Amit Gera plans 8-unit project in Crown Heights

Amit Gera of Five Star Hotel Group submitted a new building construction project for an eight-unit, 6,746 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 1201 St Marks Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on November 15, 2022 under job number B08025465. It calls for the construction of a four-story building. The project is described in the filing as: proposed new building of 4 stories with cellar, two penthouses, and [a total of] eight dwelling units. The architect is Technemotion Design.

The property

The current property has 2 residential units with 1,400 square feet of built space and 6,197 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 7,605 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 24 feet and is 127 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,130 square feet. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $859,000.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold for $800,000 on February 3, 2022.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Crown Heights, the bulk, or 38 percent of the 46.6 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space. In sales, Crown Heights has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $514.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Crown Heights has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 7th highest in Brooklyn. It had 2.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There was one pre-foreclosure suit filed among other development buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the three commercial properties representing 161,948 square feet of the 161,948 square feet. The largest owner is NYC Department Of Education, followed by New York Police Department and then Moishe Friedman. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 13,462 square feet. The largest is an eight-unit, 6,746 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Five Star Hotel Group and filed by Amit Gera with plans filed November 15, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is an eight-unit, 6,716 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by T Zh with plans filed September 18, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1201 St Marks Avenue, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $11.3 million. The most recent of the two was Joseph Freund in which borrowed $5.3 million from Customers Bank secured by the 5,059-square-foot, seven-unit mixed-use building (S5) on 147 Utica Avenue and one other property on May 31, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.