73 Pineapple Street In Front of LPC Tomorrow
The future of 73 Pineapple Street, one of the only remaining empty lots in Brooklyn Heights, will be discussed at tomorrow’s Landmarks Preservation Meeting. Rush Brook Partners, run by a form Merrill Lynch exec, shelled out a total $7.4 million for the 25-by-75-foot lot and the two adjacent rental buildings last February. (The lot itself…
The future of 73 Pineapple Street, one of the only remaining empty lots in Brooklyn Heights, will be discussed at tomorrow’s Landmarks Preservation Meeting. Rush Brook Partners, run by a form Merrill Lynch exec, shelled out a total $7.4 million for the 25-by-75-foot lot and the two adjacent rental buildings last February. (The lot itself went for $1,653,750.) The firm is now trying to gain approval to build a five-story contemporary design on the site. Our calls to the company’s office were not returned, so all we know about the plans are what Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee said about them when it voted 10-2 against them:
The Land Use Committee voted 10 in favor, two opposed, one abstention (10-2-1) on June 20, 2007 to recommend disapproval of the application. The committee disapproved of the horizontal design approach, the window size and configuration, the materials being used and the brick wall on the ground floor which would be at eye level. Members felt the building was foreboding and out of character with neighboring buildings.
We’d be mighty appreciative if the renderings just happened to show up in our inbox. Or just a written description from someone who saw them at the community board meeting?
73 Pineapple on LPC Docket Tuesday [Brooklyn Heights Blog] GMAP
CB2 Nixes Foreboding Pineapple Plan [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
August 14 Agenda [LPC]
Actually they, being as you say experienced slumlords, will probably do real well with LPC. So will the big ass developers, Tom Wolfe had a wonderful piece on this a few months back. It is the small owner/landlord trying to add on a little piece of building or change his windows that will have trouble with LPC (Little People Can’t).
I think the owners are experienced slumlords, which lets face it, is what these properties call for. No honest sane person would get involved with these hideous rental buildings and the band of merry bolsheviks within.
They also know all about the LPC and chose to simply ignore it and pay the fines -or not depending who they know.
Super cheap? Nope. I think it was priced a little high considerate of the challanges the developer is faced with. I believe there are a number of rs/rc tenants in-place. There is a significant amount of deferred maintenance on both properties. The allocation of $1.65mm to the vacant lot yields a $/FAR number of something like $250, assuming the allowed bulk would not be reduced due to zoning code requirements such as rear yard setback (I think the lot is not 100 ft deep). $250/FAR represents the top of the range for land value with assocaited allowable bulk in that location. If you were to adjust the FAR number down to say a more conservative $200 the price per apartment moves up, obviuosly. Last but not least – like most of the recent buyers of redevelopment opportunities in the Heights these owners are not very experienced in dealing with LPC related issues and the entities that weigh in on the permitting process (BHA, CB2). Carrying costs related to interest payments become a significant issue with these type of projects when you underestimate or are unable to cope with the entitlement process.
So let’s get this straight. If you back out the lot, they got 23 apartments in Brooklyn Heights for less than $5.8 mil? That’s about 250K per apartment. Seems super cheap to me.
The design was completely boring. red brick, little punched windows with weird little ac lovers on the sides -yes, sides. no scale or viual interest, not even a Fedders to provide some light and shadow (j.k.).