BRP Companies seeks rezoning for huge Bed-Stuy development

A huge new rental project may be coming to the site of a former Brooklyn nursing home.

BRP Companies, one of the city’s biggest affordable housing developers, has filed a rezoning application for 270 Nostrand Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the former site of CABS Nursing Home, Bklyner reported. The facility closed several years ago and was in the process of being demolished as of 2019.

BRP is seeking to build a 14-story rental building on the site, which would have 487 apartments, of which 144 would be deemed affordable. The project would also have 11,619 square feet of commercial space, including ground-floor retail and a community facility.

But even though the project is at its earliest stages, it’s being met with some resistance: According to the publication, members of Community Board 3’s land use committee have taken issue with the building’s height and the affordability of its affordable units. They’d prefer the building to rise only 10 stories, and the income limits for the affordable units to be lower.

Though BRP filed the rezoning application, the site is owned by a subsidiary of the Allure Group, the company at the center of the Rivington House scandal on the Lower East Side. Allure negotiated to have a deed restriction for that nursing home lifted, leading to the sale of the site to to Slate Property Group and several partners.

Allure has also faced scrutiny at the Bed-Stuy site. It bought the property from CABS in 2015 for $15.6 million. A year later, the nursing home operator sued Allure, claiming that the landlord misrepresented its plans for the site, and that it forced residents out of the property, leading to the deaths of some of CABS’ residents.

Allure was also sued by one of its lenders, Sabr Group, which alleged that the company fell behind on payments on a $20 million loan, and tried to force the lender to buy back the property at a 60 percent markup over a price negotiated as part of the terms of the loan.

Previously, Allure had planned to bring a seven-story, 241-unit rental building to the site. The company reportedly plans to eventually transfer ownership of the site to BRP, though a spokesperson for BRP did not provide specifics to the publication.

[Bklyner] — Amy Plitt