A Brooklyn office building is about to get a massive makeover.
The City Council this week approved rezoning 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension, clearing the way for nearly 1,300 housing units.
The site is home to a 350,000-square-foot commercial building with office, retail and parking garage space. The site is owned by the city, but the building is operated through a long-term ground lease by Rabina and Park Tower Group, who will be developing the new tower.
The new 1.5 million-square-foot building will be constructed atop a portion of the existing building, though the seven-story structure will be substantially demolished.
A quarter of the apartments will be affordable to those earning between 30 and 90 percent of the area median income. The new development is also expected to include office space for the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which has offices in the existing building.
The project was proposed during the Adams administration, made possible by newly created high-density districts.
In 2024, the state budget lifted the city’s cap on residential density, allowing for floor area ratios greater than 12. Later that year, the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity created two new residential districts, dubbed R11 and R12, that allowed for residential FARs of 15 and 18, respectively.
The city mapped the new districts as part of the Midtown South rezoning, but it’s unclear to what extent these higher FARs will be deployed as part of future neighborhood rezonings. The Flatbush Avenue Extension project, which will have an FAR of 21.8 (including commercial space), is the first site-specific rezoning to take advantage of the FAR cap removal, though other projects have been proposed. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in 2024 that a Manhattan site would be the first, but that project will be approved through a state-led approval process rather than the city’s land use review process.
What we’re thinking about: What caught your attention in the state Senate and Assembly budget resolutions? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” features an em dash every 129 words, as reported on the podcast “99 Percent Invisible.”
Elsewhere in New York…
— Moody’s on Wednesday downgraded the city’s financial outlook to negative, citing its $5 billion-plus budget gap, the New York Daily News reports. A spokesperson for the mayor called the move “premature.”
— One day after the state Senate and Assembly released their own budget proposals calling for raising taxes on New York’s highest earners, Gov. Kathy Hochul wouldn’t say whether she expected the final spending plan to include tax hikes, Politico New York reports. “What I want to make sure we are smart about is having a system in place where it’s not just taxing for the sake of taxing,” she told the publication. “And being conscious of the fact that I need people who are high-net-worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state.”
— The Mamdani administration hosted its third rental ripoff hearing on Wednesday in the Bronx. If you were there, let us know!
Closing Time
Residential: The largest residential sale on Wednesday was $26 million for a 4,483-square-foot condominium unit at 157 West 57th Street in the Plaza District. The unit last sold for $22.5 million in 2017.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale was $19.6 million for a five-unit apartment building at 175 Franklin Street in Tribeca. The renovated building has an average. asking rent of $17,350 in the past year.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $8 million for a 3,667-square-foot condo at 43 West 64th Street on the Upper West Side. Lori Ben-Ari, Heidi Cohen and Adie Kriegstein with Compass have the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit was for a proposed 26,397-square-foot, 36-unit apartment project at 2316 Belmont Avenue in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Badaly & Badaly Architects filed the permit on behalf of developer Otabek Rasulov.
— Matthew Elo