Eight Stories of Apartments to Replace Old Brick Building on Manhattan Avenue

Demolition permits were just approved on Friday for a three-story brick building at 977 Manhattan Avenue, home to Goldsholle and Garfinkel Hardware for decades. The building is like most that line Greenpoint’s main thoroughfare — retail at street level and a few modest apartments above.

The developer filed plans for an eight-story building with 14 apartments and ground-floor retail space last month. They were disapproved, but if the developer is able to get approval for its plans, the building will rise high above its neighbors on this thoroughfare of mostly three- and four-story buildings.

Goldsholle and Garfinkel Hardware was in business here from 1920 to 2014. A Goldsholle family LLC sold it to a developer this year for $4,100,000, according to public records.

When the hardware store closed, owner Steven Goldsholle lamented rising commercial rents in the area in a series of interviews on the blog New York Shitty. Commercial rents in Greenpoint are so high that only chain stores can afford the $10,000 to $15,000 a month landlords are asking, he said.

“Now you are seeing old timers like me closing up shop,” he said, adding, “the personality of the neighborhood is changing.”

The developer is B&B Global Development, and it actually paid a total of $4,800,000 for the building, a record for a mixed-use building in Greenpoint, according to an article in the Commercial Observer last month. The developer plans condos, and the architect is Gerald J. Caliendo Architect, said the Observer.

All records, including the recently submitted building permit, list Manhattan Property Group as the owner.

Photo by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark