Progress is taking place at the Townhouses of Cobble Hill, a set of nine townhouses — four historic and five that have yet to be built — on a single Congress Street block in the Cobble Hill Historic District. A team of developers said they will begin marketing three of the homes in the next month, though a specific date was not disclosed.
The project is a joint venture between JMH Development and Madison Estates, which will be marketing the homes from an office located at 53 Douglass Street in Cobble Hill. Morris Adjmi is the architect of record.
Though the developers have not yet broken ground on the project, the design is complete, according to Jason Halpern, principal at JMH. They hope to start construction in the coming weeks and complete the project 14 months later.
“We feel because our product is going to be really unique, in not just the location, but also what we’re building, that we feel we’ll do better as the project gets built,” Halpern said of the decision to market only some of the homes initially.
The development site comprises two properties spanning 110 to 126 Congress Street, which the Brooklyn Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church previously owned, as The Real Deal reported last summer. One of the buildings was used as a church rectory, and will be renovated into four separate townhouses. The other structure will give way to five townhouses with features similar to their older neighbors.
The four renovated homes will stand three stories, each with a partial fourth floor featuring terrace space, Halpern said. The homes will each have five bedrooms, five bathrooms, roughly 3,400 square feet, and an additional 700 square feet for a storage or recreation floor.
“Everything that we’re doing, everything within the structure is new,” said Haplern, adding that the existing facades will stay. “Typically with renovations you don’t see that.”
All of the new townhouses will be four stories. Two of them will have four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and garages, while the three remaining will have five bedrooms, five bathrooms and 3,000 square feet. All the homes have backyard space.
Madison Estates president and owner Gerard Longo told The Real Deal last summer he estimated they would sell for between $2.5 million to $3 million each. Longo declined to comment for this story, and Halpern would not discuss pricing.
“There’s a lot of press about the Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens market, and we feel we’re really unique because we’re truly in Cobble Hill,” Halpern said. “It has the historic landmark feel.”
The development proposal received approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission this past October. The team presented the proposal last September, and the commissioners recommended a few revisions, including restudying the materials and design of the stoops, a spokesperson for the LPC said. The developers returned the following month with the revisions, and the project was approved.
Adjmi did not respond to messages seeking comment.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said Madison Equities was part of the joint development venture. In fact, Madison Estates and JMH Development comprise the partnership.