Big Feet: March of the Fourth Avenue Towers

Towers are rapidly spreading on Brooklyn's Fourth Avenue. The area between Second and Fifth Streets have been an early center of activity with two Leviev Boymelgreen towers and a new boutique hotel. However, there is building underway at Carroll Street and at Douglass Street and new projects have been announced at First Street and at Seventh Street. All together at least a dozen new buildings--most of them 12 stories--are going up between Union Street and 15th Street on Fourth Avenue. (And you can be that regardless of what side of Fourth Avenue the new buildings sit on--the avenue being the current-day line of demarcation between the Slope and Gowanus--they'll all be referred to as being in Park Slope.)

The activity is due to a 2003 rezoning of Park Slope that protected low-rise residential streets from highrises but turned Fourth Avenue into a target for developm,ent. The rezoning allows buildings as tall as 12 stories along Fourth Avenue and allows that buildings to extend 100 feet down side streets. A citizen group called Fourth Avenue Neighborhood Preservation had its first meeting this week trying to push for a reexamination of the rules, given the rapid development they've encouraged.

In any case, a reader writes to say:

We just bought a place on 11th btwn 3rd and 4th and one of the neighbors came by and said that a building was going up on the corner. i did a bit of research and found a developer...bought up a bunch of the real estate on 4th btwn 10th and 11th but an old timer resident refused to sell, so it wasn't clear what would happen.

The corner in question was indeed the subject of a detailed article in the Brooklyn Papers. A developer named Bailing Yang has been active in the neighborhood (offering huge sums to homeowners) and controversial developer Isaac Katan, who has stirred up tremendous opposition in the South Slope, also is either building or has plans for more than 400 units. The area between 11th and 15th Streets in particular is shaping up as a great place to sell property to developers at huge profit, but as a less stable place to live over the next few years.

If anyone has information about any Fourth Avenue towers between 11th Street and 15th Street, we'd love to hear.

Related Post:
Is Twelve Stories Too Tall for Fourth Avenue?