$3.55 Million for a Frame House in Flatbush? This Must Be Another Teardown
Most likely setting a record for the neighborhood, this detached frame house at 154 Lenox Road recently sold for $3,550,000. The sale hit public records earlier this month. The two-and-half-story house is large for Brooklyn at a hair over 3,000 square feet. And it has a garage in the back. But we’re willing to bet…
Most likely setting a record for the neighborhood, this detached frame house at 154 Lenox Road recently sold for $3,550,000. The sale hit public records earlier this month. The two-and-half-story house is large for Brooklyn at a hair over 3,000 square feet. And it has a garage in the back.
But we’re willing to bet it’s not the spacious wraparound front porch or whatever period details remain inside that helped this seller get such a high price.
The house sits on a massive yard — 50 feet by 169.5 feet. And it has a FAR of 3.44. That means the new buyer, an LLC that public documents reveal to be Boaz Gilad of prolific Brooklyn condo developer Brookland Capital, could demolish this house and put up a building nearly 10 times as large at 29,000 square feet. No permits have been filed yet.
But it’s hard to imagine any other reason that this property would sell for more than double the most expensive listing for a detached frame house in the neighborhood (even if you include Ditmas Park in the search). And that is without ever listing the house for sale, as far as we can tell.
If this house is destined for the wrecking ball, it will join a long line of other wood frame houses in Flatbush and elsewhere in Brooklyn — particularly those on large yards with FAR to spare — that have met their demise. Not far from here, the beserk-eclectic Victorian at 111 Clarkson in Prospect Lefferts Gardens sold as a development site for $2,675,000 in 2013.
Earlier this month, we reported on two Victorians on Linden Boulevard that will make way for another Brookland Capital development. In March we wrote about three wood frames soon to be demo’d for a Karl Fischer apartment building close to this house in Flatbush. Over a year ago we pointed out more than a dozen slated to be torn down.
Like many rambling Victorians in Flatbush, this house is already close to large apartment buildings — including one from an earlier wave of development at the turn of the 20th century. New development in Flatbush isn’t totally out of place, even as it is changing the character of the area.
It’s often the case that houses that go for big bucks in Flatbush were lis pendens and an LLC gets the windfall. But in this case, we are pleased to tell you, the longtime owner — 25 years — is the one who sold.
Three Wood Frame Houses Demo’d for Karl Fischer-Designed Apartments [Brownstoner]
Slew of Wood Frame Houses Slated for Teardown Across Brooklyn [Brownstoner]
Wood Frame Coverage [Brownstoner]
Brookland Capital Coverage [Brownstoner]
Photo by Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark
This house is not next to two apartment buildings. The apartment buildings are nearby, but not next door. There is a brick house to the left and a row of limestone houses to the right. The houses to the right and left are not clearly seen in the picture, but they are there.