LPC”
Exactly what was done Benson. Read the link tilled “Ocean’s 13: Landmarking Against a Ticking Time Bomb” that Mr. B posted with this item.
I think that most residents of this part of Ocean Avenue are entitled to a bit of schadenfreude at this developer’s plight [as, I suppose, am I since I helped with the attempt to preserve this house and the other 12 in the row]. BTW, I usually agree with Brenda, but I think everyone is entitled to use this word [in moderation] since there’s no English equivalent.
My main regret is that the effort to have #185[and the rest of the row] included in either a separate historic District, or an extended PLG HD, might have backfired by inducing the developer to rush demolition [and indeed the foreman of the demolition crew told me that it was a rush job].
Let’s hope that the vacant lot will have the positive effect of serving as a reproach to the LPC [which might still, eventually, designate this row]and an object lesson to other destructive developers.
Benson – Zoning!!!
That’s excatly what I’m working on right now.
A zoning analysis on a two story roof addition on a 10 story building and I’m over the FAR. I now have to creatively deduct all the shafts to try to get it under.
Let’s have this discussion tomorrow. I’ll have more time, I promise you 🙂
hmmm…..how much would it cost to rebuild the house to it’s previous specification? I can feel a plan coming together…
If ‘the community’ (whoever or whatever that means) doesn’t feel the new building, or any other product or service for that matter, serves them, they won’t buy it. And if having Prospect Park laid out in front of your windows would be heaven all through the year, then affording that privilege to multiple families, rather than just one, would seem to be increasing the public good.
The demolished house was nice enough, just like hundreds or thousands of similar houses all over the city. And whatever gets built there when credit begins flowing again and development starts making sense might also have some architectural merit. Or maybe not. We’ll see.
Wrong and wrong Polemecist.
“Folks, this is right across the street from Prospect Park in an area that has been mostly multifamily for nearly a century. This house is one a few on a street that consists almost entirely of medium-density multifamily housing. It is right by an express subway station.”
Prospect Lefferts Gardens does indeed have a good number of large apartment buildings, but also a very large historic district including the deeded one-family homes in Lefferts Manor and others that were built as two family homes. The houses on Ocean Avenue and Parksde Avenue were proposed for inclusion in the original landmark designation, but the LPC was not in favor of non-contiguous historic districts at the time. That has since changed, and hopefully these houses will be revisited for landmarking.
“This could be the spot of a great apartment building that could make the lives of dozens of families better than they otherwise would be.” The approved plans were for an eight-story building on a lot only 29′ wide by 150′ long. Even at the maximum FAR, total square footage of the building would be just over 15,000. That doesn’t sound like room for “dozens of families” to me.
And I’ll pass on the “great” characterization — has anyone actually seen a rendering of the proposed unit? I somehow doubt “great” would be the first adjective to come to mind on seeing it.
Puh-leeze. The developer wasn’t building high-density housing for the good of the community, he was doing it for a profit (otherwise he’d build low- or medium-income housing, rather than the “luxury” condos everyone is building nowadays). That’s okay, because this is a capitalist economy, but when he falls down on his ass, we’re entitled to a little schadenfreude. I, for one, am not going to feel bad for developers who knock a house down and leave a hole in the ground.
Polemecist;
Great post! Exactly right. This house is just one a few that developers didn’t tear down during the 20’s. As you point out, this site is perfect for multi-family housing. It faces a park, and is well-served by mass transit. Those on this site who loudly promote their “greeness” talk out of both sides of their mouth. I challenge them to find a development site more appropriate for multi-family housing.
BRG;
What are you talking about? Where is the design issue here? You and Brownstoner have no idea of the design quality of the building that was to go up – yet you are ready to condemn the developer. At this point, it is just a matter of zoning, city planning and development.
polemicist – there you go with your everything must fall to the hi-density-god extremism again.