74-Foot-Tall Development Could Replace Park Slope Stores: Permit

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A discount store-slash-gym in Park Slope could soon be replaced with a much-taller apartment tower, permits show.

The proposed 74-foot-tall building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street could include 29 apartments, with in-building amenities like "recreation" spaces, terraces, and residential parking, plus one floor of retail space, plans filed with the Department of Buildings this week show.

It's unclear what would happen to the businesses currently housed at 445 Fifth Avenue, where the tower would be built.

A manager at New York Sports Club, which occupies the top-floor of the building, said he has "no idea" what is going to happen, directing Patch to the gym's corporate office, which could not be reached for comment.

The owner of DII Discount Store, a Brooklyn-based chain located on the building's ground floor, did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

As planned, the seven-story apartment building would still have retail space on the ground floor, but its second floor would mostly consist of parking spaces — 25 for bikes and 24 for cars, despite recent pleas from politicians to stop building parking spaces in developments located near transit (the building is one block away from two subway stops).

The developer will probably not need to demolish the existing structure, since the plan is considered a building expansion — an upward expansion, to be exact, which would bring the could-be apartment tower dozens of feet above some other nearby two- or three-story buildings.