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New Businesses on Kingston - Page 2 — Brooklynian

New Businesses on Kingston

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Comments

  • I did notice that this address, along with 104 Kingston, were on the list for the Department of Finance's Lien Sale this past Friday (they were also both listed as having additional debt).  Maybe we will soon see some welcomed changes coming to this block!
  • Because initial kitchen inspections take so long to happen, they are often requested even before the properties change hands.

    As a result, we may know that the CFC employees are about to be laid off, while they do not....
  • whynot_31
    edited June 2014
    Is this CFC still open?

    For better or worse, Crown Heights is down to 7:

    Crown Fried Chicken
    431 Ralph Ave 11233(347) 406 5225

    Crown Fried Chicken
    848 Nostrand Ave 11225(718) 484 1930

    Crown Fried Chicken
    116 Kingston Ave 11213(718) 493 4900

    Crown Fried Chicken
    642 Nostrand Ave 11216(718) 467 7044

    Crown Fried Chicken
    148 Utica Ave 11213(917) 966 2500

    Crown Fried Chicken & Pizza
    226 Utica Ave 11213(718) 221 6898

    Crown Fried Chicken And Pizza
    228 Albany Ave 11213(718) 785 3390
  • Yup, it's still open.

    As a result, we may know that the CFC employees are about to be laid off, while they do not....
    That's sad. Especially because, as @M_Pond said, there are a number of vacant storefronts right there. Just four stores away from Crown, 106 Kingston is for rent; 104 seems to be spillover, mostly used bicycles, from the thrift store at 102 (which used to have an awning that said Grace Telecommuncations, brought with them when they moved from the corner across the street that will eventually become "Meat"). Here's that strip.

    102-106 Kingston

    And just off to right of this pic (the brown awning) is the short-lived sandwich shop My Cousin's Place, which became the short-lived seafood place Knick Knacks. So that block has plenty of room for new stores without anyone losing their job. I know it doesn't work like that in real life, but one can hope. 
  • @pitmama put me on to this: Bobby's Coffee Shop, the old-school diner at 248 Kingston and St. Johns, is for sale as a development site. We'll both be sad to see it go. http://www.trulia.com/property/3158497051-248-Kingston-Ave-Brooklyn-NY-11213
  • whynot_31
    edited July 2014
    That's a pretty big corner lot. AKA 1090 St. Johns

    The R6 zoning should allow easily allow a 4 story building with 8 big units.

    I'll try to get in that diner before it is gone.
  • The owner must be ready to retire. She's been there for at least 30 years that I know of and owns the property. I guess the two smaller stores (cell phone place and news stand) will be moving out as well. Her sons work there too so I'm sure that there will be enough money to go around. The lot isn't that deep....maybe 12 feet so I don't know how big the apartments might be.
  • I suspect she has earned more from the appreciation of her land over the last 4 years, than she did serving food.


  • Without a doubt but she was like everyone's mom and people came in to talk as much as eat.
  • I popped in Friday morning, and, when a customer she hadn't seen in 10 years came in, she said so many of her old customers have been coming by to check on her and they keep telling her she should write a book since she's seen so many of the neighborhood's changes. She said she's lived in the area since 1956. I'm glad that decades of working hard will pay off for her.
  • Property Shark shows the lot as 1275 sq ft but like I said, there's no depth to it. Can't build apartments facing St. Johns because it's not deep enough and can't build facing Kingston because it's not wide enough. It's a frame building so it's not hard to knock down but what would end up there certainly doesn't seem like it would be residential. Makes me wonder if it was her idea to sell or some real estate agent was prospecting and she agreed to see what they could get for it. Notice there are no dimensions of the lot on the Trulia listing which the agent placed.
  • whynot_31
    edited July 2014
    yea, that isn't as big as it appears in the phot.

    This ad states the lot is 100 x 13:

    http://www.hpgreenfield.com/listing/99208757-150013631/248-kingston-ave-brooklyn-ny-11213/

    I assume they actually mean 100 x 12.75. So, if they build 4 stories they end up with 8 studios (stairwell in center), or 4 very nice 2 BRs (stairwell on one end of lot).

  • Still, 12 feet isn't very wide and the rooms would probably only end up being about 9.5 feet at the widest figuring that you'd need some kind of foyer to walk through to get to the rooms before the last room which could be a big square. Even the smallest brownstones are 18 feet wide so this is going to keep some architect up quite a few nights.
  • I've seen 16 foot wide brownstones in the Slope.
  • whynot_31
    edited July 2014
    The building that housed Brooklyn Pizza Factory (on Vanderbilt) is only 12" wide.

    This photo shows how much they did with the space:

    http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/components/photo/pic_view.html?imgname=3-01159-0005.rPiGX2Z0&size=medium&type=

    The same could be done on Kingston.
  • Maybe so but is the site worth over $1 mil? That's the question.
  • whynot_31
    edited July 2014
    This article seems to argue it could be:

    http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/crown-heights-now-most-sought-after-brooklyn-neighborhood-multifamily-investment-2014-07-21&nbsp

    ...and I'd like to root for her getting that price.
  • @Whynot...Of course we hope she gets her price but assuming she does by the time a new building gets done you're looking at probably $2.5 mil all in. Going to be a long time to recover that money unless it's going to be coop/condo where they can be sold for possibly $700,000 and that's figuring on the two bedroom units you were speculating about. If it's one bedroom there would have to be more of them and if it's rental it's would be a long time to recover the investment.
  • Because the local schools don't match the expectations of folks with $700k to spend, I'd build big 1 BR units.

    Go for "luxury"
  • I don't know if that area would be considered a "luxury" area. Maybe if there was a roof garden.
  • As the businesses catch up with the preferences and means of people who have moved into the area, it will be considered by many to be luxury.

    If all goes well, the building could be occupied by 2017.
  • The building might be but the area is going to need some work as the other dwellings won't be so quick to be updated. I write the insurance on quite a few of the buildings near there and the landlords aren't the type to do any more than they have to so even though their buildings are mortgage free they're not investing dollars because the tenants have been there quite awhile and aren't paying enough in rents to be worth it. So whatever goes in this lot may just have to make it on its own.
  • But if the gentrification pattern elsewhere hold true, those reticent landlords may soon be induced to sell their properties, and the purchasers may find ways to remove the longtime, low-rent-paying tenants..
  • True....but the people who live in these buildings have a right to be there as long as they pay the rent. Why does everyone want to get rid of people who are not in their income class. Is that so important?????
  • New owners pay so much for buildings that they have to buyout (or somehow get rid of) the existing tenants in order to get a ROI.

    The landlords make a calculated bet that "enough" long term tenants will leave, and are usually right.
  • That's true enough if the buildings are sold. But the current landlords that I know are doing ok as long as the rent is paid. When people are thrown out of the place where they live they usually end up in one place where the rents are lower and the buildings are kept like crap. What's the word for that.......slum or maybe ghetto. Sometimes the poorer people should be able to share in the betterment of their current neighborhoods.
  • That would be nice.

    ...the problem is that even the "satisfied" current landlords eventually retire or die.

    I agree with you, the low income folks who have been in the neighborhood for decades haven't done anything wrong.

    Assuming their income hasn't changed over the years and they earn around $50k, a few years ago, they may have been among their block's richest and more successful.

    ...now, they are the face of the "poor".
  • booklaw
    edited July 2014
    The people who live in those buildings do not necessarily have the right to live there so long as they pay the rent. Unless the apartments are rent stabilized, the landlord is entitled to refuse to renew the leases of his tenants. So the tenants have the right to live there until their leases expire, period.
  • whynot_31
    edited July 2014
    Being priced out (or simply denied a new lease) clearly sucks.

    However, my mind has been wondering whether it is worse than when landlords burned buildings for the insurance money, or tore them down as part of urban renewal plans.

    Must See Classic Music video:

    Make sure to listen to the words...
  • In Sept 2013, Nothinlike wrote:
    By the way, "For Rent" signs are up at 106 Kingston between Dean & Bergen 

    They may now have listed it more professionally.   They'd like $4100.
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