Development Watch: 574 4th Avenue
The construction crew at the very large development site on 4th Avenue between 16th Street and Prospect has been ramping up work on the property’s foundation in the past couple of months, most likely to try to qualify for 421-a abatements before new regulations take effect this July. According to DOB filings, the architect of…
The construction crew at the very large development site on 4th Avenue between 16th Street and Prospect has been ramping up work on the property’s foundation in the past couple of months, most likely to try to qualify for 421-a abatements before new regulations take effect this July. According to DOB filings, the architect of record for the planned building is the prolific Bricolage Designs, and its developer is Gregory Rigas. Original plans filed for the structure called for 12 stories and 80 units, though more recent new building filings show that it will be at least nine stories high (unclear if it will go to 12). According to a South Slope resident who wrote to us, the crew routinely blocks off two to three lanes of traffic on 4th Avenue, which is a major pain in the ass for drivers at a very busy intersection near the entrance to the BQE. There was no evidence of that when we checked in on the site yesterday afternoon, though the property is not a stranger to controversy: someone on the Forum complained about garbage pile ups in the fall. The photo on the jump gives a sense of how big the entire development is. GMAP
Hey Denton, not sure why you are scolding me. I was pretty much saying it didnt seem like too big of a deal. I see it all the time all over the city, sometimes progress creates a slight inconvenience, especially in a very large city.
Hey southsloper, traffic gets backed up all over to back trucks into things, from the crappiest 4th Ave condo to the BofA tower. If you are eating tonite, a truck brought it.
newsouthsloper, I think Gabby was eluding to the work crew blocking the street many times during the day.
If it’s like any of the other sites on 4th, traffic must come to a crawl.
Hey, I am the poster who complained about garbage piling up when there was no activity at the site – and I dont think I did it anonomously as a guest.
Just to confirm, I walk by this site everyday and they do block traffic sometimes. It seems to be around 7-7:30 AM as they receive new materilas and equipment on site. They ususally block traffic for maybe 2 or 3 minutes tops as they back the trucks into the site. Sometimes the truck doesnt fit all of the way, so they block maybe 1 lane for a little longer.
Anyhow, I really hope this development is a nice addiiton to the neighborhood. 80 units scares me as that would imply pretty much all tiny studios or SRO’s.
It’s going 12 stories according to BIS, and with Mr. Radusky at the design helm, it will be another POS on 4th Avenue…add it to the list: Novo, Crest, etc.
“Park Avenue of Brooklyn” this is not.
And that intersection is nuts. On ramp to the BQE, access to the Expressway and generally grid lock traffic.
I will be surprised if DOT gives them a permit to block traffic.. Thus they’ll just do it illegally anyway. Tax dollars at work folks.
And to today’s first poster, this is a follow up. Mr. B, Gowanus Lounge and Curbed all posted on this site when they were illegally mechanically demo’ing the existing buildings last year. They were shut down for quite a while I remember reading.
Another fine addition to the borough.
Check out the site. There are these tiny tiny wood frames still standing next door.
Oh, this has all the signs of a disaster. Check out these links for Rigas’ dodgy past (do a search within articles for “Rigas”):
http://tinyurl.com/4rc2lu
http://tinyurl.com/53leto
http://tinyurl.com/484fyx
http://tinyurl.com/4ygke9
http://tinyurl.com/54ough
“Is it the same Rigas?”, you may ask. Well, Buildco, listed on the DOB site as Rigas’ business name, has it’s address listed at http://tinyurl.com/49ugbq as 253 3rd Avenue, the same address as Hercules Construction as listed at http://tinyurl.com/4gpkm9, a government listing companies barred from federal contracts because of malfeasance.
There’s also been reference to this guy on a past Brownstoner thread:
http://bstoner.wpengine.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/01/another_bad_boy.php
Gabby;
Do you consider this to be reporting? You are willing to cite the complaint of one anonymous e-mailer, and only report on your evidence from one day. How about verifying some of these reports? Let’s really go for broke, and report on what you see on two days, perhaps a week apart. What happened to the old journalistic standard about two inpendent sources?
Why is Brownstoner willing to “report” on any issue that can disparage a developer? Might it be due to an anti-developer bias that is popular with the Nimby crowd that follows Brownstoner?
Benson