Rendering of 1377 Sutter Avenue. Image Credit: NYC CPC.
The new building would replace non-conforming commercial buildings from the 1970s. On January 19, 2022, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing for an application that would facilitate the construction of a five-story mixed use building with residential and retail uses at 1377 Sutter Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. The rezoning will affect six lots on the northern side of Sutter Avenue between Autumn Avenue and Lincoln Avenue. The project site is currently occupied by underutilized, non-conforming commercial buildings across two of the lots. The other lots in the proposed rezoning area are two-story residential buildings and houses.
The mixed-use building will feature 24,128 square feet of residential space and 7,436 square feet of ground floor retail space. The building will have 28 units, including eight studios, twelve one-bedroom units, and eight two-bedroom units. All of the units will be income restricted, with eight permanently affordable units under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing Option 2, which requires buildings to set aside 30 percent of the building’s residential units at an average 80 percent area median income (AMI).
This building will have three units for formerly homeless individuals or families, with one studio at $215, a one-bedroom at $283, and a two-bedroom at $425. Twenty units will be at 50 percent AMI at $777 for a studio, $980 for a one-bedroom unit, and $1,168 for a two-bedroom unit. Five units will be at 80 percent AMI, with studios priced at $1,314, one-bedroom units at $1,651, and two-bedroom units at $1,974.
The building would have an accessory parking garage for ten cars in the cellar that is accessible from Lincoln Avenue. The building features a 5,221 square foot rooftop outdoor recreational area. Each unit has a private balcony or terrace.
The requested rezoning to facilitate the project increases the allotted residential floor area and allows for the addition of commercial space. The applicant’s representative, Lisa Orrantia of Akerman LLP, noted that the addition of a commercial zoning overlay would help strengthen the growing commercial corridor along Sutter Avenue. The existing residential buildings included in the rezoning would continue to exist, but the project site would replace the non-compliant and old commercial buildings with an updated building.
In December 2021, then Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams issued a favorable recommendation for the project.
Commissioner Anna Hayes Levin asked about the proposed affordability levels, commenting that MIH Option 1, which requires 25 percent of units permanently affordable at an average of 60 percent AMI, seemed more fitting for the area Ms. Orrantia answered that Option 2 was agreed to with Former Council Member Inez D. Barron, to allow for all the residential units to be affordable with 80 percent of the units to be at 60 percent AMI or lower and the remaining at 80 percent AMI. According to Ms. Orrantia, the non-MIH units will be governed by a regulatory agreement with the Department of Housing Development and Preservation.
No members of the public testified for this application.
City Planning 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.)