Junkyards on Bergen Near Washington About to be Scrapped?
From our perch in the Notsayin offices, we've noticed the two dueling auto parts yards on either side of Bergen just east of Washington are not long for this world.
In fact, the one on the north side at 767 Bergen has been cleared for at least the past several weeks. The lot was listed a year ago on Loopnet under the headline "Development site in hot new neighborhood" (ha, apparently Crown Heights is not only hot but also "new"!). The listing goes on to say the 15,000 sq ft lot has "approved plans for 43,000 sq ft residential. 42 units!" - but the listing is now "Off Market".
On the south side at 760-766 Bergen (Bergen Auto Parts - last mentioned on Brooklynian five years ago for the awesome new street art on its facade), in the past two weeks, the owner has cut up a cargo container (likely the cause of a couple of small fires Friday evening) and removed most of the neatly-stacked car doors and other parts. Could just be spring cleaning, but this off-the-cuff mention of the lot over on BK to the Fullest last month would suggest otherwise:
"It's hard to find this same value in Prospect Heights, even towards Crown Heights, when even the junkyard at 760-766 Bergen Street goes for $1.5M."
So while CB8 and the BSA (or DCP or whomever) go back and forth on potential variances for residential conversions in the zoned-industrial blocks east of Grand, it looks like the move from auto repairs to home improvements is already underway right next door.
Comments
-
Thank god! They seem to like to use the bike lane as work space.
-
There are many better uses for land with great subway access than storing parts of broken down cars, so this counts as good news to me.
-
Once the junkyards go, the autobody shops won't be far behind.
They tend to have a co-dependent relationships...
P.S. Those who hate the word co-dependent can substitute symbiotic:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/symbiotic -
Can we take this moment to talk about WHY "Western Crown Heights" is chock-full of scrapyards and auto-body shops?
Many neighborhood newcomers are unaware that from the 1920s until at least the early 40's, Bedford Avenue between roughly Fulton and Empire Blvd was considered "Automobile Row". The beautiful Studebaker Building at Bedford and Sterling is a great remaining monument to that era - but the legacy of those times plays out in the blocks and blocks of remaining support businesses (and their empty shells): the scrapyards, body shops, parking garages and former dealerships, especially on the blocks bounded by Bedford, Atlantic, Bergen and Washington.
Note what were almost certainly grand car dealerships on the south side of Atlantic - from Grand to Franklin, now parking garages and vacant warehouses - and you can start to envision a shiny, bustling automotive mecca when cars were still a happy new luxury. Indeed - the original C of O for 762-766 Bergen as a "vacant lot" dedicated to "Car Wrecking and Junking of Parts of Old Cars" dates back to 1937! (attached below)
Even what's perhaps the harbinger of the "new" Crown Heights - Jon Butler's '1000 Dean' development - was once a Studebaker factory service center; thankfully he's seen fit to restore the old Studebaker logo above the entrance - preserving a relic of that era that will likely outlast the remaining auto repair businesses that served and supported it, and ultimately outlived it.
Attached files
-
Yes, the history of the area is pretty cool.
The Urban Planner "Jane Jacobs vs Robert Moses" in me kind of likes that the automobile industry was vital to creating areas such as ours, and is now being pushed out.
The times, they are a changin'
-
Door Store
-
Brilliant, Ribbons, just plain brilliant!
-
Door store no more. They were dismantling the big parts racks today.
Anyone know who bought the lot(s)?
Attached files
-
I don't have time to do this at the moment, so I will tell you how.
Go to this site: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/rolling_sales_data.shtml
Download PDF or excel file
Use Search function to find address.
....impress your friends and/or create mini article with photo for Curbed or Brownstoner.
-
Genius. Thanks whynot.
The time-suck vortex / rabbit hole deepens...
-
760-766 Bergen has a sign out saying it's relocating also provides a number to call for car parts. Looks like the cool mural's days are prob. limited.
-
Gone baby gone.
Attached files -
I can only imagine how many rats are now without a home.
I predict a blue plywood construction fence and an excavator to prep a foundation is in our future.
-
While I'm sorry to see the murral go. That block just got a bit safer for my commute.
-
To the right of the minivan in notsayin's photo is a wooden shack, which seems to be part of the property. When I walked by today, a man seemed to be doing one of the final brake jobs.
-
Looks like the two former tax lots combining the junkyard and parking lot are being combined into a four story / eight family apartment building (which from the ground plan really looks like two distinct buildings, but what do I know?).A plywood wall that consumes the entire 15 ft sidewalk on the south side of Bergen just east of Washington is going up right now. Fortunately (unlike a certain project nearby at 313 St Marks), 760 Bergen's builder had the common sense to put in a street barricade that allows you to walk safely around the construction site. Combined with the building going up across the street, the walk down Bergen just got significantly squeezed on that block.
-
I am kind of surprised those lots are not within the M1 zone.
I wonder how many other lots in the area are allowed to built residential, but are currently being used as commercial. Needless to say, some in the real estate industry have already researched same and made offers on the good ones.
BTW, I have found that washing windows first with soapy water and sponge, and then with windex is the way to combat construction dirt. -
At second glance, looks like it IS two separate buildings on one proposed combined tax lot (somewhere in the filing it looks like they may have even bought part of a third lot to cobble it all together).Two eight-family, four story buildings - numbered 760 Bergen and 764 Bergen. Both have relatively small footprints, 50 ft max heights, and roughly 30 ft deep backyards.
-
Thanks for the window washing tip whynot. I DO do windows (the ones I can reach, at least).
-
Looks like R5B is the existing zoning there - see the green overlay I added for approx location of 760 / 764 Bergen, upper left corner of the proposed rezone map (this is now existing, right?).The M1 is the pink area which begins with the auto (/coffee!) shops on the northwest corner of Bergen and Grand.I wonder if Geico is shopping for new digs for their (always busy) Geico Express repair center?ps. what's the max file size for embedded images on Brooklynian these days?
-
Window washing needs to be its own topic. I've tried various ways to clean mine, including magnets, with no success.
-
At second glance, looks like it IS two separate buildings on one proposed combined tax lot (somewhere in the filing it looks like they may have even bought part of a third lot to cobble it all together).
I wonder if they could have gone more upmarket and made each building be 4 units. Each unit could either be really wide, or be configured over two levels.Two eight-family, four story buildings - numbered 760 Bergen and 764 Bergen. Both have relatively small footprints, 50 ft max heights, and roughly 30 ft deep backyards. -
They also could have annexed the vacant lot at 639 Washington and/or the vacant quonset repair shop at 641 Washington Ave and had frontage on both streets. I've heard that quonset lot is planned for a new build as well.Add the impending demolition / new build at 757 Bergen St (next to Brooklyn Sub) - and that block is about to be a hotbed of new construction.
-
While the junkyards can go as far as I'm concerned, I absolutely love the garages. No, they aren't too pleasing to the eye (although they are much better-looking than the junkyards IMO), but I've known many of the proprietors for years and they are a positive presence in the community (they are the eyes and ears of Bergen Street, Grand Avenue, Dean Street, etc., and I credit them with helping to keep crime down in the area).
-
http://newyorkyimby.com/2014/12/revealed-767-bergen-street-crown-heights.html
For those too lazy to click: It will be 16 apartments, about 700 ft each, likely rental units.
-
If I ever build a building in NYC, I want the general contractor who's running that site. They've lapped just about every other project underway in the neighborhood.They broke ground mid-summer, and at their current pace, looks like the building will be ready by spring.
-
I am surprised/impressed that the mosque is clearly labelled in the rendering.
Such details are often whitewashed out.
-
Rebecca wrote about this site and the ones across the street today:
http://newyorkyimby.com/2015/08/construction-update-767a-and-760-764-bergen-street-crown-heights.html
She seems to agree that these sites are moving along rapidly and adds that she believes condos are in the works.
760 bergen
762 bergen
764 bergen
767a bergen
Crown Heights -
760 Bergen
It appears like they will be able to enclose the building by winter, and get to work on the interior.
Occupancy early summer, 2016?
Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 40K All Categories
- 27.1K Neighborhoods
- 5.1K Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens
- 7.1K Prospect Heights
- 2.3K Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy
- 8K Park Slope
- 549 Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- 442 Flatbush/Midwood/Ditmas Park
- 657 BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens)
- 151 Red Hook
- 104 Gowanus
- 304 Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst
- 130 Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay
- 270 Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Downtown
- 598 Windsor Terrace / Kensington
- 673 Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park
- 749 Brooklyn and Beyond
- 6.3K Stuff
- 86 Brooklyn Back When
- 1.2K Brooklyn Pets
- 257 Brooklyn Kids
- 241 Brooklyn Eats
- 51 Brooklyn Booze
- 3.6K The Lounge / Random Stuff
- 611 Brooklyn Politics
- 122 Brooklyn Sports and Fitness
- 111 Brooklyn Photos
- 339 Site Issues
- 8 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- 6.2K Listings
- 1.1K APARTMENTS and REAL ESTATE
- 1.3K Sales Openings Events
- 2.3K The Classifieds