Chetrit firm pays $119 psf for Sheepshead Bay site

A Chetrit family firm paid $15.5 million for a Sheepshead Bay parcel with 130,000 square feet of development rights.

That comes out to $119 per buildable square foot for 2870 Ocean Avenue, where sources say AB & Sons, a firm managed by the Chetrit family, plans a mixed-use apartment building.

The Chetrit family declined to comment on the transaction and its plans for the plot. KSR, which brokered the deal, declined to comment.

AB & Sons, which was founded by Abraham, Isaac and Eli Chetrit in the early 2000s, owns about 25 commercial buildings in New York City.

A Staples store sits on the development site, but old-timers in the neighborhood and firefighting circles know it as the site of a tragic fire in 1978 that burned a Waldbaum’s supermarket to the ground. The blaze killed six firefighters who were pinned down when the roof collapsed.

At the time, the store was under renovation, but a planned sprinkler system had yet to be installed. The disaster helped lead to the development of modern safety practices for firefighters, who now wear personal devices that sound an alarm when immobile.

Developers’ interest in Sheepshead Bay has increased in the past few years. The neighborhood has seen an increase in construction, with new condos dotting the low-scale section of southern Brooklyn.