2 Giant New Apt. Buildings Planned for Upper Bed-Stuy

Two empty lots in upper Bedford are about to turn into noisy construction sites, and — eventually — into big, sleek apartment towers dwarfing the buildings next door.

One of the new developments (pictured first, above) will be at 802 Myrtle Avenue. The other (pictured second) will be at 740 Dekalb Avenue.

Real-estate bog YIMBY reports that the housing units in both are expected to be rented, not sold.

The new tower on Myrtle, designed by J. Frankl Associates, is reportedly planned as a nine-story apartment building with 44 units, plus 5,700 square feet of retail space on street level. “Completion is expected in the second half of 2016,” says YIMBY.

And the slightly less jagged-looking tower on Dekalb, designed by Isaac and Stern, will stand seven stories and 70 feet tall. It will reportedly provide about 25,500 square feet of residential space divided between 37 apartment units.

It also looks like it’ll somewhat overshadow the George H Murray Christian Academy to its right, currently one of the grandest buildings on the block. But the 740 Dekalb lot, which has long served as a school and community basketball court, actually belongs to the same church that runs the school — Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church — so it’s theirs to dole out as they please.

Church officials did not return a call for comment on the architect’s new renderings.

A report this month by Douglas Elliman Real Estate found that the price of an average Brooklyn studio has gone up to $2,380 per month. Although the report didn’t include statistics specific to Bed-Stuy, another recent report by the Real Estate Board of New York found that average home sale (not rental) prices in the neighborhood have risen about 60 percent in the past two years.

What do you think of these two additions to the neighborhood? Hot or not?