Brodsky acquires Avery Hall’s Gowanus development

The Brodsky Organization has picked up a post-rezoning development in Gowanus from Avery Hall Investments, which will retain a stake in the project.

The deal is for a 350-unit project at 499 President Street, Crain’s reported. The mixed-use development will span 322,000 square feet, including 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

SLCE Architects is handling the design work. M&T Bank and Bank of New York provided a $155 million construction loan to the project, which is expected to be completed in the spring of 2025.

Avery Hall initially partnered with Tavros Holdings and Charney Development & Construction to buy the site — along with several others — for $55 million in 2018. Upon buying the adjacent parcels,  the companies agreed to develop them separately. At the time, Avery Hall was eyeing a residential and commercial project at its site.

After the onset of the pandemic, Avery Hall pivoted, applying to build a 70,000-square-foot storage facility. When the Gowanus rezoning passed in late 2021, however, Avery Hall’s original idea reemerged.

For the project, 75 percent of the units will be market-rate, while the remainder will be affordable housing units. The affordable units are further broken down to 10 percent for residents earning 40 percent of the AMI, 10 percent for those earning 60 percent of the AMI and 5 percent for those earning 100 percent of the AMI.

Amenities are expected to include coworking spaces, a yoga center and an outdoor swimming pool.

Since the Gowanus rezoning, developers have been piling into the neighborhood, though the prominent filings have slowed in recent months. The rezoning applied to 82 blocks that had mostly been restricted to industrial use. Officials estimated the rezoning would lead to 8,500 apartments being built by 2035, some 3,000 of which will be income-restricted, although the 421a construction deadline puts those targets in jeopardy.

Cheskie Weisz’s CW Realty was reported in August to be angling to develop 205 apartments on Fourth Avenue. 

— Holden Walter-Warner

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