Another spot rezoning on Atlantic Ave. 12-story building proposed to replace gas station at Brooklyn Ave., two blocks east of Nostrand Ave. AAMUP boundary.

Views of 1381 Atlantic Avenue, from EAS

Real estate developers are typically ahead of area-wide rezonings, ready to trade underdeveloped property for valuable new density. 

So developers are now ahead of the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (AAMUP), which covers blocks on and around Atlantic between Vanderbilt and Nostrand avenues--and launched only after several spot rezonings passed or proposed in an area Brooklyn Community Board 8 had been considering under its M-CROWN rezoning proposal..

I wrote in March how a proposed 13-story residential building would jump-start the transformation of a border zone in Eastern Crown Heights: 1720 Atlantic Avenue, a strip mall-plus-parking-lot at the southwest corner of Schenectady Avenue, six blocks east of Nostrand, an area similarly shackled by outdated manufacturing zoning (M1-1).

Another project on Atlantic

1381 Atlantic proposal, from EAS

Now a 12-story proposed project has surfaced just two blocks east of the Nostrand Avenue AAMUP border: 1381 Atlantic Avenue, at the northwest corner of Brooklyn Avenue. 

That's in Bedford-Stuyvesant and within the area of Brooklyn Community District 3, represented by 36th District Council Member Chi Ossé.

As the Real Deal reported 8/23/23, the owner of a parcel including a BP gas station and 7-Eleven seeks a rezoning to allow a mixed-use building. (The article said 13 stories, so maybe they're counting the roof.)

So that raises the question, as asked at last Wednesday's Department of City Planning (DCP) discussion of AAMUP draft rezoning guidelines: why did the rezoning area stop at Nostrand, and will DCP explore further east?

Planner Jonah Rogoff responded that they sought "to go to the boundary of the M1-1 district," the end of the low-rise manufacturing zoning, which is Nostrand.

Moreover, the area near Nostrand, he said, was recently rezoned: on the north side as part of the Bedford-Stuyvesant South rezoning in 2007 and on the south side with the 2013 Crown Heights West rezoning. 

"That portion is also very built up too," Rogoff said, "so we wanted to be sensitive of the current housing that's already there. That's true, if you look narrowly at the site, as suggested in the screenshot above, from the project's Environmental Assessment Statement (EAS).

Then again, it depends on the lens: there are more parcels that could be converted from manufacturing to residential. As noted in the screenshot below, from the EAS, there is more M1-1 zoned space east of this proposed site.

More on the plan

According to documents filed with DCP by applicant Remica Property Group, the rezoning would result in about 120,306 gross square feet (gsf) of residential uses, with 103 apartments. The building would contain ground-floor retail space and second-floor office space.

There cold be 26 affordable units, or 25%, as the owner aims to pursue Option 1 of the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, at average affordability level of 60% of Area Median Income (AMI). That said, Option 2 could deliver 31 affordable units (30%), but at higher rents, aimed at households averaging 80% of AMI.

As the Real Deal noted, the project 2026 completion date may depend on the restoration of the 421-a tax break, though "[e]xperts say some rental projects could pencil out without 421-a if the developer’s acquisition costs are low."

Remica, the publication noted, owns at least six other BP locations in Brooklyn, plus two KFC sites and a car wash on Atlantic Avenue. Those could be valuable.