Brooklyn CB7 pushes Watermark for more large affordable units at 214-unit St. Rocco’s project in Greenwood Heights

Brooklyn Community Board 7 members pressured representatives for developer Watermark Capital Group to add more larger affordable units within the three-building, 214-unit residential project at 783 4th Avenue in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn. The project is in the middle of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which requires a critical rezoning from a manufacturing designation to R8 and R7 to proceed, and it is facing resistance and demands for concessions that would reshape the project, which has already reduced the number of overall units.

Developer Watermark Capital Group, led by Wolfe Landau and David Tabak, in 2024 originally sought a zoning change to develop 257 units project at 783 4th Avenue in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, that would include approximately 64 permanently affordable apartments.

That plan has been pared back to 214 units, with 126 market rate and 88 affordable, up from 64. The current project features Building A, a 13-story corner building with ground-floor commercial space; Building B, a nine-story residential midblock building; and Building C, an eight-story midblock structure that includes a community facility. Notably, 88 of the units (approximately 41 percent of the total) will be permanently income-restricted, with all 48 units in Building C designated as affordable through an HPD term sheet and the remainder complying with Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) Option 1.

The three-building development is on the east side of 4th Avenue between 27th and 28th streets. Watermark Capital Group through the entity 783 4th Ave LLC controls the property through a 49-year ground lease with the property owner, St. Rocco Roman Catholic Church, also known as St. Roch Roman Catholic Church. The development site includes the parcels 783 4th Avenue, 216 27th Street, 220 27th Street and 183 28th Street.

Watermark Capital Group is an active developer, frequently buying or leasing development sites from religious organizations.

Application 2023K0368 LINK
Saint Rocco court petition to lease LINK

The redevelopment plan centers on the creation of three new apartment buildings, 88 of which are earmarked for affordable housing, with one entire building dedicated to 100% affordable units built in partnership with the Fifth Avenue Committee. While the developer has moved to accommodate some community demands, board member Antoinette Martinez pointed out that “forty-one percent of the plan is geared towards affordability,” a figure that still masks deeper issues of unit size distribution.

The central sticking point remains the divergence between the market-rate and affordable units. Watermark Capital Group’s current plan allocates the majority of family-sized apartments to the market: about 65 percent of the market-rate units are two and three bedrooms, designed for family residency. By contrast, nearly 80 percent of the affordable units consist of studios and one-bedroom apartments. The imbalance drew criticism, with Martinez noting plainly, “There are discrepancies there” in the breakdown.

This lopsided unit mix directly contradicts the goals laid out by local leaders. Council Member Alexa Aviles, whose office is deeply involved in negotiations, outlined her priorities, focusing on “getting deeper affordability, having more two or three bedroom apartments for family style and having seniors access for seniors housing to make sure that some of their seniors are the most vulnerable”. Furthermore, the updated proposal already includes a reduction in parking spaces and a commitment to “deeper affordability” following earlier conversations with the council member.

To safeguard their interests, local residents are pushing for a formal agreement. Jeremy Kaplan, reporting on behalf of the Housing Committee, noted that the 27th Street Block Association had presented a letter demanding “some sort of CBA [Community Benefits Agreement] to memorialize and sort of enforce, provide some semblance of enforcement” on the community’s list of asks. The Land Use Committee, chaired by Diana Gonzalez, has also pressed the developer on several key environmental and infrastructural matters, requiring a shadows study, dedicated accessible parking spaces, and a water study for rainwater mitigation to handle both 50-year and 100-year floods. Gonzalez emphasized that the committee had “a good discussion” with the developer, who made the “unusual” move of appearing in person.

The project is currently navigating the early stages of the public review process. As Gonzalez clarified, the recent meeting was “not the official ULURP process meeting. This is just a preliminary meeting”. However, the timeline is tight. Watermark Capital Group is “attempting to get this through city planning so that it comes to us for our official ULURP meeting before we break in the summer.” This means the process is expected to accelerate significantly in the coming weeks.

Before the proposal reaches the final City Council vote, the most important stage, Council Member Aviles’s office is actively engaging the neighborhood. Deputy Chief of Staff Winnie Marion announced that the office is running a survey to gauge public sentiment, explaining, “before the council member votes on this, which is the last step in the process, we want to know what the community thinks about it”. The Land Use Committee has pledged to continue its “ongoing dialogue with the developer to ensure that we’re really getting the best deal for the community”, while the Housing Committee plans to expand the discussion to include the mayor’s broader agenda concerning regulation and deregulation as it impacts affordability in the area. The outcome of the community surveys and ongoing negotiations will determine whether Watermark Capital Group is forced to further sweeten the pot before the project advances.

The neighborhood

In Greenwood Heights, The bulk, or 37 percent of the 16.2 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 36 percent of the space. In sales, Greenwood Heights has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $230.9 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 30th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Greenwood Heights has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 14th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.6 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of one of the 13 commercial properties representing 20,800 square feet of the 96,198 square feet. The identified owner is P. Vetri. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 791 4 Avenue, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a new building permit application filed on August 20, 2025 for a 18,565-square-foot 56 building at 214 26th Street.

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