Development

ODA-Designed Rentals Near Completion on Crown Heights' Historic Nassau Brewery Site

A new building rising on the site of an old Crown Heights brewery is almost finished.

crown heights brooklyn nassau oda development

Photo by Seán Devlin

by Seán Devlin

03/07/2017 0

The old Nassau Brewing Company site in Crown Heights is showing signs of life, with a glassy, boxy building nearing completion on part of the property.

The new building stands at 1040 Dean Street, and is designed by ODA New York. The property isn’t finished quite yet, with some workers still finishing off electrical work when we stopped by. An affordable housing lottery opened in January for 1040 Dean Street, with studios starting at $845. The lottery will remain open through March 13.

The mixed-use development, also known as 608 Franklin Avenue, will have 120 apartments altogether, including 96 market rate ones, and retail on the ground floor. Amenities will include a fitness center, a rooftop terrace, bike storage, underground parking for 67 cars, and additional tenant storage in the building.

The new building replaced three rundown, low-rise structures on Dean, not the beautiful old 19th-century brick brewery building next door at 949 Bergen Street. At the old brewery, there’s scaffolding around the sides and top of the building, but no signs of active work on the surface.

The old brewery is owned by Crow Hill Development head Fabian Friedland, who is restoring it and plans to transform it into a mixed-use complex with shops and apartments. In 2014, Yoel Goldman of All Year Management bought the Dean Street side of the property from Friedland for $17.5 million.

The development is on the same block as 1000 Dean Street, a former Studebaker service station that has been adapted into offices by architect Annabelle Selldorf and houses the offices of the Brooklyn Flea and food and beer hall Berg’n.

The brewery is one of several in Brooklyn to be repurposed as housing, offices or commercial space in recent decades. In Bushwick, part of the sprawling Rheingold Brewery site became affordable housing, and the remainder is now being redeveloped as for-profit 80/20 housing.