Development to Boom in Ocean Hill?

This may be the first new residential building from a private developer to go up in the Ocean Hill part of Bed Stuy near Saratoga Park in years. A tiny little house, long in ruins, at 882 Macon Street near Broadway was recently demolished. A four-story apartment building with eight units is going up in its place and on the long-empty lot next door at No. 880.

Both lots were purchased in June for $244,000 by the same buyer, an LLC. A new building permit was approved in September and a demo permit for 882 was issued in late December.

Although this row is tiny, taller multi-family buildings are just down the block. In recent years, the front door at 882 Macon was sometimes open, revealing a once-beautiful encaustic tile entry heaped with debris. The building appeared to have been destroyed by water damage from a fire years ago. The landlord received several complaints for “failure to maintain” in recent years.

Developers buying and building on empty lots or replacing crumbling buildings would be a dramatic change for this part of Ocean Hill, which hasn’t seen much new construction in decades. Empty commercial lots on Broadway due to the arson fires and riots of the 1970s are still there. Nearly every residential block in the area has at least one empty building, sometimes several, because of a house fire, but flippers in the area say it is often impossible to reach the owners of the properties.

Thanks to a tipster for the intel and a photo.