Rendering of 2300 Cropsey Avenue, currently under construction. Image Credit: NYC CPC.
The densely residential area lacks many commercial spaces, including supermarkets. On March 16, 2022, the City Planning Commission heard an application that would allow for a supermarket to be added to a new 23-story tower currently under construction at 2300 Cropsey Avenue in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
The new 23-story mixed-use tower can be constructed as-of-right for residential and community facility uses. The building will have 154 units, and also features a parking garage and will have a charter school operate out of some of the community facility space on the second floor. There is approximately 35,000 square feet of ground floor space that can currently be used as community facility space that the applicants would like to use as a supermarket, which will require a commercial overlay to the current zoning to allow the supermarket to operate in that space.
The applicants, represented by Sheldon Lobel, P.C., noted that the residential district in which the building was located lacked many commercial overlays, which resulted in a dense residential area with limited commercial options, including supermarkets and grocery stores. The applicants also highlighted that Cropsey Avenue is a wide avenue that is better suited to handle commercial traffic.
According to the applicant, there have been preliminary talks with several different food stores about the space but no food store or chain has committed to opening a supermarket in the space.
Both Brooklyn Community Board 11 and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso issued favorable conditions for the application. Community Board 11 requested that a traffic study be done twelve months post development, that no loading or unloading will take place on the street and that deliveries be coordinated to not impact the arrival and departure of students at nearby schools.
At the public hearing, Commissioner Anna Hayes Levin asked about the plans for loading and deliveries and the impact on schools. Mr. Lobel confirmed there will be a traffic study done post-development, and that delivery trucks would be able to access the parking area in the cellar through a curb cut to allow for deliveries to occur inside and off the street. The charter school’s hours of operation do not seem to conflict with the typical delivery times for a supermarket.
No members of the public testified. The City Planning Commission will vote on this application at a later date.
By: Veronica Rose (Veronica is the CityLaw fellow and a New York Law School graduate, Class of 2018.)