Pintchik development sites: the future face of Flatbush

Last Thursday's New York Sun article about the Pintchik family of hardware store fame, headlined Brooklyn Family Sitting on $100M in Property, Air Rights, described big plans for the family's properties along Flatbush Avenue between Pacific Street and Grand Army Plaza, including new retail, rooftop additions and other expansions, then "as many as four new, mixed-use buildings on the sites of small commercial properties and lots along the avenue over the next three years."

And where might they be? The Sun reported: The family is planning a 22,000-square-foot retail space at one of the new buildings planned for Flatbush Avenue and Sterling Place, which could hold a large national tenant.

Photographer Tracy Collins has filled in the blanks regarding those development sites. Above and at left are the two buildings that make up 342-354 Flatbush Avenue, on the south side just east of Sterling Place. The top photo shows the low-slung Nephrology Foundation of Brooklyn, where numerous people come daily for dialysis.

Other properties along Flatbush closer to Fifth Avenue (and the Atlantic Yards site) contain medical offices connected with New York Methodist Hospital. I've been told those and other medical properties along Flatbush signed long leases decades ago, when the shopping strip was moribund. Assuming an arena and further development arrive, those sites would become much more lucrative for retail and entertainment.

Other sites

Along with the site above, the Sun reported that the Pintchiks plan new buildings at 162-170 Flatbush Avenue just east of Pacific and across from the planned Miss Brooklyn (right), 250-258 Flatbush Avenue just east of St. Marks Avenue (below), and perhaps another building nearby on Bergen Street:
Preliminary plans have already been drawn up for the buildings, which [Matthew Pintchik] said would be designed in a "seaport cast-iron" and "great brick" style.

"They will not be modern buildings," he said. "They will be crisp, with great light and air, but fitting the neighborhood."

Last September, when the $13 million listing for the property near Pacific Street appeared on Corcoran.com (it's now gone), Gabby at Brownstoner observed that the listing only includes a passing mention of the fact that the site is right across the street from “the proposed Forest City Ratner Project spanning a large area around and over the Rail Yards.” Perhaps brokers are shying away from using AY’s ginormous mish-mash of out-of-scale towers, constant construction and blaring traffic as selling points.

Thus ensued a barrage of comments on what effect (and for whom) Atlantic Yards might have.