Economy forces Brooklyn co-op to disband

Brooklyn Cohousing — an organization hoping to establish a cooperative community of private residences with communal space — is disbanding after three years, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. Beginning in September 2007, the group started making plans to locate its community on three different sites in Brooklyn, hiring architects and assembling a construction team, in an effort to become the first cohousing project in New York City. In May 2009, Cohousing came closest to realizing its vision with a former factory and warehouse site at 1901 Eighth Avenue in Greenwood Heights, a three-story building which was to be retrofitted as a 30-unit apartment building containing studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units, plus communal areas. At the time, the group had 16 committed households, according to spokesperson and founding member Alex Marshall. But financial difficulties prevented the project from moving forward. “Attempting to build a physical development during the worst financial crisis of the last half century simply proved too much for us,” organizers wrote to members in an email. “Cohousing will surely come to Brooklyn someday, but it won’t be through Brooklyn Cohousing.” [Brooklyn Eagle]