Affordable Housing Lottery for DoBro Tower Has $1,918 One-Bedrooms

An affordable housing lottery has launched for a recently built luxury skyscraper on a major Downtown Brooklyn intersection. Located at 589 Fulton Street, on the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension, The Brook climbs to a considerable 51 stories, and amenities include a rooftop pool and pickleball courts.

In the lottery are 178 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments that are all income restricted and rent stabilized. However, only eight could be deemed actually affordable. Those are for families earning 80 percent of the Area Median Income, with income limits set between $64,766 and $140,000 for households of one to five people, according to the Housing Connect listing.

Of these, two are studios going for $1,793 a month, two are one-bedroom apartments priced at $1,918, and four are two-bedroom units renting for $2,292. The remaining apartments in the lottery are for households earning 130 percent of AMI, or between $104,435 and $227,500 for one to five people, including 15 two-bedrooms set at $4,250 a month.

The Beyer Blinder Belle-designed development includes a total of 591 apartments, according to permits. Units have white oak flooring, floor-to-ceiling windows, Bosch washer/dryers, air conditioning, quartz countertops and backsplashes, Italian cabinetry, and “signature artisanal Cape Cod wall tile” in the bathroom — apparently referring to vertical aqua wall tile with a stippled surface — according to the development’s own lottery website. Heat, hot water, and the stove are included in the rent, but tenants must pay for electricity.

The Brook building, developed by Witkoff Group and Apollo Global Management, includes a dog washing station, basketball and pickleball court, gym, yoga studio, and business center amongst its amenities. While it’s pet friendly, breed restrictions apply. According to the listing, tenants get one month free on a year lease and two months free on a two-year lease, as well as reduced amenity costs during the first three months of a lease.

Market rate rentals started leasing in June, StreetEasy shows, and include a studio for $4,215 and for a two-bedroom for $8,015 a month. The building got its certificate of occupancy in June, city records reveal.

Renderings show the new tower has a stepped back three-story podium at the base on the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and Fulton Street, and then climbs directly to its 51-story height. From the top of the podium to the penthouse level, the building is covered in gridded, bronzed-framed floor to ceiling windows with metal panelling between.

By 2019, developer RedSky Capital managed to acquire 14 of 16 lots on the block, which fronts Fulton Street, Dekalb Avenue, Flatbush Extension, and Bond Street, setting the firm back somewhere around $112 million.

The two lots RedSky was never able to acquire, which sit smack in the middle of the parcel at 559 and 563 Fulton Street, are owned by Lewis Barbanel of Barberry Rose Management and occupied by Duane Reade. In 2019, Barbanel told Brownstoner: “The building is a long term family asset. We have no plans at this time to sell it. The asset produces income that all partners are happy with.”

RedSky filed demolition permits for the buildings that it owned in the area, which included three cast-iron Italianate storefronts at 567-571 Fulton Street, built circa 1870. “These buildings are living on death row, as this site is a prime development area for the New Brooklyn,” wrote Brownstoner columnist Suzanne Spellen of the trio back in 2014.

In 2022, RedSky sold the parcel, which includes 555 Fulton Street on the corner of Fulton and Bond streets and Dekalb Avenue, for $144.375 million to an LLC managed by Witkoff Group and Apollo Global Management, city records show.

According to New York Yimby, the lot at 555 Fulton Street will be developed in a partnership between the developer and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership into a low-rise retail building with an outdoor roof deck.

The tower at 589 Fulton Street is within the rezoned area of Downtown Brooklyn that requires a portion of affordable housing in new development. The project uses the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program and will likely get the 421-a tax break, according to the listing.

The lottery closes August 1. To apply, visit the listing on New York City’s Housing Connect website.

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