Park Slope McDonald’s site up for grabs

Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue has had its share of ups and downs – the real estate boom saw new towers like the Novo and the Crest sell out, while the crash caused new developments to stall along the prominent stretch. But it appears to be back on a roll.

A development site at 275 Fourth Avenue on the corner of 1st Street, primed for a 60,000-square-foot residential development, has hit the market asking $12 million, TerraCRG, the commercial brokerage marketing the property told The Real Deal today.

If developed into a residential project, the site would join nearby developments such as the Arias Park Slope at 150 Fourth Avenue, JDS Development and Property Market Group’s 202 8th Street and the Naftali Group’s Landmark Park Slope at 267 Sixth Street — all rental buildings — which have slowly transformed the avenue.

The site, well-known as the home of the neighborhood McDonald’s, is a 100-foot by 100-foot corner lot, according to Ofer Cohen, president of TerraCRG, who is marketing the site alongside colleagues Melissa DiBella, Dan Marks, Peter Matheos and Michael Hernandez.

It available for sale or as a ground lease, asking $600,000 a year. The term of the ground lease is negotiable, a spokesperson for the brokerage said.

McDonald’s will vacate the property by March 2014, according to an offering memorandum provided to The Real Deal by TerraCRG. The owner of the property, Heron Real Estate, declined to comment on the listing via the brokerage.

While the site would work as a rental development, Cohen said it was also a prime condominium opportunity thanks to its reasonably small size. Recently, Brooklyn condos have tended to be small — usually fewer than 20 units — due to the lack of financing available for larger for-sale projects. Lenders are still more comfortable providing construction financing for rentals for the meantime, Cohen said.

Rental product in the neighborhood has been commanding rates of around $60 per square foot, while condos have been selling in excess of $1,000 a foot, according to TerraCRG’s data.

Developers have been steadily betting on the neighborhood, including those who have traditionally operated in Manhattan. Just 10 blocks away, the Naftali Group closed on a 90,000-square-foot development site at 316 Bergen Street last year and is slated to build an 85-unit rental in partnership with AEW Capital Management, The Real Deal previously reported.