An affordable housing lottery has opened for 35 apartments in a curvy development on the corner of Metropolitan and Bushwick avenues in East Williamsburg. The nine-story, 136-unit building at 828 Metropolitan Avenue has risen on the site of one of the many former gas stations in Brooklyn that have been replaced by residential developments.
Of the 35 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments in the lottery, all income restricted and rent stabilized, 28 could be deemed truly affordable. Those are for families earning 40 to 60 percent of the Area Median Income, with limits set between $35,829 and $100,620 for households of one to five people, according to the listing.
The cheapest apartments included in the lottery are nine one-bedrooms at $933 a month for households of one to three people earning between $35,829 and $55,920 annually. The other affordable units include five two-bedroom apartments for $1,104 and three for $1,739 a month; nine one-bedrooms for $1,463 a month; and two studios for $1,374 a month. The remaining units are for families earning 130 percent of AMI, or up to $218,010 for five people, and include a two-bedroom apartment for $3,963 a month.
The architect of record for the pet-friendly, smoke-free mixed-used structure is Kao Hwa Lee Architects PC. The J Associates contributed planning and exterior design, while Swive Interiors & Architects worked on the interior design. The building includes covered and dedicated parking spaces, bike storage, a gym, yoga studio, business center, rooftop terrace, storage options, and an elevator.
Apartments will have floor to ceiling windows, washers and dryers, and energy-efficient and high-end appliances, according to the listing. Tenants pay for electricity, including electric stoves and electric heating. Rent includes hot water.
Leasing of the market-rate units has already started, and the building looks close to finished inside and out. Starting on the second floor, the building is wrapped in balconies whose wavy floors create a rippled effect across the building’s facade.
A rendering attached to the fence and included in the housing lottery listing show the building has a glassy facade broken up by rectangular columns and partially obscured by the translucent brown balconies. The ground floor, which will be used for retail, is largely covered in floor to ceiling windows, punctuated by rectangular columns whose coved tops bend outward, the rendering shows.
The undulating lines of the building accord with a current vogue for scallops in interior design and contrast with the jagged Jenga-like assemblages of boxes that have held sway in Brooklyn building design for the last decade or so.
The property comprises what used to be separate lots from 834 Metropolitan Avenue to 15 Bushwick Avenue. To make way for the new building, the developers demolished two three-story townhouses at 832 and 834 Metropolitan Avenue and the Speedway gas station at 7 Bushwick Avenue. A parking lot sat between the residential homes and the gas station.
A used car dealership occupied the lot at 7 Bushwick Avenue in the late 1930s, tax photos show, and by the 1980s it had been converted to a gas station. Remediation work was required for the new development.
City records show 66 South 2nd Street LLC acquired the site with the gas station for $2.4 million in 2016, with developer Michael Kubersky signing for the LLC. The deed has been transferred several times since, but Kubersky’s signature still appears on paperwork along with developers Yoel Hershkowitch and Konstantin Gubareff. In 2022, the developers bought the townhouses at 832 and 834 Metropolitan Avenue from 834 Metropolitan Avenue LLC for $1.6 million, records show. Later that year, the three sites were made into one zoning lot.
A rezoning of the three sites was completed in 2021, changing the land use of 7 Bushwick Avenue from commercial to residential, and increasing the height limits on new development on the two residential lots. Due to the rezoning, the new development is required to include affordable apartments through the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, which results in much more affordable units than the now expired 421-a tax break (which the building will also likely qualify for).
The 828 Metropolitan Avenue Apartments lottery closes on August 9. To apply, visit the listing on New York City’s Housing Connect website.
This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Brownstoner.
