Brodsky family looks to Brooklyn

The Brodsky family has been developing Manhattan real estate for more than 50 years, eventually becoming the city’s largest developers of middle-class housing. But the development group is now turning its attention to a 440-unit rental project at 336 Flatbush Avenue Extension in downtown Brooklyn, known as City Point, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Dean Amro, the grandson of Nathan Brodsky, said the firms is focusing now Brooklyn because Manhattan has simply become too expensive for middle-class or affordable housing. “We couldn’t find locations in Manhattan,” Amro said, noting recent changes in Brooklyn that have made it an increasingly attractive place to live. “We have a lot of excitement about going into Brooklyn and we think in the long term it will be good for us.”

The Brodsky Organization is also scouting a second Brooklyn location, while still keeping a toe in Manhattan’s luxury market, with developments at  200 West 60th Street and 75 West End Avenue, both on the Upper West Side.

“We’ve found our comfort zone,” Amro said. “We’re not entering into different cities, not venturing into the office market…We are sticking to our core business and what we’re good at: residential housing in New York City, both rental and condominium.”

The firm currently owns and manages more than 50 Manhattan buildings with about 7,000 apartments. [WSJ] —Christopher Cameron