Bergen Street Brewery Off the Block
We noticed this beautiful building at the corner of Franklin and Bergen when we rode our bike past a couple of months ago and then swung by a couple of weeks ago for a second look. When we called the broker, Michael Silber, he informed us that the corner building was originally a brewery. He…
We noticed this beautiful building at the corner of Franklin and Bergen when we rode our bike past a couple of months ago and then swung by a couple of weeks ago for a second look. When we called the broker, Michael Silber, he informed us that the corner building was originally a brewery. He also informed us that it had recently sold—for somewhere just short of the asking price of $8 million. (The site, which includes two lots that run through the block from Bergen to Dean, has approximately 90,000 buildable square feet.) The developer who bought it will most likely do some kind of residential conversion. Hopefully, he won’t make the same mistake as most of the developers over on 4th Avenue and fail to turn the ground floor into retail. This stretch of Franklin could really use it. GMAP P*Shark
I’m pretty certain that this is the same building that back in 70s and early 80s housed the book wholesaler Golden Lee. It was famous among publishing types and generated many hoary anecdotes of the, “I parked my car on Franklin and 2 hours later came back to find it torched” variety. Ah, the good old days.
““The book also says that the name could have come from the mid-1800’s when there were African and African American settlements there, and the whites called them ‘crows’.”
How interesting that African-Americans continue to make up the majority of residents (and owners) here, but today white people use a new code word – “sketchy” – to refer to the presence of black people in the area.
From “daily heights”…
“Crow Hill was its pre-prohibition name. My book (The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn) tells me that when it was Dutch farmland, it was believed to have been called Crow Hill after its tallest hill, whose trees were always filled with crows.â€
“The book also says that the name could have come from the mid-1800’s when there were African and African American settlements there, and the whites called them ‘crows’. A third story has it that the ‘crows’ were inmates in the Kings County Penitentiary that was there from 1846 to 1907.â€
Can someone provide a history of the Crow Hil name/area. Thanks.
I agree that the next cycle will produce opportunities. Once things improve economically, Atlantic Yards will be built and push the gentrification eastward to help further improve this area. Projects like the one outlined in this thread will indeed help. I agree – dreaming works!
hopefully this building will stay the way it is.
Nicely done.
This under-the-radar section of Crown Heights (or Crow Hill if you like) will be very hot in the next up cycle. There are opportunities for developers in buildings that can be converted, as well as vacant lots and tear-downs. In fact it’s already begun. It may be five years, or fifty, but it seems inevitable.
Montrose Morris: Keep dreaming! It seems to work!
Crow Hill Development Group,
What good news! Looking forward to seeing this come back to life. I’m so glad you realize what a gem you have. Well done.
Crow Hill Development Group,
What good news! Looking forward to seeing this come back to life. I’m so glad you realize what a gem you have. Well done.