Controversial Fourth Ave Apartment Tower Wins Committee Approval

BROOKLYN, NY — A controversial proposal to replace a Dunkin Donuts on Fourth Avenue with a 14-story apartment tower has narrowly won its first approval in the city's land use review process.

Members of Community Board 7's Land Use/Landmarks Committee voted six to five on Monday to recommend approving the development, albeit with conditions, ahead of its turn in front of the full community board on Wednesday.

The narrow vote came after members — echoing the split opinions of neighbors who spoke in a hearing last week — struggled to decide whether supporting or rejecting the proposal was best for improving a housing crisis in the neighborhood.

Opponents have contended that the 33 or so affordable units included in the project are not enough to warrant its market-rate spots. But supporters have said the affordable batch is a needed contribution in what has been a negligible growth of low-cost housing options over the last decade.

"Is this land utilized for a Dunkin donuts really worth it or does it make sense to add more residential housing stock?" member Nick Azadian asked the board. "You do not get additional affordable units without trying to get additional buildings built."

Developers and the Fifth Avenue Committee have pointed to the fact that the Fourth Avenue project will be a 30 percent increase in the number of affordable units built in Community Board 7, which extends from Sunset Park to Windsor Terrace, in the last six years.

The project — which seeks to rezone the property for the mixed-use building — will bring 135 one-to-three bedroom apartments, 25 percent of which will be designated "affordable" under the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.

Since 2014, only 80 units of affordable housing have been built in the neighborhood despite a nearly 18,000-person jump in the population between 2010 and 2018, according to the FAC.

The extent of the housing crisis was on full display in the committee's discussion Monday, as many members described their personal experience being displaced by high rents.

But for some, the dire situation fueled a desire for more affordability than offered in the Fourth Avenue project.

"The truth of the matter is the 25 percent [Mandatory Inclusionary Housing] is just wholly inadequate," Alexa Aviles said. "I really think we have to be much more ambitious…25 percent should be the floor it should not be the ceiling."

As in other meetings, the developers told members that the 25 percent of affordable units is as far as they could "stretch" the building given the $14-million land cost and lack of subsidy from the city. Developers estimated the project will take $65 million to build on top of the land cost.

"$14 million isn’t something that we pulled out from a tree, for us it’s basically all the money we have in the world," Tucker Reed, principal with Totem said. "Yes, we have to make some profit to keep our lights on and continue to run a small business. We are a small business…we’re not a corporation."

Committee members ultimately included 10 conditions in their final vote, including a call for a more comprehensive look at an affordable housing approach in Sunset Park and a request for developers to make the affordable spots available to income tiers even lower than required by the city.

The project is set to face the full board on Wednesday. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m.