Alan Bell’s B&B Urban plans to break into the Brooklyn market by bringing an affordable housing building with 100 residential units to East New York’s Cypress Hills section.
The 10-story building would be located at 315 Linwood Street, at the corner of Atlantic Avenue, and consist of 100 percent affordable housing, with 30 percent of units going to formerly homeless families, according to Bell and plans filed Saturday with the Department of Buildings.
Bell said he is unsure what the specific income and rent ranges will be for the apartments.
“I have to negotiate with city and state folks,” he said. “It’s a moving target depending on how much subsidy they want to provide.”
The building will encompass roughly 89,500 square feet in total, 3,660 of which will be designated as commercial space. It will span tax lots at 315 Linwood Street and 3008-3014 Atlantic Avenue, both of which are now completely vacant, according to Bell.
The site had previously been zoned as C8, which is typically designated for businesses like car washes and auto shops, but opened up for residential use after the city’s controversial rezoning plan for East New York went through, Bell said.
This will be B&B Urban’s first project in Brooklyn, as it has focused on Bronx projects so far, according to Bell. The company, along with L+M Development, recently secured $61.8 million in funding for their 13-story supportive housing project in the Bronx at 2700 Jerome Avenue that will feature 136 below-market apartments.
Bell said his company was approaching Brooklyn with a different mindset than the one it took to the Bronx.
“We see this as different from our Bronx jobs,” Bell said. “In our Bronx jobs, we look for more mixed-income housing because those communities feel that too much low-income housing has been forced upon them, but in East New York — a so-called gentrifying neighborhood — we think there’s great opportunity for all affordable.”
(To view more new construction projects being developed in East New York, click here)