I learned some interesting things when I called Wilson Parry to research a column on 272 Greene Avenue, a controversial development in Clinton Hill.
The modernist Brooklyn project is getting attention because its architecture is so incongruous in this part of Brownstone Brooklyn, but also because the New York Times wrote about an unauthorized plaque that appeared at the project, then was removed.
Written like a museum placard below a Monet, the plaque said:
This piece asks us to consider the tension between NYC’s historically low apartment vacancy rate (1.6%) and the price of this vacant duplex ($5.25 million).
That’s why I called Parry, the CEO and co-founder of Property Scout. I wanted to find out if the buyer of the Greene Avenue lot could have built more than the triplex, duplex and parking spot that she did.
The answer: no. Zoning limited development of the corner lot to two units. Could it be rezoned? Also no. A spot rezoning of such a small lot is not financially viable for a private owner, as the Charter Reform Commission pointed out. (The commission might allow voters to create a fast track for small rezonings.)
If politicians were more concerned about the low vacancy rate, they would have upzoned sites like 272 Greene Avenue long ago. Sure, some neighbors would go crazy, screaming about “towers” and “behemoths,” but if you look around, even historic districts such as Park Slope have big, old apartment buildings on many corners. Clearly they haven’t destroyed the character of the neighborhood.
The City Council, which has largely accepted that the city needs more housing, did pass the Adams administration’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity in December. Had the owner of 272 Greene Avenue known that was coming, she might have waited before building a two-family. The citywide change now allows four units on the site, Parry calculated.
When you add up all such small changes (and the few big ones) in City of Yes, you get 82,000 more units over 15 years, according to the Department of City Planning. That includes the extra units prompted by an affordability bonus in City of Yes.
Qualifying for the bonus would allow 272 Greene Avenue a 2.4 floor-area ratio instead of 2.0, Parry said. For the 1,313-square-foot site, that would be 3,151 square feet of living space instead of 2,626. Divide by the dwelling unit factor of 680 and you get 4.62 units instead of 3.85.
That’s one extra unit, right? Wrong.
The city does not round off the way we learned to in elementary school.
Under ZR 23-52 (b), “Fractions equal to or greater than three-quarters resulting from this calculation shall be considered to be one dwelling unit.”
Simply put, 0.75 units round up, and below that amount rounds down. So 3.85 rounds up to four units, but 4.62 does not round up to five.
The maximum at 272 Greene is four units, with or without affordability. The bonus would allow an extra 524 square feet of living space, but that is not enough for a developer to justify renting one of the four units for less than market rate.
What we’re thinking about: Steve Cohen finally got the legislature to “alienate” the parkland he needs for his Metropolitan Park and casino project. The site is a parking lot, despite technically being parkland. Why did it keep the parkland designation when it became a parking lot for the Mets in the first place? Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The dwelling unit factor determines how many units can be fit into a project. Zoning experts call it the DUF. They say each letter rather than pronounce it “doof” or “duff.” Here’s the math: Start with the lot size in square feet, multiply by the site’s floor-area ratio, then divide by the DUF to get the maximum unit count.
Elsewhere…
A year ago, Nadine Oelsner’s proposed $115 million development on an empty Brooklyn lot was killed by Council member Crystal Hudson because it was premature, according to Hudson. She wanted Oelsner to wait for the more comprehensive Atlantic Avenue rezoning that was approved Wednesday.
Oelsner argued that her 150-unit project would easily meet the requirements of the broader rezoning, so why not let it proceed, especially because it would include desperately needed mixed-income housing, a child care center and manufacturing space.
Hudson still said no.
It now looks like her decision will allow Oelsner to build a more profitable project with less affordable housing.
In a spot rezoning of 962 Pacific Street, Hudson could have negotiated for more affordable units — between 30 percent and 40 percent of the total — and deeper affordability than required under the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law. Oelsner had even promised the community board that 32 percent of units would be affordable, with 27 of 48 affordable units set aside for households earning only 40 percent of the area median income.
Instead, under the neighborhood-wide rezoning just passed, Oelsner only has to set aside 25 percent of units affordable to households at 60 percent of the area median income, on average. And it would be as-of-right, so she won’t have to go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure again.
A disclaimer: Oelsner did not respond to inquiries from The Real Deal, so we don’t know if she will go forward with her project. But she could sell the land to (or partner with) a developer who will. Another uncertainty is whether the project pencils out under 485x, the multifamily development tax break.
Closing time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Wednesday was $34.5 million for a 6,358-square-foot condominium unit at 25 Bond Street in NoHo. Nick Gavin at Compass had the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $100 million for a 187,200-square-foot hotel at 98 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. SomeraRoad purchased the 228-unit Hotel Bossert from Beach Point Capital Management.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $12.4 million for a 3,811-square-foot condominium at 211 West 84th Street on the Upper West Side. Alexa Lambert at Compass has the listing.
— Matthew Elo