Gowanus residents sue city to block 400-person homeless shelter

A group of Gowanus residents under the name Third Street Block Association filed a lawsuit yesterday in Brooklyn State Supreme Court seeking to block the conversion of 130 3rd Street, a commercial building affiliates of David Levitan of Liberty One Group own, into a homeless shelter under an R-1 application, which is generally allowed in manufacturing zones. Levitan is a major investor in homeless shelters. The suit seeks to stop the conversion based on alleged environmental and zoning issues.

Case LINK

The Department of Buildings conversion application is under Job Number B00935173, and it seeks to develop 14 rooms with dormitory sleeping, with about 25 persons per room.

Danny Turkel, of Liberty One Group submitted a major alteration application for a rehab of the six-story building at 130 3rd Street. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on September 18, 2023 under job number B00935173. The project is described in the filing as: application is filed to convert an existing commercial building into a transient shelter facility.

The city is under pressure to house tens of thousands of migrants as well as the existing homeless population. Brownstoner reported in December 2023 on the conversion and noted community opposition.

David Levitan’s entity bought the property on September 14, 2023, for $19.5 million.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 130 3rd Street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $57.1 million. The most recent of the three was Joyland Group which bought the industrial (E9) property at 125 3rd Street for $30.5 million from Orange Management on September 27, 2023. One of those four items was a loan which Joyland Group borrowed $16 million from Maxim Capital Group secured by the property on 125 3rd Street on September 27, 2023.

Correction: A prior version of this story in one instance incorrectly identified the address as 130 3rd Avenue. The correct address is 130 3rd Street.

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