Williamsburg developer to peg prices at garage conversion project to those nearby

A South Williamsburg developer is trying to win neighborhood support for his proposed residential conversion of a garbage truck garage by promising to peg prices to current ones for buildings right next to the project, the Brooklyn Paper reported. 

The project, an 83-unit building with two- and three-bedroom homes, is slated for what is zoned a commercial site on Rutledge and Heyward streets near Broadway. The builder hopes to offer rates that match those in a 400-foot radius of the structure rather than rates that would fall under the city’s affordable housing program. Matching rates, said the developer’s attorney Mitchell Ross, would keep prices below the market rate, and could even end up saving residents money.

“It’s going to be way lower than what you see on the north side,” Ross, who will go before Community Board 1 tonight to seek zoning permissions, told the Brooklyn Paper. He added that the developer could not afford to offer traditional affordable housing because the decontamination costs at the garage would run to $3 million.

The unusual compromise has piqued the interest of neighborhood residents, but they are insisting that the developer put his pricing promise in writing. “The sanitation site was not serving our community board, so I’m happy to see someone fix that problem,” CB1 member Rob Solanon told the Brooklyn Paper. [Brooklyn Paper]  —Hiten Samtani