Developer to refile mixed-use rental plan near Barclays Center

PRD Realty boss thinks once-rebuffed project on Flatbush Ave. could commence by year's end

From left: Preliminary rendering of 215 Flatbush Avenue and the site's location
From left: Preliminary rendering of 215 Flatbush Avenue and the site's location

The developer who two years ago planned to put up a mixed-use rental building near the Barclays Center — and who subsequently met with neighborhood resistance — is set to file revamped plans and hopes to break ground by the end of the year.

The Brooklyn sports arena’s opening night was only a few months away when Manhattan-based PRD Realty went to Community Board 6 in early 2012 seeking a thumbs-up for its request for a waiver to parking- and zoning-regulations at its planned 53-unit rental building at 215 Flatbush Avenue.

When the board gave a conditional approval that essentially kept those requirements in place, the developer went back to the drawing board.

The firm is now ready to refile, PRD President Martin Damansky told The Real Deal.

“We should be filing within two weeks,” Damansky said. He added that the firm plans to break ground at the site by the end of the year.

In its latest iteration, the building will go from six to eight stories and the number of apartments will climb to 58. More than 100 parking spaces will also be included below ground, an addition Damansky thinks will appeal to Barclays patrons.

The building, which will rise on the site of the former Bergen Tile factory, lies across from the southwest corner of the Barclays Center at the intersection of The Residential Dean Street and the busy throughway Fulton Avenue.

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The property will sit on the opposite side of some of the pre-fabricated housing at the newly branded Pacific Park portion of the development. The location also puts it at the arena’s southern entrance at what is a crucial dividing line, as far as Brooklyn retail goes.

The arena has pushed retail rents up in the vicinity, with the two-block stretch north of Dean Street commanding prices between $150 and $200 per square foot.

Go south of Dean Street and rents drop to the $80 to $100 range, though Damansky said he’s got prime real estate with some 310 feet of frontage wrapped around the corner of the 6,164 square-foot retail space.

“I think we have the premium location,” he said. “Part of the building is right opposite the first residential building. Half of the building on Dean Street is facing Exit D to the stadium.”

Damansky added that he thinks PRD’s site is better.

“Crossing Flatbush,” he said, “is not like crossing Dean Street.”