Real estate firm marketing retail at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, though building configuration still in question

Photo by Tracy Collins

It's a marketing rendering, not an approved one, but real estate broker Ripco (as Brownstoner first noted) has posted renderings of 215 Flatbush, a six-story development planned for the Bergen Tile site at the northeast corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, opposite the site of the 32-story B2 tower.

The Ripco advertisement touts 9875 square feet of retail, 60 residential units and delivery in the second quarter of 2015, which should be about six months after the B2 tower opens.

That contrasts with the most recent--but disapproved--new building application was to have 53 rental apartments, as noted by Brownstoner.

Last year's discussion

As I wrote last year, PRD Realty, owners of the triangular Bergen Tile building since 1934, want to make sure there's retail on the ground floor, not use it to meet the city's increasingly antiquated parking minimums, spots for 40% of the units, or some 24 spots.

While nearly everyone at a Community Board 6 committee meeting agreed that the city's parking requirements don't fit in a zone near transit, some thought that, given the increased competition for spaces in the neighborhood, some spaces should remain in the building's basement, though not on the street level.

So the committee, which has only an advisory vote, agreed to support the request for a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals, subject to several conditions, including 12 parking spaces in the basement.

The owners wanted a full variance. The situation remains unresolved, as far as I've been able to learn.

215 Flatbush Ripco ad October 2013