Another Church on Fulton (As If It Needs One)
Fulton Street already has its fair share of churches, though many of them are of the storefront variety. Now just feet from one of the highest traffic prostitution corners in Brownstone Brooklyn, the Universal Church is erecting this large new home. (Check out the excavation underway on the jump.) Frankly, we can’t see why the…
Fulton Street already has its fair share of churches, though many of them are of the storefront variety. Now just feet from one of the highest traffic prostitution corners in Brownstone Brooklyn, the Universal Church is erecting this large new home. (Check out the excavation underway on the jump.) Frankly, we can’t see why the area needs a new church when beautiful old churches like St. Bartholomew are having such a difficult time remaining solvent. GMAP
It’s a free market, so nothing much to do now. But I note that this property, just past classon on the Bed Stuy side, could have represented another chance to develop some decent new housing, as others have noted. There are numberous churches on pretty much every surrounding block. I think this was a missed opportunity. Plus the design above is pretty ugly imo.
Why is money being wasted on pointless homes for supernatural mind-washing, when people are starving and homeless? Just another sign that our civilization is doomed.
12:08 PM, you’re right, fulton street isn’t keeping up with the market/changes. I suspect that many of the property owners of the derelict buildings that line fulton street are out of towners. They buy and hold real estate and sit on it until it appreciates to a level where they feel comfortable selling. I think the city out to crack down on these abandoned, half-rotting buildings and force the owners to either bring them up to code or to sell them. Just think of the extraordinary property tax that the city and state could collect if these buildings were rehabbed so that they became usable once again. We’re missing out on property tax and potential sales tax from thriving retail stores that could line fulton instead of the run down shacks that are there. Lighting from these buildings would also help to brighten up the strip after dark. Right now its still a bit desolate, dingy and it has a dangerous feel to it.
Brownstoner, I am sure that you are just being provacative here, but “can’t see why the area needs a new church” is kind of lame. It could be asked about any development in NYC – why do we need OPP when there are perfectly fine abandoned shells, or even available apartments within a few blocks radius, and why does every old kitchen and bath need to be updated, when clearly the seller was living quite comfortably with the old ones?
The main answer is that we want the new stuff. And churches, like people, are not interchangeable wigets, much though they may seem like it to the outsider. Even assuming the waning congregations are willing to sell or downsize, the architecure of something like St. Barts may not be suitable to the universalists. But surely this is all self-evident.
Why didn’t a developer buy these lots? And how did the church come to acquiring them at such a low price? Same thing happened at the “FUGLY Tower” down the street. These lots are being sold dirt cheap but no good developers are buying them. Why? I mean it’s Clinton Hill but every developer appears to covet every other street in the nabe but Fulton. I don’t get it. This is so frustrating because Fulton sits above the A/C train line! Give me Scarano any day! Greene House Part Deux? I’d take it in a nano second! Two massive and well situated development lots and one goes to a bricology inspired nutcase and the other to some holy rollers for essentially beans! Why are developers paying $5-10M plus for lots on Clinton and Washington Aves and equally sized lots are trading hands two blocks to the east for a little over a $1M? Zoning? Can’t be because Fulton, like Myrtle, is zoned for residential and commercial usage. Are landowners not accurately informed as to the true value of their properties thereby making it that much easier for novice/shoddy developers to enter the marketplace? Why are Fulton Street property owners so out of touch with the up tick in their neighborhood to demand top dollar for their lots and insist on quality development since many of these same land owners own additional properties on the strip? Can someone help me understand the madness that is Fulton Street?
Faith based initiatives plus zero taxes equals free money for churches.
Just who will be going to this church. I sure wish the churches would do something for the neighborhood.
What are the cros streets for this church development?
Seriously where are the hos?